HoM. Without no doubt Nightwish has found some difficult moments during that two years. The coming out of a singer is never easy for a band and even more under the conditions in which it took place. We put a lot of attention throughout the press to everything moving around Nightwish. The matter with Tarja seemed to be also a gossiping or soap opera question. However, now that everything has seemed to be in its right way, Can you tell us briefly how did you live that previous moments to the come out of Tarja and how Anette call your attention?

Well, as you will know human relationships are the most difficult and complicated things of this Universe and they personally move me a lot. With her coming out I felt a mixture of feelings like sadness and sorrow, all mixed with some kind of relief. The very last moments and the last tour were a constantly hell. The living way was really difficult and hard. But, we can finally announce that we have our new Muse and that we are very happy for that!!

HoM.  Have you kept some kind of contact with Tarja after her coming out?

To be honest we do not keep any contact with her. Well, I sent her a postcard last Christmas.

HoM.  Did she answer?

No, She did not do it.

HoM. Has Tarja give her opinion about this last  disc? I suppose that she will have a lot of curiosity to know how Nightwish sounds without her voice…
 
If  I´m honest to you I do not think that she has got too much interest in our last work. She is now concentrated in her new and personal career. I do not think that Nightwish interests to her any more. Anyway, I do not dismiss the idea that we can sit down together in four or five years and have a coffee being friends and who knows if there gonna be bad moments, time will tell!!!

HoM. Was it difficult to choose just only one candidate between the rest of all of them? I guess that there would be very good and bad professional people at the same time. 

If I tell you the truth There was a great amount of bad voices and bad singers hahaha!!!. We really received many proposals and many of them were very bad. I think that the tv show “Idols” must be guilty for this. They make you to believe that everybody can sing, be a star and be famous. Many of these candidates went there to see if it was sheer luck. They were really  quite horrible. To get you an idea, we received 2000 demos and we had only taken into account ten of them. As you can see, it is a very low statistic, indeed!!!

HoM.  It is impossible the concept of Nightwish without a front woman?

Yes, it is the essence of the band, it is its identity and personality…

HoM. Could not a man have been the substitute as for example Marco Hietela...?

It seemed to me something dirty to have gone on with him. I know that there were rumours coming from bored people from Internet who told that we would go on only with him. But, this is really a thing that we do not come neither to question about it.

HoM. Anette, please tell us, how do you feel right now that everybody knows you are new voice from Nightwish and also to replace one of the most beloved feminine voices of the  Heavy Metal world? Are you nervous about hearing the different reactions and opinions?

Great!!!!!! Hehehe!!!! It is very good!!! I feel a lot of stress to be where I am. But, I´m very comfortable a excited!!

HoM. Your vocal tessitura is clearly different from the Tarja´s one. Do you know that there is too much interest in how the old songs will sound with your voice?

Yes, it is something logical. Songs musically speaking are not gonna be modified. They are not gonna be changed in tune neither in scale. I put my voice in them.

HoM. Anette, I have had the chance to listen to some songs from Alyson Avenue and the y sound really good. Have you left them or do you share some time with them nowadays but at the same time giving some priority to Nightwish?

Alyson Avenue did not really exist nowadays. It was always a less constant band. We played some time, then we separated each other, we came back again…We are already adults and we have other priorities and activities. The two works that were recorded  are actually unlisted but they are going to be reprinted due to the great demand that they have. It is a good opportunity to them, Hahahaha. And what’s more, the second disc is going to be remixed because we were not very happy with it in its day.

HoM. I thought the band went on active. However, it is an anecdotal issue that now that its name is more famous you can not be with them  

It is very normal that some attention was focused on them now. Anyway, I do not think that they came to sell too many discs. They asked me for permission to reprinted again them and it will be great if this is useful to give them some kind of help. An extra money is something that it is more than enough. I will announce that some of my partners from Alyson Avenue are already preparing a new band. 

HoM.  They manage to take some advantage, don´t they?

Of course!! And the guys are even funding the disc themselves. So, all the benefits will be totally for the band.

HoM.  Being you from Sweden? Have you moved to Finland?

No.

HoM. How do you plan to rehearse?

I´m going to prepare the work with the guys in Finland. We prepare everything to record and the same will be more or less for the tours. Everyone rehearses in his or her home. Anyway, we are to one hour by plain, so the contact is quite fast.

 HoM. I think that your voice is giving a new fresh air to the band and if you let me tell you from my own point of view I think that Nightwish needed a new voice. And I think that your voice is perfect with the one from Marco.

Thank you very much. I´m very happy for hearing that!!!

HoM. What meaning can be found out under the title: ”Dark Passion Play” and also under the cover of the disc with that kind of anchor and flying tabs?

“Dark Passion Play” is a pun that describes the concept of the album and at the same time it hides and transmits what Nightwish means in itself. That´s passion and Dark. It could be understood as a dark passion play (n.r.d Play in can be used in English to describe a performance made by some actors in a theatre. This performance is obviously called: “Play”) And in relation with the cover of the disc it is not an anchor. It is a pendulum, not a kitchen tool as people use to think. 

HoM. The first thing that it is amazing to hear from the album is the great initial song called: “The Poet And The Pendulum” which takes 14 minutes more or less. This is the longest song from Nightwish. I think personally that it is the particular “Ghost Love Score” of this new album. Although this one has got a great variety of musical passages.

