The heavy metal icon Marco Hietala has a humorous attitude to Kuorosota and life in general. He keeps his feet on the ground and mattresses against the wall.
At first there was Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11. The merits were undeniable. Young science fiction fan Marco Hietala was fascinated by the moonwalk and the whole miraculous trip to the Moon. On the fourth class the astronaut lost his place. The youngest child of the teacher couple from Tervo was listening to radio with his big brother Sakari, heard Rainbow’s Kill the King and was sold.
- The music was loud. It seemed to be reaching higher than the Moon - to a fantasy world, Hietala explains.
The vocalist Ronnie James Dio looked like a goblin and sung about flying like a wind. At the same time Hietala was swinging in the playground swing at an infernal speed. He screamed “kill the king” and the neighbors wondered what’s going on.
- Then I started to grow long hair, chuckles the bassist/vocalist of Nightwish.
A rebel with a twisted humor
It’s a cold winter day, one week to the beginning of the Kuorosota shootings. Hietala, who classifies himself as a kind dictator, improvises devilish expressions in a photo studio in Helsinki. When the name of Kuopio’s choirmaster was revealed in autumn, heavy metal purists got upset. But it was just dry kindling for the sly Savonian.
- I participated the Dingo tribute album for the same reason. Self irony has always been part of Savonian wickedness and humor, he says and takes a devilish expression holding a kalakukko (look at the picture on page 14).
On the other hand, the breakaways of the icon are his way to rebel against the expectations that a heavy metal artist should be tough. He is a 44 years old father, so shouldn’t he be allowed to be sometimes something else than a Viking soldier who plays symphonic metal.
- Heavy acts are always done with a serious face, just like good comedians do their acts. It’s up to the listener to decide which part of the show is humor. Sometimes I don’t even know myself.
The end of mammoth tours
In the morning Hietala recorded vocals for the new Tarot album at home in Kerava. When the 8 years old twin sons went to school, the father attenuated the walls of his work room by mattresses and began to roar. Now he has time for his own projects and also time for enjoying the ordinary things. When Nightwish was on the Dark Passion Play mammoth tour, he had to rely on Skype calls in order to be in contact with his wife and kids.
- I will never again go to as long a tour, he tells when we are walking to the nearby restaurant.
- When a family member or I had a weak moment, we couldn’t talk about it face to face. Anything could happen to my family when I’m 8000 kilometers away. It makes me feel very helpless.
One way to catch up the lost time is to offer the family special experiences, such as a trip to the Disney World in Florida. But Hietala compares trips like that to Yngwie Malmsteen’s guitar solos. It’s more important to have the basic comp (ordinary life) in condition, because you’re going to spend most of your life with that.
- The base must be in condition. If you can enjoy that, you’ll be fine. Then you can have some solos once in a while.
Compared to the Nightwish and Kuorosota communities, the family is a unit that doesn’t try to achieve something all the time. It’s comforting to a person whose work is dependant on popularity.
- That’s what the family life is about: we just spend time together. We can play, for example, Mario Party all together, he says smiling.
- Or my wife and I can drink coffee in HopLop (an amusement park) while the kids play together.
His persistence was rewarded
Hietala looks through the window of the Italian restaurant.
- Here I spent my bachelor years at 1990s, he tells and chooses pasta from the menu, a logical choice from the person who has been raised in a village that is known by its salmons.
At that point he didn’t have much money. Although he founded Tarot with his brother in the beginning of 1980s and the band made albums and had concerts, he couldn’t live by those incomes only. Hietala acquired an education to become a sound technician. He worked as a producer and made radio commercials.
- I have a persistent character, but at the dawn of the new millennium I was about to give up.
Hietala was 35 years old and wondered if he could ever fulfill his rock dream. He can’t be blamed for not trying enough. He had defined a clear goal more than 20 years ago in the youth club in Tervo.
- As soon as I was able to sing in tune I was certain that this is what I want to do. I have always thought that if you’re good at something, you can’t be knocked down forever.
His persistence was rewarded. In 2001 Hietala received the phone call that was the turning point of his life. He didn’t have to think twice.
You can afford to be open-minded
In the native home of the rock star, the family listened to jazz and classical music. Especially classical music has had an important effect to Hietala’s taste of music, because the dramatic pomposity and recycling the classical themes are the base pillars of symphonic metal. The parents never underestimated Marco’s and Sakari’s enthusiasm over heavy metal.
- They have respected our spark and rocky road. They’ve let us bang our heads against the wall, says Hietala.
