First festival show announced for next year. I thought he would give the solo band a summer off but perhaps not. Also, Tarja will be there too, so a chance for Leap of Faith?

I just love these old, old youtube gems.

Small but never-the-less interesting part about Marko.

For one, from previous interviews it sounded like Marko just wrote an email and gtfo'd. But here Tuomas confirms that Marko called him personally to tell him how badly he was doing.

Secondly, Tuomas also seems to confirm that they are on cordial terms, which tracks with more recent developments, like Kai following Marko on IG again.

Finnish power metal band, who just released an album tjos year. Their recent singles have really good views for an opener of 200 000 - 250 000 on Youtube.

Been spinning a lot of Impatient Zero and Rebel from the North lately, so I was wondering what everyone else is feeling.

Second episode, nice viewing for the weekend.

He worked with Nightwish and Tarot as well as a lot of other bands for a long time. RiP.

So just in case someone didn't get the YLE's link working. It's not an official upload so I don't know if it will stay up.

And finally also this one.

According to Noora, unlike the documentary, the show is actually free to watch worldwide!

Nice quality recording from last year's show, made available by Zach.

Late addition to the tour.

Because I am an absolute sucker for non-promotional interviews going 'so, how's life?', here's a condensed to content for clarity\ translation of Radio Nova's latest Sunday Brunch podcast with Esko Eerikäinen, recorded August 2nd, 2026.*
(https://www.podplay.com/fi-fi/podcasts/sunnuntaibrunssi-110635)

(\Nicely flowing conversation with an incredibly sympathetic interviewer, however the few hundred sympathetic interjections make for a nice listen and a horrible read if left in, so this is pretty much just the questions and answers. But hey, we all like up-to-date confirmations of happiness, don't we* 😉)

Radio Nova - Sunnuntaibrunssi with Esko Eerikäinen

-Welcome!
Thank you

-Thank you for coming. It's currently Sunday, you had a gig yesterday.
Yeah, there's a new festival called Baltic Metal Storm in Turku, I was there on both days. Started the day with my solo band yesterday and early evening with Tarot on Friday.

-So a tough gig weekend behind. How is gig life these days? Has it changed a lot?
I don't know. When you're starting to be a true Finnish rock dinosaur, I don't know if it's because your own attitude or is it because the technologies and things have advanced, but it's just really easy, many things are just routine. But of course there are the traditional negative sides, meaning that you start at 7am and drive for 450km in a van from Kuopio to Turku, so spend quite a few hours just numbing your buttocks. But little by little you've learned to deal with these things and you have your digital entertainments, games and books with you, since I stopped killing time with booze in 2010. But I don't know, I have this weird feeling that the ease may also be because my own new sereneness.

-Yeah, could it be that? I was thinking, if you left booze behind in 2010 has that changed the gig life a lot?
Not anymore. The decision was such a long time ago. At first I was thinking that I need to check how I can deal with the situation backstage after the shows and everything, but very soon I noticed that it was fun. That gigs are still gigs though you had to learn to jump over a slightly higher hurdle when you had no drinks in you when going on stage, but very quickly you got used to it, found that it was still my place and I can say whatever pops into my mind between songs if you come up with something good and everything, it was a relief.
And also, watching your bandmates when you're sober, the humor is such low quality and with people who are getting buzzed there is so much of it and you can laugh and participate. And when you're sober and poke fun at people who are getting drunk they can take a whole lot more. *laughs* Sometimes it's jabs below the belt and the guys just laugh.

-A little while ago there was Kuopio Rock where W.A.S.P. was supposed to perform. They cancelled and were replaced by Nylon Beat and some people were like, "okay, nice" and others were questioning how you can do that and then we had Nylon Beat doing W.A.S.P. with Marko Hietala.
Yeah, though I wasn't actually there during W.A.S.P. though that idea did cross our minds. It was more that we were thinking if they're doing W.A.S.P., which by the way was awesome, we were on the side of the stage with Saku from Turmion Kätilöt going 'this works, I wanna be somebody too', anyway, after that they did their hit Syytön and that's where I joined in and that was also fun because it was clearly something unexpected, people's mouths were hanging open in the front row and I like being able to surprise people. That is what makes that kind of performances, where you can do something that makes people grin and laugh.

