This is a fairly recent interview with Tuomas I found on the Nightwish forum that was originally from a German magazine. One of the posters there translated it into English, and I've copied and pasted it here...
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Orkus-magazine (you can see the original over -> here)
The end of an era and the beginning of a new one
It was probably the greatest concert of the band’s history: On October 21st 2005 Nightwish ended their tour after one and a half years with a show at Hartwall Areena in Helsinki. Cameras recorded the event for the DVD ‘End of an Era’ – and exactly that is what happened because after the show a letter from the band to Tarja Turunen announces: Nightwish will part with their singer. This sentence was the ultimate news at the day after the concert and it causes quite a whirl: For some time the homepage of the band was only available in a reduced version because too many people wanted to access. On message boards of magazines and different other bands there were discussions about the news and the open letter that the musicians handed over to Tarja and made public afterwards. Even the Finnish press and the news agencies published the news followed by statements.
After all this there is no time for relaxation for Nightwish-mastermind Tuomas Holopainen. He sits at home by the phone most of the time and has to do interviews. A very open, emotional and noticeably sadden Tuomas allows Orkus an insight into the background of the separation and into his own world of emotion.
How are you? Did you have the chance to settle down a bit?
It is all very very stressful. I knew that it would be like this and so I could prepare for it a little bit. At the moment everything is really confusing for me. I’m waiting for the day to come on which everything will calm down and I’m really counting the nights until I won’t have to talk about all this anymore. But I suppose this will haunt me for months.
In your letter you write: ’It`s time to choose whether the story of Nightwish ends here or whether it will still continue an undetermined period of time. ‘ How difficult has it been to make this decision?
It was the most difficult thing I ever had to do. Nightwish is not only a band but more like a big family that plays music together and it is a way of living, a way of feeling. I want everybody in the band to think that way. There has to be a mental connection – for the music, for the friendship, for the common journeys and for having fun together. Tarja’s attitude and her values became more and more different from our ones. During the last time she cut herself off. I think there is a special sentence from her that makes it clear:’ I don’t need this band for my career anymore’. This statement felt really cruel for me. It couldn’t go on like that…
In the end was it an amount of many things that drove you to your decision or did something concrete happen as well?
It was the amount of many different factors: The way Tarja thought about the band, her motives, her values, the fact that the next album was definitely planned to be her last one and that she didn’t want to tour with us anymore, not even after the next record. Why should we stick to a person with such an opinion?
Do you feel relieved now that you made this decision and pulled it through or does it feel like so often in these situations: After the relief there comes the pain and together with it doubts start to arise…
It is a mixture of pain, hope and relief. All this has been a really big burden for the whole band and so it feels like relief, like a new start but of course it is sad as well that the whole thing has to end like this. It is hard for Tarja, for the band and for the fans – for everybody. But I also believe that time will heal the wounds. Perhaps the sun will shine again in a few weeks.
That sounds like the end of a love of one’s life, a relationship between two people.
Yes; I’ve always said that personal relations are the most difficult thing in life and here we have a really good example for it. You can compare it to a divorce; a really ugly divorce…
…which you pulled through directly after the show in Helsinki, right after a long tour has reached its end. When you went on stage you knew about the meaning of this show and that you would hand the letter over to Tarja afterwards. So how did you experience the gig?
It was really strange. That was the hardest day of my life but during the gig I was able to forget everything that was about to come. I think it was the best concert that we ever played. Everything was just great: the arena, all the visual effects and a lot more. Above all the fans were fantastic. During our show a lot of dreams came true and it was the first time that I had to cry on stage during a gig – because of different reasons.
When you decided for the title of the DVD ‘End of an Era’ did you already know how things should be going?
Yes, I wrote the letter about three weeks before the concert and when we set the title we thought that it would fit for the DVD.
You gave Tarja the letter after the show. Why didn’t you wait for at least one day so that she would have been able to enjoy the end of this tour?
The main reason is that we wanted to give her the letter personally so she didn’t have to read its contents in the internet. She wanted to fly to Argentina on the day after the show. But after our performance we didn’t want to take this last evening and her happiness away from her – and in addition to that she had a party. So we gave her the letter, hugged her and said: ’It’s better if you’ll read it tomorrow’. There were many different reasons and I don’t want to explain in detail why we had to handle it like this. There was no possibility for us to talk about it with her. It was the only way. All I can tell you is: Believe me.
So after all you are still sure that this was the right way?
My conscience is good and I have no doubts – neighter about the question if we acted correctly nor about the way we did it.
Well, if you had told that the reasons for Tarja’s departure are ‘personal disagreements’ then there would have been thousands of rumours afterwards.
Yes, exactly. That was a really important point why it had to be not only a personal letter but an open one for everybody. If we had announced that Tarja is no band member anymore and that we will go on with another singer, we would have to do interviews about this for the next years. We wanted the truth to be told because we were a little scared: Things went bad and we expected somehow that there was something about to come from Tarja’s side. We wanted to be the first ones who tell the true story. That’s why everything came so suddenly – and then there’s the reason that Tarja wanted to leave Finland the day after the show. We hadn’t seen her for a month then. There was no other possibility. Anyway, we haven’t really been talking to each other for a year. We tried it for a few times but it has been a nightmare. I think she has to open her eyes first. There is absolutely nothing that we could have changed by talking; first of all she has to understand the facts and make them clear to herself.
How is it possible for a band and on tour when you don’t talk to each other for such a long time?
