Mama is a freak

My Winter Storm worked because of the huge Nightwish bonus with just one and a half hit singles and loads of meaningful semi-warm fillers. What Lies Beneath has to show Tarja Turunen now on her own feet. And this does this album for sure.

Of course Tarja's voice stays a guarantee for a general fluffiness but WLB is edgier. Falling awake, pimped up by guitar genius Joe Satriani opens the album with a riff vhich is very smashing for Tarja and bobody for sure expected All that remains screamer Phil Labonte as guest musician - even if he shows himself as rather mother-in-law-friendly most of the time. Despite such publicity arousing performances, WLB does sound more individual and homogenous than the previous album.
"I still can't complain about MWS. I love this album, it has some really good songs but the production just wasn't right", tells the 33old who meanwhile moved completely to her husband in Buenos Aires. "With 3 years distance, you can see what went wrong. Too many things happened at once. A lot of people were involved in the CD. But I first had to learn to trust the people around me, before I can open myself to them. I was pretty nervous back then and a bit shy as well."

You were considered as shy most of the time in your life anyway.
"That goes back to my time in school. I have always been as outsider. Especially the older girls made my life pretty hard because I was not like them. I had other interests and I was a gifted singer very early, but only for myself. Thanks to that I think I have such a nervous stomach, which I still suffer of. My family hadn't been rich but my parents step by step taught me to make the best of my life."

Meanwhile you have so much confidence that you even appeared in a comedy show in your homecountry Finland.
"That was so much fun. I played a freaky mother who wanted her son to be equally as crazy. He is totally different and normal though. (laughs)

You are more involved in the songwriting on WLB and produced yourself. That's surprising for a woman who only appeared as pretty face with a great voice for a lot of years in her career.
"When I started to compose songs, I hardly dared to present my creations to other people. It had been a long process to realize that I can do nothing wrong with writing. Of course there are good and bad compositions but everybody can decide this on their own. The most important thing is that I am comfortable with a song. I still have a great passion for music. I love to hold a completed album in my hands and I like to stroll through CD stores - but it's hard to find some nowadays (laughs)."

Can the title WLB be interpreted that you are going deeper and reveal more things of yourself than in the past?
"Yes but you can interpret it in different ways. I like to dive and scout what is beneath the surface of the sea. I took this element for some lyrics and created an underwater fairy tale world of my own. Sometimes I still am a dreamy girl. But you can also see the title in a general way: Every human being can surprise you and some things in the world develop in a different way than one might think. There are also persons you spend a lot of time with and they suddenly turn into people you don'T seem to recognize."

Which could be a hint to your sacking from Nightwish. What would you do if Tuomas Holopainen would call you and tell you that Anette Olzon was expecting her fourth or fifth child and wanted you back?
"He would never do that. And even if he did, my answer would be: "Forget it!"

Did you already know?
- The heavier WLB tracks were mixed by extreme metal guru Colin Richardson, the epic and poppy tracks by Tim Palmer (HIM). "I like to work with crazy guys. Colin is one of them for sure and my husband is a complete freak as well."
- In for a kill is undoubtedly an application for the next Jamed Bond song
- One of the peaks in Tarjas career was the collaboration with the Scorpions for their current hit The good die young. "Klaus Meine called me in person. That was really incredible. When I got to know that it was going to be on their farewell album I was shocked, but also very honoured. It would be awesome if I could sing "Poison" together with Alice Cooper during our common autumn tour.
- Tarja's complete name is Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen Cabuli.