Transcript of an interview I recorded with Marko Hietala (solo album) - 20190828. Full article here. MAL-
On the line with me right now, Marko Hietala. We all know him from NIGHTWISH, he's coming out with a new solo album. We're going to talk to him about that. Marko, thanks for taking the time. MARKO- Well, yeah, no problem. No worries. Thank you. MAL- It's good to talk to you. Now. I'm intrigued. When did the idea for this album come about? Is this something that's been sort of brewing for years? MARKO- Brewing, folding, whichever way you want to call it, that's what's happened. I've had some bits and pieces that are written using written lyrics both in Finnish and in English during the years and there's a lot of that stuff that we picked and put it into the songs on this album, perform. A lot of it was also written and arranged and put together during the couple of the last few years. Pretty hard to define what was coming from where. MAL- NIGHTWISH have taken a bit of a time off so it's given you a bit of time, traditionally you've been a very busy band, I thought you would have taken some time and just relaxed, but instead you put together a solo album. MARKO- Yeah, well, the whole year of freedom, I can't really stay that way. I mean, I did it during this year where there's been a really a lot of work to finish like three albums the NIGHTWISH album and two versions of my own, three different music videos did the photoshoots, did some shows in Finnish festivals and all that it was a it was a busy year and I was working like hell. But then after the last photo shoot for NIGHTWISH was done I jumped on a plane and went to went to my wife's hometown in Brazil. And from there on we went to the beach side, and I stayed there for a month and something and forgot about everything, that was helpful. And now I'm back here in Finland, doing some Christmas shows the NIGHTWISH stuff is coming up and I'm doing this interview. So now I'm back on the work. MAL- Okay, tell me about the musicians you assembled so this album, where did you get them from? MARKO- Well, Tuomas Wäinölä, the guitar player, Vili Ollila keyboard player, Anssi Nykänen drummer, I've known all these guys for quite a few years, Anssi probably the longest since we met already when we were teenagers some musical camp when I was 15 or 16 two guitar player and really all of those guys I've known from one of one of my friends bands for a couple of actually and also from this Christmas project that I'm doing today as well. And I knew these guys to have a like a wide vision of musical things and the rockers but they really like a lot of other stuff too like me. So it was a kind of a combination where I figured that this arranging and composing the rest of it and putting all these things together in a package these guys would be able to help and they did more than I could expect Tuomas actually saying I got so into the whole album stuff and all that he ended up recording almost everything and producing and mixing the album. He wanted to, and I said, Okay, it's yours. Then really was writing like the arrangements and whatever, for the songs and all that. So these guys were, all the songs and the ideas might have come from my head originally, but how the album looks and sounds like is also very much because of the guys. MAL- Okay. Now I was able to download the album last night from the Nuclear Blast portal to listen to before speaking to you. What a great album. MARKO- Thanks. That's good of you. MAL- I've listened to it four times now. It is just an incredible album. Absolutely love it. MARKO- Thank you. MAL- Tell us about 'Dead God's Son'. Tell us, where did that come from? MARKO- 'Dead God's Son',it's kind of a I would say it's kind of an undefined existence or crisis. Got a lot of nice symbolism and all that into, but in a way it's existential crisis. where it comes from, is to find out, in this case in this song, if we go and try to relate it into the real world, and let's say that we have loads of children in the world who are promised eternity, glory, and heaven and whatever, if they're all that and if you look at the structures of these organisations that offer you these things, if you look at them objectively, they reveal themselves to be pyramid scams that is my opinion. So there is a serious line behind all this nicely fantastic metaphors and all that. MAL- Another one of my favourites 'Death March For Freedom'. MARKO- Talks about know the origin studies the kind of awake storyline that a vision a man haunted by an over powerful mother in let's say mediaeval, not mediaeval, some very archaic Finnish shamanistic Stone Age history that you can go the sword and sorcery, something like that. MAL- Yeah, so we've got the album It's called 'Pyre Of The Black Heart'. It's coming out on January 24. Now I've read somewhere that you're going to be doing some touring with this but how are you finding the time to slot it in between NIGHTWISH things because NIGHTWISH are probably still number 1, am i right? And how are we going to fit all this in with NIGHTWISH? MARKO- Well, like I said, I already did the Finnish, like festival shows. And then on February, I have a little, little European tour with the guys that we're going to be doing. But then in March, it's going to be NIGHTWISH. Again, we're going to start working on those and then we're going to take it on the road. So of course the solo stuff gets put aside for a while if we have such a luck that some other festival is interested in us and NIGHTWISH is already playing there. If they get interested with the album, then of course, it's possible for me to play a festival show with those guys if the place is the same, but otherwise, I'll have to lay it aside until we reach 2021 and NIGHTWISH tour sometime at some point of time winds down. But the thing that I said about guys and how they got into the arranging and everything, it did affect the whole thing, so that the somo is what started out as a solo recording started to grow a band. And we had a really good time and good vibes on the summer sales and the few that we did right after summer. So it looks like that there is a very much of a willingness to come back to it when I have the time. And I want to do it because this was a nice outlet for all those ideas that I felt I didn't want to take to the band or were left and I still thought they were good, or all these things. And yeah, I want to do it because there was there was freedom there. I didn't have to think about any of the established genre lines or anything like that, no commercial aspects because it's a solo album, they're marginal anyway. I could write whatever I wanted to, have structures and ideas wherever they came. And also when Villi and Tuomas started bringing their ideas, there was no need to pre-structure anything. When you write for the band, you really have to take, just proper and right that you take into account of what are each people's strengths and weaknesses. And then you write the stuff around so that you get to the best result. MAL- 'Pyre Of The Black Heart' out on Nuclear Blast, January 24, must be a very exciting time for you, are you nervous about it? MARKO- A little bit, but also growing in confidence that so of course, you put it out under your name and your face and all that. So it's a responsibility. People will see it as a product of mine, whether they like it or not. So there is a personal aspect of hoping your kid would be liked. But there is this growing confidence from what you said, and a lot of other interviewers have said. They're really going into the album that they didn't expect this. MAL- I think you should feel pretty good. Absolutely great. I really love it. Marko, absolutely great talking to you best of luck with the album, the 'Pyre Of The Black Heart' out on January 24. Great album. Best of luck with that. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. MARKO- Thank you Comments are closed.
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AuthorMetalhead who hates bad parking. |