#NIGHTWISH EVER DREAM CENTURY FULL#
"My autumn is quite full with 'Imaginarium', so the solo will have to wait to be released. So I pulled the break and just said 'thanks, but no thanks' to the record label 'cause it can't be done at this time. We started to discuss with different labels, but the progress took so much time and things happened along the way the biggest thing being a producer who suddenly couldn't do it due to personal problems and all of a sudden it was April and my time is running out. "When Nemo came, and I felt that he was healthy and I also felt good, I started to feel that I could put the album out and still had time to do that. So to not 'jump in' and promise things I couldn't keep, I put the solo down. "When I got pregnant with Nemo, I felt that I didn't want to stress during the pregnancy since my pregnancy with Seth was hard and I had to take it very easy. She explained, "The solo was meant to be a fun thing and a thing for me to start doing my own songs since that is something I feel I want to learn more about. Olzon announced in April that she decided to push back the tentative release date of her debut solo album to after NIGHTWISH has completed touring in support of its new studio album, "Imaginarium". It didn't matter to us at all whether she came from Greenland or South America or Finland or Sweden.
Whether it was a well-known person or an unknown didn't really matter. We were just keeping all the options open to see what kind of demos we had. Tuomas: "You know, the thing is that we really didn't care at the time. Metalshrine: Did you ever think that you would go for a well-known singer or was the idea from the beginning to take someone that was unknown? She's different from us but she kind of like feels the unity of the band." She's really emotional and very honest and down to earth with everything. She's definitely the most positive person in the band. We had no idea what kind of person she would be, but after we met her for the first time, we immediately clicked. It especially fitted the new songs perfectly. I just felt that it came out so easily and it's something we are looking for.
But the first thing that really impressed me was her voice, of course. I didn't think, I just sent her an e-mail, 'I'm sorry, this is it!' It was totally my mistake and I'm just glad that she was stubborn enough. Then she sent me an e-mail, 'By the way, I have a 4-year-old son!' and I was still in a bit of a shock of what happened with Tarja and everything so I kind of wanted everything to be as perfect as possible. We already knew each other for months via e-mail and she was really nice and she had a great voice. I got a little bit scared about that and I remember, I guess I was a little bit drunk (laughs) and I acted spontaneously. It was only because of her having a child.
For a change, the rumors have a truth behind them, so this part of all the rumors is true. Metalshrine: What was it that Anette had that made you decide that this is the one, because I read that you first told her that she didn't get the job? It was the worldwide "Idol" syndrome where everybody thinks they can be stars." It took about a year, so we had a lot of time to listen to those and at some points it was a lot of fun and then some demos you only needed to listen to for ten seconds. It wasn't that much work as it may sound. You have to do that and it was a lot of fun actually. Metalshrine: Wow! Did you listen to all those 2,000 demos? I was expecting something much less and out of those 2000, 50 were promising enough that we sent them a reply and out of those 50 we met about 10 in person. Tuomas: "There were about 2,000 demos that we received from 55 different countries, so that was amazing. Metalshrine: How many auditioned for the lead singer spot? In a 2007 interview with Sweden's Metalshrine, NIGHTWISH mainman Tuomas Holopainen spoke about the audition process that led to Olzon being chosen as the band's new singer.