BW&BK; recently caught up with NIGHTWISH / TAROT bassist/vocalist Marco Hietala to discuss the new live Tarot DVD/CD package, Undead Indeed, and life in the Nightwish camp. The following is an excerpt from the story.

Hietala is candid in discussing the highs and lows of Dark Passion Play’s success, making it clear at the same time that new Nightwish vocalist Anette Olzon has indeed earned her place in the band.

“It goes both ways. We definitely were scared when Dark Passion Play was ready to come out and we started touring. We didn’t know how things would go and if people would still like the band, if they’d buy the album and come out to the shows. It turns out they did, and they actually bought the album faster than and a lot more of them than we expected (laughs). That was the good part. It wasn’t easy, though, because we started by touring really heavily, more than ever before. It was hard for Anette, who was wet-behind-the-ears when it came to that kind of thing. I think we could have started a little easier because it was really like a jump in the fire. Also, this past spring was hard because we’d be home for a week, then out for five weeks doing shows almost every night. It got heavy even for us, but we knew that we’d be done by the end of May and then the festival season would start. By keeping in mind that there would be some breathing room after the last tour we were able to make it to the end in one piece.”

He’s not complaining, though. Quite the contrary…

“I thought we would have to fight and struggle a lot harder than we did,” he admits, “but to be honest I think Nightwish is blessed to have fans this faithful. Of course some of them are gone, but a lot of them stayed, and we made quite a lot of new fans as well who were turned off by the classical opera vocals we had before. I think that’s because things are more down to earth now, things are all for the better. We’re just really grateful for all the people that stayed with us.”

Go to this location for the complete Tarot story.

(Photo by Carl Begai)