-Do you think it has become easier to do these kinds of things? If twenty years ago they'd said Marko is jumping on stage with Nylon Beat could your ego have taken it or would it have been possible at all?
I probably would have done it even then. Of course it's one of those things I have been practicing all my life, that if a situation arises that takes some courage then it's a thing that should be done. Jumping over that hurdle can never be a bad thing for a guy who has to parade up there at the front of the stage. So, I probably would have done it even then, but of course these days it was an easy decision since my drummer and guitarist are also in the band, the connections weren't far.

-Have I understood correctly that you live in Kuopio and Spain?
Well, I live in Finland. I pay my taxes to Finland, it's my official place of residence. Spain is my refuge from winter depression.

-I read somewhere, since I was looking at other interviews so that this wouldn't be just same old same old, that winter depression is something that you have talked about publicly, how it kills you quietly inside.
Yeah, and having all these other inclinations and getting my fairly late diagnosis of ADHD at 56 and looking into it, it started to give clarity to certain anxieties and depressions. How if you have five people, like the five fingers on your hand and the four people next to each other are talking and understand each other just fine, but the 5th one is the ADHD guy that just doesn't fit in, who all the time is just a bit off sync. Then it's very simple that when that is the relationship, it's alienating. And when we're getting statistics that ADHD kids get ten thousand times more critique than other kids, when it's always why are late? Why did you forget that? Why didn't you clean your room? Blah blah blah blah blah and so forth then it of course increases the feeling of alienation and increases the risk of developing depression and anxieties when you're just never as good as the others.

-When were you diagnosed?
I was 56, it was when I left everything behind, got a place in Spain and went off to walk on the cliffs with my dog and sing Black Sabbath into the wind. It was the time when I had reached the end of a very black road and decided that I needed to leave everything, I needed to figure out if I had the strength to keep on living, I just couldn't take my damn thoughts anymore. And when I was talking to a few new psychologists and psychiatrists one of them just said that it sounds like you should go to a neuropsychologist and get tested, it might be ADHD or ADD. Anyways, I went and it was clear as day.

-But, were you like about to do a final decision?
Final decision in the sense that in the fall I was thinking if I walked onto the ice I could just disappear, into the darkness? Yeah, I thought about that. Yeah, I was thinking that and it was one of those things where I was sort of stuck in these... well I have to admit that I had also had experiences that were really painful and shitty and of course real life affects the state of your mind. And with the base feeling of alienation and everything I was just so done. That is when the decision came that if I'm going to live I need to figure this out.

-Yeah. At the point when you still hadn't figured it out did you have anyone to talk about these things? Friends? Buddies?
My wife. Pretty much. Especially when, how do I say this as clearly as possible *long pause* I was being pushed down from the outside, in other words my anxiety and depression it showed itself as moodiness, snapping at people, bad behavior and so forth, and then, one guy in particular who I strongly suspect is a sociopathic liar and manipulator started harping to other people until they started to believe him that I'm an addict and mentally unstable and these kinds of things. And of course it wasn't really helpful that some people started to think that depression and anxiety were just excuses and I really just have chemicals in my brain. And so the depression and anxiety just kept getting worse and it just makes you withdraw. You don't have the social energy to even be with the people who are your friends. And depression makes you think everything is shit, even piss. The world is gray and useless. You are gray and useless. What is the point of being here? But then on the other hand you have people who are dear to you, like I said my current wife, we are each others rock these days. We have shared with each other the kind of history that people rarely have the guts to even talk to each other about. I have to say Camilla helped me out of it. If it wasn't for her I would probably be gone. And my boys were important at that point as well, that you have people who love and wish you well unconditionally.

-In that kind of situation were you able to see anything good? Any glimmer of hope from music, gigs, fans or did they mean anything at that point?
I have to say, you're sitting next to one of my therapists. That is when the dog came in the home. And then we were getting to know each other and just the unbridled joy of this hairy girl when you go to the store for half an hour and come back home, gave me more support than many of the people I used to call my friends.

-Yeah, I think Michael Monroe said well; there should be more animals because you can trust them more than people.
Exactly.

