Former Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen recently spoke with Greek-based Rock Overdose about her current tour for her new album, The Shadow Self. She also took a brief look back at her Nightwish past. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Rock Overdose: Ηow was your early metal music life as a woman among the other men? Especially with that unique non-metal voice you have.
 
Tarja: "I was quite young when I started to tour the world. Everything was new to me and yes, I was left alone most of the time because I was not interested to party like all the rest of the people. I was not able to do so, because I wanted to take good care of the voice I had. The guys in the band were not really taking care that they had a woman in the group of men, because they got used to have me around all the time and I didn’t ask their attention either. But sometimes it was really hard to be the only girl around. I made my own way and I kept it that way until the very end of my career within the band though. My voice became my life and I was only concerned to take care of it and become better in singing. That’s why I am still working hard with it."

Rock Overdose: Have you listened to the latest Nightwish albums? If yes, what’s your opinion about them?
 
Tarja: "Not at all. I haven’t been following the band’s career, because I have not been interested. I am super happy on my solo career and grateful for all this freedom I have. The feeling of happiness I get from writing my own songs, producing my records and singing the songs for my own audiences all over the world is unbelievable. I am grateful that I went through what I went through with the band, so that now I can truly enjoy music and my life."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Tarja performed at Hellfest 2016 in Clisson, France back in June, and during her set she unleashed a medley of old Nightwish songs. Pro-shot footage is available below.

The medley features the following songs:

"Tutankhamen" 
"Ever Dream"
"The Riddler" 
"Slaying The Dreamer"

Tarja released her new album, The Shadow Self, on August 5th, 2016 via earMusic. Prior to the release, Tarja issued the album's prequel, entitled The Brightest Void, also via earMusic. In this new video below from EMP Rockinvasion, Tarja discusses both albums and more.

The Shadow Self tracklisting:

“Innocence”
“Demons In You” (with Alissa White-Gluz)
“No Bitter End”
“Love To Hate”
“Supremacy”
“The Living End”
“Diva”
“Eagle Eye”
“Undertaker”
“Calling From The Wild”
“Too Many”

"Innocence” video:

The Brightest Void tracklisting:

"No Bitter End"
"Your Heaven And Your Hell" (with Michael Monroe)
"Eagle Eye (with Chad Smith)
"An Empty Dream"
"Witch Hunt"
"Shameless"
"House of Wax"
"Goldfinger"
"Paradise (What About Us)" (new mix of the Within Temptation and Tarja collaboration)

“No Bitter End” video:

Tarja joined Within Temptation on stage at M'Era Luna festival at Flugplatz Hildesheim-Drispenstedt in Hildesheim, Germany on August 14th to perform "Paradise (What About Us?)”, the track they teamed up for on Within Temptation’s Hydra album. Check out pro-shot video for the performance below: