Nightwish - I Want My Tears Back - Decades - Live In Buenos Reaction 

What kind of process songwriting is for you? Tuomas: It's always very personal. It's the kind of thing that always goes along with life, you can never get rid of it and you never want to get rid of it. It's a very comprehensive experience for me, which I take extremely seriously, but also self-ironically. What does it mean? Tuomas: It means that music is a really serious thing for me, it's such a thing that I can't live without, but you shouldn't take music so seriously that you can't laugh at it in every situation. When I look at our band what we've done, especially 20 years ago, and also today, yes it puts a smile on my face - it is funny!... but it's not a joke. Songs are made by putting heart and soul into it and also with great respect. We thought very carefully about what we wanted to make songs about, what stories to tell and how to tell them. It takes 1-2 years to make one album, the process is very long and carefully thought out. Tuomas: How I go about making a song always starts from topic. What I've discussed with other songwriter colleagues, it usually doesn't go that way. So this way of ours is quite rare. I don't remember ever making a song in such a way that I jam at the piano or synthesizer, then a good melody or riff comes along and after that I start thinking about what this song could be about. Every song I've ever made has started from the theme and the story you want to tell. Is the story/theme easy to come up with? Tuomas: This world is full of stories, inspiring things and people. Then when you add a fictional world to this, you have endless possibilities, how many stories there are. You just have to find the things that somehow resonate with you and you feel that you could build an interesting piece of music from this story. Do you also think that the topic/theme must be so interesting that you can last 1-2 years in the creation phase and also live with the finished work for the rest of your life? Tuomas: Absolutely! English composer Gustav Holst said it best: "don't even start making music unless the thought of not making music is absolutely unbearable" Pretty good, and do you think so too? Tuomas: indeed, and I see myself in that aphorism quite completely. You just have to do it! Even if we never had success - no one would know anything about us, it's quite certain that I would still make those songs because I can't live without them. Has it ever happened that you have taken on a topic that has seemed like it won't work and there aren't enough inspiring ingredients? Tuomas: I don't remember that ever happening. If there has ever been something like this, it has been rejected at the very beginning. I don't have any leftover songs. There are no bonus tracks or any unreleased Nightwish songs. Let's focus on quality and not quantity. One example related to the topic is the solo album I made in 2014, 'Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge'. I got the feeling that I can't do this with Nightwish, because it's not fair to the other band members because they don't have the same grip on that theme that I do. They certainly wouldn't have found the motivation to focus on that story for 1-2 years. So you have to think about things like this, and that's why I ended up making a solo album.

When it was a solo album, did it free you up as a composer in any different way, not having to think about the fact that you have to be able to perform this in Buenos Aires, Helsinki and everywhere for the next two years and maybe even throughout the rest of Nightwish's career? (Note: Tuomas is very amused by the question, but gets serious when he starts to answer) Tuomas: When making Nightwish's songs, I never think about such things. And this is perhaps how I differ from other band members. When we rehearse, often get these comments "but how do we do this live?!" - I never think about it. I just want to make the best possible quality of the song we have, so that it sounds as good as possible when it is listened to. Let's think about those live modifications later... back to the question, how did making the album differ from Nightwish - it was kind of liberating, but kind of not. At that point, you have total control on everything and it creates more pressure when you realize that everything is on your own shoulders. When making a album with a band, you can ask others for help. At that point, however, you may have to make more compromises. It has its pros and cons. Is composing a lonely process for you? Tuomas: Yes. It is a part of this big picture that is the most dear and important to me personally, what I enjoy the most. It's February (2019) and I'm in that moment right now. I know that I have time, peace and solitude until the summer to finish the songs for the upcoming album. And I'm all fired up. I can just be at home and focus on it. It's actually the only way I can make a song, is that I can be alone and in peace. I've never made a song in a hotel room or on the road in a tour bus. It requires that loneliness and the idea of ​​making songs only for yourself. It is an extremely selfish process. I never think about others, who will listen to that song, what they think about it. In a way, I want to try to make music for this world that I would like to hear and that I haven't heard yet. Fills that void... And that can be inspired by Scrooge McDuck or any fictional or factual story!? Tuomas: Any story, human encounter or anything fact or fiction, which gives you goosebumps and somehow gets under your skin and won't go away unless you make music out of it. It's a great moment when you find that story. For example, there will be a song on the upcoming album that tells the story of one such person (Note: Human Nature album track #3 Shoemaker), which many people do not know. When I read his story, I felt that this has to be made into a song, why don't people know this story, this is absolutely amazing! It was an incredible inspiration and I knew right away - "the song will be like this, the lyrics will be like this and so on". I'm guessing you can't tell me more about him at this point? Tuomas: I can't when the other members of the band haven't heard it and they deserve to hear it first. Okay, I understand. Tuomas: The point here was that these moments are the best part of this whole thing. When you find that story and that great feeling when you get goosebumps. As a composer, it is also very important for me to constantly challenge myself. Every melody, chord, rhythm that is in the song - I challenge it at least once, could it be something else - can this major chord be minor or what key is it, let's try the tempo 4 bpm up, 4 bpm down. I challenge the lyrics, every word, if it could be better. When the process has reached the point where I have nothing more to give to this, everything is done as well as I can do it, then I present the songs to the band and we start the process together from the beginning. At that point, the band might be very satisfied that there's not much to do about it, and then the other extreme is that it doesn't work at all, that what if this vocal melody went like this, or what if this guitar riff went like this, or let's drop the keys, or anything at all. It may change a lot or not at all. But it is very important to me that I get to work with those songs in total solitude for a long time until I myself am satisfied with them.