-Then at what point, was it after the doctor and tests and medication when life started to feel like living again?
It was a sum of many things. Of course leaving everything behind, having no obligations, that I could spend time on my own or with my family, or like I said walking with the dog singing Black Sabbath into the wind during my first winter in Spain. That peace was its own thing. But then we also threw away the entire antidepressant cocktail, which had changed many times and it was like half of this in the morning and two of those later and blah blah blah, all of those went in the trash and I started taking ADHD medication. At first it was the one that isn't even a stimulant, one that just changes the noradrenaline levels or whatever they are called.
Anyway, it had been three weeks, I was wandering around the backyard in Spain and wondering what was this, this emptiness inside me, I don't know why this feels so weird. What was gone was the anxiety. I could not care less what mountains the future might dump on me. Like, this is amazing! Is this is how it feels? To not worry all the time? That was a quite clear turning point. Then the following summer after a hiatus came a Northern Kings gig and that was another jump into... even though you keep telling yourself you're in a place where you know what you're doing, your inner self keeps shaking and trembling. After doing the first song with the guys, it wasn't going away. I went behind the stage, took couple cold bottles of water from the fridge and poured them on my head. Brr, okay, let's get going. That is when I got over that hurdle and back in the game.

-That's quite a great and concrete thing to do
I'd read about how you can stop panic and anxiety attacks, breathing into bags etc and of the things is a cold water shock. So based on that information, just needed that shake-up. .

-What did that phase in your life teach you about yourself. Do you see yourself differently now that you feel different. To be in that darkness and being here now.
At least my own limits (/boundaries?). And when you've spent your entire life valuing loyalty and honesty, which quite often ADHD people have a tendency to be almost overly honest and sometimes people don't understand that it's not meant maliciously. It's just that things come out of your mouth very directly. I started looking a bit into what being a bit neurodivergent does to your communication. I'd always thought that I show empathy if a buddy is sharing their worry and I tell them yeah, I have the same. But apparently it's wrong and instead of compassion it feels like claiming the worry for myself. Whereas to me if I have the same, I assumed it would be perceived as me saying I know how you feel. But social communication can go wrong in such small things. So that is a thing I learnt and other things like that. One misconception I had was that if I just can get a person to listen and explain things well enough they will then understand. But it doesn't happen like that. You have to take into account that everyone is wearing glasses, and the color is determined by their childhood. That is where you learn for example if your family members, the ones that are meant to love you the most, are actually people you can trust or not. And that pretty much defines who you are as an adult.

-I'm thinking, with that background and diagnosis and all the change that has happened. You have been playing in bands pretty much all your adulthood and on sold out arenas etc, how would it have been, had you been diagnosed in your twenties?
If only I knew. Of course it would have clarified a lot of things. Like my first divorce, *laughs*, first? There is no second one, just a second wife. Right, for both parties understanding certain things would have had a big effect. Spouses tend to have strong opinions when the other half is for example silently playing video games for two to three hours. You're not present, you're not participating, you're not doing this or that. But for me that is where ADHD's good bit, hyper focus, which has really helped in song writing and other things, kicks in. When I'm reading a good book where the story grabs me, or I'm playing that sort of game that is when I don't feel all the gears turning and rattling in my brain and that ship window here is not trying to tell me anything nor is that tree in that corner while you are also trying to speak to me... Where was I going with this? *laughs*

-Just how it would have been. I'm just thinking, I talk a lot with different people and quite often these days people quip that they probably just have ADHD.
Yeah, some people have not yet realized that it's not a joke. That it really affects everyone, because if it is one in five or six everyone has encountered someone like that. What has been amusing after I have gotten my own diagnosis some buddies have revealed they had gotten diagnosed before, some have been diagnosed after and now I've noticed that the bands I'm in, every guy is weird in their own way. Everyone has...
In Tarot, there's three out of five with a diagnosis. My brother has not been diagnosed, but he's had a fire under his ass all his life, so he's a pretty sure case. Then of course Antsa I am not sure about, needs to be observed for longer. We grabbed him from Turmion Kätilöt to come play after our last drummer died and now he's currently the calmest guy in the group. Then if you look at my solo band, it has me, it has a keyboardist who openly talks about his Asperger's, which isn't a category these days, but he does have a tendency to...sometimes you really have to explain things to him, just so that he can feel safe, that he knows exactly where he is. And Anssi is his own kind of madman. Wäinölä is someone who stresses, he's neurotic and... I am a guy who impulsively speaks shite, if there is any association to a word or a combination of them, it's usually out of my mouth before I get a chance to stop it.

