Nightwish write movies, not songs

Nightwish mainman Tuomas Holopainen says he imagines every song he writes as a film.

The band are currently working on their eighth album, their first with vocalist Floor Jansen and now full-time member Troy Donockley.

Holopainen says in their latest update video: “When I come up with a subject for the song, I always see it as a short movie. Each song is like a soundtrack for that movie in my head.

“From the moment I start writing I have the story in my head. I have a really clear vision of how the songs should sound at this point. Of course, they will change after band rehearsals and arranging.”

The follow-up to 2011’s Imaginaerum is set for release next year, although no details have yet been released.

Meanwhile, Jansen has said her own band Revamp have to play second-fiddle to Nightwish’s timetable – but they’re not abandoning plans to make a third album.

She tells PlanetMosh: “I cannot work on a Revamp album when I tour with Nightwish, and I cannot do any Nightwish stuff when I’m touring with Revamp. Things have to be in periods; so the Revamp period of one year has been there, and it will have to stop, because I’ve already started rehearsing with Nightwish. We’ll start recording pretty soon and that will be my focus.

“But the success of Revamp is clear – we’ve sold a lot of albums, we’ve done very good tours, and that’s something that would be very nice to keep.”

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.