How does it feel when you take the songs to present to the band? Are you afraid of how they will take it? Tuomas: Afraid is perhaps a bit strong word, but it's the only moment in this process when I'm genuinely very nervous. That moment when you play the demos for the first time to the other band members. Because I would love for them to be motivated by the material and then we would have lot of fun when we rehearse it and are in the studio. That they too would get goosebumps from the stories we are going to tell. It's a moment of truth when you see those expressions and if there is nothing, it's "oh no, what now?". At the point when the album comes out or we have a listening event for the members of the record company or the media, I haven't been nervous about it for years. The first 3-4 albums maybe, but nowadays I can look at more with a wider perspective. They might not get excited, but you trust that there are people in the world who do? Tuomas: yes, definetely... and it's very simple. You can't think of anyone but you and the band. If you yourself are satisfied with that end result, then everything else after that is only a plus. How do you think when Nightwish has a certain image and a certain framework within which you kind of operate. There are world expectations for Nightwish. Do you see this as something that makes it easier to compose, in the sense that you have a format in which to do it, or do you sometimes even find it limiting? Tuomas: I slightly disagree with that. I feel that Nightwish doesn't have any kind of format, that we can do anything. The range of music and different genres we've made songs with in these 23 years is really wide. You can find our albums in the "heavy metal" section of the record store, but we've done one jazz song, orchestral songs, one gospel song, a lot of acoustic stuff, folk, so I've never felt that we were in any way genre dependent. I feel that we can do whatever we want. I have said that because Nightwish started as an acoustic project, so when we know that this journey will end, maybe the last album will be acoustic where we play with a kantele (traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument). (note: Laughs in the end. He is joking.) How have your composition processes changed? If we think about the very first days... Tuomas: not really in any way. That philosophy, the way I approach songs, has been exactly the same since 1996. First the story, search that right feeling that we want to convey through the song and then start thinking about how this story could be brought to light in the best possible way. "Is this a heavy song, is this a folk song...no, this is a ballad.. this is definitely a ballad, but is this driven by an acoustic guitar or is this piano driven?" I then start to think about how this theme would get the music it deserves. At the point when the music is done - the vocal melodies are ready, after that I write the final lyrics. Every song I've done has followed this same template, at least until now. So you have a very clear process. Tuomas: Yes. I find it a very strange idea that I would just make a song with a melody and then send it to the lyricist, who will write the text for it. In my opinion, music and lyrics go hand in hand, or they should go hand in hand. I personally can't imagine ever making a song like that. That way of working of course works, the world is full of great songs that are made that way. I just feel that it is not the right way for me.

