Tuomas Holopainen
Encyclopedia
Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen (born 25 December 1976) is a Finnish
composer known best for symphonic metal
music. He has also studied jazz
and classical
styles, but prefers to be influenced by harmonic film music.
He is best known for being the keyboardist
, band leader and main songwriter of Finnish symphonic metal
band Nightwish
. He has also played in the bands Nattvindens Gråt
and Darkwoods My Betrothed
. His current side projects are the Gothic metal
band For My Pain...
and the band of Timo Rautiainen
.
Holopainen has written several songs that have been included in movie soundtracks, including recent collaboration with Nightwish bass player, and male vocalist Marco Hietala
on "While Your Lips Are Still Red
", for the Finnish film "Lieksa!" in 2007. He's also producing Nightwish's own film, Imaginaerum, to be released in early 2012.
, Finland on Christmas Day, 25 December 1976 the son of enterpreneur Pentti Holopainen and Kirsti Nortia-Holopainen. He has an older sister called Susanna who works as a surgeon-urologist and an older brother Petri who is an autopsy assistant. His musicality and skill in text expression showed early in school. His mother signed him up for piano class in school when he was seven years old, and he later studied clarinet
, tenor saxophone
, piano and music theory for eleven years at a music college
.
Holopainen joined his first bands in 1993. He played in several bands, including recording keyboards for three albums with black metal band Darkwoods My Betrothed
and playing with Dismal Silence, Nattvindens Gråt
and Sethian. Holopainen is a Disney, J. R. R. Tolkien
and Dragonlance
fan. In 2006 Holopainen said that he is "not religious, but an open-minded, thinking individual". He does not consider "religion to be bad, but human interpretation of it." His own religion is also something very personal to him.
In 2007 Holopainen said he believed in a God with a sense of humor. During the winter of 2005/2006 he says he watched the film The Village
10 times a week, often 2 or 3 times a day. He referred to this film as "'Escapism' at its best". Holopainen often describes himself being an escapist, and has written a song about it with the same name. The score by James Newton Howard
is one of his favourites.
, around a camp fire. He asked Emppu Vuorinen
(guitar) and classmate Tarja Turunen
(vocals) to join what was then an acoustic project. After hearing Turunen's strong voice, and because of the metal influences of Vuorinen and drummer Jukka Nevalainen, Tuomas decided to turn Nightwish
into a metal
act.
Nightwish
's first non-demo release, Angels Fall First
, came in 1997, followed by Oceanborn
in 1998. In 1999, Holopainen and members of other Finnish metal acts like Embraze
, Eternal Tears of Sorrow
, Charon
and Reflexion
started the gothic metal
supergroup
For My Pain...
. However, as all the members were busy with their own bands, the project was postponed for the future.
Nightwish's third studio album, Wishmaster
, was released in 2000. The third release sold even better than the previous album. In 2001, again the idea of For My Pain...
was brought up, and the members started planning a debut.
In Nightwish's fourth studio album Century Child
, released in 2002, Holopainen began collaborating with symphonic
orchestras from Finland and the United Kingdom, which was a change in the band's music and Holopainen's style of composition, and also allowed for more freedom with additional instruments. The use of orchestral elements has been present in the studio album releases from Nightwish as of 31 December 2007.
In 2003, For My Pain...
released its debut album, entitled Fallen. The album was received well, but the band has since lost fans due to a lack of new albums –- for the same reason that Fallen was delayed by four years. In 2004 For My Pain... released "Killing Romance
", a Finnish single with three previously unreleased tracks; "Killing Romance", "Joutsenlaulu" and "Too Sad to Live".
Nightwish's fifth studio album, Once
was released in 2004, and became their US break-through. Singles "Nemo
" and "Wish I Had an Angel
" were played on MTV
. Nightwish started their most extensive tour to date, the Once World Tour, visiting several countries, like Japan, for the first time. After the last concert (a filmed show in Hartwall Areena
, Finland which was featured on the End of an Era
DVD in 2006), in October 2005, Nightwish gave vocalist Tarja Turunen
a letter explaining her dismissal from the band.
, Nightwish's sixth album.
