Nightwish keyboardist / founder / songwriter Tuomas Holopainen is featured in a new career-spanning interview with Metal Hammer. Following is an excerpt.

Metal Hammer: You came close to splitting the band and quitting music early on, after you fired your original bassist, Sami Vänskä. Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if you had gone through with that?

Tuomas: "I would have gone back to university and continued with my studies as a biologist. I really would have – that was what I was going to do. But I was on a hike with my friend Tony (Kakko, Sonata Arctica singer), and he said, 'If you quit now, you will regret it for the rest of your life.' He also told us that we needed to hire a manager, because myself and Jukka were managing the band. That was awful, booking shows and taking care of contracts without anyone watching our backs. So we hired a manager who we could trust, and that made all the difference."

Metal Hammer: There’s a perception that you can be a ruthless bastard when it comes to getting rid of bandmembers. Is that fair?

Tuomas: "No, no. There is a reason why things happen, and when you take things to an extreme, you just snap. Like Red said to Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, 'Every man has his breaking point.' You can just imagine how difficult things had to have been for us to deal with things the way we did (firing vocalists Tarja Turunen and Anette Olzon). And, of course, it should have been dealt with so much better, but I forgive myself and the other band members for dealing with it the way we did because of the state that we were in."

Metal Hammer: You said in 2019 that if another band member leaves, it’s the end of Nightwish. And now Marko’s (Hietala / bass, vocals) gone... 

Tuomas: "That’s how I felt back in 2019, and that’s also how I felt when Marko left. I take my words back when it comes to that. But if it would be Floor (Jansen / vocals) leaving, that’s it, it’s the end of Nightwish. Absolutely, 100%."

Metal Hammer: If Nightwish did end tomorrow, how would you feel about it?

Tuomas: "If Nightwish ends, it was a great run, a wonderful adventure of 25 years. Then I’d just have to come up with something else."

Read the complete interview here.

Under the guise of Nightwish cover band Nevski & The Prospects from St. Petersburg, Russia, the real Nightwish performed a secret show at Club Teatria in Oulo, Finland on July 28th. Fan-filmed video is available below.

The setlist on the night was as follows:

"Noise"
"Planet Hell"
"Tribal"
"Élan"
"Storytime"
"How's the Heart?"
"Harvest"
"7 Days to the Wolves"
"Dark Chest of Wonders"
"I Want My Tears Back"
"Ever Dream"
"Nemo"
"Sleeping Sun"
"Shoemaker"
"Last Ride of the Day"
"Ghost Love Score"
"The Greatest Show on Earth"