Getting A New Band And Richard Dawkins On Board

"How blind can you be, don't you see?/You chose the long road, but we'll be waiting." The 2007 track Bye Bye Beautiful formed part of an acrimonious send-off Nightwish afforded original singer Tarja Turunen. Replacement Anette Olzon lasted a half decade, but conversely, the Finnish metallers seemingly didn't utilise this personnel shift as biting songwriting fodder on 2015's Endless Forms Most Beautiful. The Music ponders whether they learned from the first experience not to channel such inner workings creatively. "I'll write when inspired and stay silent when uninspired," is all keyboardist/founder/songwriter Tuomas Holopainen offers on the topic.

"Going through four, six billion years of evolution within one song was quite the challenge, but it's the most inspiring story ever to tell."

Holopainen is more disposed to discussing their latest incarnation. After a period on the road, Dutch frontwoman Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever) was enlisted full-time for Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Long-time associate, multi-instrumentalist Troy Donockley is also now a fully fledged member. "About a week after the first show we ever did together we had an off-day in New Orleans. We were in an absinthe bar and somebody there asked me where our new singer was. I gazed at the people and saw her sitting with a glass of whiskey in one hand, a giant cigar in another, a huge smile on her face, charmingly weaving a web around everybody in the bar.

"I knew we'd hit something beautiful right then. She's a true professional with motivation, dedication and has versatility like nobody else. Troy is strong glue within the band, an irreplaceable bringer of balance, experience, musical expertise, laughter and friendship." Perhaps this newfound harmony helped facilitate the latest LP's worldwide prosperity, including registering in the Australian Top 20. "It's a welcome bonus for sure, but has little meaning in the vast scale of things," the keyboardist remarks of such achievements. "We would still be writing and playing music without the success and chart positions. I do feel very privileged to be where we are, though."

Few outfits seem as willing to be truly bombastic as Nightwish, not only crossing the line into pomposity, but leapfrogging over said marker. Case in point — Endless Forms Most Beautiful's 24-minute closer The Greatest Show On Earth, detailing "the complete evolution" of existence and featuring a Richard Dawkins spoken word appearance.

"Thematically it is pretty much as ambitious as it gets," Holopainen explains. "Going through four, six billion years of evolution within one song was quite the challenge, but it's the most inspiring story ever to tell, so the song came together very smoothly. The original idea for the piece came from Richard Dawkins' book by the same title. For me personally it's always been harder to write a four- to five-minute song than long epics."

What did the polarising author/atheist make of the end result? "He had never heard of the band before. I wrote him a letter, explaining who we are and what we would like him to do for Endless Forms Most Beautiful. He replied to me within a couple of weeks saying he'd be delighted to read the parts suggested. During the promotional tour in London I had a chance to play him the final version of The Greatest Show On Earth, and he seemed very pleased with it. A true gentleman with a mind the size of the cosmos, and we're massively honoured to have had him on the album."