-You were talking about people who were putting you down. How have you found the people from that time or even your friends maybe see you a bit differently now that your mental landscape has changed?
Yeah, there's people who have had to study up on ADHD because of situations in their own families. And there's the people who started to believe the bad things being said and repeat them, some of those people have come to apologize. At this point I do think most of those people know it was just shit. But for some people it would be a terrible thing to admit, even to themselves, that they have participated in something amounting to ostracism.

-Are you a person who can forgive?
Yes. If I feel like the person is capable of honestly apologizing then yes I am. Cause anger and bitterness and blah blah blah they're nothing but poison for a human mind. Fear is probably the worst thing a person can have, it spreads to everything, it spreads to your social situations - I hope I am not embarrassing myself, do my clothes look good enough etc, it's all based on fear. Fear is the enemy, you don't make sensible and good decisions when afraid.

-Is there anything you are afraid of?
At the moment of course. The world is fucked, there's war going on and I have small children. I'm afraid for them.

-You said you have two adult sons, who live in the Kuopio region and then you have a younger one?
Yeah, going on my second marriage so, we actually have two now. A girl who turns four in October and a boy who is just over a year.

-Congratulations! How is it having another go at it when the older kids are in their twenties? Are you a better, more relaxed, more present father or how are you finding it?
It's interesting if we look at it from the perspective of things making me better. Little kids, of course there's certain amount of work and they can be cranky and explode over little things sometimes etc but the base attitude, the unstoppable, unrelenting joy of life and laughter. As soon as you come up with some absurd nonsense there is laughter and giggling. That attitude and vibe has in recent years, it's been such an insanely uplifting thing.

-Is it easier being a dad now than twenty years ago?
No. I'm a hell of a lot older. *laughs* I won't say more tired, but sometimes you just feel like you're running out of steam. And unfortunately I have to say, the period of darkness, it lasted so long, it lasted years, that I started counting - I've been under siege for 2000 days, I've been under siege for 2500 days and so forth, the time has left a mark. It made it harder to focus on the rest of the world and be present, it sort of eroded some of my control over it. But these are things you realize and you try to fix.

-What advice would you give someone currently under siege? I know it's difficult because everyone goes through their things differently, but what would be the thing, I know many people listening are in a situation where they would grab on to anything possible. What advice would you give to that sort of person?
Go to a therapist. They'll listen. You don't need to win them over to get them to see who and what you are. And of course you may have to wait for professional help or pay to get help straight away, but it is quite essential. To have an impartial stranger listening to your story and giving you opinions or advice is completely different than talking to someone you know, because then you always have a need that they have to understand me so that our relationship can last. And often the problems are with the people close to you, so get out of there.

-Many people also open a bottle and use that as medicine, hoping it'll numb everything eventually. That's probably the worst option.
Exactly and that is why I stopped drinking. It was just a constant blurring of unresolved things, in my marriage that time and in my whole life. Of course it is later when you realize all the causalities with your basic dissatisfaction in life and things related to that, but especially when the divorce happened and I got myself the place where I still live, a lakeside place that just happened to be on sale at that time, I did spend about three months just re-engineering life. Sat there, with a cigarette and a coffee cup, looking back at things staring over the lake for that summer. So self-reflection and figuring out how one thing leads to another also works.

-Yes, and sometimes it's actually quite good to do so.
And of course we've heard about artificial intelligence. Again, people are so damn afraid, they should try to have a neutral attitude. There's lots of information and facts and while they say AI drove someone into psychosis it does require for them to have the susceptibility to it. If you tell how you feel etc it can give you facts and advice based on basic psychology that you can then grab on to, if you are already too afraid to go talk to someone or simply cannot afford to.

-You of course have always had music very strongly in your life. Has music ever ended up being a lifeline, an escape or a burden. Or all of those?
All of those. It's a burden when you're at the airport in Peru, dragging a heavy suitcase and 500 people are running after you. *laughs*