Is composing a moment of celebration? Tuomas: Most of the time, it is. I've been here in Helsinki for almost two days now and I'm dying to get on the train in two hours to get back to the keyboard. Once you get into that flow, it's very hard to let go. You don't want to let go, you want to be in that world 24/7 all the time. Of course, there will also be moments of frustration - I remember when I was making the Once album in 2003, I broke one of the keyboards. I punched it as hard as I could (laughs). So if you ask if anything has changed over the years, tantrums like that don't happen anymore. Do you remember your state of mind that led to this? Tuomas: Well, that was probably the worst writers block I've ever had. I had been trying to make songs for a couple of months and nothing came of it. It all sounded like crap. Some music was born, but nothing good enough to get excited about? Tuomas: Exactly. Nothing sounded good to my ears, didn't get goosebumps. I remember the feeling of frustration that why nothing is coming. Is this the end now? I had a big desire to do it, but I couldn't really find the stories and the melodies and chords didn't really fit. The way I solved this problem was that I decided to make a song about writer's block. That was the big aha moment, this is such a strong feeling that I have in my head - annoying, frustrating, angry and I'm not a violent person in any way and I just broke one of the keyboards using physical force. This is not me at all, so something has to be done. Well, let's make this feeling into a song. That song was called Dead Gardens, which can be found on the Once album. Then all the floodgates opened. That album took the band to a new level in terms of popularity. More breakthroughs in Europe and around the world. Do you feel that you reached a new level as a songwriter with this album? Or was it just a reward that the public happened to discover that album and the Nemo song. Tuomas: I definitely didn't feel that I had risen to a new level. It always feels to the artist, the band and the songwriter that this previous album is the best album, or at least very often it feels that way. But I didn't feel that I had developed in any special way as a songwriter from the previous album to the Once album. It just happened that many pieces fell into place, we were in the right place at the right time. The first semi-hit Nemo was created and somehow everything fell into place and the band rose to another level. I would say that calling Nemo a semi-hit is an understatement. It was a big song that year. Tuomas: Well that year, yeah. (note: almost as if he were ashamed to praise his own work). Probably still our most famous song. The band's singers have changed over the years. How much does it determine your songwriting when you know who is going to sing them and what kind of voice she has? Tuomas: In 2006, when the album Dark Passion Play was made, it was a fun process in that sense, that we had all the songs composed, the lyrics ready, the songs were even recorded. Only the orchestra parts and the vocals were missing and we had no idea who our singer would be. It was a bit difficult to find a singer and the whole thing was done quite thoroughly, so it went pretty close to the deadline. it was an exciting process because those songs were ready - the song melodies were built and then we just tried to find a suitable voice and finally ended up with Anette. Usually whenever I make songs, I think about our band - who will play them, what is their playing style, the vocal scale, the colors of the sound. I hear the songs very comprehensively in my head already in the songwriting phase, except for this one album.

Nowadays, is there confidence that if there is some kind of writers block, that it will pass and after some time you will be able to produce material that satisfies you? Tuomas: I have very high confidence in it. I would like to go back to what you said at the beginning, you said that "you are serious but you also laugh" - what makes you laugh? Where does that self-irony come from and where is it directed? Tuomas: ..(thinks).. When you look at the big picture, when there are 6 band members on stage and long hair swings to the rhythm of fantasy music where they sing about sauna elves and flying with a snowman. Sometimes a little more serious topics, but some of it is such fantasy nonsense, so you have to laugh at it... I don't mean that the band is a joke to be laughed at. The songs were made very seriously back then, and the lyrics were polished for months, that we found just the right feelings.. like, if we really wanna fly with snowman, how it should feel like. Everything has a purpose, but it's not like that "You can't laugh at this, god's sake, i gave my heart and soul to these songs, do not laugh". Of course you can laugh at them. That's what I mean by this self-irony. Does the feedback you get from the listeners affect your writing and the production of Nightwish in general? Tuomas: No, it doesn't really affect me. This is why I try to be as far away from social media as possible. I don't have facebook, instagram or twitter accounts... and I don't visit forums to read, because I've done that too and I noticed how strongly it affects. I realized years ago that it's better not to go at all, so I don't feel bad. (laughs) Your mind is in the real world or fantasy world, not in social media. Tuomas: It's a very scary place. The upcoming album has certain themes that deal with social media (Human Nature track #2 Noise). That's why I ended up doing this kind of empirical research, to dive into that world, to get that kind of feeling of disgust that you can absorb from there, that you can make those songs. Well, it's a wild world...but also fascinating in terms of human nature and makes you think about what's in the near future. Do you know the TV series Black Mirror? I know that, but I haven't watched it yet Tuomas: It deals with these topics geniously. And it has inspired you? Tuomas: It has greatly inspired the themes of this upcoming album. Can it be interpreted this way that even though Nightwish is known for the fantasy world that this time there are also topical issues? Tuomas: Maybe a little more than before and we already made that transition on that previous album (note: Endless Forms Most Beautiful), which was probably the least personal album we've ever made. About very important things and things that interest us all. They weren't so much an interpretation of the pages of my own diary as the earlier records. This same trend continues on this upcoming album.

Very good choices!

I concur.

@@572Btriode LOL Eric likes that...

@@Blues666 He does ! I thought appropriate here too.

I would also highly recommend Last of the Wilds.

Dead Boys Poem. I concur.

Just don't start yapping already when the video has not ended yet while Floor & Marko still address the crowd.

I usually would for my reaction, but my wife is new at this, and I'm trying to get her used to all this. I'll probably pause for our next video.

@@JimGames thanks for the response. Obviously, do what works for you. This was just a suggestion. I am really enjoying your reactions and am glad that you are sharing your Nightwish Journey with the wife!

Concur. You speak, Audio vol goes down, wery distractive. Great reaction & av quality 😁🇫🇮❤️🎼✨💙🤘

I so much concur!!

Thank you for such a kind comment. I really appreciate it

I concur. Entirely.