Nightwish : Light after darkness

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Nightwish : Light after darkness

Finally, the biggest secret of the year 2007 was revealed. The name of the new Nightwish singer is Anette Olzon. Time will tell us if the famous unknown girl will be able to replace Tarja in the fans' heart. However, after listenning to the new album, Dark Passion Play, Anette has all the qualities and the potential needed to acheive it. Now, here is Tuomas (keyboards) and the new recruit...

Anette, can you present yourself to those who still don’t know you ?
I come from a musicians family. All my family members sing or play in bands, so singing was a natural thing for me. I started to go on stage as a part of my mother’s band at 13 years old. At 17, I created my own band (doing covers). I’ve also been in a lot of choirs.

Did you ever cover some Nightwish stuff?
Not at all, I didn’t listen to Nightwish!

Why did you send a demo?
I discovered them a few months before and a friend told me they were searching for a new singer. I decided to try and send them something.

Tuomas, I suppose it’s a big relief to have finally revealed who’s your new singer. You have been keeping this secret for a long time.
Tuomas : And I can tell you it wasn’t easy nor fun to keep her hidden all this time. It was even harder for her as she always needed to lie, even to her closest friends.

Why was it so important to keep this secret for six months?
Tuomas : Everyone asks me this question. Why do you all want to know that? If we revealed her name when we chose her (end of January 2007), we wouldn’t have been able to show anything to people. It would have been like this : “This is the new singer, but you’ll have to wait for 5 months to hear her!”. We would look intelligent. This is why we prefered to wait for the release of the first single, Eva.

Don’t you sometimes regret this public life, this popularity that invades your private life?
I love my current live. It has been my dream since I was a child : making music, touring all around the world. I sometimes feel like I’m blessed.
However, you’re right. The bad side of this is the popularity. It’s not fun to go outside your house and see all those photographs shooting you in front of your door.

After the slip of Nightwish, did you ever felt like stopping everything?
No, it was clear in my mind that we would go on. We never lost hope.

Why did you choose Anette instead of anyone else?
Anette is the girl who matched our criterias the best. Of course we wanted an exceptional vocalist, but we also wanted a personnality. This new recruit had to be strong enough to go through long tours and be very good in English.

Was the look one of the criterias?
The look isn’t as important as the music. I didn’t really pay attention to the look, but to charism and a kind of self-confidence. When the Nightwish singer goes on stage, she needs to attract everbody’s eyes. Anette got all this.

Have you seen Anette on stage?
Yes, on a DVD from her previous band.
Anette : You forget the choir!
Tuomas: Oh yes, the choir! (laughs) I’ve seen her abilities in a totally different context than Nightwish.

Anette, obviously, you will be compared a lot to Tarja. Are you scared of this?
I’m not scared because I don’t try to be like her. I wouldn’t make sense. I got this job being myself with my own voice.

How are the old songs with your voice?
I sing them the best I can.

Is it hard technically?
It varies with the songs.

What is the hardest?
Some songs are really high-pitched : the notes are hard to hit.

After listenning to Dark Passion Play, we feel that your background isn’t in opera, but in pop, rock and folk...
Anette : Exactly!
Tuomas : And this is what we were searching for. The last thing we wanted was a classical singer. Tarja had a big identity in this register and I think that nobody on this planet can do better than her on that.
If we picked a classical singer, she would have been a poor copy of Tarja.
We needed to choose a different singing style without losing the emotion and the power distinctive to the band. It’s not better than tarja and it’s not worse, it’s just different.