Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen (born December 25, 1976, youngest of three siblings in Kitee, Finland) is a Finnish composer and musician. Known best for heavy metal music, he has also studied jazz and classical styles.
Holopainen is best known for being the keyboardist, band leader and main songwriter of metal band Nightwish. He has also played in the bands Nattvindens Gråt and Darkwoods My Betrothed. His current side projects are the gothic metal band For My Pain... and the band of Timo Rautiainen.
Holopainen has written several songs that have been included in movie soundtracks, including recent collaboration with Nightwish bass player Marco Hietala on “While Your Lips Are Still Red”, for the Finnish film “Lieksa!” in 2007.
Biography[]
Early life (1976–1996)
Tuomas Holopainen was born Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen in Kitee, Finland on December 25, 1976. His musicality and way of expressing himself through written text showed early in school. His mother signed him up for piano class in school when he was seven years old, and he later studied clarinet, tenor sax, piano and music theory for twelve years at a music college.
Holopainen joined his first bands in 1993. He played in several bands, including recording keyboards for three albums with black metal band Darkwoods My Betrothed and playing with Dismal Silence, Nattvindens Gråt and Sethian.
He is 6' 1" (1.85 cm) in height.
Birth of Nightwish and For My Pain... (1996–2001)
In July, 1996, Holopainen began thinking of starting a band of his own, for which he would write the music and play keyboards. This was the birth of Nightwish, around a camp fire. He asked Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen (guitar) and classmate Tarja Turunen (vocals) to join what was then an acoustic project. After hearing Turunen’s strong voice, and because of the metal influences of Vuorinen and drummer Jukka Nevalainen, Tuomas decided to turn Nightwish into a metal act.
Nightwish’s first non-demo release, Angels Fall First, came in 1997, followed by Oceanborn in 1998. In 1999, Holopainen and members of other Finnish metal acts like Embraze, Eternal Tears of Sorrow, Charon and Reflexion started the gothic metal supergroup For My Pain.... However, as all the members was busy with their own bands, the project was postponed for the future.
Nightwish’s third studio album, “Wishmaster”, was released in 2000. The third release sold even better than the previous album. In 2001, again the idea of For My Pain... was brought up, and the members started planning a debut.
World Fame (2002–2005)
In Nightwish’s album “Century Child”, released in 2002, Holopainen began collaborating with symphonic orchestras from Finland and the United Kingdom, which was a change in the band’s music and Holopainen’s style of composition, and also allowed for more freedom with additional instruments. The use of orchestral elements has been present in the studio album releases from Nightwish as of December 31, 2007.
In 2003, For My Pain... released its debut album, entitled “Fallen”. The album was received well, but the band has since lost fans due to a lack of new albums – for the same reason that “Fallen” was delayed by four years. In 2004 For My Pain... released “Killing Romance”, a Finnish single with three previously unreleased tracks; “Killing Romance”, “Joutsenlaulu” and “Too Sad to Live”.
Nightwish’s fifth studio album, “Once” was released in 2004, and became their US break-through. Singles “Nemo” and “Wish I Had an Angel” were played on MTV. Nightwish started their most extensive tour to date, the Once World Tour, visiting several countries, like Japan, for the first time. The group filmed the last show in Hartwall Areena, Finland, which was featured on the “End of an Era” DVD in 2006. In the end 2007, the vocalist, Tarja Turunen, was dismissed from the band, due to musical differences.
Timo Rautiainen and Dark Passion Play (2006–present)
In 2006, Holopainen went through a dark period with anxiety and depression, made worse by rumours about himself and Nightwish in the tabloids, every day. These events also inspired him in the writing of “Dark Passion Play”, Nightwish’s latest album, which may be considered their darkest album yet.
After heavy metal singer Timo Rautiainen’s break up of Trio Niskalaukaus, he published his first solo album titled “Sarvivuori” with a crew gathered from different bands, including Holopainen on keyboards. Holopainen also wrote one song on the album.
Early the next year, For My Pain... announced that they would soon start recording the successor to “Fallen”, but it was reported in the same autumn that the album once again was postponed.
In April of 2007 Holopainen collaborated with fellow Nightwish member Marco Hietala to write a theme song for the Finnish film “Lieksa!”. The song, “While Your Lips Are Still Red”, was the first song he had written specifically for a film, though several Nightwish songs (“Nemo”, “Wish I Had an Angel”, “Amaranth”) have been included in film soundtracks. Holopainen has said that writing film scores is something he would like to do in the future. On “While Your Lips Are Still Red”, in addition to Holopainen on piano, Marco Hietala performs vocals and acoustic bass guitar, and Jukka Nevalainen plays drums.
The new vocalist for Nightwish was revealed in 2008; Swede Anette Olzon, who appears on “Dark Passion Play”. The album released in 26 September 2007.