Three years older Sakari is the more swashbuckling one of the brothers. Marco is calmer and tends to speculate. It doesn’t mean that he would mourn endlessly, but he thinks how to have a good life.
- You can afford to be open-minded, that’s the key. And it’s important to listen, to pay attention to right things. This applies to everything, he says.
On the Nightwish tours all kinds of setbacks are common, such as problems with customs or delays of the flights. It’s important to have a good chemistry and an ability to clear the air.
- Some members of the group tend to ponder the problems alone. It’s my role to either start the conversation, like I did in the Tarja case, or make humor out of the situation. It’s difficult to overestimate the relieving effect of imaginative tricks during the tour.
Savonian breakaway
In Kuorosota, being a Savonian means wicked humor and surprises. As an experienced performer, Hietala keeps the spirit of his “regiment” high. He emphasizes to the choir that it is their show. He has been already enough in media.
- It’s important to create a positive vicious circle. For that short period of time the stage is ours: we have nothing to lose. Worrying too much about a failure can have a paralyzing effect.
Unlike a stereotypical Savonian, Hietala seems to be free-spoken. But sometimes also he will think carefully before opening his mouth. Traditional Savonian way to speak indirectly can be useful in certain negotiations.
- When you’re negotiating about a recording contract or asking your wife’s permission to have a sauna evening with your friends, the way you present your request will affect to the result, he says smiling.
When I ask about his future dreams, his thoughts go to a summer day by a lake. He sees himself sitting in the patio of a cottage, having a long gray hair and playing guitar.
- I’m playing guitar, singing and looking around. The boys are around me with their families and barbeque sausage. That’s a vision I’d like to see in the future.
Marco Tapani Hietala
Age: 44
Family: 8 years old twin sons and a wife
Occupation: musician, singer/bassist
Native town: Tervo, Northern Savonia
Place of residence: Kerava
Motto: Live and let live
Hobbies: Sci-fi, fantasy and horrow books and movies, and videogames such as Dragon Age
Favorite albums: Rainbow: Long Live Rock’n’Roll, Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell, Judas Priest: Painkiller
The worst nightmare: Something bad would happen to my family when I´m away, and couldn´t do anything
Favorite food: sausage
Favorite book: The Lord of the Rings
Favorite movie: The Star Wars trilogy
At first there was Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11. The merits were undeniable. Young science fiction fan Marco Hietala was fascinated by the moonwalk and the whole miraculous trip to the Moon. On the fourth class the astronaut lost his place. The youngest child of the teacher couple from Tervo was listening to radio with his big brother Sakari, heard Rainbow’s Kill the King and was sold.
- The music was loud. It seemed to be reaching higher than the Moon - to a fantasy world, Hietala explains.
The vocalist Ronnie James Dio looked like a goblin and sung about flying like a wind. At the same time Hietala was swinging in the playground swing at an infernal speed. He screamed “kill the king” and the neighbors wondered what’s going on.
- Then I started to grow long hair, chuckles the bassist/vocalist of Nightwish.
A rebel with a twisted humor
It’s a cold winter day, one week to the beginning of the Kuorosota shootings. Hietala, who classifies himself as a kind dictator, improvises devilish expressions in a photo studio in Helsinki. When the name of Kuopio’s choirmaster was revealed in autumn, heavy metal purists got upset. But it was just dry kindling for the sly Savonian.
- I participated the Dingo tribute album for the same reason. Self irony has always been part of Savonian wickedness and humor, he says and takes a devilish expression holding a kalakukko (look at the picture on page 14).
On the other hand, the breakaways of the icon are his way to rebel against the expectations that a heavy metal artist should be tough. He is a 44 years old father, so shouldn’t he be allowed to be sometimes something else than a Viking soldier who plays symphonic metal.
- Heavy acts are always done with a serious face, just like good comedians do their acts. It’s up to the listener to decide which part of the show is humor. Sometimes I don’t even know myself.
The end of mammoth tours
In the morning Hietala recorded vocals for the new Tarot album at home in Kerava. When the 8 years old twin sons went to school, the father attenuated the walls of his work room by mattresses and began to roar. Now he has time for his own projects and also time for enjoying the ordinary things. When Nightwish was on the Dark Passion Play mammoth tour, he had to rely on Skype calls in order to be in contact with his wife and kids.
- I will never again go to as long a tour, he tells when we are walking to the nearby restaurant.