After heavy metal singer Timo Rautiainen
's break up of Trio Niskalaukaus, he published his first solo album titled Sarvivuori with a crew gathered from different bands, including Holopainen on keyboards. Holopainen also wrote one song on the album. Early the next year, For My Pain...
announced that they would soon start recording the successor to Fallen, but it was reported in the same autumn that the album once again was postponed.
In April 2007 Holopainen collaborated with fellow Nightwish member Marco Hietala
to write a theme song for the Finnish film Lieksa!. The song, "While Your Lips Are Still Red
", was the first song he had written specifically for a film, though several Nightwish songs ("Nemo", "Wish I Had an Angel", "Amaranth") have been included in film soundtracks. Holopainen has said that writing film scores is something he would like to do in the future. On "While Your Lips Are Still Red", in addition to Holopainen on piano, Marco Hietala
performs vocals and acoustic bass guitar, and Jukka Nevalainen
plays drums.
In 2007, Holopainen played keyboards with Finnish punk band Kylähullut
on their EP Lisää persettä rättipäille. He would return to play keyboards on their following album Peräaukko sivistyksessä. Holopainen can be heard singing with the chorus on both of these releases.
The new vocalist for Nightwish was revealed in May 2007; Swede Anette Olzon
, who appears on Dark Passion Play, released in late August the same year, and as of May 2008, she is still touring for the album. On 8 May 2008, it was announced that Holopainen would be the producer of Finnish rock band Indica's
next album, Valoissa, which was released in the fall of 2008.
Nightwish's forthcoming album, Imaginaerum, will be released in late 2011.
, gothic
and power metal
. Simone Simons
, lead singer of Epica
, stated that she began singing due to Nightwish. Ex-singer of Visions of Atlantis
, Nicole Bogner, also acknowledged that Nightwish had greatly inspired the band, especially for their first album. Sander Gommans
of After Forever
said that Nightwish "will certainly influence us in creating new songs". Finnish power metal
band Sonata Arctica
's lead singer Tony Kakko
, who has worked with Nightwish both in making the "Beauty and the Beast" duet with Tarja Turunen
and as a crowd warmer, several times explained how much of an influence Nightwish is for him.
. For subsequent releases, the band has recruited sessional male vocalists, as Holopainen preferred to focus entirely on his keyboards. However, he did sing Beauty and the Beast live if the band did not have a sessional singer available, contributed vocals to the track The Carpenter
on Angels Fall First and chanting to the track Moondance on Oceanborn
as well as vocals on Master Passion Greed (Dark Passion Play
), although these songs are never performed live (with the exception of The Carpenter, which was performed at the Tavastia Club, Helsinki in 1998). He also performed the whispering in the background on While Your Lips Are Still Red
, but he does not do this live.
On his profile on Nightwish.com, Holopainen describes that his strangest on-stage experience was "'singing' in front of 20000 people", and his worst nightmare on stage is "having to sing again".
synthesizers and workstation as his live and studio gear. After using an M1 he borrowed from his school, he bought a Korg N364 Music Workstation with money borrowed from his father, which he continued to use live until the end of "Once Upon A Tour".
He then added a Korg Trinity which was subsequently replaced by a Triton. In 2004 the then-new Korg Karma was added to the setup.
In 2007, for the Dark Passion Play Tour, the N364 was retired and replaced with two Korg TRs in order to make maintenance and repairs easier.
He uses K&M Spider stands.
Holopainen has a very visual approach to setting up his live gear. For the last few concerts on the Once-tour, he had all of his keyboards painted white, and switched to purple for the Dark Passion Play tour.
In addition, he has a 12" Edward Scissorhands
figure on his two-tiered keyboard stand, and a Jack Sparrow (from the Pirates of the Caribbean
film series) one on his single stand keyboard (to his left). On some concerts in the latest Dark Passion Play -tour Holopainen has had a large Ocean Soul -named boat prop around his Keyboards.
Holopainen uses a Korg Oasys
in the studio, and a few Oasys factory patches make an appearance on Dark Passion Play, but the instrument has yet to make it to the stage: instead, the required patches are sampled and loaded into Holopainen's Triton keyboards.
