Ex-NIGHTWISH Singer Wishes Her Former Bandmates 'All The Best'

Former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen is elated by the success of her solo debut, "My Winter Storm", in her homeland of Finland and elsewhere in Europe. When it was released last November, it entered the Finnish album chart at No. 1, the first record by a solo artist to debut atop the list. It's now platinum there (30,000 copies),gold in Russia (10,000 copies) and nearly gold in Germany (100,000). Finland also nominated her for an Emma Award (the equivalent of a Grammy) for best Finnish artist, and Germany nominated her for an Echo Award for most successful newcomer.

Promotion for "My Winter Storm" has Tarja touring Europe in May and likely again at the end of the year, as well as South America in July/August. She tells TheKillingWords.com, "I can't tell you for sure, but hopefully I'm coming in September to U.S.A., which is a very big dream of mine. I would really love to go there." She's also planning a run of live classical dates with friends from her study group; they anticipate visiting Asia around 2010. "That's a rough plan, but I do not want to forget classical music," she says. "That is very, very important part of my life."

Despite her packed schedule, Tarja is already working on material for a new album and anticipates it arriving next year. She says with a laugh, "It sounds crazy, because the new album just got out, but in a way, I feel very energetic and I want to keep on going . . . I feel that it's very nice to start the process for the new album. I have lots of ideas already, [but] not to change that much the direction or anything like that."

Tarja also opened up about her departure from Nightwish:

TheKillingWords.com: Can you address anything about your leaving NIGHTWISH? How do you feel about it now as opposed to when it occurred?

Tarja: Yeah! Yeah! Well, time has passed by. If I go back into that time when it happened, I got that letter from the band and all the media hassle after that, and it took weeks in Finland. It was really not [an] easy period of my life at all. I would say that it was a terrifying, terrifying month in a way, only that one month, that I was trembling the whole month. I was really having a bad time of my life and it was not easy . . . that public pressure that was so big and never expected . . . But on the other hand now, I have been growing as an artist, as a person, also a lot after those times, and I have seen life from the different perspective . . .

Still today, I do not agree with the thing that happened or the way it [ended], my career with the band, so that was a very, not too nice thing, you know [laughs], what happened, the way it happened. So, definitely, definitely I do not have any hard feelings. As I said, I'm very proud of those years and I wish them all the best and the success and everything, all the best, seriously, from the bottom of my heart. But yeah, it's very good time for me, very good time for them, definitely.

TheKillingWords.com: Do you think there might have been something that gave them the impression that they had, even if that was not the impression you were trying to give them, or do you not see anything like that? Do you think they misinterpreted things you were doing?

Tarja: Oh, that is something that I will question all my life, I think. [laughs] There were many, you know, I can't just think that all of this happened because of me, that there was so many problems in the band already for several, several years, and we were never able to communicate between the band members, you know. There were always lack of communication, and the way they decided to have its end, so it's very, very difficult, difficult situation and I still don't understand, but the thing is that, I leave them as the subject is, I leave it as it is. I don't want to get into that because it was enough difficult for me, so, I believe that time tells.

To read the entire interview, visit TheKillingWords.com.