In a recent interview with the German edition of Rolling Stone magazine, NIGHTWISH keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen revealed his deep interest in writing film scores. He expressed, “Yeah, I’m a big fan of film scores.” (As transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET) His musical heroes from the film music genre include John Williams, widely regarded as the best, along with Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, James Newton Howard, and Ennio Morricone. He shared, “That’s the kind of music that I listen to, if I listen to music, which I don’t do very much anymore.”

Holopainen's Long-Held Dream

Adding to this, he mentioned that writing a score for a film has been on his mind for 25 years. However, he clarified, “But [I’ve] never been asked, and I don’t even know if it would be my cup of tea. Because you are really confined to the story and to how the director wants you to write, and I’m not sure if I would be up to that.”

Dream Projects and Priorities

A few years ago, when asked by Untitled if he would write a complete soundtrack for a film, the 47-year-old musician responded, “I wish I could. That has been a dream of mine for years, but it would need to be something that really strikes my fancies. I wouldn’t be interested in writing a score for a romantic comedy. It has to be something interesting — a nature documentary for Discovery channel or even a really cool game. I’d love to do [role-playing video game] ‘The Elder Scrolls VI’, something like that. Anyway, at the moment NIGHTWISH is, by far, my main priority, so that’s what I want to focus on for my near future. I can see myself in my fifties doing something like that, if somebody’s interested.”

Collaborations and Heroes

During the same chat, Holopainen was asked whom he would like to work with if he could choose anyone. He responded, “Two of my biggest heroes are Hans Zimmer and [Oscar-winning Greek composer] Vangelis, so either one of those. But then again, I want to keep a bit of distance from my heroes. Once, I was in Helsinki and saw Hans Zimmer live. Then I got invited to meet him at a party afterwards but I declined. He’s such a big character for me and some part of me wants to keep it like that. A good example of this is that for my whole childhood Walt Disney was my hero; he was like a demigod for me. When I read his biography, the world crumbled. He wasn’t a very nice person. For some people, you want to keep the distance. So, to return to your question, if Hans asked for a cooperation, I would definitely do it.”

NIGHTWISH's Recent Activities

NIGHTWISH's latest album, “Yesterwynde”, arrived in September via Nuclear Blast, marking the band’s tenth studio LP following the release of “Human. :II: Nature.” in 2020. In April 2023, the band surprised fans by announcing that they would not be playing any live shows for the foreseeable future and would not be touring in support of “Yesterwynde”. Tuomas told Metal Hammer magazine, “The reasons are personal. We’re not going to go into it, but it was something that had to be done for this band to continue. There’s no bad blood between the members, nothing like that. We just have to take a long breather.”Photo credit: Tim Tronckoe (courtesy of Nuclear Blast)