TARJA TURUNEN To Utilize BLIND GUARDIAN's Session Bassist For Upcoming Tour

September 25, 2008

A new audio interview with former NIGHTWISH singer Tarja Turunen conducted by Vassil Varbanov of Bulgaria's Tangra Mega Rock is available for download at this location (MP3, 4 MB). An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Tangra Mega Rock: The occasion to have you with us on the radio is this forthcoming first show of yours in Bulgaria. Tell us more about the atmosphere at a Tarja Turunen concert.

Tarja: I've been doing two European tours so far and one South American. Actually I finished the South American tour last week and it was... Wonderful! Beautiful! I'm so happy to have this beautiful band of great musicians with me, the music works wonderfully live, it's very powerful and emotional. Now I'm really looking forward to come to Bulgaria for the first time ever!

Tangra Mega Rock: I believe you still have the same lineup of your band, right?

Tarja: Yes. For example, Alex Scholpp (FARMER BOYS),who played guitar on my record and on the two European tours, couldn't come to South America, so I was having Kiko Loureiro. You know, all these musicians that are playing with me are session musicians, so I have to give them time to do their own business with their own bands... Now in Europe there will be Oliver Holzwarth from BLIND GUARDIAN playing the bass instead of Doug Wimbish, who is touring with LIVING COLOUR. The rest of the band will be the same — Alex will be again on guitar, Mike Terrana (ex-RAGE) on drums, Maria Ilmoniemi on keyboards and Max Lilja (ex-APOCALYPTICA) on cello.

Tangra Mega Rock: Your debut CD "My Winter Storm" was a big success. Are you already working on its follow-up?

Tarja: Definitely. I'm writing new material every day and it's coming up very nicely together. The new songs are much more... major in a way, much more clear in concert. I'm still a young songwriter, so I'm in the beginning of these first steps and I'm very happy to be able to write songs on my own. The next album is planned to be released in September 2009. And this year there will be a re-release of "My Winter Storm", including some new songs that I'm going to record very soon.

Tangra Mega Rock: Are you going to record your next album with the same musicians?

Tarja: Yes, but you know, when I'm writing songs or selecting material, it's always up to the feeling I have about what kind of musicians I'm going to work on each song. I have very different kinds of songs — there are these film-music-type of songs, and then metal, metal, metal, ha-ha! These are differend kinds of styles, so not every musician can play both types of music. The musician has to be an open-minded person. Doug Wimbish, for example, is a great man for this job, because he can play various music styles. However, I can't tell you for sure which musicians are going to be part of my next album, because it depends a lot on the songs.

Read the entire interview from Tangra Mega Rock.

Fan-filmed video footage of Tarja Turunen performing a brand new song called "Enough" at Opinião in Porto Alegre, Brazil on August 26, 2008 can be viewed below (clip uploaded by "Rafaela O.").

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