New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Nightwish frontman Tuomas Holopainen answered fans' questions in an interview conducted by the fan site Oceansouls of America. Among the subjects covered were the band's least favorite songs to perform, Holopainen's time as an exchange student in the US, and their recent one-off performance in Los Angeles.
Said Holopainen about living in the US as a teenager, "I came here when I was 15, and I was quite a different person back then. Well, not that different; but back then, I was incredibly shy. I remember that during the year that I was here, I didn't make but one friend, for example, besides my host family. You know, I didn't hate anybody, nobody hated me; but I was just a quiet kid in the school corridors. I really was just playing the clarinet in the band, and being real, real quiet. So that's what I remember; that everything was so new, and I was quite scared. It was truly a nice lesson of independence and everything. Afterwards, I'd been thinking that maybe I did it, like 1 or 2 years too early. I was just so secluded. But only good memories living here; fantastic host family and everything."
Regarding the band's L.A. show, he said, "We had some big plans, but then we got the budget and we had to cut a lot of that away. I'm being really honest here. Because, for example, pyrotechnics, they cost about four times here, more than in Europe. So there was no way we could pay for…astronomical, the expenses. So we basically just have flames, some confetti…but that's it. We couldn't bring the screens, for example; there's no way. It's the first time we have fire on U.S. soil, so that's something special."
When asked which
Nightwish songs the bandmembers no longer enjoy playing live, he revealed, "[We] decided with the band that let's, on this tour, let's just do the songs that everybody enjoys doing. Because that's how you keep up the energy, and the smiles, and it reflects to the people. So, 'who wants to do 'Wishmaster'?', nobody raised their hands. Some other songs as well; for example, I wanted to do 'The Wayfarer', we even practiced it. It was
Marco [Hietala, bass] who said that this is not a really good song. I really like that song, and I wanted to do it, but yeah, they were like, 'maybe something else'. And then it was [singer] Anette [Olzon]'s idea, that why don't we…because everybody was sick and tired of 'Nemo' as well…let's re-arrange it, acoustic."
Read it here: https://nightwish-osa.ezweb123.com/#/tuomas-interview/4559874214