Music[]
Influences
Tuomas Holopainen has said that his work is often inspired by film music and fantasy novels. Nightwish's first album was a mixture of acoustic mood music and melodic metal, and the next two albums had elements of power metal, but on later albums influences from film music ("Beauty of the Beast", "Ghost Love Score", "The Poet and the Pendulum"), industrial metal ("Romanticide", Wish I Had an Angel") and folk music ("Creek Mary's Blood", "Last of the Wilds", "The Islander") can be heard. Holopainen has also said that his biggest inspiration is film score composer Hans Zimmer. Some of Nightwish's lyrics make references to fantasy novels, including "Wishmaster", "Escapist", and "Wanderlust" which have elements from the Dragonlance series. References to the The Kharolis Mountains, 'Shalafi' and Krynn can be found in these songs. The music of "7 Days to the Wolves" is inspired by Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.
Holopainen has also been noted as a source of inspiration for other bands, especially within symphonic, gothic and power metal. Simone Simons, lead singer of Epica, stated that she began singing due to Nightwish. Ex-singer of Visions of Atlantis, Nicole Bogner, also acknowledged that Nightwish had greatly inspired the band, especially for their first album. Sander Gommans of After Forever said that Nightwish "will certainly influence us in creating new songs". Finnish power metal band Sonata Arctica’s lead singer Tony Kakko, who has worked with Nightwish both in making the "Beauty and the Beast" duet with Tarja Turunen and as a crowd warmer, several times explained how much of an influence Nightwish is for him.
Personal Life[]
Holopainen is single, with no family of his own. Back in 2009, rumors started to spread that in September, 2009, Marco confirmed that Tuomas has a new girlfriend with Finnish singer, Johanna Kurkela and Jonsu of indica people wake up is not real.
He currently lives in a house that he built.[19]
Holopainen is a Disney, J. R. R. Tolkien and Dragonlance fan.[20][21]
"It is confusing that our Tuomas could be that kind of obsession to someone. I too think it's really great to see their gigs, but Nightwish isn't a religion."
—Holopainen's mother
Bands[]
Current Bands
Nightwish (1996-present)
For My Pain... (1999-2005)
Timo Rautiainen (2006)
Former Bands
Sethian
Dismal Silence
Nattvindens Gråt
As Session Member
Darkwoods My Betrothed
Discography[]
Demos
- Darkwoods My Bethrothed: “Dark Aureolis Gathering” (1994)
- Nightwish: “Angels Fall First” (1997)
EP's
- Nightwish: “Over the Hills and Far Away” (2001)
- Timo Rautiainen: “Uskonnonpastori” (2006)
Studio Albums
- Darkwoods My Betrothed: “Heirs of the Northstar” (1995)
- Darkwoods My Betrothed: “Autumn Roars Thunder” (1996)
- Nightwish: “Angels Fall First” (1997)
- Darkwoods My Betrothed: “Witch-Hunts” (1998)
- Nightwish: “Wishmaster” (2000)
- Nightwish: “Century Child” (2002)
- For My Pain...: “Fallen” (2003)
- Sethian: “Into the Silence" (2003)
- Timo Rautiainen: “Sarvivuori” (2006)
- Nightwish: “Dark Passion Play (2007)
- Timo Rautiainen: “Loppuun ajettu” (2007)
Singles
- Nightwish: “The Carpenter” (1997)
- Nightwish: “Sacrament of Wilderness” (1998)
- Nightwish: “Passion and the Opera” (1998)
- Nightwish: “Walking in the Air” (1999)
- Nightwish: “Sleeping Sun (4 Ballads of the Eclipse)” (1999)
- Nightwish: “The Kinslayer” (2000)
- Nightwish: “Deep Silent Complete” (2000)
- Nightwish: “Ever Dream” (2002)
- Nightwish: “Bless the Child” (2002)
- For My Pain...: “Killing Romance” (2004)
- Nightwish: “Nemo” (2004)
- Nightwish: “Wish I Had an Angel” (2004)
- Nightwish: “Kuolema tekee taiteilijan” (2004)
- Nightwish: “The Siren” (2005)
- Nightwish: “Sleeping Sun” (2005)
- Timo Rautiainen: “Punainen viiva” (2006)
- Timo Rautiainen: “Sinulle” (2006)
- Timo Rautiainen: “Outolintu” (2007)
- Nightwish: “Eva” (2007)
- Nightwish: “Amaranth” (2007)
- Nightwish: “Erämaan Viimeinen” (2007)
- Nightwish: “Bye Bye Beautiful” (2008)
- Nightwish: "The Islander" (2008)
DVDs
- Nightwish: “From Wishes to Eternity” (2001)
- Nightwish: “End of Innocence” (2003)
- Nightwish: “End of an Era” (2006)
Equipment[]
Korg N364 – music workstation
Korg Triton – music workstation
Korg KARMA – music workstation
Korg OASYS – music workstation
Korg TRINITY – music workstation