Marco Hietala: Yeah! Well, the country is warm. There's really nice people. The cities are big but still the people are really open and come forward and don't seem like a city to me. And then you get the countryside [with] weird flora and fauna. (laughs). It's interesting to be here and at the same time it's nice. The shows have been doing good. There has been a lot of people and they have been going really crazy and really enthusiastic about the music and about the new album.
Goreripper: Your band has just gone through one of those phases where a lot of other bands would probably find themselves splitting up. Changing the vocalist, especially one who was essentially the focus for the whole band, it must have been a really difficult time.Marco Hietala: Yeah. We took a lot of... let's say a lot of crap, from the previous one and her manager and we gritted our teeth and let a lot of things undone that they didn't want to do, but it just got too much. So we just had to make a decision that, "OK, we gotta let her go". Because like, if you got a gangrenous foot, you gotta cut it off and then after that you figure out if the body's gonna survive. But we were pretty confident. "OK, we'll see what comes out of this. We'll give it a year, put out an ad that we're looking for a vocalist and at the same time doing songs. And start rehearsing, doing stuff... and keep at least the four of us keep the thing going in order to, in order to keep the chemstry and the friendship going."
We had some demo listenings in Lappland. In some kind of a cabin for a few days' holiday then [in] the summertime we were rehearsing in some obscure backwoods place like a old school house where everyone had their own rooms and then the yardhouse where you rehearsing. Doing a lot of that. Then in the daytime discussing about songs, playing them, eating a little bit [for] a while, then going back to the songs... Then in the night-time you had a barbecue and some beers and then you do it again for the next day. For the month and a half we were doing that, and then demoing the songs. We just kept the thing go, all the time. We started to do the album but still didn't have a clue who was going to be the vocalist even though we had a bunch of demos at that time. And Anette was among one of the first of ones who sent us her demo. So we knew there was at least one very strong... we were just waiting for all-comers. By the time we got to January or February 2007 we had a metting and we decided that she was going to be the one.
Goreripper: Anette's style is quite different. For the songs you had written without a vocalist, where they written with a particular style of singer in mind?
Marco Hietala: No not really. I did a lot of demo singing at that summer which I told you about, and of course I don't sound anything like Tarja and not like Anette. But anyway we just had a bunch of songs that we decided to do a lot of work with, what kind of an orchestra stuff would be in some places so you hold back a little and play straight As on your bass (laughs). So we just kind've figured out these kind of songs with these kind of melodies and these kind of lyrics we can probably make it work, and let's just see when the vocalist comes in what kind of an input she is gonna have.
Goreripper: What about the older material? Was there any need to rearrange some of that stuff?Marco Hietala: Yeah we had to rearrange some stuff. With every vocalist you have your own sense of timing, your own sense of putting your emotions into the thing and it changes. And of course the melody lines change as well. So I had to do a lot of work with background things. For instance, in "Evergreen" where there's two voices, we had to go back a few times in rehearsals in order for me to change my lines and update them.
Goreripper: Obviously it has been a successful move. This is your second tour here and you're playing bigger places this time than before so there's probably twice as many people coming to see the shows. Is that happening everywhere?
Marco Hietala: Well, at least in places where our success has been moderate like Australia. [The] States was definitely getting up more and more. The last time we were there we didn't make any profits... it was a minus, I think. Now, when you have to start things over because we didn't get the two tours that we were meant to do there, now we ended up profitting. So things are getting up there.
Finland has been tremendously good! I think that the album is four times platinum now, the shows were sold out from the northern end to the southern end. Scandinavia was good. I think the album sales haven't been that good in Germany like they were before, but it's sold steadily goes there as well. Places like Switzerland and Austria are definitely better than they ever were!
Goreripper: How has the reaction been from the fans?Marco Hietala: Of course there's been a few who say we've made the mistake of our lives. But mostly I've seen more and more accepting our new singer. There was a lot of people already, at the start, saying "OK, sounds different, sounds very good." But when people have been seeing the live shows it seems they've been liking her more and more everyday. So I can't complain. I think things are going exceptionally well. I mean, we were really worried about it before because we know that Tarja was the face of the band and she has this personality cult. And we were scared about that. When the album came out, we started selling tickets for the shows and getting full houses and the album started going (makes whoosh noise).
Goreripper: Do you think that the publicity worked in you favour to a point?
Marco Hietala: At least the media hassle, which was a pain in the ass in Finland, I think it actually worked as a promotion. I think it got some people interested in having the album because it was a controversy or something (laughs). But I do think that the main thing is whether the people still feel for the music or the band. And that hasn't gone down a bit.
Goreripper: Well the music itself hasn't really changed that much.
Marco Hietala: The concept of the band is basically you've got this heavy metal group and then we do this orchestral add on. Which isn't there because we think it's nice to hjave an orchestra with the band or anything like that. It is there to compliment the music. It's a totally different element and it gives a nice contrast to the punch of the base metal powerhouse of the drums, bass, guitar... and then you have the keyboards and vocals that are soft and the orchestra's quiet. Variety is what makes it interesting, and it's what makes it interesting for us as well.
Goreripper: Finally, as everything's running late and you need to go do soundcheck, is Australia a place where bands want to tour?
Marco Hietala: Yeah, at least from my point of view. I would like to come here more! I really like the place. It's just... nice! Every goddamn city. Of course, I don't know if I'd want to visit Wolf Creek.
- Goreripper