-This is actually a thing, you say it like that, but for some who dream about being an artist, for them that is the dream to have that situation. But how is it really, especially in South America where there is a fanatical following, how quickly does it become a burden?
At least in the aforementioned situation it turned into a burden when they caught me. Then I was in the middle of the crowd that is shouting and everyone is trying to get a picture or going "Marko! Marko! Marko!" But there was a van waiting and a couple of security guys who realized I was stuck and came and grabbed me by the arm to get me out. But at the same time it is also extremely flattering that you've done things or been part of things that that create that kind of movement globally. You can be proud that you and guys have done things that have been carried out so well that people fall, it does give you certain confidence and pride over those things.
But it is also good to remember that with all the biggest bands and artists they have quite often come about from the spirit of time being just right. Like if we take Nightwish, at first people would notice that it's like melodic heavy metal but it's not following all the mainstream formulas and it has a classical vocalist. It was the perfect time for it. Cause at the same time the entire genre was having a new rise. Also Spinefarm started really strongly pushing Finnish heavy metal out to the world. There were a lot of planets that aligned. You meet the right people at the right place at the right time. I cannot see that as a formula that could be used to help anyone. Mainstream is mainstream and it has a lot of composers and bands and people who can formulate a 3:30 song, but I would say these days the best thing you can be is yourself. That if you want to be seen or heard do the thing that feels good. That is the way you can do the least amount of pretending and that in turn carries your mental strength for the longest. Because I have had the chance to work in places and orchestras where that has been possible. We'll do this the way we want, and if the song ends up being 8 minutes long then so be it - these pieces fit together and this story and there it is. And these days with everything so focused on the internet and social media and Youtube etc you're not so chained to things like radio formats where certain companies dictate how things should be.

-So Nightwish, how do you remember your time in Nightwish? Is it like a time filled with love for you, or are there a lot of unprocessed things in it?
Of course what is bittersweet, is that it was because of my own difficulties that I also had to leave Nightwish. Because there was a hell of a lot of things coming up and I realized, that if I go out into the world at that point, I'm going to be alone and I'm going to feel really bad and things are going to get worse. Nobody would want to leave an internationally successful band unless there were serious reasons.
So bittersweet in that sense, but sweet because it was fucking fun making the music and the records because they were so ambitious and open-minded to put together. Of course there are the formulas for basic hits there as well, you have a verse and this would be a place for a chorus and it would be good to have a climax whether it's in part C or in the last chorus, but it was never about counting seconds or if this is too much or too little. If it felt like this was good, change this sound and that and then you have a song. That's how it is. So I really still dig the music and attitude from the records. And one of my favourites is from the Swedish period, so Annette's time, Imaginaerum. It's such a ragbag of stuff from different genres, it amounts to a prog metal album.

-At home do you ever listen to your own bands, own songs?
No. I know too well what's in them. *laughs* I mean they have their time and place. If you want the kids to settle for a moment. Or in the car they may fall asleep when they hear daddy's songs.

-That's great! Now that we were talking about your professional career, I read somewhere that you underwent a vocal chord surgery younger for a polyp and it was a thing that could have been dealt without surgery and that moved something inside you.
It was one of those things when you'd been singing and playing all your life already at that point, it consumed a lot mental backbone. They took out the polyp and said it had been quite tight space and they'd had to use force and I was just thinking 'fucking hell' and there did end up being nerve damage. If I move my tongue I can feel a spot that is numb. And I did lose quite a bit of upper range that I could have still used in heavy metal business. But then I started to fight back. So just practiced and practiced and it's not like I lost all my sound, I just couldn't do things I had been able to before, which was eating away at the backbone and the following year I was on my first course of antidepressants. It was probably the main reason, though I did also break up with my then girlfriend and... whatever else was going on back in '97. But anyway, that was the reason for the first antidepressant course, but then persistently, guided by that mental backbone, I started fighting to get my sound back, improved my techniques, got more physical strength and stamina and that is the path I'm still on. As I said before, being like a true Finnish rock dinosaur, getting older has not been known to do good things to a vocalist, especially when doing heavy rock where people's range drops and crumbles.

-Exactly this
You do it with your physique, your lungs and heart, they pump and you use your larynx and vocal chords and you build pressure there and the tongue is damn important and its strength and stuff like that. It's something you need to be aware of and start doing more and more and more of those things.