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
composer known best for symphonic metal
Symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that are either borrowed from classical music or, as with progressive rock music, create a style reminiscent of it, e.g...
music. He has also studied jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
and classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
styles, but prefers to be influenced by harmonic film music.
He is best known for being the keyboardist
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, band leader and main songwriter of Finnish symphonic metal
Symphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that are either borrowed from classical music or, as with progressive rock music, create a style reminiscent of it, e.g...
band Nightwish
Nightwish
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
. He has also played in the bands Nattvindens Gråt
Nattvindens Gråt
Nattvindens Gråt was a Finnish band, mainly known for several of their members who have become famous in other bands, Tuomas Holopainen, Tapio Wilska and Sami Vänskä...
and Darkwoods My Betrothed
Darkwoods My Betrothed
Darkwoods My Betrothed are a black metal band from Kitee, Finland.Formed in 1992 as Virgin Cunt, they set out to be the "most blasphemous black metal band in Europe", in a rather tongue-in-cheek sense. After recording a couple demos under this name, the band started to take themselves a lot more...
. His current side projects are the Gothic metal
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
band For My Pain...
For My Pain...
For My Pain... is a gothic metal supergroup from Oulu, Finland, featuring members from Embraze, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Nightwish, Charon and Reflexion...
and the band of Timo Rautiainen
Timo Rautiainen
Timo Aulis Rautiainen is a Finnish heavy metal singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is best known as the singer and songwriter of Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus. He has also sung in the bands Lyijykomppania and Aku Ankkuli.His occupation is a teacher, which is quite uncommon for heavy metal...
.
Holopainen has written several songs that have been included in movie soundtracks, including recent collaboration with Nightwish bass player, and male vocalist Marco Hietala
Marco Hietala
Marko Tapani "Marco" Hietala is a heavy metal vocalist and bassist. Internationally, he is most known as the current bassist, male vocalist and composer, of the symphonic metal band Nightwish...
on "While Your Lips Are Still Red
While Your Lips Are Still Red
"While Your Lips Are Still Red" is a 2007 song written by Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala of the Finnish metal quintet Nightwish. It was performed by Holopainen, Hietala, and Jukka Nevalainen for the Finnish film Lieksa!, which was written and directed by renowned Finnish director Markku...
", for the Finnish film "Lieksa!" in 2007. He's also producing Nightwish's own film, Imaginaerum, to be released in early 2012.
Personal life
Tuomas Holopainen was born in KiteeKitee
Kitee is a town and a municipality of Finland.It is located in the province of Eastern Finland and is part of the North Karelia region. The municipality has a population of and covers an area of of which is water...
, Finland on Christmas Day, 25 December 1976 the son of enterpreneur Pentti Holopainen and Kirsti Nortia-Holopainen. He has an older sister called Susanna who works as a surgeon-urologist and an older brother Petri who is an autopsy assistant. His musicality and skill in text expression showed early in school. His mother signed him up for piano class in school when he was seven years old, and he later studied clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, tenor saxophone
Tenor saxophone
The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble...
, piano and music theory for eleven years at a music college
Music College
Music Colleges were introduced in 2004 as part of the Specialist Schools Programme in England. The system enables secondary schools to specialise in certain fields, in this case, music. Schools that successfully apply to the Specialist Schools Trust and become Music Colleges will receive extra...
.
Holopainen joined his first bands in 1993. He played in several bands, including recording keyboards for three albums with black metal band Darkwoods My Betrothed
Darkwoods My Betrothed
Darkwoods My Betrothed are a black metal band from Kitee, Finland.Formed in 1992 as Virgin Cunt, they set out to be the "most blasphemous black metal band in Europe", in a rather tongue-in-cheek sense. After recording a couple demos under this name, the band started to take themselves a lot more...
and playing with Dismal Silence, Nattvindens Gråt
Nattvindens Gråt
Nattvindens Gråt was a Finnish band, mainly known for several of their members who have become famous in other bands, Tuomas Holopainen, Tapio Wilska and Sami Vänskä...
and Sethian. Holopainen is a Disney, J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
and Dragonlance
Dragonlance
Dragonlance is a shared universe created by Laura and Tracy Hickman, and expanded by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis under the direction of TSR, Inc. into a series of popular fantasy novels. The Hickmans conceived Dragonlance while driving in their car on the way to TSR for a job application...
fan. In 2006 Holopainen said that he is "not religious, but an open-minded, thinking individual". He does not consider "religion to be bad, but human interpretation of it." His own religion is also something very personal to him.
