Metal Maniac, 12-06, Italy



While Nightwish reached a deadlock in the hard search for their new singer, the beautiful Tarja is back again after having best cushioned the bad "blow" and using her talent and artistic multi-façade she is going through several successful projects that hopefully next year will lead her to the release of her first, real solo-album, the back-to-rock one, with a worldwide distribution.
In the meanwhile she kills time giving birth to "Henkäys Ikuisuudesta", simply translated in "Breath from Heaven", an intimate work with various classical aspects dedicated to Christmas and conceived as a gift to her beloved Finland. This is only the beginning for an exclusive in-depth interview with the available Tarja, an excuse to discover what future has in store for this talented singer, a talk with heartfelt confidence and sweet Christmas memories...

METAL MANIAC - "Breath from Heaven" is released only nowadays but according to some people you wanted to do it since several years. Why a so long wait?

TARJA TURUNEN - My repertoire features the songs of the album since a long time. I always sang a song such as "Walking in the Air", I always loved to play it live or merely for my dearest friends... For quite a while I had in mind to realize something more intimate dedicated above all to Finnish people, perhaps for Christmas. This is a very felt holiday in Finland, I'm personally very close to it while in these days I can jooin my family and find back that quieteness that usually I miss all year long. As you can figure out, my life is very hectic, always moving and travelling from one place to another... on th other hand, during Christmas I have the chance to stay together with my dearest ones, my friends and all those people I always miss a lot. We can spend time gathered around the piano, I cook with my mother... we live happily and in harmony.
Right from these thoughts came the idea for this cd: why not record something that could celebrate this so important moment of the year? I would've wanted to do it much before, I've been thinking about it since 2003 but I was too busy both with Nightwish and as a soloist. In 2005 after a tour in Finland, Spain, Romania and Germany to promote my EP "Yhden Enkelin Unelma" I understood that time had come to realize that project. I sang a couple of songs that would have recorded for "Breath..." and the audience's reaction was fantastic so I made up my mind to enter the studio in June and today the album is out, for my delight but also for my fans's who granted it Gold Award in Finland.

MM - What's the sweetest memory you have about Christmas?

TT - Maybe it's something related to my childhood, I was perhaps five: me and my family went to a wooden house to party and there was a restaurant. On Christmas day my mother took me and my brothers to a typical decorated cottage where we shared our presents around the fireside; then they made me sit by a piano in one of the restaurant's halls and I started to sing. It was very sweet...

MM - Is there a present you still scrupulously own, even in the shape of a memory?

TT - That's also related to music... When I was still a child I was fascinated by my music teacher's piano. I was eight or nine and my eyes lit up every time I saw it. It was a dream for me and when my parents presented me with the first piano I really saw my dream coming true.

MM - And what about the most expensive gift you made?

TT - That's a really hard one ( sings with indifference, maybe there's someone who can't hear the answer...? ). I don't know, maybe it'll be right this Christmas because I will take my whole family to Buenos Aires. That'll surely be an important present.

MM - You said that this Christmas cd is nothing but a side-project. Are you working also on your "real" solo record, the one that should bring to life your rocker side...?

TT - Every single day I work on it, putting all of myself in it beacuse now my solo career is more important than ever. In "Breath from Heaven" I also started to write music: I wrote the opener "Kuin Henkäys Ikuisuutta" with Esa Nieminen and this fact has been very important for me, although I still don't feel ready to write a whole album by myself, so there will be a bunch of composers to help me out with my solo album. I already heard a couple of songs and I can assure you they're wonderful. I don't wanna get stilistically shut in only one genre, as a musician singing only metal or classical would be very reductive and not so stimulating. I wanna make an album which is an emblem of musical freedom because I always loved to sing everything and mix up different styles.

MM - During your career you shared the michrophone with a number of other singers. By the way, is there a metal singer who you'd like to face?

TT - Although I don't wanna be banal I'll tell you that a duet with Axl Rose or Bruce Dickinson would please me very much: they are both singers with a big charisma and they're two very particular voices, too: the former very high, the latter very deep and intense. I think that some interesting things would come out. Often best things come from the meeting of different musicians and voices because when worlds that usually are so distant from each other get closer, the result is always something very profound.

MM - The main feature of your artistic life is that facing so different styles, from pop to metal and classical music. Do you think that this versatility has helped you to reach the huge success you enjoy nowadays?