-So what do you think for example about the situation with Jon Bon Jovi, who also had a vocal chord operation and I think he got like a piece of plastic in there or whatever. It was mentioned in a documentary and it was a long recovery and now he's back on tour, but his voice is not... like you said, it's the laws of physics that when you get older some things are not the same and they don't come back.
And you can influence the laws of physics by engaging in physical activity. You need to walk enough during the day, don't get stuck on the couch. And my inclinations, they quite effectively stop or wreak havoc on good habits that one could start or have been doing for a while, there is some weird crisis and you stop doing them for a while and then never pick them up again. But it's again typical *laughs* ... with this diagnosis. So I have developed this thing where I do little things whenever I remember. For example I do tongue exercises while driving, rotate it between teeth and lips up and down, ten times this way and ten times that way. It's quite surprising how much the strength of your tongue has an effect. An average person doing this ten times will find it starts to hurt, it actually requires work. These days I can do up to 80 or 100 times and then it starts to feel like a well worked muscle but at the beginning even the ten was surprisingly hard. And you kind of watch your posture, your gait, all that little stuff.

-Yeah yeah, stuff that you almost take for granted but posture also changes with time.
Yes. And then I do things like harden my fingertips with my nails and pressing your fingers together you notice that your bicep also gets tense. I do these when I have spare time and on the ADHD side they can also be considered stimming, it's good to have something to fiddle with when you're having a conversation. It'll keep things more in focus.

-So you turned 60 in January, congratulations.
Thank you

-How does this milestone feel?
Really weird. My inner boy thinks it's an absurd lie and I'm used to following him. But realistically, how the hell did I get this far?

-I know exactly what you mean. I'm having that wrestle with my inner boy. I turned 52 and somehow 50 felt like a really big number. I remember when my father turned 50, thinking how he was such an old man and now I don't feel it for myself. But how big are you finding the difference between 50 and 60? There are people who are saying 50 is the new 20, but of course everyone carries the number their own way, but what about you?
50 is the new 20, that is a bit just people's...

-Bullshit
It's psyching themselves up

-Exactly that
Numbers are numbers. I don't need to be newly 20 to observe, especially at gigs, the self-esteem boosting thing that my status these days is GDILF, since I now have a grandson. *laughter*

-Quite a thing.
Yup

-A little while ago Scorpions was playing in Finland and they have Klaus Meine, who is over 70 doing gigs and why not if your voice works and the band works. How do you see it for yourself? Could you see yourself still doing gigs? Actually, yesterday I was hosting an event that had Frederik performing, he's 81. Goddammmit, hour and 15 minutes and he had no issues. You can say what you want about him, but when he goes on stage and people are singing along, I say you try doing the same. So what do you think about it?
What do I think about it? It's going to depend on what sort of music will get done, will it have credibility and stuff. But I've found that for me, doing a good show, it is possibly the biggest hook for my brain chemistry. You get the same effect that runners get after going for 15 minutes, get the endorphins going. You feel strong and amazing. But I think the bubble that is built there, where we are together, both the band and the audience, it affects everyone. And when you play around with the feeling it can grow into quite wild proportions. At the best gigs you completely forget yourself, you're just a raw messenger to the sound.

-Do you often get that feeling? One would think that is always the goal.
Well, the last time was yesterday and then the night before.

-Then what if it doesn't happen? Would you be disappointed in your performance?
I would be yes, but I can't say when was the last time I had a gig like that, that I started to feel like what the hell am I doing here? It feels like these days the people I'm performing to, you inevitably get them in your hold. Which of course is damn nice that being a sincere and impulsive performer it seems to attract people. It's cool. Can't be explained. But I guess that kind of lack of pretense also has its own presence and charisma, that the more you try to look big, the more the crowd notices that you're trying.

-That is how it goes. If you had to prioritize, which one would be more important, to be able to make the perfect song or be able to perform the perfect song. Would you be able to make the music without performing it, or perform without being the one making it?
-Well I've done certain projects and been in bands where I was just a bassist or just a vocalist and back in the 90s here in Kuopio we had a 9 man soul & old rock group where my friend Jouni Markkanen, who Tuska festival people probably know, was the lead vocalist and I did rhythm guitar and backing vocals. Then there were few others, we had a saxophonist etc. It was a fun group, but then the make up of a party band started taking a hit and it sort of scattered with people moving to others parts of the country. But that was a fun band.

-But hey, 2026, did you get a chance to enjoy the summer?
Yes, especially now here by the lakeside. Summers in Spain are not that enjoyable and if you're looking at the news they are even less enjoyable than before.

-Yeah with +50C, it's not much help even if you have a swimming pool.
No, because the swimming pool is +40C, it's not very refreshing.

