Nightwish drummer Jukka Nevalainen recently answered a number of fans\' questions via the band\'s official web site. Topics included his expectations for the new Nightwish, since Tarja Turunen parted ways with the band, where Jukka\'s nickname Julius comes from, plans with his other project Sethian, and his opinion about drum solos. A few excerpts from the question-and-answer session follow:
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Q: Nightwish has probably received hundreds or thousands of demos from vocalists. Who can listen to all the demos? Is there a hired person to throw worst demos away and send only the somewhat good ones to bandmembers? Jukka: \"There has been even more candidates than we thought there would. But each demo has been, and will be, checked out by at least one of the band members. And all the potential demos have been, and will be, listened by all the band members. There already has been some really good choices for the new singer but we take our time before making the final decision, since there are more demos coming each day and we\'re not in a hurry at all.\"
Q: Jukka, what are your expectations for the new Nightwish? Jukka: \"I\'m extremely confident for the future. I already know we\'re going to make the best Nightwish album ever. Of course, we still need to find a new singer but since there has already been a few great demos I\'m sure we\'ll find her and also vocals will be awesome. And nowadays planning future is so much easier and we don\'t need to argue over all the little stupid things so I\'m happy.\"
Q: Where did the nickname Julius come from? Jukka: During our Once tour, Ewo came up with this nickname \"Julius Monte-Carlo\" (don\'t ask me where it comes from...). When we where playing in LA I fell totally in love with Venice Beach and the nickname was changed to \"Julius Venice Beach\". Later on, the nickname was abbreviated to just Julius. Where do nicknames come from? God knows. Or maybe not even him.
Q: While you are in vacation of Nightwish, do you intend make any work with Sethian? Jukka: There were some talks about making a new Sethian album while Nightwish is on a break but for last few months I haven\'t heard anything about it so I guess it\'s not going to happen. We start to rehearse and arrange new Nightwish songs already in a June so we\'re running out of time...
Q: Do you ever wear ear plugs while performing? Playing the drums must give you a nasty headache! Jukka: I always have in-ears while playing drums. A few times I\'ve played without ear plugs at home and the feeling afterwards hasn\'t been nice. As far as I know I still have a good hearing and I really do want to keep it that way.
Q: Many metal bands have got drum solos on their DVDs. So why haven\'t you got one? Jukka: In my opinion separate solos of any instrument are waste of a valuable concert time. There are only a very few drummers in the whole world who can do solos interesting enough to justify their use. And since I\'m not one of those drummers I am never ever going to play one.
Other topics include the reason why Jukka Nevalainen decicded to play drums, the song he prefers most to play live, and why he decided to sell his drum kit.