In 2007 Holopainen said he believed in a God with a sense of humor. During the winter of 2005/2006 he says he watched the film The Village
The Village (2004 film)
The Village is a 2004 American fantasy-thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan about a end-of-the-19th-century village whose inhabitants live in fear of the creatures inhabiting the woods beyond it. The movie was shot in a recreation of a 19th-century village outside Philadelphia,...
10 times a week, often 2 or 3 times a day. He referred to this film as "'Escapism' at its best". Holopainen often describes himself being an escapist, and has written a song about it with the same name. The score by James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard
James Newton Howard is an American composer best known for his scores to motion pictures. He is one of the most popular and respected composers for cinema, and has scored over 100 films...
is one of his favourites.
Formation and first releases
In July 1996, Holopainen began thinking of starting a band of his own, for which he would write the music and play keyboards. This was the birth of NightwishNightwish
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
, around a camp fire. He asked Emppu Vuorinen
Emppu Vuorinen
Erno "Emppu" Matti Juhani Vuorinen is a Finnish guitarist, most famous for being a founding member and occasional songwriter of the symphonic metal band Nightwish...
(guitar) and classmate Tarja Turunen
Tarja Turunen
Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli is a Finnish singer-songwriter and composer. She is a full lyric soprano and has a vocal range of three octaves....
(vocals) to join what was then an acoustic project. After hearing Turunen's strong voice, and because of the metal influences of Vuorinen and drummer Jukka Nevalainen, Tuomas decided to turn Nightwish
Nightwish
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
into a metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
act.
Nightwish
Nightwish
Nightwish is a Finnish symphonic metal band from Kitee, Finland. Formed in 1996 by songwriter and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, guitarist Emppu Vuorinen, and former vocalist Tarja Turunen, Nightwish's current line-up has five members, although Tarja has been replaced by Anette Olzon and the...
's first non-demo release, Angels Fall First
Angels Fall First
Angels Fall First is the debut album of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. The original limited edition of which only 500 copies were released features seven tracks, two of which are not on the regular edition.- Musical style :...
, came in 1997, followed by Oceanborn
Oceanborn
-Personnel:Credits for Oceanborn adapted from liner notes.The band*Tarja Turunen - Vocals*Tuomas Holopainen - Keyboards*Emppu Vuorinen - Lead guitar*Sami Vänskä - Bass guitar*Jukka Nevalainen - Drums and PercussionMain Crew...
in 1998. In 1999, Holopainen and members of other Finnish metal acts like Embraze
Embraze
Embraze was a group from Kiiminki, Finland. Their music could be described as a combination of traditional metal and dark/gothic elements. The band's last album The Last Embrace was released on 16 August 2006...
, Eternal Tears of Sorrow
Eternal Tears of Sorrow
Eternal Tears of Sorrow is a Finnish symphonic death metal band formed in Pudasjärvi in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland...
, Charon
Charon (band)
Charon was a Finnish gothic metal band from Raahe, Finland.-Biography:Charon was founded in 1992 by Mario Tepšić, Teemu Hautamäki, Pasi Sipilä, and Jasse Hast and was originally a brutal death metal act. After releasing three promo albums and two demos, all self-released, the band signed a record...
and Reflexion
Reflexion (band)
Reflexion is a mix of Gothic Metal, Alternative Metal and Melodic Hard Rock band from Finland.Formed as Enchanted in 1995, but in 1996 they changed their name to Barbarianz, and then to Reflexion in 2000.-Members:* Juha Kylmänen – Vocals...
started the gothic metal
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
For My Pain...
For My Pain...
For My Pain... is a gothic metal supergroup from Oulu, Finland, featuring members from Embraze, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Nightwish, Charon and Reflexion...
. However, as all the members were busy with their own bands, the project was postponed for the future.
