Marko Hietala: A Fresh New Start
MARKO HIETALA, now in his fifth decade as a musician, is having a period of clarity. Since leaving symphonic metal stalwarts NIGHTWISH in 2021, he has publicly reconnected with Tarja Turunen, who the band fired in 2005 via an open letter which Hietala had co-signed. Last February, Hietala appeared at one of Turunen’s solo shows in Argentina, where they gleefully revisited some of their former band’s classics, including Wish I Had An Angel and their stellar arrangement of Phantom Of The Opera. Turunen, in kind, appears on Hietala’s Roses From The Deep, his first solo record in six years. MARKO HIETALA says it was baffling to see, from the stage, people laughing and crying over their reunion. Despite all their years together in NIGHTWISH and all the years apart since, he now realises how much their partnership matters to people.
Hietala has been bassist, singer, and songwriter. He’s been a frontman, a solo artist, and he’s stood stage-right for an almost 20-year tenure with NIGHTWISH. He’s covered power ballads in supergroup NORTHERN KINGS and brought heavy metal to Christmas carols as part of RASKASTA JOULUA. He’s even won The Masked Singer.
His departure from NIGHTWISH was mysterious, and an accompanying resignation announcement raised more questions than answers. With hindsight, a few lines stand out. “For quite a few years now I haven’t been able to feel validated by this life,” and, “this past year forced me to stay home and think.” Thinking led him to seek support for his mental health, which in turn resulted in a diagnosis for ADHD.
“You can forgive quite a lot of things in your history,” he says, after processing the news. “You get out of that particular mental prison that has been bothering you for years.” With medication, within a few weeks he began to feel an ‘inner emptiness’, which he says was a sign he no longer worried about everything at once or felt the weight of the world. He says it was “life-changing” and “tremendous”.
This newfound sense of optimism is present on Roses From The Deep. Songs like Frankenstein’s Wife are a throwback to good ol’ fashioned rock ’n’ roll, while The Devil You Know has the kind of riffs that makes someone want to pick up a guitar for the first time. The record has an unashamedly retro vibe, as if MARKO HIETALA is reaching back to his younger self who is just starting out. There are songs about the journey he’s been on – his duet with Turunen, Left On Mars, is about his alienation over the last few years – but it’s the sound of someone out the other side: it’s fun.
Since his diagnosis, he’s been rediscovering life’s joys and reconnecting with friends, realising how distant he was during the difficult years. It hadn’t been easy explaining to others what he’d been feeling, adding to his isolation. “I shall carry some things with me forever,” he says. “It has changed me permanently. And, I have to say, I really, really procrastinate these days. I try to avoid work as much as possible. There is more to do still.”
Even over Zoom, he is good company, casually puffing on a vape while lounging in a Rick & Morty t-shirt. His eyebrows tell as much of a story as his words, a giveaway of the larger-than-life performer he is on stage. Reflecting on the state of the world just days before President Trump’s inauguration, he says, “if you want to get offended, find a good fucking reason,” before a warm laugh of camaraderie. Getting offended over someone’s sexual preference or skin colour is “just so bullshit”.
He’s generous too. Although it’s his name on the gorgeous cover of Roses From The Deep, he is quick to give his band (Tuomas Wäinölä, Anssi Nykänen, and Vili Ollila, who has since been replaced by Bob Engstrand) their flowers, and says when you share your joys they become bigger. He’ll take photos with fans (“You might have made somebody happy for a month and it’s a very little thing”) and praises the hard work of those often forgotten about (“You wouldn’t be able to get home after work if somebody hadn’t dug the ditches beside the road after a good rain. I’m of the opinion that everyone needs respect for the things they’ve done”).
He reserves his bite for what he sees as a rise of ignorance. He doesn’t understand why people have turned against scientists and professionals who know what they’re talking about. He’s also conscious of the world in which he and his wife are raising a family, worried about the war in Ukraine and a shift towards intolerance in society.
But, he says, “I just had my 59th birthday, which to me is somehow absurd. I’m somewhere I never could have seen myself as a young rocker ending up. I’ve got children, I’m on my second marriage, I’ve got an album coming out, and I’m still going. The world is weird and fucked up, but life is right here, right now. No matter what happens out there, I have people with me.”
To get going again, he “had to kick his problems”. A new record, a tour, and an old friendship rekindled all point to his problems being well and truly punted. Roses From The Deep isn’t a reintroduction to MARKO HIETALA, but it might just be a fresh new start.
Roses From the Deep is out now via Nuclear Blast Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS117 here:
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