You were often quoted as saying you don't like metal and that was one of the reasons you didn't get on well with your Nightwish band mates. Have you started to appreciate this kind of music more?

I don't like metal? That sounds odd to me. I came into metal when I was studying classical music and I was very young. I was something like 19 or 20. Metal music came into my life very suddenly. I was not a metal fan when I came into the band and then on the other hand i learned many things in metal. I have never said I dont like metal. I have been in the metal world for several years and its been a very big part of me and I dont see the point in leaving it in my past. These two things, classical music and metal, are very important to meand I have tried, with my new album, to put them in one package. I wouldnt feel healthy if I was to do only classical music. Thats not all of me. Its just one part of me.

In what way did your classical background influence your new album?

I have been trying to sing as much as posible on this album with my real classical voice. That is one thing I wanted to do to challenge myself.

You always said that you would do a solo album after Nightwish, but do you think it would have been different if you'd have done it three years down the line from now?

I think it would have been pretty much the same. I have learned a lot through the process. The music is all new to me as well. It has been a long learning process. The planning of this album started a long time ago. I had to do it very carefully. Now its there, but if I hadnt have done the planning so well I think I would have faced more struggle on my way.

When was the last time you had alcohol and did you do anything silly?
I am a very mentaly silly girl without alcohol! I dont need that much. I was having alcohol two nights ago in Berlin with the record company people. We went to see a concert and I was having a couple of beers. It was nice to relax, but I dont know if I did anything silly. I should ask the record company guys.

You said you had a vision for the album. Did you have a vision for where you wanted the album to take you?

Of course it will take me to all the places I want to go and all the places that people are willing me to go. Its the beginning of my new career in that way.

Do you think the attitudes towards sex and women in general are different in Argentina than in Finland and what attitudes do you prefer?

It is different. People in Argentina are very sensual people. We Finnish people, you might know, have this sauna culture and people are thinking "Oh my God, they are all going naked in the sauna. How can they handle that? They are not afraid to show their body naked!" In Argentina they cover themselves and they dont go to public saunas. But also in Finland in a way people are not like that. We have saunas in our houses and its a way for us to clean ourselves rather than anything else. But its seen differently. Sexually, im very open to talk about it. Im always asked how do you feel as a women or sex symbol in metal. I have never felt like that myself. Im quite a shy person actually.