- When a family member or I had a weak moment, we couldn’t talk about it face to face. Anything could happen to my family when I’m 8000 kilometers away. It makes me feel very helpless.
One way to catch up the lost time is to offer the family special experiences, such as a trip to the Disney World in Florida. But Hietala compares trips like that to Yngwie Malmsteen’s guitar solos. It’s more important to have the basic comp (ordinary life) in condition, because you’re going to spend most of your life with that.
- The base must be in condition. If you can enjoy that, you’ll be fine. Then you can have some solos once in a while.
Compared to the Nightwish and Kuorosota communities, the family is a unit that doesn’t try to achieve something all the time. It’s comforting to a person whose work is dependant on popularity.
- That’s what the family life is about: we just spend time together. We can play, for example, Mario Party all together, he says smiling.
- Or my wife and I can drink coffee in HopLop (an amusement park) while the kids play together.
His persistence was rewarded
Hietala looks through the window of the Italian restaurant.
- Here I spent my bachelor years at 1990s, he tells and chooses pasta from the menu, a logical choice from the person who has been raised in a village that is known by its salmons.
At that point he didn’t have much money. Although he founded Tarot with his brother in the beginning of 1980s and the band made albums and had concerts, he couldn’t live by those incomes only. Hietala acquired an education to become a sound technician. He worked as a producer and made radio commercials.
- I have a persistent character, but at the dawn of the new millennium I was about to give up.
Hietala was 35 years old and wondered if he could ever fulfill his rock dream. He can’t be blamed for not trying enough. He had defined a clear goal more than 20 years ago in the youth club in Tervo.
- As soon as I was able to sing in tune I was certain that this is what I want to do. I have always thought that if you’re good at something, you can’t be knocked down forever.
His persistence was rewarded. In 2001 Hietala received the phone call that was the turning point of his life. He didn’t have to think twice.
You can afford to be open-minded
In the native home of the rock star, the family listened to jazz and classical music. Especially classical music has had an important effect to Hietala’s taste of music, because the dramatic pomposity and recycling the classical themes are the base pillars of symphonic metal. The parents never underestimated Marco’s and Sakari’s enthusiasm over heavy metal.
- They have respected our spark and rocky road. They’ve let us bang our heads against the wall, says Hietala.
Three years older Sakari is the more swashbuckling one of the brothers. Marco is calmer and tends to speculate. It doesn’t mean that he would mourn endlessly, but he thinks how to have a good life.
- You can afford to be open-minded, that’s the key. And it’s important to listen, to pay attention to right things. This applies to everything, he says.
On the Nightwish tours all kinds of setbacks are common, such as problems with customs or delays of the flights. It’s important to have a good chemistry and an ability to clear the air.
- Some members of the group tend to ponder the problems alone. It’s my role to either start the conversation, like I did in the Tarja case, or make humor out of the situation. It’s difficult to overestimate the relieving effect of imaginative tricks during the tour.
Savonian breakaway
In Kuorosota, being a Savonian means wicked humor and surprises. As an experienced performer, Hietala keeps the spirit of his “regiment” high. He emphasizes to the choir that it is their show. He has been already enough in media.
- It’s important to create a positive vicious circle. For that short period of time the stage is ours: we have nothing to lose. Worrying too much about a failure can have a paralyzing effect.
Unlike a stereotypical Savonian, Hietala seems to be free-spoken. But sometimes also he will think carefully before opening his mouth. Traditional Savonian way to speak indirectly can be useful in certain negotiations.
- When you’re negotiating about a recording contract or asking your wife’s permission to have a sauna evening with your friends, the way you present your request will affect to the result, he says smiling.
When I ask about his future dreams, his thoughts go to a summer day by a lake. He sees himself sitting in the patio of a cottage, having a long gray hair and playing guitar.
- I’m playing guitar, singing and looking around. The boys are around me with their families and barbeque sausage. That’s a vision I’d like to see in the future.
Marco Tapani Hietala
Age: 44
Family: 8 years old twin sons and a wife
Occupation: musician, singer/bassist
Native town: Tervo, Northern Savonia
Place of residence: Kerava
Motto: Live and let live
Hobbies: Sci-fi, fantasy and horrow books and movies, and videogames such as Dragon Age
Favorite albums: Rainbow: Long Live Rock’n’Roll, Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell, Judas Priest: Painkiller
The worst nightmare: Something bad would happen to my family when I´m away, and couldn´t do anything
Favorite food: sausage
Favorite book: The Lord of the Rings
Favorite movie: The Star Wars trilogy
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