Nightwish's third studio album, Wishmaster
Wishmaster (album)
Wishmaster is the third album of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on May 19, 2000 by Spinefarm Records.Wishmaster's sound continues the bombastic symphonic power metal approach originally featured on Oceanborn, albeit with more emphasis on atmosphere and melody versus powerful speed...
, was released in 2000. The third release sold even better than the previous album. In 2001, again the idea of For My Pain...
For My Pain...
For My Pain... is a gothic metal supergroup from Oulu, Finland, featuring members from Embraze, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Nightwish, Charon and Reflexion...
was brought up, and the members started planning a debut.
World fame
Century Child
Century Child is the fourth studio album of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released in 2002 by Spinefarm Records. It is the first album with current bassist and male vocalist Marco Hietala....
, released in 2002, Holopainen began collaborating with symphonic
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
orchestras from Finland and the United Kingdom, which was a change in the band's music and Holopainen's style of composition, and also allowed for more freedom with additional instruments. The use of orchestral elements has been present in the studio album releases from Nightwish as of 31 December 2007.
In 2003, For My Pain...
For My Pain...
For My Pain... is a gothic metal supergroup from Oulu, Finland, featuring members from Embraze, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Nightwish, Charon and Reflexion...
released its debut album, entitled Fallen. The album was received well, but the band has since lost fans due to a lack of new albums –- for the same reason that Fallen was delayed by four years. In 2004 For My Pain... released "Killing Romance
Killing Romance
"Killing Romance" is a single by the Finnish gothic metal supergroup For My Pain.... It contains their cover of the popular song "Joutsenlaulu" by the Finnish band Yö. The song peaked #7 on Finnish Singles Chart.-Track listing:# Killing Romance - 4:18...
", a Finnish single with three previously unreleased tracks; "Killing Romance", "Joutsenlaulu" and "Too Sad to Live".
Nightwish's fifth studio album, Once
Once (Nightwish album)
Once is the fifth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on June 7, 2004 by Nuclear Blast and on November 24 by Spinefarm, with the US release on October 5 by Roadrunner Records. In an interview, Tuomas Holopainen said that it is up to the listener to find out the meaning...
was released in 2004, and became their US break-through. Singles "Nemo
Nemo (song)
-Charts Performance:Once topped the album charts in Finland and Hungary. In the UK it could only chart at #87 after a chart entry of #101 the week before, but spent over 20 weeks on the top 200 plus a few re-entries...
" and "Wish I Had an Angel
Wish I Had an Angel
"Wish I Had An Angel" is the eleventh single for Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, the second from their fifth album Once. The song features vocals by then-vocalist Tarja Turunen and bassist Marco Hietala, but is still performed live with current vocalist Anette Olzon and is often used as the...
" were played on MTV
Music television
Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from bands, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite or cable. Music TVs may host their own shows charts, award prizes. Examples are VIVA, Scuzz, MTV, JBTV, MuchMusic,...
. Nightwish started their most extensive tour to date, the Once World Tour, visiting several countries, like Japan, for the first time. After the last concert (a filmed show in Hartwall Areena
Hartwall Areena
Hartwall Areena is a large multifunctional indoor arena located in Helsinki, Finland...
, Finland which was featured on the End of an Era
End of an Era
End of an Era is a DVD and double CD from Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. Nuclear Blast recorded their live performance at the Hartwall Areena in Helsinki, Finland on October 21, 2005, the final concert of a long worldwide tour for their album Once...
DVD in 2006), in October 2005, Nightwish gave vocalist Tarja Turunen
Tarja Turunen
Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli is a Finnish singer-songwriter and composer. She is a full lyric soprano and has a vocal range of three octaves....
a letter explaining her dismissal from the band.
Current career
In 2006, Holopainen went through a dark period filled with anxiety and depression, made worse by rumours about himself and Nightwish in the tabloids every day. These events also inspired him in the writing of Dark Passion PlayDark Passion Play
Dark Passion Play is the sixth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 26 September, 2007 in Finland, 28 September in Europe and 2 October 2007 in the United States. It was the first Nightwish album with the band's current lead singer, Anette Olzon, and the first album...
, Nightwish's sixth album.
