- English translation: Daniela, from THE QUEEN OF ICE

Tarja: Under the surface of the new album

Tarja Turunen let out the news she had completed the recording of her new album on 14th April into the world. Two days after she got in touch with the editorship of Spark, to open her heart to Czech, eventually Slovak fans and talk about her impressions. As it´s well-known, she has a no small fanbase in local parts and that is definitely a reason why she decided to include Vizovice´s Masters of Rock into her scarce festival tourschedule. Moreover, a unique performance can be expected- Tarja will be accompanied by Zlín´s Philharmony of Bohuslav Martin? and a numerous choir.
She started working on her new album, already well-known as "What Lies Beneath" in June 2008, quasi circa seven months after the release of My Winter Storm, which has sold more than 650,000 copies worldwide. She was composing whenever she had leisure time, thus also during the tour, within which she performed overall 5 times also in Czech Republic. She strictly enjoyed the freedom in composing, so in the end she decided to produce the album on her own too. "Everything was much easier this way. Moreover my band was recording with me. I probably can call them "my band" after the three years spent on the road," laughs Tarja, when she praises her band mates- guitarist Alex Acholpp, bass player Doug Wimbish, drummer Mike Terrana, keyboardist Christian Kretschmar and cellist Max Lilja. Not counting Wimbish, which is busy with Living Colour and will be replaced by Oliver Holzwarth, all of them will support Tarja also in Vizovice. She composed 33 songs during the relaxed composing process and decided to record 17 of them. Thus only pleasant problems appeared. "The first difficulty is to tell myself: "Enough!" And then the selection of the songs which will be used on the album comes. Everyone tells me how perfect it is, that I have so much pieces of music, but I really don´t know," Tarja shilly-shally ponders.

The journey into the deep of her own soul
The singer was euphorically sharing a little cracks of her ideas during the composing, e.g. in January she relieved the lyrics of Naiad. However, the character of a homonymic heroine still remains a secret for the fans. "Naiad is a personalisation of beauty. It appears in two songs, although the album itself is not strictly concept," Tarja explains. The title of the CD "What Lies Beneath" can be translated as "What is hidden under the surface" (that´s also the origin of the article´s title, Daniela´s rem.)and it echoes its integrated theme. "All the songs more or less retail about what is hidden under the surface and that things are often not what they seem to be, no matter which point of view we have. I sing about things which bother me in general, but also about personal affairs, thus about what is hiding inside of me myself." No doubt Tarja leart and come to know a lot about herself during the creative process. "I intensively collaborate with my husband, my band and a lot of other people who want to help me. And all this people push me forward moving on. Why don´t you try this, why don´t you try that... I discovered a new potential in myself this way," talks she about relatively new experience and adventures, which made her feel like "for the first time" in a lot of things, even through her medley and long career. She appoints concrete situations too: "For example, it was the first time ever I recorded piano tracks. It was like "c´mon, just play it" and I replied "what?!" but look, it eventually worked. I hesitate a lot in such things. I should be braver, and the fans will hear I am braver than ever on the new album, which makes me really happy."
As for the recording spaces, Tarja was also quite "self-contained". What the own living capacities were not enough for, was provided in Petrax Studios. The visit of her home country ended with an unplanned family meeting, when Tarja welcomed her two brothers Timo and Toni in the studio. "We are very close to each other, and even though we don´t see each other very often, we´re always in touch. When I returned to Finland, I asked them if they wanted to come and record something with me. They were wondering we had only three days for it, but in the end they hastily came and we did one cover together. I won´t tell you the name yet, but i will surely play it on Masters of Rock," gives she another reason for visiting the festival. While Toni´s vocals can be classified as heavy metal, thanks to his career with Decended or Celesty, Timo should be a surprise for the majority of the fans. The names of the other guests the singer has chosen remain a secret too, so bold discussions and guesses are running on the Internet. One thing is already known. The destiny tragically intervened the choosing. "Peter Steele from Type O Negative should have appeared on the album as a special guest as well, I was already arranging the last details with his manager. Yesterday I got to know he had died," says shocked Tarja. "I don´t know what we will do with the song he was supposed to appear on, but it will definitely be released on WLB."

Widely spread
"What Lies Beneath" should contain a mix of metal, classical music and scores. The ones who were excited about its "progenitress", will probably be even more excited, the ones who find My Winter Storm too little heavy do not have to despair. However, it´s necessary to reconcile to the fact that Tarja´s musical visions on her solo career are not restricted to heavy metal spectre anymore (have they ever been?, Daniela´s rem.). "Compared to the previou album, the new one is way heavier, although I wouldn´t call it a heavy metal piece. I have still the same vision about the intensity of the sound, but back then I could not fulfill it," she says and adds that in order not to repeat the same mistake, she decided to collaborate with Colin Richardson (Behemoth, Fear Factory, Slipknot etc), who mixed a part of the album. The same task was waiting for another two sound engineers. "Every song must get what it needs, which I couldn´t afford on MWS. If one person, who is not involved fully in classical music, metal or let´s say pop rock, took care of all the orchestras, my voice and heavy guitars, it would be too much for him," explains Tarja, but she doesn´t give away the names of the other sound engineers. She admits the whole post-produce process will be ended in Los Angeles, where the final mastering will take place.
Really an international album, even with support from Bratislava. While My Winter Storm had a signature of Prague´s Philharmony, there´s Slovak national philharmony and choir involved in What Lies Benath. "Jim Dooley helped me with the orchestral parts again. He has recently been working with people from Bratislava a lot. We did not have any concrete requirements and I was open to every option, so when he suggested them to me, I said if he believed them, I believed them too. We did not have any problem with the Prague´s orchestra, but why not to try something new. Evereyone did a great job," the singer enthuses. She contributed with a lot of suggestions in the orchestral parts too. "I draw the inspiration from the composers as Craig Armstrong, I have a lot of respect for his piano technique, or from the world of score, e.g. Hans Zimmer. In the end, we work with the same people as Mel Wesson or cellist Martin Tillmann. When I compose, I follow only my momentary feelings, that´s also why the new album is really very personal."

See you in July, hear you in August
The preliminary release date of What Lies Beneath is set to 20th August, but as Tarja adds with alibistic laughter, we should discount it, she´s only an artist and everything will depend on the label. She wants to give them the complete album in the beginning of May and in the end of the same month we can look forward to a first musical tasting. It´s not sure which form in (song, video etc, Daniela´s rem.). It´s too soon to talk about the final "wrapping" too. The artwork will be again created by Dirk Rudolph and it will contain also video recordings of the whole creative process. "I want my fans to see how the album was coming up and I also want to have everything in one set," audibly excited singer closes the issue of the new album.
She will present a part of What Lies Beneath yet before the official release also on Masters of Rock, where the chosen songs will be a part of a sectional setlist and Tarja will be exceptionally accompanied by Zlín´s Philharmony of Bohuslav Martin? and a choir. Setlist is already done, the only necessary thing is now to be prepared properly. "We´ve been rehearsing our parts at our own so far, but twe will meet together with the choir and orchestra three days before the performance to start preparing together. Moreover, everything is very difficult also when it comes to technical stuff, sound etc. But such a performance must be a great experience for anyone. I believe you will have not only awesome things to look at, but to listen to too," Tarja is looking forward and directly advises us of her after-festivals plans. "I have very loyal fans in Czech Republic, who support me with a lot of pure love, so I´m looking forward not only to Masters of Rock. The regular tour starts in the beginning of October and I will definitely come back."