Soundi, Finland, October 2007





Tarja Turunen and the winter storm

It is a coincidence that Tarja Turunen's solo album is released almost the same time as Nightwish's first album without Tarja. Surely you can find Nightwish tones from Tarja's My Winter Storm album but there are now also new experiments, there's finally a chance to completely combine classical influences and heavy.
My Winter Storm sounds very movie like and Tarja tells that she searched for the album's sound in particular from the world of film. The album was recorded in Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Finland but the final touch was given in the United States in a studio specializing in film music.

Tarja Turunen started to plan doing her own album a few years ago, before she was fired from Nightwish. Tarja had a strong vision of what kind of music she wanted to do, but those ideas weren't easy to explain to other people. The most important element in music is its sound.
- Behind it all is film music which I love, Tarja says. - Redarding the actual films I'm omnivorous but surely it goes more to fantasy, horror or thrillers. I watch very few love movies. I am a sensual person but maybe I don't need to see it from the screen.
- Every time I go to see a movie or watch one at home I get a majestic feeling listening to its music. Even if it's only one cello playing on the background, it works. I've wondered a lot what is the technical secret in the sound of films. I have an enormous library of film music at home and when I got into it and started to collect it, I was ordering albums all the way from America. I haven't probably listened to anything else during the past few years than film music. And I noticed that the good soundtracks have basically the same people working on them. I started to think if there was any chance to get in contact with these people.
- When I talked about this with the record company they were at first terrified, like help, are you talking about film music, help, don't we have real songs. That was the first moment a panic, that do you want to do only orchestral music. It was really hard to get that vision through by verbally explaining. I knew at once that I want a few really hard heavy songs on the album, but I also wanted that other side where you get a silent and beautiful atmosphere. It was hard to explain that, how you can get these two extremes in balance on one album. Thank God the record company found Daniel Presley for my producer, he understands me and my thoughts.
- I've done something that resembles film music with Nightwish and the song Walking in the Air, which is grapped from the Snowman-cartoon, is lovely. That Snowman is a tradition that I was annnnoyed and cried when I missed it one Christmas. It's an extremely beautiful and touching story, really adorable.
- However, Nightwish has its own sound which is of course evolving constantly but it's still always the Nightwish sound. I had the idea that ok, now I'm free to do the music I want but on the other hand it was a big challenge. This album ended up being such a rich and colourful package that it brings a lot of pictures to mind. I was trying to push through the idea of releasing at the same time a dvd package which would have the songs illustrated. But that would have required a alot more time.
- I do mostly see music as pictures and stories. It's sad nowadays.. that few artists have the ability to lead a story through an album. Though My Winter Storm isn't a concept album I've tried to keep it that picture and music have a big role in it. If in a movie a person hears music and sees picture then in this story I'm the narrator who's creating the picture with my voice and lyrics.

A choir of 74 Tarjas

My Winter Storm album has some top class people behind it. Producer Daniel Presley has worked with for example Faith No More and Jewel and the album has been worked in Hans Zimmer's studio in Los Angeles. And no need to complain about the musicians. Guitarist Alex Scholpp is familiar from the Farmer Boys and basist Doug Wimbish has played with Living Colour, Madonna, Joe Satrian, Rolling Stones and many more. Tarja herself hoped to the drums Seal's Earl Harvin whose work has also been heard in Pet Shop Boys and Air. Keyboardist Torsten Stenzel is on Nelly Furtado's, Moby's and Tina Turner's albums.