Timo Rautiainen
Timo Aulis Rautiainen is a Finnish heavy metal singer, guitarist and songwriter. He is best known as the singer and songwriter of Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus. He has also sung in the bands Lyijykomppania and Aku Ankkuli.His occupation is a teacher, which is quite uncommon for heavy metal...
's break up of Trio Niskalaukaus, he published his first solo album titled Sarvivuori with a crew gathered from different bands, including Holopainen on keyboards. Holopainen also wrote one song on the album. Early the next year, For My Pain...
For My Pain...
For My Pain... is a gothic metal supergroup from Oulu, Finland, featuring members from Embraze, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Nightwish, Charon and Reflexion...
announced that they would soon start recording the successor to Fallen, but it was reported in the same autumn that the album once again was postponed.
In April 2007 Holopainen collaborated with fellow Nightwish member Marco Hietala
Marco Hietala
Marko Tapani "Marco" Hietala is a heavy metal vocalist and bassist. Internationally, he is most known as the current bassist, male vocalist and composer, of the symphonic metal band Nightwish...
to write a theme song for the Finnish film Lieksa!. The song, "While Your Lips Are Still Red
While Your Lips Are Still Red
"While Your Lips Are Still Red" is a 2007 song written by Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala of the Finnish metal quintet Nightwish. It was performed by Holopainen, Hietala, and Jukka Nevalainen for the Finnish film Lieksa!, which was written and directed by renowned Finnish director Markku...
", was the first song he had written specifically for a film, though several Nightwish songs ("Nemo", "Wish I Had an Angel", "Amaranth") have been included in film soundtracks. Holopainen has said that writing film scores is something he would like to do in the future. On "While Your Lips Are Still Red", in addition to Holopainen on piano, Marco Hietala
Marco Hietala
Marko Tapani "Marco" Hietala is a heavy metal vocalist and bassist. Internationally, he is most known as the current bassist, male vocalist and composer, of the symphonic metal band Nightwish...
performs vocals and acoustic bass guitar, and Jukka Nevalainen
Jukka Nevalainen
Jukka Antero "Julius" Nevalainen is the drummer in the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish and the Finnish progressive metal band Sethian.- Biography :He spent his early years in the city of Kitee...
plays drums.
In 2007, Holopainen played keyboards with Finnish punk band Kylähullut
Kylähullut
Kylähullut is a Finnish punk rock band consisting of Alexi Laiho , Tonmi Lillman , and Vesku Jokinen . The band name means "Village Idiots" in Finnish.The band was formed by Alexi Laiho as a side project, in 2004...
on their EP Lisää persettä rättipäille. He would return to play keyboards on their following album Peräaukko sivistyksessä. Holopainen can be heard singing with the chorus on both of these releases.
The new vocalist for Nightwish was revealed in May 2007; Swede Anette Olzon
Anette Olzon
Anette Ingegerd Olsson , known by the stage name Anette Olzon, is a Swedish singer from Helsingborg, best known as the second lead vocalist of Finnish symphonic power metal band Nightwish. Olzon was formerly the vocalist in the Swedish AOR band Alyson Avenue...
, who appears on Dark Passion Play, released in late August the same year, and as of May 2008, she is still touring for the album. On 8 May 2008, it was announced that Holopainen would be the producer of Finnish rock band Indica's
Indica (Finnish band)
Indica is a Finnish pop rock group founded in 2001. Jani Jalonen of Sony Music became interested in the group, and a recording contract was signed 2003. Indica's first album, Ikuinen virta was released in 2004. It has since sold platinum in Finland....
next album, Valoissa, which was released in the fall of 2008.
Nightwish's forthcoming album, Imaginaerum, will be released in late 2011.
Composing
Holopainen is a source of inspiration for other bands, especially within symphonicSymphonic metal
Symphonic metal is a term used to describe heavy metal music that has symphonic elements; that is, elements that are either borrowed from classical music or, as with progressive rock music, create a style reminiscent of it, e.g...
, gothic
Gothic metal
Gothic metal or goth metal is a subgenre of heavy metal music that combines the aggression of doom metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music...
and power metal
Power metal
Power metal is a style of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. The term refers to two different but related styles: the first pioneered and largely practiced in North America with a harder sound similar to speed metal, and a...
. Simone Simons
Simone Simons
Simone Johanna Maria Simons is a Dutch coloratura mezzo-soprano singer who is the lead vocalist of symphonic metal band Epica.-Biography:...
, lead singer of Epica
Epica (band)
Epica is a Dutch symphonic metal band founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen subsequent to his departure from After Forever. They are known for their symphonic sound and the use of female vocals and male growls performed by Simone Simons and Mark Jansen, respectively. All six members write...
, stated that she began singing due to Nightwish. Ex-singer of Visions of Atlantis
Visions of Atlantis
Visions of Atlantis is a symphonic power metal band from Styria, Austria, founded in 2000. The original line-up consisted of Werner Fiedler , Mike Koren , Christian Stani , Chris Kamper , Nicole Bogner and Thomas Caser...
, Nicole Bogner, also acknowledged that Nightwish had greatly inspired the band, especially for their first album. Sander Gommans
Sander Gommans
Sander Gommans is a Dutch musician. He founded the symphonic metal band Apocalypse with Mark Jansen in 1995, which later changed its name to After Forever. He played guitar and did the grunting parts in the band...
of After Forever
After Forever
After Forever was a Dutch symphonic metal band with strong progressive metal influences. The band relied on the use of both soprano vocals and death grunts. In February 2009, it was announced that After Forever had disbanded.-Biography:...
said that Nightwish "will certainly influence us in creating new songs". Finnish power metal
Power metal
Power metal is a style of heavy metal combining characteristics of traditional metal with speed metal, often within symphonic context. The term refers to two different but related styles: the first pioneered and largely practiced in North America with a harder sound similar to speed metal, and a...
band Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica
Sonata Arctica are a Finnish power metal band from the town of Kemi, originally assembled in 1995. Their later works contain several elements typical of progressive metal.....
's lead singer Tony Kakko
Tony Kakko
Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is mainly known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative force in the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.-Biography:...
, who has worked with Nightwish both in making the "Beauty and the Beast" duet with Tarja Turunen
Tarja Turunen
Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli is a Finnish singer-songwriter and composer. She is a full lyric soprano and has a vocal range of three octaves....
and as a crowd warmer, several times explained how much of an influence Nightwish is for him.
Singing
In the early days of Nightwish, Holopainen was the band's male vocalist, performing all male vocals on Angels Fall FirstAngels Fall First
Angels Fall First is the debut album of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. The original limited edition of which only 500 copies were released features seven tracks, two of which are not on the regular edition.- Musical style :...
. For subsequent releases, the band has recruited sessional male vocalists, as Holopainen preferred to focus entirely on his keyboards. However, he did sing Beauty and the Beast live if the band did not have a sessional singer available, contributed vocals to the track The Carpenter
The Carpenter
-Personnel:*Tarja Turunen - Vocals*Tuomas Holopainen - Keyboards, Piano, Vocals *Emppu Vuorinen - Guitars, Acoustic guitars, Bass guitar*Jukka Nevalainen - Drums-Video:...
on Angels Fall First and chanting to the track Moondance on Oceanborn
Oceanborn
-Personnel:Credits for Oceanborn adapted from liner notes.The band*Tarja Turunen - Vocals*Tuomas Holopainen - Keyboards*Emppu Vuorinen - Lead guitar*Sami Vänskä - Bass guitar*Jukka Nevalainen - Drums and PercussionMain Crew...
as well as vocals on Master Passion Greed (Dark Passion Play
Dark Passion Play
Dark Passion Play is the sixth studio album by Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, released on 26 September, 2007 in Finland, 28 September in Europe and 2 October 2007 in the United States. It was the first Nightwish album with the band's current lead singer, Anette Olzon, and the first album...
), although these songs are never performed live (with the exception of The Carpenter, which was performed at the Tavastia Club, Helsinki in 1998). He also performed the whispering in the background on While Your Lips Are Still Red
While Your Lips Are Still Red
"While Your Lips Are Still Red" is a 2007 song written by Tuomas Holopainen and Marco Hietala of the Finnish metal quintet Nightwish. It was performed by Holopainen, Hietala, and Jukka Nevalainen for the Finnish film Lieksa!, which was written and directed by renowned Finnish director Markku...
