Interview | Bassist, singer, songwriter Marko Hietala

The return of the Finnish viking

After 20 years of being the bass player and singer with Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, Marko Hietala decided to leave in 2021. In interviews he mentioned that leaving had nothing to do with the other members, but with certain decisions being made. He also had to deal with some mental problems. Now everything is under control again, Hietala is ready to go out on his own with a new band. His debut solo album made quite an impression and it shows the man’s songwriting skills as well as his versatile vocals that we know from his Nightwish days and his other band Tarot. HeadBangers LifeStyle’s Ron Willemsen contacted Hietala and spoke with him mainly about the new album ‘Roses From The Deep’, his problems, and his many plans. It was a lively conversation.

Marko, in 2019 you released your first solo album in Finnish ‘Mustan Sydämen Rovio’, re-released in English a year later called ‘Pyre In The Black Heart’. Now it’s five years later, a lot has happened since then.

,,For a while it was time I left everything behind, not only Nightwish. I had trouble with depressions and anxiousness my whole life. I needed to deal with the situation and concentrate on that. And when I got the results of the examinations it turned out that the anxiety and depressions were side effects of ADHD, which explained a lot of stuff from my past. I always felt an outsider, misunderstood, difficult to socialize with, and so on. It was bothering me that I didn’t understand that. When you’re in a depression people don’t understand. I had friends who started talking about me and pulled me down even more, so I decided to leave everything behind.’’

DEALING WITH DEPRESSION AND ADHD

Discovering what was ‘wrong’ with you gave you something to work with?

,,Yes, because it gives you a different perspective on the whole thing. There was a valid reason. I had it from birth and I wasn’t imagining it. Problems with how you appear to other people and people reacting to your behavior and why that leads to unnecessary fear and wrong interpretations. It gives me an other point of view about myself. On my bad days I was angry and tired all the time, which must have been scary.’’

Did all of this make you doubt if you wanted to continue making music? It can also be an outlet for your lyrics.

,,Of course. Music is an outlet for my vivid imagination but I also pick a lot from my personal life and point of view. What I want from music is no matter how grim the subject is, you must get an emotion out of it. A good kick and groove and some depth in the music and lyrics.’’

When did you start working on ‘Roses From The Deep’?

,,There is material from somewhere in 2017 that needed some serious work, but in 2022 we were already demoing stuff, of course including the raw version of ,,Roses From The Deep’’. I wanted to make a big stadium ballad that wouldn’t sound like The Backstreet Boys.’’

Did you have an idea about the direction when you started?

,,No, not really. We have a band that has been playing together for a few years. Of course that led to a more ‘band’ vibe on the album. It naturally became more uplifting and groovy; a rock album.’’

DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS

What is the influence of the other musicians?

,,Well, they all have defined roles. The influence of the keyboardist [Vili Ollila] is pretty big. The keyboard and string arrangements come from him. He is into movie scores, themes and so on. Anssi [Nykänen], the drummer likes old school heavy bass drums and I think we have a nice rhythm section there. All these guys come from different backgrounds like prog and classic rock. Putting all these things together is a bit like throwing gas on a fire, it’s going to expand. Connecting everything are my vocals.’’

Where do you get the inspiration for the lyrics?

,,Basically from anything. I find myself often staring into emptiness and making things up from my imagination, imaginary stories. I’m trying to keep my ears and eyes open and observe. I never look for inspiration but am open for it and so far it has been working. I have a little bit of gothic romance with splatter humor in ,,Frankenstein’s Wife’’, then a romantic ghost story in the title song followed by total personal things with for example ,,Left On Mars’’ or ,,Patient Zero’’. My purge from the darkness. Somebody asked me, doesn’t it make you vulnerable to write about some personal things, but I don’t think so. Being able to talk about it to me is relieving me. All the stigma that you fear is my number one enemy because it usually stops all rational and emotional thoughts. And honest talk.’’

BEST SINGER

You started releasing songs at the beginning of last year [2024]. Was the album already finished by then or where you still working on it?