You are right!! It is a little bit the equivalent to the “Ghost Love Store” from “Once”. The reason why this song is the first one instead of being the last one is quite simply. We want to avoid and break the typical cliches.

HoM.  Don´t you think that you have risked a lot with a so titanic song to open the disc?

I do not think so. Why? The song is long but it introduces you little by little.

HoM. I do not have personally any problem in the idea of finding a 14 minutes song at the beginning of a disc? Which song has been the most difficult one to write?

I think that the work in general is the most progressive one with long structures and songs. We wanted to do in this way and it worked out alone!!!

HoM. As you already know, some joker has left for minutes of the song in you tube. What do you think about that?

Yes, I´m aware of that. If I know that boy some day, I´m gonna give him a hook in mouth. It is really fucking thing to us. We take a lot of efforts to everything in a right way an suddenly a fucking guy comes and leaves a piece of the song in a very quality sound. It is a fucking shit!!! He ruins all your staff!! Even more, I think that our fans can be really annoyed with this because the are waiting impatiently the moment to go to the shop to buy the disc and then they find with a record that it doesn´t justice to the disc.

HoM. Apart from the obvious and compressible inconvenience, Have you read the comments from the people?

Yes, I have read them and it seems to me that people likes the song and this is something good.

HoM. If you let me to give you my opinion about the disc, I think that the new orientation of the band is very appropriate and  that the voice of Anette gives the band a certain kind of Hard Rock style.

Right!!! Voice is more accessible, more direct and closer to the human being, hahaha. But, music is more complex and epic!!

HoM. You decided to include a commercial song with a kind of “pop music” style in your album “Once” called: “I Wish I Had An Angel”. So, Is “Bye Bye Beautiful” its equivalent in this new album?

Like “I Wish I Had An Angel” was the single of “Once”, “Bye Bye Beautiful” will be the next one of this new disc.

HoM. Going on with the new album “Amaranth”. I think it is a very good single, it takes you from the beginning and we cal also notice the potential that Anette can offer us. May be, was it impossible to have written such kind of song with Tarja´s voice?

I do not say anything!! You had said everything hahahaha!!!

HoM. May be I´m doing wrong or not with this. But, are you Tuomas a The Corrs´ fan? I´m telling  you this because the chorus of “Amaranth” and the melodies of “Last Of The Wilds” or “Meadows Of Heaven” remembers me a lot to the Irish band.

I´m not really a fan, but I like their staff very much. And the girls are very nice hahahaha!!! It could be something similar and It doesn´t really upset me because our intention is to focus it in sound more Celtic like a Finnish folklore with Celtic violins and so on. It is our cultural heritage after all!!!.

HoM. I have made this reference because the Irish folklore is may be more known than the Finnish one.

To be honest with you the Irish music that you mention is very popular in Finland.

HoM. “Dark Passion Play” is a more varied album from my own point of view than “Once” and you have kept in silence about the rumours that we were going to be in a less metallic style with the new singer.

It is quite understood because the first song that came out as a single was “Eva” which is as you already know a ballad. But, I think that the rest of the album is quite strong and heavy. I do not think we became soft at all.
 
HoM. This is what I was going to tell you. There are songs that they really sounds like “Master Passion Greed” which is an authentic strong metal shell.

Yes, it is really a strong a heavy metal song.
 
HoM. You could find out a new symphonic thrash style hahahaha!!!!

¡Ohhhhhh symphonic thrash, cool!!! I like it!!!  symphonic thrash!!!! Great!!!

HoM. Talking about labels. It is something that I do not like after all. But, Do you consider yourself a gothic metal band? You were included in this branch of the heavy metal world in general because the mere fact of having a woman as singer and this is something that I have never been agree. 

I do not consider Nightwish as a gothic metal band. This music style is a characteristic of  Paradise Lost, Type or Negative or Lacrimosa in their first periods. May be we could be a gothic metal by our lyric content, but I think we have nothing in relation with that.

HoM. When I listened to “Oceanborn” before you came to Spain and also became famous I used to say that you sounded like Stratovarius but with a girl.

I do not upset at all with that description of us because as you know Stratovarius were our idols.

HoM. Why “For The Heart I Once Had” was not chosen as the single?

It is something curious how most of you emphasize that song because I must tell you that we were not include it in the album. I like this song but not to much for the rest of the band.
 
HoM. I have to tell you that it remembers me a lot to For My Pain due to the composition level.

I agree, you are right.

HoM. And going on with the subject, Is there any plan for the second album of For My pain? I´m very anxious and thirsty of more songs. And There are a lot of people like me!!

I´m sorry to tell you that there is no time for that because we are very busy with our bands and families.

HoM. I suppose that once the album came out you will have to plan the tour. Are you going to come to Spain? I want to take out the nasty taste in my mouth when I saw you in your tour together with  Sonata Artica. Ok, that´s all guys!! Good luck with the new album. I think it is a very good staff. Do you want to tell some something to the readers of Hall Of Metal? (n.r.d. Tuomas is going to do another interview with another media)

Anette: We will see each other in the tour and we hope to play great concerts. I will be myself
and I will try to do my best and make people to feel the songs that Tuomas and the rest of the guys write. I see you!!

 

 

 

 

 

Translated by Jorge