Nightwish’s Tuomas Holopaninen Offers Update on ‘The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck’ Project

Nightwish have always done things against the grain, from their symphonic, operatic music to the unexpected side project of keyboardist and songwriter Tuomas Holopainen. He has completed the songwriting process for his 'The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck' project. Yes, it's inspired by a Disney story and character penned by Don Rosa.

After hibernating in what he calls "the wondrous world of Don Rosa's Scrooge McDuck stories," he then commenced with writing and arranging, toying with ideas, creating lyrics and demoing, partially while holed away in a log cabin in the woods of Southern Finland. The keyboardist says he is now done with the songwriting aspect.

Holopainen revealed in his update that there will be 10 tracks and a 55-to-60 minute running time. Six songs will feature vocals, both male and female. "It's quite difficult to categorize the genre of the album, but to my ears, it's somewhere between film music, folk and classical, echoing distantly the works of Vaughan Williams, Enya, Mike Oldfield and Michael Nyman," the musician stated. "Loaded with keys, piano, orchestra, Metro Voices and ethnic percussion, it will also feature acoustic guitars, banjo and some human voices."

Thematically, the songs echo the 'Life and Times' storylines. His challenge was to fuse the comical side of the chapters into music. "Humor is such an essential part of the book I just couldn't/didn't want to ignore it. But writing soundtrack to comedy was a sweaty ordeal. I leave it up to you to judge how I was able to pull it off," Holopainen said.

The keyboardist says to expect another update in August after more of that work is done. In case you were wondering about the impetus and catalyst for this project, it was born simply of his love for his all-time favorite Disney piece. So, yes, it truly is a labor of love.