After fronting Nightwish from 1996 to 2005, Tarja Turunen turned her extraordinary vocal talents to the solo arena, if anything pushing herself even further as a musician.

She has released a couple of studio albums, but it is her live offering, Act I, which garnered rave reviews.
Now she is back with Act II, an improvement in every way on the first record.

"Even though it's a live album and you might not think so, I'm working a lot," she laughed. "It took many, many months to finish the product but I'm super happy with it because it's kind of an important album for me to show me where I'm at as an artist. I'm very happy. It's always a pain in the butt to look at yourself on the screen and edit the video (laughs), because I'm very critical when it comes to my own performance and bare myself but it was a fun process."

In the full interview, Tarja goes into greater detail on Act II, including the subtle and personal differences between releasing a live album and a studio release, the two chapters on Act II and how they contribute to the overall production, and the possibilities of a third act in the series. She also discusses life as a solo artist, the split with her former band, her amazing vocal prowess and more.

Kris Peters