SoundShock.net recently caught up with former NIGHTWISH vocalist Tarja Turunen to discuss her new solo album, My Winter Storm. The following is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Your new album My Winter Storm has done incredibly well in Europe - including a number one slot in your native Finland. How does that feel?

"Because it was my first album on my own and very personal to me, there was such a different process in making it. I was there from scratch deciding who I was going to work with, how it would sound, the style of the album, etc. It’s a great opportunity and, as I see, the beginning for me. The other night I was speaking with some fans and they said 'we are so happy that you’re continuing!', but I feel very personally that it is the beginning, so the success of this album has been fantastic. I didn’t want to repeat something that I had done before; it’s quite a different album, and it could have been easy for me to repeat things from the past. I definitely took some elements from the past of course, but I wanted to make an album that really presents me as a person."

Q: Did you not worry about potentially alienating Nightwish fans?

"Of course it’s going to be something new for many fans because it’s not a heavy metal album, so in a way it was a brave step to take… but I was never really thinking about that in the process of making the album as it was the passion that drove me, not thinking about what kind of album I should be making in order to please the people. I think that when I am making music, if I can be really happy with it and get my message across, then that is the most important thing."

Q: The first single from the album is ‘I Walk Alone’. Was the release of this single part of the overall plan to present yourself as a person?

"Many people have come up to me and said that I am not walking alone, but that I am with them, and this is of course true! In the song it says 'My winter storm holding me awake', and it was two guys from Sweden that wrote the lyrics, so I didn’t write the song myself, but I was so touched by those lines. It’s a beautiful image, but also very powerful, and people have been just that for me. My fans have been the power behind me and beside me, they have been holding me awake, and so they are my winter storm. There wouldn’t be me doing this, there wouldn’t be my music without these people, and in the two years that I haven’t been part of a successful band, they have made me realize this even more."

To read the interview in its entirety, head to this location.