M.S: Hi Tarja!! How are you?
T.T: It´s a pleasure to have an interview with you.
M.S: The first thing that i want to do is to give you congratulations for all the prizes that you´ve received this year. The most elegant woman in Finland, Gold record for your single, various prizes for Nightwish without any doubt this is the best year of your entire musical career, isn´t it true? How do you feel when the work that you´ve done have its reward?
T.T: Of course I need to admit that I feel very good in this situation. Media and people in general have shown appreciation for my work, so it makes me happy. The work I have done to get my voice in this shape, has took me years and to create an image that I can stand proudly behind it, has also taken some time.
M.S: I have never known what came before? Heavy Metal or the Opera?
T.T: I was studying church music in Sibelius Academy (the only music university in Finland), before I joined the band. I was seriously going to classical singing direction, but then my life radically changed when Nightwish and success came in to my life. I have still kept the love of mine for classical singing all the time beside Nightwish, though the busy schedule with the band has taken mostly my time and there hasn´t been that much opportunities to make classical concerts on my own.
M.S: The next 17th of August it´s your birthday and you have 28 and Nightwish started in 1997, so you sing when you was 19, in 8 years you have became in one of the referents in the Gothic scene, It´s have been difficult to assume all of this in this time?
T.T: In the beginning of my career with the band, it was harder to understand all the things that were changing in my life and the reasons why they were changing. The success came pretty fast and I was not that prepared for it, but in the end I could handle it quite good. My family has been supporting from the beginning on and my friends accepting the reality that they were not able to see me that much anymore. 8 years, is a long time, but the time has been very challenging for me through all the experiences I´ve had.
M.S: For now you have released a successful single and now a live Cd called "Scandinavian Night". Have you released them as a prize to your fans or as a future studio album?
T.T: My Christmas single, Yhden enkelin unelma, is a part of the forth coming Christmas album and it was never supposed to be released anywhere else than in Finland, because of the material it has inside. It was a big surprise for me that it was a success. The album is going to be released in the end of the year 2006. Noche Escandinava live- CD was a nice idea to be released through my web page for my fans. Many people have been requesting some material from my classical concerts, so when I did the second lied-concert tour in South America, I decided to record one concert in Buenos Aires in order to release it later on for the fans. I am performing with my friends songs from Finnish composers, in Finnish and Swedish.
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M.S: If the answer is yes; have you though how it´ll be?(English, Finnish, Rock, Pop, Goth, Opera…)
T.T: Beside the Christmas album and Noche Escandinava CD, I am starting solo career. From that you will hear later on.
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M.S: You practise two stiles very different between them, have you ever found difficult to disconnect of one to enter another?
No, because the music styles are so different. That is the reason I have never been confused what I am doing. One common thing in both of them is that I am the singer that is singing in both of them. When I rehearse, I never practise heavy metal singing, but only classical singing and it´s techniques. I use my classical singing technique when I am singing songs from Nightwish.
M.S: These stiles bound you to have different kind of voice, how do you train your voice in all the aspects?
T.T: I have been seriously practising classical singing since I was 17 and I am still taking singing lessons from 2 vocal couches. The work itself shows me the way I am progressing and if I work harder, I make results. Singing is never a trick that you can learn in a short period of time, no, it takes years. I am also having singing students on my own, to whom I am teaching classical singing techniques. Singing with Nightwish has been very hard in the beginning of my career with the band, because there were no one that I could have asked help. I didn´t want to start taking lessons from pop-music singing teachers, so I kept my way of singing and learned on my own. All the colours and aspects you can sense nowadays from my voice are coming from myself. I have felt the music in a certain way and that is the way I am singing it. To keep it going, I need to practise every time possible.
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M.S: How the concert of your dreams would be?
T.T: My own concerts, with a great, big production and with the musicians I have just dreamed to work with.
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M.S: Do you though in have a so successful single? I have to say that your single enter our Spanish Chart and stayed there for some weeks…
T.T: It was a nice surprise for me to see that my single was a success. I agreed before releasing the single with the record label that it is only going to be released in Finland. In the end the things were not that clear and the single entered the charts in Germany and also in Spain, which was unbelievably. Actually it is very funny because of the timing when the single hit the charts in Spain. Christmas single release in April made me laugh!
M.S: With this single are you going to tour Europe the forthcoming Christmas, playing in Barcelona as the only date in our country. Can you say us how these concerts are going to be?Duration, songs are you going to perform, some Xmass song adapted to your style…
T.T: I am going to perform around 1 hour and a half with the break in the middle. I am performing with a pianist, a string quartet and a flautist. The program includes traditional Finnish Christmas songs, classical arias and songs and some very known Christmas songs.
M.S: Between your guests we can found names such as Martin Kesici. Here in Spain he´s totally unknown but in the video-clip "Leaving you for me" that he has record with you we can thing that he´s an important figure in his country. What can you tell us about him?
T.T: He is a very talented rock singer from Germany and the song "Leaving you for me", is from his second album.
M.S: How do you thing your life is going to be in 10 years?
T.T: I surely can not see that far yet, but I can be sure that will be singing somewhere.
M.S: When Century Child was released so many people said that this album was so commercial, what do you think about this album??
T.T: Oh, that was a surprise! I really don´t think the album is commercial at all. That album is the darkest album Nightwish has ever done and it was our way to get rid of some things we needed to leave behind us.
M.S: When you came here in November said that you were going to record a DVD with the symphonic orchestra of London alive but now we can see that you´re going to record in the last concert of the tour. What happened with the first idea?
T.T: We are not going to record a concert with the real symphonic orchestra in this year, because the project seemed to be far too expensive for us this time. We still have it in our plans for the future, but anything concrete haven´t been discussed. The last concert of Nightwish in Helsinki in this year, is going to be the biggest show in our career production wise.
M.S: Talking about ages in the band we can see that all the members are near the 30´s while Marco is near the 40´s, apart of being a musician with a wide career at his back, what is his rol in the band?
T.T: As you know, he just joined the band some years ago. He came in a picture when many things were already happening with Nightwish. Because of his long career with so many other metal bands, it was a easy choice for us to choose him to be a part of us. He is a great guy and very professional musician.
M.S: We have reached the end, thank you again for your time and from here we desire the best for you…
T.T: Now is the moment in which you can say some words to our readers and all your fans. I hope to see many of you in my own Christmas concert in Barcelona pretty soon. I am very happy to be able to have this concert and I wish that you could enjoy of it as much as I. Hasta pronto! 
David A./ Marcel.lí Dreamevil
Photos: www.nightwishspain.com
Photos: www.nightwishspain.com