,,It was almost finished. Pretty soon after doing ,,Phantom Of The Opera’’ live with Tarja at a festival in Switzerland, I started to realize that what we were doing was important to people and they were so emotionally touched. At that time I gave a demo of the song ,,Left To Mars’’ to Tarja. Pretty soon I started to realize it mattered so much to people that it was a good idea to release a song and video before the whole album was mastered and ready.

So we started early with doing videos and then came the offer to take part in the Finnish TV show ‘Vain elämää’ [internationally known as ‘Best Singer’]. In the contract it said: ‘you shouldn’t publish / release anything at the same time as the episodes are going on’. I get that because why should you try to draw attention to yourself from yourself? The management and I also figured out that if you do the TV show, and do it well, it may triple or quadruple your sales in Finland. It makes sense commercially speaking.’’

I watched the songs you performed there on YouTube. How did it work out for you?

,,It was nice. It gave me the opportunity to do something a bit heavier in the beginning and then jump out of the box totally doing different stuff. I enjoyed it a lot. I am very sceptical about any kind of Reality TV but this turned out to be very musician and artist friendly. In the end it was way more relaxed and fun than I thought it would be. It was really like one for all and all for one. An open minded group of people who encouraged and respected each other.’’

EPIC PROG SONG

Which song on the album stands out for you?

,,I love ,,Dragon Must Die’’. I am an old prog fan myself so that is the epic prog song of the album. The lyrics are mean but it is done on purpose. I am proud of it. Overall, what we were looking for was that the songs had a different identity but go together well. They must also grab you, keep you interested and in different states of emotional moods.’’

The album carries your name on it. Does that mean you had a final say in everything?

,,I tried… but they are stubborn, haha. It’s a practical choice. For a long time I was of the opinion that we should have a band name but the guys said nobody knows a new band, but a shitload of people know you. For now it’s working.’’

NATIVE TONGUE

There’s one song in Finnish ,,Tammikuu‘’, translated in English ,,January’’. The start of a new year but maybe also new chances, new challenges, a new life maybe?

,,And it is my birth month. It simply came out in Finnish and so did ‘Pyre Of The Black Heart’. Back then I had enough energy and ambition to translate everything into English. This time I didn’t bother. What I had ended up on the album. And these days it is just right and proper to put something in your mother tongue, Rammstein is doing well in the States in German. I did  ask a few non Finnish speaking people if it sounded like a song with rhythm to them, with somewhat of a shamanistic aspect, and quite a few said yes. So happy to write something like that every once in a while. I have some more songs in Finnish in the works…and a few in English as well.’’

Is it easier to express your feelings and / or emotions in your native tongue or in English?

,,For me it doesn’t make that much of a difference. I was always good with languages although I didn’t study it. English I picked up pretty early and when I was 15, I read all my books in English. I am a huge sci-fi fan and most of the books are not translated into Finnish, so I moved on to reading sci-fi in English. When you travel it is pretty easy nowadays to have an Ipad and bring 100s of books with you.’’

NEWS ABOUT TAROT

About your other band Tarot. Is there still something going on there?

,,We got together last summer for some festival shows. These came about because the summer before that we did some charity things. Before that it was hard to get in vibe again because our drummer and longtime friend Pecu Cinnari died in 2016 and it didn’t feel right to continue. Because the charity gig was in my hometown and I found myself in the uplifting process of finding an older ADHD person, I thought it could be fun. We borrowed a friend from another band and indeed it turned out to be fun.

Like I said we did a few shows last summer but you cannot do that kind of comebacks forever. Besides my brother [Zachary] is a caretaker for his wife so he cannot really go touring. But next year, when we are all in Finland and have some time off, we agreed to meet in the studio of our keyboardist Janne [Tolsa] and go through some hard disks to find out if they are inspiring enough to work with. So some studio work is possible. Let’s see how it sounds. For now I focus on my live shows.’’

Have your ambitions changed over the years?

,,I don’t know about ambitions. My illusions about the business have disappeared of course. Musically I am still trying to find new things. Putting things together and finding ideas that feel real to write about, and get a band that is known for giving everybody a good time. That may be sounding a bit humble but a lot of people would want that and I am lucky enough that I can actively work for it to get it.’’