The Nightmare Before Christmas
Tarja Turunen explores the dark side of the festive season on her new classical solo album From Spirits And Ghosts…
“Women now have so much power in this male genre and we managed to do that without losing our femininity and without the need to show anything else.”
It’s been 12 years since Tarja Turunen left Nightwish. Since then, she has released a mixture of classical and rock solo albums, and is acclaimed, alongside the likes of Anneke van Giersbergen, Sharon den Adel and Simone Simons, as a fantastic prog vocalist. Her confidence and talent have helped set her up as an artist whose course seemingly knows no bounds.
Her latest release expands on both her first solo album, 2006’s Henkäys Ikuisuudesta, a set of classical Christmas-themed songs, and her tradition of playing Christmas tours back in her native Finland. She’s also released four solo rock albums, but new endeavour From Spirits And Ghosts is another classical collection of traditional seasonal favourites. And this time, the music is more international.
“The first Christmas album consisted of mainly traditional Finnish songs,” explains Turunen. “This time I decided to put songs that the majority of people would know, but I’ve done them in a different way, in a very cinematographic and dark way, and very beautiful at the same time.”
Christmas, Turunen admits, can be a very difficult time for many, and she explores this on the album.
“It has the theme of the contrast between the light and the dark and in us, the happiness and darkness,” Turunen explains. “Christmas time, when it comes, hits all of us, no matter if you like it or not, so I started to think about all these people that don’t like the Christmas feeling, don’t like the jingle bells.
“Some of us also tend to become really sad around Christmas because we have lost people dear to us around that time, we’re lonely and we don’t have anybody to share the Christmas celebrations with. So I started to think about that and I decided to give some hope and peace through music to all these people.”
Turunen’s own approach to the Yuletide period was somewhat tainted by personal tragedy. “I lost my mother in 2003 and after that I didn’t feel like celebrating Christmas for many years, until I became a mother five years ago. The whole experience of becoming a parent and seeing the enjoyment and excitement in my daughter’s eyes every Christmas is something impossible to explain to other people. So, since then, I started to be able to feel the Christmas spirit again after my mother’s passing.”
For the album, Turunen teamed up again with American score composer Jim Dooley, famous for his work with Hans Zimmer. “Deck The Halls, for example, is such a silly Christmas song and I wanted to make a huge twist on it. When I was in the studio with Jim, I told him I wanted it to sound like a horror movie and he completely understood my intent and took it into that direction, which was actually unbelievable! It’s such a great challenge taking a well-known song like that, to completely forget about the original version and make it sound as if it was coming from another world.
“He managed to do that with the help of my daughter too, who is actually singing the ‘fa la la la la’ part and this makes it sound even more spooky! I am super happy with the result and particularly with this song because it sounds natural, as if the song was meant to be like that, in a minor key.”
Turunen’s experience of her Finnish Christmas concerts also left their mark on From Spirits And Ghosts.
“I’ve been touring for the Christmas concerts since 2005 and I’ve been changing the programme a lot through the years,” she says. “I selected my favourite ones for this record for personal reasons. For some it’s the melody that drags me to a certain emotion and for this reason I feel really connected to the song. For others, I feel that the lyrics are so beautiful. A song like O Come, O Come Emmanuel is a song that I didn’t know before I heard Enya’s version.”
However, some classic Christmas songs, and the overly commercial aspect of Christmas, are not for her.
“I don’t like Jingle Bells and all those things because for us in Finland Christmas is a completely different thing,” she states.
“It’s a quiet Christmas and we spend it with the family and we listen to some melancholic music for the celebration. We don’t have this commercial side of Jingle Bells and happiness.”
Turunen studied at Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy and her roots in classical music mean that she knows exactly what she wants when it comes to the sound of the new record.
“The main thing I wanted to capture on this album was the sound of the orchestra: the emotion that only the sound of a symphonic orchestra can really give you. It could be very peaceful, but at the same time it’s so bombastic when it’s needed.”
That bombast, a typical trait of symphonic prog and metal, is often an easy target for critics. Turunen’s heard it all before…
“I’ve always been picked on by all those people who don’t like breaking the rules of the music business… I don’t get it!” she exclaims. “For me, music has always been about emotion and I’m a hard-working person: I commit myself to it 24/7 and I always try to get better at what I do. It’s tough to work like that cause I continuously challenge myself, but I like it!”
Her full commitment to her cause is also reflected in her extremely varied music taste. She loves classical: “Puccini is definitely one of my favourite opera composers, but I’m more of a lyrical singer rather than an opera singer. I have to say that Sibelius is another of my favourites because he’s my classical father, the pride of my country! I also love Schumann, Mendelssohn, Dvoˇrák, Tchaikovsky… yeah, I prefer the melancholic side of music!”
However, she’s also passionate about metal – “If I go to the gym or if I go running I need something more rocking, that helps me to keep the pulsations high, so I usually listen to Disturbed or In Flames or Ozzy Osbourne” – prog and classic rock. “When
I’m home relaxing with my husband we listen to everything, from Tom Petty to The Beatles, Genesis, Peter Gabriel.”
Turunen is proud to be a figurehead and inspiration to female performers in the prog and metal scenes.
“Many singers have approached me in the last few years because they see me as an inspiration,” she smiles. “Women now have so much power in this male genre and we managed to do that without losing our femininity and without the need to show anything else. I, myself, have never had to do these kind of things on stage, nor behind the scenes. Me and only my voice have always been enough.
“Nevertheless, I have to say that in the last couple of years the whole music business has changed: it’s now so difficult to break through with your music and be heard, because the business itself is suffering and the music industry is sinking. I guess there must be a lot of talent as it has always been around, and this fortunately hasn’t changed. The issue is getting these talents to be heard: we now need social media, but there are no more record labels to support you with advance payments and proper record deals. Nothing like that is existing any more. Nothing. Nothing of what I was used to.”
Nevertheless, soon Christmas will have come and gone. And Turunen already has her eyes on the future.
“I’m getting more and more into writing in a progressive way and I’ve already started on my latest album,” she says. “It’s definitely something that’s coming out now because being a classical musician and educating myself in a classical way, I’ve been kind of boxed in a certain way. There are rules in music and I’m trying to get rid of them. In this way, I’m trying to be more progressive.
“It’s been hard for me and it’s been a struggle to really be free in my compositions. Recently I’ve realised that I’m getting used to this freedom and this challenge is giving me wings to fly from one place to another with my emotions and this is fantastic! I feel that in my next album, there are definitely going to be more progressive songs, because I love when nothing stays on a solid ground in music and it could change all of a sudden.”
From Spirits And Ghosts is available now on ear MUSIC. See www.tarjaturunen.com for more information.
“I decided to put songs that the majority of people would know, but I’ve done them in a different way, in a very cinematographic and dark way, and very beautiful at the same time.”