The point is that we never saw Tarja because she did everything on her own. At gigs we always met her fifteen minutes before the beginning of the show. She never came to interviews and she never turned up at sound checks. We saw her when she was completely dressed up and prepared for the show shortly before the gig started and afterwards she went directly to the car and drove to the hotel. And that was it. The next time we saw her right before the next gig. She didn’t want to travel with us; she didn’t want to go by bus with us nor by car. She didn’t want to join us for common meals; she didn’t want to do any interviews – nothing. Actually, there were two different camps. During the last months Tarja told the Finnish media about her solo-career and she always emphasized that Nightwish is not the thing that she wants to do in her live; that it was not her voice and not her music; she was only a guest musician. She really hit and hurt me with these words because it sounds like the whole thing felt just embarrassing to her.
Nevertheless: You don’t think that an a bit more impersonal letter would have been an alternative?
I don’t think that there are passages in that letter which are too personal. I rewrote the letter over and over again and at the beginning it included a lot more personal stuff. She accuses us for pulling her husband into the whole campaign but we don’t criticize him as her husband. I’m really sure that he is a wonderful and caring husband, but as her manager he is the main reason for the whole situation. That just has to be said because I want people to understand why we decided to take this step and why we will pull it through. It is justified although last year I told in some interviews: ’If Tarja is going to leave the band one day then this could be the end for the band’. I have to explain myself so everybody’s able to
understand me. With this I stand up for myself and defend myself.
Can you tell us more about the role of Tarja’s husband Marcelo? What did he do?
It’s like John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was very difficult to get close to Tarja because there was a huge Argentinean wall between us. When you sent her an email or a SMS it was answered in English – by Marcelo. All the financial issues and arguments started to be really ridiculous. It is not that much about that she didn’t want to do gigs in America or Australia because in her opinion the venues and fees were too small – it’s more about her attitude as a whole. It all started with two sentences from her – one of them I already mentioned:’ I don’t need Nightwish for my career anymore. You know, I can leave this band anytime.’ That caused the coldest shudder I have ever had running down my back. She is an old friend of mine and thinks in such a way! So these are her motives to be in the band! It was unbelievable.
So you didn’t only lose a singer but a friend as well.
Yes, I lost a friend. I lost a lot. And when you read the letter and read between the lines as well then I hope you’ll understand that I’m not angry with her, that I don’t hate her.
But I suppose that a lot of unpleasant memories about Tarja will remain?
During the last year I was very frustrated and I still am. I’m sad and disappointed. It is not Tarja that I look at. It is someone else.
You probably read Tarja’s reply for the media and the fans. She writes that she was shocked and she can’t find herself in your description. What came to your mind when you read that?
I was surprised that she sounded that shocked. I don’t know how blind and deaf she must have been over the last year. Things went incredibly bad and I thought she expected that something was about to happen.
There is a passage in your letter that sounds a bit accusing: ‘We were never bothered by the fact that you didn`t participate in writing/arranging songs, you never in 9 years came to rehearse the songs with us before going to the studio. Not the fact that while on tour you always wanted to fly, separately from us with your husband.'
I don’t want to accuse her with those words.
But it sounds like it.
I wrote all that because I want the fans to understand why Tarja is replaceable. There are so many people who think that Nightwish is Tarja’s band, that she writes all the songs, does all the interviews and so on but last year she didn’t contribute anything else than the one and a half hour on stage. I simply had to put that into the letter in order to make the fans understand why we have the right to do all this. I don’t blame her; I really mean what I wrote. These things didn’t matter to me.
But how have you been able to survive this atmosphere on the road?
Because we supported each other. The band grew really close together. This is probably the only positive aspect that the whole situation brought along. Even the crew and our manager – we were like one big family and we had the best time ever on tour. Actually we were a family and from time to time there was a guest.
You are the one that composes all the songs and writes the lyrics, so you can say that you are the soul of Nightwish but Tarja was the voice and the face of the band. Are you scared that many fans will turn away from you now?
I cannot do anything against that. Many fans will do that and I don’t criticize them for it. In some way it is intelligible. Tarja gave Nightwish its image but I still hope that many people will understand how much the whole band is Nightwish. I don’t claim that Tarja’s position was wrong because it worked really well like that. I try to see it as the end of an era and the beginning of a new one.
Sometimes it is difficult to imagine that there is a new door that opens when another one shuts down but it’s always like that. Time will tell...
Exactly. I’ve never been scared about the band’s future or that we won’t find a singer. I’m sure that we will find a really good one and I’m confident concerning the new album. It will still sound like Nightwish. My biggest concern is about Tarja herself and also about the other guys in the band, how they will cope with the situation. ‘Once’ sold over one million copies. It doesn’t matter to me if the next record would only sell 100.000 copies. Who cares as long as everybody is having fun and we are doing good music?
The future: In May a Nightwish-book will be published in German and English (I think they forgot to mention Finnish…). It will be some kind of biography and documentary about the band’s history from record to record and from tour to tour, with childhood memories of the band members and interviews with the crew, the artists and for example Tuomas’ parents as well. The documentary includes the last concert and ‘explains it all’, Tuomas tells. The DVD with the performance at Hartwall Areena, promo-videos and photo-galleries is scheduled for the beginning of June 2006. And something else is certain as well: Tuomas is already writing new songs, the studios are booked and the new album should be out before summer of 2007. According to Tuomas the band doesn’t have a new singer yet – they want to take care of that matter next year.
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You can find the entire thread from the forum here:
http://www.nightwish.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=24830
.They've become a lot more poppy since their earlier days, getting rid of Tarja won't reverse that.