, but he does not do this live.
On his profile on Nightwish.com, Holopainen describes that his strangest on-stage experience was "'singing' in front of 20000 people", and his worst nightmare on stage is "having to sing again".
Live gear
Holopainen prefers KorgKorg
is a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
synthesizers and workstation as his live and studio gear. After using an M1 he borrowed from his school, he bought a Korg N364 Music Workstation with money borrowed from his father, which he continued to use live until the end of "Once Upon A Tour".
He then added a Korg Trinity which was subsequently replaced by a Triton. In 2004 the then-new Korg Karma was added to the setup.
In 2007, for the Dark Passion Play Tour, the N364 was retired and replaced with two Korg TRs in order to make maintenance and repairs easier.
He uses K&M Spider stands.
Holopainen has a very visual approach to setting up his live gear. For the last few concerts on the Once-tour, he had all of his keyboards painted white, and switched to purple for the Dark Passion Play tour.
In addition, he has a 12" Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
figure on his two-tiered keyboard stand, and a Jack Sparrow (from the Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean (film series)
Pirates of the Caribbean is a series of fantasy-adventure films directed by Gore Verbinski and Rob Marshall , written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
film series) one on his single stand keyboard (to his left). On some concerts in the latest Dark Passion Play -tour Holopainen has had a large Ocean Soul -named boat prop around his Keyboards.
Holopainen uses a Korg Oasys
Korg OASYS
The Korg OASYS was a workstation synthesizer released in early 2005, 1 year after the successful Korg Triton Extreme. Unlike the Triton series, the OASYS was implemented on a custom Linux operating system and was designed to be arbitrarily expandable via software updates, with its functionality...
in the studio, and a few Oasys factory patches make an appearance on Dark Passion Play, but the instrument has yet to make it to the stage: instead, the required patches are sampled and loaded into Holopainen's Triton keyboards.
Equipment
- KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
N364 – (retired) music workstationMusic workstationA music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:... - KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
TritonKorg TritonKorg Triton is a music workstation synthesizer featuring digital sampling and sequencing created by Korg. All Tritons use Korg's HI Synthesis tone generator. They are available in several models and various upgrade configurations. The Triton is world famous among many musicians for being a...
– (Live) music workstationMusic workstationA music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:... - KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
KARMAKorg KARMAThe Korg KARMA music workstation was released in 2001 as a specialised member of the Korg Triton family.Unlike most other Korg workstation names, the KARMA name is rendered in capitals as an acronym for the Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture...
– music workstationMusic workstationA music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:... - KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
OASYSKorg OASYSThe Korg OASYS was a workstation synthesizer released in early 2005, 1 year after the successful Korg Triton Extreme. Unlike the Triton series, the OASYS was implemented on a custom Linux operating system and was designed to be arbitrarily expandable via software updates, with its functionality...
– (Studio only) music workstationMusic workstationA music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:... - KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
TRINITYKorg TrinityKorg Trinity is a commercially successful synthesizer music workstation released by Korg in 1996. It was also the first workstation to offer modular expansion for not only sounds, but also studio-grade feature such as SCSI, ADAT, various sound engine processors, audio recording capability, and more...
– music workstationMusic workstationA music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:... - KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
TR (x2) – (Dark Passion Play Tour, mainly used as MIDI controller keyboards) music workstationMusic workstationA music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:... - KorgKorgis a Japanese multinational corporation that manufactures electronic musical instruments, audio processors and guitar pedals, recording equipment, and electronic tuners...
KronosKorg KronosThe Kronos is a music workstation manufactured by Korg that combines nine different synthesizer sound engines with a sequencer, digital recorder, effects, a color touchscreen display and a keyboard...
– music workstationMusic workstationA music workstation is an electronic musical instrument providing the facilities of:*a sound module,*a music sequencer and* a musical keyboard.It enables a musician to compose electronic music using just one piece of equipment.-History:...
With Nightwish
With Darkwoods My Betrothed
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With Timo Rautiainen
Kylähullut
Others
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