- It's true that Hans Zimmer and the people on his studio were a wonderful help for me, Tarja says.
- They have done music for example for the Gladiator and Johnny Depp's pirate movies and it was a really constructive and instructive experience to get the door open to Zimmer's Remote Control studios. I have to be grateful for that.
- I know this album is just a start on my career. Now I really know what I have to do to achieve what I was up for. This is a so called practise piece. In Zimmer's studio I finally saw what can be done during mixing. When you have three Pro Tools open at the same time you have the possibility to work on hundreds and hundreds of tracks simultaneously and make them sound like they're more than just a mass of sound.
- In the song Lost Northern Star we had 74 vocal tracks. I said I wanted a song with as much opera vocals as possible and we spend a lot of time on that. It was pure madness for me to spend a day listening to the mixing of those tracks. - It was awesome how the producer Daniel Presley who is related to Elvis came along to these trials. Gosh, don't ask me how he's related to Elvis. I don't remeber! Very distantly, but anyhow it's an impressive name he's got. Though Daniel has never met Elvis.
- Daniel came to the picture because when I started to talk with the record company about what I was after. I said that I needed help, I really can't handle this on my own. It was a little exiting to see what kind of a guy is he like and does he demand only his own vision through on this album. And when I already had a clear vision myself it would've been something to have someone else tell that we aren't doing this like that. But then the record company introduced me to Daniel and he came to my Christmas consert in Helsinki last year. It was really important for me that he would come to listen to how I sound live.
- Daniel is a producer who we talked with constantly in the studio and outside it. It was brain storming from both sides and he was always the one who came to ask the artist's opinion before he did anything. I respect him a lot for that. And we did have some tough conversations occasionally because it's a new thing for him to work on these kinds of sounds.
- In the middle of it all we had to remeber not to let it get too big. When the band was recording in Ireland I was there saying play as little as possible, please. I had to always remind that the less there is stuff the greater the sound will be. And on some occasions we had a huge urge to put more and more and then we had a huge amount of tracks that turned into a chaotic mix.
- The album's production started in the beginning of June when we went to Ireland and got to know eachother. It was an exiting time. The whole recording process went by quickly however, in about three months. The record company put quite an intresting schedule for the album. At that point it will be done, the orchestra, band and choirs will be recorded and these movie people will have been along. - I would have wanted to do the album in Finland but that wasn't possible. It would have been too exotic for the musicians. But the studio in Ireland was an absolutely wonderful place, gosh, an old farm in the countryside. They fed us and we all gained weight during those three weeks. It was really soothing without the noise of the city. We got to be in our own peace and walk in the middle of the fields. It was a really positive time.
- We recorded the vocals in Ibiza. Why on earth in Ibiza that was really odd! I had never thought about going there to sing nor visit. The island has many tourists and I wasn't intrested in seeing that side. We went there first with the composers, we had a team of composers and we rented a house. I sang in the livingroom-kitchen area with the producer and soundguy. They sat in the same space next to me and recorded. It was a great experience, very liberating.

Under Poison's power

Alice Cooper's old classic Poison has suprisingly been chosen for the cover song on My Winter Storm. Tarja herself admits that the idea is strange. A woman singing Alice Cooper and a woman who doesn't confess being a real Cooper fan. Alice Cooper's biggest hits are of course familiar but otherwise Tarja hasn't really played the band's albums at home. - One day I was driving from Kuopio to Helsinki trying to keep myself awake I put on rock radio. I honestly heard Poison five times that day, Tarja tells.
- I said this isn't real. It was exactly in the stage when I was wondering what cover song I'd do for this album because I wanted one. I had different options but none seemed to fit me. Then this song came five times from the radio and I thought could a woman do this... Damn, I'm doing it! I presented the idea to the record company and they said it was the best idea in years.
- When we started to work on Poison in Ireland I had the idea that we should stay as true to the original's spirit as possible. On the other hand we had to get away from the 80's sound to make the song fit this album and for me to sing. There were many things to consider. The band was sweating with it and formed a real love-hate relationship with it. I clapped my hands and cheered when the guys tried to play Poison in the studio and encouraged that this is going to be great really. The band complained that f**k, we hate this song. Our gitarist Alex made an arragment for it, it was really difficult to get rid of the constant modulations. And the original had an enormous number of backing vocals. It's based on that really, after the first chorus what sounds like a hundred backing vocalists enter the picture. Wow, Desmond Child has done quite a job there!
- When I gave the song to mixing I said that the song should be really scary. The beginning should be the kind that people won't notice it's Alice Cooper's Poison at first. We went with these instructions. We recorded some of its backing vocals in Finland. There were my brother, my good friend Tea and the producer Daniel. For a day we laughed on the floor. We had a blast but we were so tired after that day. The song came out really cool. It does put a smile on your face.
- Now that we are going to tour, Poison will surely be one of the highlights of the night. But next we have to see how we're going to get everything to work on stage. It isn't easy at all to bring this album to a live situation. When 74 Tarjas sing on the album in the same song it is a little difficult to do the same live. But of course and surely the concerts will be based on the album. And of course I'm going to perform Nightwish. I see no reason not to sing those songs if I'm asked. There are some songs in the early days of Nightwish that will be very nice to perform now when I have gotten my voice to work better.
- Luckily I'll have Doug and Alex with me on gigs. Unfortenately our drummer Earl has already been booked on a tour with Air. The cellos will be played by Max Lilja and Markus Hohti with whom I've worked on classical conerts. And my little brother Toni Turunen will come on the tour, he'll play the electric drums, keyboards and sing if needed. And on the drums we'll have Mike Terrana. I called Mike and said that the time has come since he has said to me many times that if you should ever happen to need, he'd gladly play with me. Eventhough the album isn't heavy some songs have quite hard banging in them.
- We'll do small club conserts at the end of the year in Europe and we'll play in Finland too in Kuusankoski's Sami Hyypiä Arena. I don't know if a rock concert has ever been held there. We'll go there and make the whole town crazy! That's on the 8th of December. In March-April of next year we'll go on a world tour. That part has been planned only very roughly, but with a relaxed feeling. They are a couple of weeks trips after which we go home and rest for a couple of weeks.
- I've noticed that Nightwish's tight touring schedule has caused black holes. I don't remember visiting certain places and I only remeber certain moments from conserts. It's terrible, I'm a 30-year-old woman and I can't remeber my life backwards! It's a black clump. I hope not to burn myself nor other people out.