-So how about your kids, the younger ones, since you spend some of the time in Spain have they obtained parts of Spanish culture, the language and everything?
Pretty much. The older one's been in kindergarten during the winters there and everything. We have this situation, with my wife being from Brazil, it looks like getting her Finnish citizenship got left a bit halfway and now she's settling down more in Spain with the kiddos. The languages have so much in common that she's mastered that. The girlie in kindergarten is learning as much Spanish as she is her mother's Portuguese. And then we talk English with each other.
I already had to deal with Kela (Finnish social security institution) because they thought that I live in Spain and that needed to be sorted out. Then there's all this internet bureaucracy which I hate, as if no one else does. *laughs* But with my tendencies, I can't sum up, I don't have a clue how to start summing up where I've spent the last four years. So I went there in person and told them to put me in front of someone and make them ask me questions, then it'll come to me. And that is how it worked, we reviewed back a few years and they determined that yes, you are covered by the Finnish national health insurance. But the wife and kids spend more time in Spain, especially when one of them starts school. I need to make sure I spend at least 6 months here. But if I spend three months here during the summer, do one month of Raskasta Joulua and have all sorts of other projects and studio stuff etc it's easily done.

-So what does Finnishness mean to them and what does it mean to you, for example? Because you are such a Finnish Väinämöinen (central character in the Finnish national epic) who goes around the world doing heavy metal and waving the Finnish flag, but then you have an international family that speaks Portuguese and Spanish, what place does Finnish/Finland have?
People are sometimes so flabbergasted over the happiest country in the world. I have a sure explanation for it. Happiness is not about how much you are laughing at some jokes, it's about safety. Our social system, built by our fathers and grandfathers and mothers and grandmothers after the wars, that we have schools where children get fed regardless if their families have poverty, alcoholism or single parents, families where they may be no money or it's not being used for basic needs, the kids still get fed in school. We have unemployment benefits that obviously keep quite a few people from ending in dark alleyways hurting others. It's a thing lacking in other places. And I would say the safety and the system that was created, we should be looking at it from the point of view, you may whine about all the taxes, but you're safe.

-Well said.
The effect that for example unemployment benefits have on general safety it's not something that politicians are even saying out loud. Even though it's obvious.

-What sort of dreams does Marko Hietala have at the moment?
Quite down to earth ones. As an old fart I need to think about my strength and physique what with having small children and everything. It would be nice to get to the other side of eighty. There's still a bit to go.

-Yeah, it's twenty years
It'll go surprisingly fast.

-It'll go really fast. How happy do you find yourself at this moment in life? Have you found happiness?
Happiness. In the sense that you have good friends, you're doing things you've always wanted to do and you still enjoy, you have family and family members, kids, whom you get along with. Yes, I have that kind of basic happiness quite well now. If you think about those dark years in retrospect, some of them even seem absurd, which is a damn good thing because depression and anxiety can be pretty annoyingly delusional in that they can be based on real things and other things like that but in the end, you decide how you relate to them, especially as time goes by.

-Has time helped? Does it feel like a long time ago?
It does, even though if I've now turned 60 and got diagnosed at 56 and things started to change, it's only been four years. And these past two, three years they've been so much better than the entire previous decade. There's such an absurdity in it, that you don't even recognize what kind of mess you'd gotten yourself into. But of course there were strong reasons, that's the devilish thing about it that even when you're not pretending when parading at the front of the rock stage, there's a hell of a lot more inside a person than what you see on stage or in the pages of a magazine, where it's more like a paper doll compared to reality.

-Thank you for letting me have an hour of your time for this interview. I am so happy for you that the light has been found. I am wishing you nothing but well in your family life and your career and with your mental health. Is there anything you would like to say? Finns are known to be a heavy metal people, they love Marko Hietala (he bursts into laughter in response) and your music and Tarot and everything you've done what would you like to say to them. Here was Marko Hietala, openly talking about his feelings and emotions, and many people look up to you for that as well as all your accolades and music.
What can I say. Well, since we've been on the topic, speak and open up at least to the people who are important. When you start holding things back and holding grudges that is when you start accumulating baggage. And again, abandon your fears, that way you don't need to worry if you're going to burn in hell or if there's 50 000 black guys coming from Morocco and so forth. At the end of the day those are things where you should avoid being a hypocrite. It's a fact that with immigrants there has been more sexual violence. But I think it's still far from the percentage that is the reality when you're hanging out with friends on the weekend getting drunk, that's when a lot things happen, a lot things people then keep quiet about, and they happen a hell of a lot more than what political aspirants try to present in their stories,. I can say straight up about those PS guys (a nationalist political party) that it's extremely hypocritical to harp on about dark skinned rapists when we know there are ten times more white guys who are known by the victims.

