“This awareness made me humble but not less strong-willed.”
Last time we were chatting with the tiny Finn about the most recent happenings of her solo career, now there’s finally a more detailed interview about the long awaited and really budding successor of “My Winter Storm” called “What Lies Beneath”. Tarja, who’s now permanently living in Argentina, humorously revealed us her personal reflections of the present as well as the past.
Orkus: Your new album has the title “What Lies Beneath”. What do these words represent for you?
Tarja: With “What Lies Beneath” I’ve personally found a trend-setting title at the early beginning of the composing process. The album is basically about what is hidden in me as a woman and as an artist as well as in the rest of the world. In the last past years I’ve learned that it’s always worth it giving things a second view, because with stolidly looking at something only once you might get a wrong impression. This awareness has gotten very important for me meanwhile and everything of my second album, especially the artwork, is true to this motto. If you for example have a friend and you think you know him very well, you get totally confused if he suddenly acts completely different than usually. So “What Lies Beneath” is about the fact that first impressions often can be deceiving or partial. I think that there are many mysterious and hidden things in our life and we don’t know why they happen. The only thing we can do is looking at them again in a different way.
Orkus: Did you have a clear concept about the album’s direction when you started songwriting?
Tarja: I had a vague idea but of course it took some time to develop it. Mainly because I was travelling a lot and I rarely was able to work at a stretch. When I write, I write at the piano. The piano is a very special instrument for me, a very melancholic one. It’s perfect for exploring my hidden feelings which always is a very intensive experience. Seeing myself as a songwriter is a new experience for me and sometimes I’m still very shy when it comes to expressing my personal ideas. But I’m learning new things every day and I appreciate this new freedom I got a lot. Apart from this I’m very content with the finished songs, they sound exactly like I wanted them to sound from the very beginning.
Orkus: In our last talk you’ve already revealed that it was a great progress for you to produce this album yourself. Did this change your perception of music – and what difficulties did you have to fight with?
Tarja: When I’m listening to music these days, I sometimes catch myself analyzing every little detail, that can be quite disturbing sometimes. I find it very interesting how soon this formed a habit and how naturally the freedom and the possibility to do it got a part of me. I notice more and more that there isn’t only one right way to do something for me. At the moment I’m very open for approaching things differently – both in the music and in everyday life. After my move to Argentina I had to realize that nothing works like in Finland, but this is actually the people’s fortune. We’re able to discover all these differences and at best they’re at use for us, let us benefit and grow. That’s why I also believe that there isn’t only one way to make music, there’s no “Right” and “Wrong”. Producer is such a big word for something that I actually mainly do for myself. “What Lies Beneath” is my album and it’s making me incredibly happy if it works out for me they way I want it. The whole recording process was a step to something new and difficult but it was great. I don’t wanna miss a single moment from it even though it was hard sometimes. For example I had to push my musicians from time to time because I wanted to get the best possible result. Happily they have never taken it personally but understood me and went this way on my side.
Orkus: What Lies Beneath sounds pretty heavy and really different from My Winter Storm. Was MWS more an experiment and your second album is now reflecting your new self confidence as a solo artist?
Tarja: The metaphor with the mirror actually fits pretty well. I always tell people that making music is a never-ending learning process which always allows you to experience new things. After I’ve been in a band for many years, it was a completely new experience to work on something myself which should reflect myself and my personality for the listeners. Currently I don’t only feel as a Heavy Metal singer or as a classic singer, I don’t fit a category easily. I don’t let people put me into a category because I’ve never felt good that way. I’ve been making music for my whole life and what people see in me might be right for them, but I reserve one’s right to see it differently. The music that I make is reflecting this, my music is a reflection of myself. WLB also represents a logical development from MWS to the musical genre that I love today. My debut album still represents the kind of music that I personally would like listening to. That surely sounds a bit weird but all the elements that I love are in these pieces: a beautiful orchestra, heavy, groovy guitars and the clearness and beauty of metal.
Orkus: For some of the songs (Dark Star, Anteroom Of Death) you worked together with guest musicians. Which musicians left their marks on WLB?
Tarja: At Anteroom of Death which will also be the first song at the CD I was vocally supported by the german a Capella band Van Canto. This song will surely shock a lot of people because it’s probably one of the most progressive ones on WLB and it is inspired by Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. In Dark Star I’m singing a duet with Phil Labonte from All That Remains. For this song I’ve wanted a male voice that is possible to scream aggressively as well as singing harmonic melodies together with me. Phil fitted perfectly which I’m very happy about. Apart from that, different guitar players, for example the American Joe Satrian, were working on WLB, which is making me very proud as well.
Orkus: In For A Kill contents the line “Nothing can shine, left in the dark”. What idea is behind this text?
Tarja: You surely won’t believe that the song is inspired by sharks. I watched a report about sharks which didn’t only send shivers up my spines but also really made me cry. I realized that humans are often the most cruel animals, we ourselves are the sharks that we fear so much. We kill sharks because we believe that they hunt us even though quite the contrary is true… It’s us hunting them, not them hunting us. The line you were speaking about refers to the dark side of humans. Often someone seems rich, powerful and esteemed but they furtively do awful things. This mainly gets clear when it comes to topics like child abuse or prostitution. Such terrible things often happen under the guise of decency and that’s what the song is about.
Orkus: When you began singing in a metal band, female singers were still very rare in this genre. What obstacles did you have to overcome until you felt well and do you think that it is easier for female metal singers today?
Tara: The biggest obstacle has always been my voice. I still fight with it from time to time but not as often as earlier. I think it happened in 2003 or 2004 that I began to feel better with singing the pieces of the band. It’s sometimes hard for outsiders to understand, but it was incredibly hard that I had to make my voice more flexible in the Nightwish-songs. I was trained for classical and opera music and I could hardly use my learned technique in metal. If I had done it though, the people would have been more shocked than ardent, because this kind of singing would have been way too dramatic. I’ve always been accepted as a woman or rather as a girl though. But of course I was very young in the beginning; everything was very new for me and happened incredibly fast. When we suddenly appeared in newspapers, it was surely mainly my familiar background and the way I see and treat myself that saved me from losing the ground under my feet. Quite the contrary, I’ve always been aware of the reality in that I live. I early understood that it’s necessary to work hard on oneself and that you’re not allowed to let things slide if you want to achieve your aims. When you make music there’s always someone who’s better than yourself. This awareness made me humble but not less strong-willed to attempt to realize my ideas and dreams. And yes, I do think that it’s easier for women to sing in a metal band today, but this is just awesome. I think that you really have to have the guts to present yourself and appear self confident in front of a metal-audience. So in every woman there needs to be a little boy because we don’t have the much-quoted balls. But I’m convinced that women have a certain additional strength that men lack. In my opinion we’re often able to handle stress and hard situations better than men, after all we’re born as potential mothers. When I started there were less girls in the same position, but there are a lot from us these days and this makes me incredibly proud.
English translation: Helen