Greek RockHard magazine.

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Anette I’m sure that you were overwhelmed when they chose you to become the new singer. How did you feel when you couldn’t share your joy and excitement with your family and friends?

Anette: It was very hard. I had to tell to my parents about what was I doing with NW coz I was away from home really often and they needed to know what was happening. The biggest problem was my son coz of his school and everybody knew NW. Everybody who knew about it, he/she should keep the secret for themselves and they could only reveal it to people the trusted 100%. Now that is over, I confess they did a fine job.

But during Annette’s vocal recordings, you had invited some journalists, isn’t it so?

Tuomas: Yes, they were five.

Weren’t you afraid that “they” might reveal your secret?

Tuomas: No, because we’ve been friends for I long time and we trust them.

Concerning the single “Eva”, it was your decision to donate they money from the sales to and institution for children. But why as a “download single only”? If you had released it as a regular single the profits would be higher.

Tuomas: I really don’t know!!! (Something that is against with what the people from the record company have said that it was the boys’ idea) I never understood why “Eva” was a download single.

Anette: Maybe it is a new trend.…

Tuomas: But I still don’t understand why it had to been done that way...Probably it was the company’s idea.

Anette: People love to hold something solid like a cd in their hands.

Why did you decide to donate the money?

Tuomas: We felt it was a good thing to do. The song talks about the darker side of a child and her (his) innocence. It was only natural, I think.

Now that you mentioned the word innocence...When you started with NW, you kept talking constantly about innocence, you’ve said that when you reach the end of innocence, that will declare the end of NW. Still, since Century Child and afterwards and with all the commercial success, that innocence fades though the idea remains. How do you explain that?

Tuomas: As I grow older, the more I want to remain a child. It is simple as that. (laughs)

But you don’t answer my question?

Tuomas: As I grow older, I see my own decay as a human being. (Still making fan to avoid answer my question)

You have three different contracts. With Spinefarm for Finland, Roadrunner for the US and NuclearBlast for the rest of Europe. How can you respond to your obligations towards them?

Tuomas: That is why we have an excellent manager, to take care of things like that!

Anette did you like NW before you joined the band?

Anette: No so long ago, I heard one of their collections (doesn’t mention which one) but now I have all their records. It’s very interesting to see how they have evolved as band from the very first record to Once which is my favorite one. In the first records there were so many strange names. (Laughs)

Tuomas: You talk about the time when our lyrics were about fantasy worlds!

Anette: Yes but it’s so difficult to remember names you haven’t heard before!

What were you looking for while you were searching for the new singer? Were you looking for an unknown girl so it would be you to built her name through the band?

Tuomas: We never really cared whether she would be famous or not or where she would come from. We wanted a nice, easy-going person for the band. Her character was the most important thing, fallowed by her voice of course and all her other abilities, like speaking English and so on. Anette was the best package! She has everything we were looking for.

Did you have in mind to prove to people that NW is above all a band and not only the people who are involved separately? Was it your idea to prove to your former singer that you can find an unknown girl and make her a star just because she is the singer of NW and not because she is a star of her own?

Tuomas: Yes exactly! Not that I want or need to prove something but because NW is a band, not one person only!

My point is that every member of the band is as important as the band itself. If someone leaves, he isn’t a star of his own but because of the band. And that goes for everyone.

Tuomas: I understand what you’re talking about and I agree!

I’ve seen the video clip for the song “While your lips are still red” sang by Marco and was written for a finish movie. Was it written before Anette joined the band?

Tuomas: It’s not a NW song.

Anette: And there aren’t all the band members involved with it.

Tuomas: Basically it is me, Marco and Jukka playing drums at the end of the song. A song only sang by Marco and the music theme of the movie “Leiksa”. (I don’t know if it is correct and the journalist doesn’t mention the name of the movie!)It will be a bonus track on Amaranth single.

Despite the fuss around Anette, Marco sings a lot more than we’ve used to listening him singing in a NW album before. Not that we don’t like it coz we do but we expected him to have a smaller part.

Tuomas: Marco always sings the most powerful parts of our songs, so he did the same thing here. “The islander” is a song that he wrote entirely. In “Master passion greed” because of the lyrics, we wouldn't allow Anette to sing them (laughs) Can you imagine her singing “Die, die, die”? That would be the Children of Bodom song of NW! (laughs)

The orchestra and the choir play a very important part in the album. What did you have in mind before the recordings? A metal album with soundtrack influences?

Tuomas: From the first moment that I started writing the songs, I had the orchestra in my mind. The orchestra does what I would have, if I had more than two hands! Its part is vital for the songs in this album.

How are you going to perform those parts live?

Tuomas: We will pre-record them. It can’t happen in any other way.

You will tour with Paradise Lost in the US in September. Is it like a test for Anette coz your biggest fans are in Europe?

Tuomas: That’s exactly the reason. It will be easier for Anette to join NW on stage and practice singing with us in smaller venues. We have disappointed our American fans twice in the past and I hope with this way, we’ll make up for that.

I think it’s time to close this interview coz the next journalist is waiting. Thank you both so much!

Tuomas: Thank you. Hope to see you again, when our European tour will begin!