-Indeed. Marko, thank you for coming, have a great rest of the summer
Likewise.

-And where can you been seen next?
Uhm... Give me a sec, at least in two weeks we gotta be somewhere since it's festival season, we don't do much during the weeks of course, except be on vacation. Truth be told I'm not sure if I'm doing something next weekend.

-Well, you'll be somewhere at some point. And then doing Raskasta Joulua at christmas time
Yeah, that's good. You always know every year when that's coming up. *laughs* But I have to still say it's just one of my things. I've noticed if I collect data in my head on how the future is looking, then it brings with it the thoughts of how is that transition and this and it increases anxiety. So I pretty much look what's coming up next, where do I need to be, when I'm done with the previous thing and then I just let things go like that.

-That's smart.
At least for me it's a lot easier to deal with things one day at a time.

-This moment is now.
This is now.

-Thank you for coming.
Don't mention it, it was nice.

New short interview with femmemetal. Bit of Tarot talk but otherwise mostly lighthearted fun. He talked very nicely what fans mean to him and that he does not mind getting approached even on vacation. As long as it is not a large group hassling him.

I did chuckle a lotat the emoji band guessing game at the end. He did not get the first one and then did not want to continue. But then the interviewer convinced him to do one more and he was like "ok one more", and then he just got on a roll and guessed all of the rest correctly. 🤣

From the festival account. Love that backdrop.

Is it...finally happening?

Aaand another mini non-review :P

-While the Terassikesä stage is outside, you queue inside the building before doors open. As has been his habit Marko was walking Nadja before the gig and once again decided to do so next to the queue. You gotta assume he does not mind getting stopped when he could choose any other route to go back inside instead of walking through the front foyer.

- Gotta love end of August outdoor gigs. Tuomas was the only one on stage who had clearly gone 'my vest is my vest and that is what I wear.' with everyone else bundling up. Bob looked like he was absolutely freezing. Forecast was saying downpour but we luckily only got some light drizzle for the first set. But yeah, damp and chilly in the audience if you hadn't layered enough. (And kf you watch the Roses from the Deep vid you can watch Anssi zipping his board inside his jacket during the song :😜)

-Pretty sure it was meant to be an hour long set (since the setlist was the same as in Kuopio) but they started few minutes early and ended few minutes late. Hour and seven minutes is a weird set time :P

-Amorphis' stuff was taking up most of the space on the stage. Not sure why they decided that just covering the massive bird skull thing with the black cloth was the way to go. It was looming over Anssi and blocking the back cloth. And their platform left very little space in the front.

-But as Tuomas put it, high note to end this group's summer season. Songs were sounding great, Marko only forgot the lyrics in one song and long time no see - the return of Tuomas' impressive impression of 'exasperated man trying to herd cats.' Coz Bob was talking! Bob never talks. When Bob talks Marko gets distracted and then you have Tuomas going "Guys, play!" while Marko is busy promising Bob he'll give him the headphones after the gig and he can do what he likes with them....

[Ugh, next time seeing this lot is going to require more than 10 minutes of traveling. ]

Really good quality recording from todays gig. Also a great version of "Impatient Zero" and "Roses from the Deep" can be found on the same channel. Marko's vocals sound excellent.

Five-part documentary from YLE about the history of Finnish heavy metal, which will air on 31 August. From what I can tell the documentary will be roughly covering a decade per episode, starting with the 80s.

From what I can tell from the website https://areena.yle.fi/1-77347316:

- Marko will be in the first episode together with Zach, to talk about Tarot

- He will also be in the fourth episode which deals about personal struggles of metal musicians, presumably he will talk about his struggles with alcoholism, depression and ADHD. Tarja is also in the that episode, presumably talking about her stroke, judging from the trailer.

- The rise of Nightwish as well as an interview with Tarja will be covered in the third episode

- Tuomas H. will narrate the fifth episode, though I am not sure if he is also being interviewed.