Sami Vänskä
Sami Vänskä (born September 26th, 1976) is a Finnish bass player who served as the original bassist for Nightwish from 1998 until his dismissal in 2001, and was soon replaced by Marco Hietala.
Vänskä first started playing bass as a private study, soon starting his career with the band Nattvindens Gråt alongside Tuomas Holopainen. In 2001, he was told to leave Nightwish by manager Ewo Rytkönen when Holopainen felt that the musical differences between the two were starting to pose a threat to the band. In August 2016, he joined his former bandmates in performing Stargazers during the band’s 20th anniversary concert.
After Vänskä left Nightwish, he joined the blues band Root Remedy, but he later quit the band in 2008 after recording three albums with them and has not been involved in any sort of musical project since.
Albums with Nightwish[]
- Oceanborn (1998)
- Wishmaster (2000)
- Over the Hills and Far Away (EP; 2001)
Other Projects[]
With Nattvidens Gråt[]
- Dar Svanar (demo; 1995)
- A Bard’s Tale (1995)
- Chaos Without Theory (1997)
With Root Remedy[]
- Medication Time With
- Root Remedy
- The Crawler