TT - I don't know if this is the right way to gain success, the search for success isn't what forces me to experiment with different genres at all.
Trying something new is always a challenge for me, I like to always go beyond and see where my voice can go, trying to blend a lot of genres. It's never easy but artistically it's very stimulating and it gave me a lot. You have to live these emotions to understand them in the right way. Every gig, every style is a world apart that someway contributes to biuld up your artistic and human sides. When for example I'm singing classical, I find myself in a very deep reality, there's nearly a spiritual bound with the orchestra that accompanies me. I close my eyes and I can clearly hear every instrument playing in that moment and that is going to melt together with my voice...
On the other hand, during a metal or pop concert freedom - physical, too - reigns, I can give vent to all myself, singing, moving: the approach is totally opposite.
Both these aspects of my career cannot be set aside, I could't live without them, they make my music shiny and my life so rich I never get bored.
Sometimes people close to me get a shock seeing this blend of styles and wondering what I will do next time but I could never act another way because that's the way I am. I must set free from every bound and sing what I really want.

MM - If you should take stock of your career, would you state that it's more what you gave to music or what music gave to you?

TT - That's a good question. I don't know in whose favour tip the scales, until now I surely gave a lot to music, all of myself; a day doesn't pass by without seein me celebrating music, singing, practising... When I say that music's my life that's right the truth. At the same time music gave a lot, more than a lot, both from the human and emotional point of view. Some days ago I put a classical record in tha player, it doesn't matter what it was, a simple compilation or whatelse. Right when that sound filled the room my heart start beating so quickly and I felt an intense emotion.
I wonder whatelse on this earth can bring such strong feelings on someone... From the human point of view music let me live with itself and for that reason I consider myself as a privileged person; I'll always owe everything to music because it's so hard to live doing what you really love.

MM - But often music isn't all plain sailing. How much envy and jealousy did you meet?

TT - I think jealousy is part of the human soul and it doesn't belong only to music. Sadly it's something there will always be and you must live with it. Personally I grew up with certain values and I learned that the most important thing to go on is looking inside you, firmly believing in what you're doing, neverminding what others say about you and so keep going your way. I never thought of myself as a person who might generate jealousy because I always managed to work hard and to build what I have today through sacrifice and efforts: acheiving your goals through hard work hasn't to be seen as a cause of jealousy but as a source of insipration by other people. Anyway I've been vey lucky because I never saw envy towards me: everything happened so fast, success arrived suddenly... many people could could have het confused, on the opposite I never heard someone speaking bad about me and what I did, above all among my colleagues and this acheived goal is a very important one for me.

MM - What's the most important thing you learned after ten years in the metal world?

TT - I learned to be myself, always.
And to be honest with myself. Metal music isn't for the masses, it's a niche genre since always so when you do the next big step and see success growing bigger and bigger every day you might feel confused.
When labels start to make plans on you, when radios, magazines and televisions begin to incite you, when your name starts to get heard even out of the metal circle you must work hard to be honest with yourself and to act with even more seriousness because reaching people is never simple and the risk of losing everything is always behind the corner.

MM - In the latest years we're facing the more and more incresing number of bands whose vocal duties are taken by a more or less talented woman often coming out of the classical world. Do you consider yourself somehow responsible for that?

TT - Telling the truth in the beginning I wasn't aware of it even beacuse everything happened so quick for us... then estimation and respect started to arrive from other artists, too and that made me so proud. BUt what makes me really happy is seeing how many talented female musicians are making great the metal scene nowadays... you can simply call it feminine pride but when I listen to my friend Liv Kristine or to Anneke of The Gathering or Sharon of Within Temptation, a huge-talented artist, I can nothing but feel deep emotions. Then there's Floor of After Forever, who I had the chance to become friend of during a tour with Nightwish: she isn't only a great singer but also a wonderful person.

MM - And what about our Cristina Scabbia?

TT - I didn't follow Lacuna Coil so much but I remember once I met Cristina during a show in London. We ran into each other but unluckily we didn't talk a lot. However I like how she sings, she has big qualities.

MM - According to many the Queen of Metal remains still the everlasting Doro Pesch...

TT - Sure, it couldn't be otherwise! I still remember our first meeting. It happened at Wacken, we were promoting "Wishmaster" and we played almost at the same time. When she passed near me in the backstage I was very thrilled because she is a true point of reference for a metal singer, she has an absolute charisma and an unbelievable fighting spirit. And yet it was she who came to me to congratulate with me, saying she liked our show. Well, those congratulations have still a arisma and an unbelievable fighting spirit. And yet it was she who came to me to congratulate with me, saying she liked our show. Well, those congratulations have still a particular meaning for me.

MM - In the end, what are your wishes for the coming year?

TT - This year will end with a series of concerts between Finland and Russia to promote "Breath from Heaven" then I hope I'll be able to finally go on vacation because I really need to relax! Once I have my batteries charged again I'll throw myself headlong in my solo album. I hope this will lead me to reach more and more people and that will help me to see again those friend known at the time of Nightwish and who never let me miss their love and support during these months. I hope the new year won't take the enthusiasm, the lust for music and for feeling again through it away from me. But I have no doubts about this...

English Translation by Andrea