The happiness of diving

The following year Tarja is going to concientrate on marketing My Winter Storm and gigs so the additional things are cut down to the minimum. A few projects connected to classical music have been arranged however and Tarja wants to work on that side of herself.

- Classical music is still important to me, Tarja says. - When I haven't been able to do that full time I can't say I'm a classical singer to this day. I have a lot to work on my technic. Oh my, if the day should happen to come that I could say I'm singing without problems! That would be a liberating experience. But I've noticed it's a part of me. A constructive and heatly part. I've noticed that when I come down from the rock stage to the classical stages so to say, it's been an amazingly carrying force, but it's not all. I don't feel like a whole artist doing just classical music.
- Singing should be trained everyday. It's the same thing as playing the piano. Once I played all the études and Chopins and others, but now when I sit in front of the piano I can barely accompany myself.
- I have a singing teacher in Buenos Aires at the moment and it's always intensive work. When it's very period type of thing, then I go almost every other day for lessons and it's mostly polishing the technic. I mean to get a singing teacher from Finland too since I go to Buenos Aires two or three times a year it would be good to have a teacher here as well.
- When I go to Buenos Aires I stay there for at least two weeks since it's such a long way there. It's not a pleasure to go there. It's chaos when you're in a big city. Taking care of things takes a million times longer than here in Finland. In Finland we have a home in Kuusankoski and it's a real base. Now with this album life has been living in a hotel but that's only a part of life, home is in Kuusankoski. We are actually moving away from there. Shockingly enough during the next week we should move from Kuusankoski to Kuusankoski. - My husband Macelo has adjusted wonderfully to Finland. Everytime we've come to here from somewhere and even if it's -25 c and snow he's the first one to say on the airport: wow, wonderful. I'm the person who complains about the coldness, but you'll hear no moaning from that man. And we're getting a sauna to our Buenos Aires home. Marcelo has learned well to our ways.
- We have started to dive, over the world but also in Finland's lakes. Those diving trips have turned into a source of strenght, a way to load the energy. Another way to free the mind is to run at the seashore or the a forest. It's the peace and quiet, you do need it.
- I also read a lot and Paulo Coelho is a writer that has inspired this album quite a lot. Many things in his books have made me understand life and myself better. It's funny how one writer can have that effect. He has told about the freedom of the mind and a positive feeling in a mental and spiritual level. I've thought about those things more and more during the last few years.

A new beginning

Tarja Turunen says she understands well being asked about Nightwish. She was a big part of Nightwish and the band was a big part of her. And she doens't see the subject as horrid anymore. When the fireing fuss has settled she can say that she's proud of her years in Nightwish and the band's music.
- Of course it strained me when the papers were making stories about it, Tarja admits.
- I've always had that tight line not to talk about my private life. But the fuss was pretty wild. Especially when it didn't only concern me but my family and all the people who have known me for decades.
- I heard Nightwish's new album has a one song about me and one about my husband. It's a little confusing but I've always said that people make their own decisions and are in charge for their own lives. And I'm now a happy person. Now I've succeeded in musically convincing myself, to show that I have what it takes. Of course that's a subject of joy in life.
- But oh damn, don't ask about the next album. Perhaps now I'll tour for a few years. When the album is released, it'll be released in Europe, Australia, New Zeland and South America. America is in early January. There are places to go. For touring and promoting. That'll surely take a few years especially when we're planning to do this calmly.
- I've been able to listen to the whole album for only a few days and I believe to the future based on it. It's an easing experience but of course you pick on the things that should have done differently. It's like that. I've always been really critical towards myself, but if critic becomes everything it leaves no musical freedom. I remember the times when I was jumping in the studio with tears in my eyes listening to these musicians play and I was so happy, so filled with joy. I want to remeber that moment and feeling not those small mistakes. This is a good place to continue from, now we're on the doorstep of something new and unknown. It's exciting! Exciting to see how the chick does!



Scans and translation by Afrodite