Interviews : “This is one of the easiest albums I have ever written” – An Interview with Tuomas Holopainen

Tuomas Holopainen, the mastermind, composer and keyboardist behind Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish returns with his debut solo release The Life and Times of Scrooge. While many bookworms and literary lovers would instantly make a connection with Charles Dickens’ timeless classic, A Christmas Carol, Tuomas Holopainen seeks to bring the Walt Disney graphic novel written and illustrated by Don Rosa to life.

Prior to the album’s first single being released in February this year, I had the pleasure to speak with Tuomas over the phone from his hometown in Finland. Tuomas explained why the story is so important to him and the motivation behind the album.

“I grew up in Finland with a lot of Disney comics. The Duck characters are quite popular here in Finland but Donald Duck is by far the biggest selling weekly comic in the country. You could say Don Rosa and Carl Barks are super heroes to us. Everyone grew up with these comics. But I found Don Rosa when I came across “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” back in 1995. To this day it’s one of my favourite stories alongside Lord of the Rings and is considered to be my favourite desert island book. It’s a wonderful story with some interesting and funny characters. The book also teaches us some good moral values about life. It has a great philosophy about life which works well with both children and adults. Ever since I first read the book I have always heard music inside my head when I read these wonderful stories. Then I thought it would be cool to let this music out and see what happens”.

The story by Don Rosa follows the events of Scrooge McDuck’s life between 1877 and 1947. From his first job at age 10 as a shoe shiner in Glasgow, Scotland earning his first American dime, immigrating to the United States at age 13, travelling to Australia during the gold rush at age 26, to becoming a billionaire at age 35. The story also provides the backgrounds and origins of many characters related to Scrooge, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie. The Don Rosa graphic novel currently sells on eBay from $80 to $2,500.

Tuomas explains how the initial writing process begun: “I really don’t know what to expect from people when they listen to this album, but it will be quite a surprise. I made it quite clear when I was working on this album that it had no connection with metal, pop, or rock music. It’s definitely a soundtrack more than anything. When I began working on this album I knew that I didn’t want a band to play the music; it was more an orchestra and choir thing. The only major change along the way was [adding] more vocals than originally intended”.

The album features fellow Nightwish uillean pipes player Troy Donockley, Sonata Arctica vocalist Tony Kakko, plus Johanna Kurkela, a Finnish born singer who grew to fame after performing at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007. She also contributed vocals to Sonata Arctica’s 2009 release, The Days of Grays.

“The original idea was meant to be 100% instrumental and very ambient. But then I thought with the addition of vocals it would make the album more accessible and interesting, not only for myself but also for the listener. I included some voices and even some choruses in some of the songs. Instead of being a fully instrumental album, seven songs out of ten ended up having vocals. This is one of the easiest albums I have ever written. Everything just came out naturally because of my strong connection and inspiration with this book”.

I asked Tuomas how his legion of Nightwish fans may react to his new solo album, and whether he would consider writing more scores outside of Nightwish. If his solo album became successful, Tuomas replied with, “I want to emphasize the fact that I have no ambition or desire to go solo. I think a lot of people will misunderstand what I’m trying to do when they see or hear this album. They may think this is the beginning of the end for Nightwish, but [that] certainly isn’t the case. Nightwish is definitely my main priority and I hope to see it go for another 30 years. But this little project was something I needed to do to get out of my system. I think it would have been foolish to make a full length Scrooge McDuck album with Nightwish. I honestly don’t think it would have worked because the other members of Nightwish don’t have the same passion for these stories as I do so it wouldn’t have been fair on them. Also, as I mentioned before, I wanted this to be completely orchestral or soundtrack-ish so I don’t believe it would have made a good Nightwish album”.

In relation to the structure of the album, Tuomas admits that the process of creating The Life and Times of Scrooge is much the same as creating a Nightwish album. “The process was surprising similar. With Nightwish, I have a story or concept first, then I search for different ways for that story to come alive and it was the same way for Scrooge. I’ve been very open with my fans from the beginning that this would not be a metal album and I think they know what to expect already. I think there are a lot of those quintessential Nightwish elements on the album, so a lot of our Nightwish fans who may not like the idea of this album may still get something out of it. The reactions from fans so far have been extremely positive with the first music video we published last night”.

Since its release on February 5^th, the first single ‘A Lifetime of Adventure’ has reached over 420,000 views on YouTube. With a clear distinction between Nightwish and Tuomas’ debut solo album, fans will experience a journey of self discovery; unlocking inspiration and giving the listener a sense of hope and what riches truly matter in life. When listening to the album I feel like I’m 10 years old again, living without a care in the world. My imagination runs wild, sparking images of Scrooge McDuck travelling the world and living an adventurous life, while life outside my headphones seem to pause and I’m in a state of euphoria.

Musically, the album carries various elements from around the world with banjos, flutes, and even a didgeridoo making a musical appearance. I asked Tuomas whether these musical elements were reflective of the story’s impact around the world. Tuomas replies with joy in his voice, “It was quite an interesting process because I knew I would have endless possibilities with an instrument that would reflect the country Scrooge was visiting. I wanted to bring the ethnic elements of each of these countries alive through an instrument. When Scrooge goes to Australia, I wanted to have a didgeridoo because I believe that instrument best represents the country to a world audience, and when he visits the Wild West, it was important to have banjos and those Ennio Morricone influences”.

The biggest influence on this album for Tuomas is, of course, Don Rosa, who influenced Tuomas at a young age. I asked Tuomas what was going through his mind the first time he played the album to one of his favourite writers. “I’m sure all of us have experienced something so amazing that it stays with us til the day we die. I remember when Don [Rosa] came to the studio and asked if he could hear the album; and that was one of those moments. I was a little bit nervous because I was very confident about the songs, but I really wanted him to like them, as well. He sat down and listened to the album with me and had a big smile on his face for about 50 minutes when I played him the album. I remember him weeping at one point and at the end of the album he turned to me and gave me a big huge and said ‘Thank you! This is just wonderful’. That is a moment in my life I will never forget”.

This project created by Tuomas may not seem like the kind of thing someone would tour around the world with, but when I asked Tuomas whether he would consider the idea, he replied quite confidently. “If you would have asked me about a week ago I probably would have given you a definite ‘no’. I never thought of doing this album live under any circumstances, but after doing interviews for the past three days now I’ve been asked this question a lot. I’m having some doubt over my original idea and may consider doing a tour. It would definitely be a great idea. Not necessarily a massive tour, but a couple of shows here-and-there with a live orchestra to play the album from beginning to end. All the orchestra arrangements have been written so all I would need to do now is just rehearse and get the finance to do it”.

Before we finished our conversation, I asked Tuomas a hypothetical question. If given the chance, what movie would he like to conduct and arrange a score for? Tuomas took a deep breath and said, “I’ve had a couple of offers to do movie scores, but only in Finland. If I were given the opportunity, I would love to conduct the score for the third instalment of The Hobbit movie. [laughs] It would be something I would definitely consider doing if given the chance, but again, Nightwish is my main priority.”

The Life and Times of Scrooge will be available on April 11th via Nuclear Blast Records. Fans can pre-order their limited edition and signed copies by clicking here. Keep up to date with Tuomas Holopainen via his official Facebook page.

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