Afgelopen 11 november heeft Tarja haar lang verwachte finse persconferentie gegeven n.a.v. haar ontslag bij de band Nightwish. De transcript hiervan is gepubliceerd en vertaald op het internet verschenen:


"REPORT FROM TARJA TURUNEN'S PRESS CONFERENCE


Tarja Turunen (ex Nightwish vocalist) had a press conference today, Nov 11th 2005, where she told her own thoughts about the past year, which eventually lead into disbanding her. Next you have a shortened version about what she had to say. It is not taken word by word, but only as far as possible and the contents of her message has not been altered in any way.


- Welcome to the press conference, one where I would never wanted to be. I really want to thank you for coming here. The reason for this conference, or one of many, that I wished you to meet me and myself to meet you.

All the incudents that have happened lately, have been so tender and sensitive things, that when I left Finland after receiving the letter from the boys, I was so shocked from the way they expressed this matter when nobody was able to work with me any more. I do understand that we got into this situation through so many problems, but the way they put it, was a shock and hard bite for me. And it still is.



- Te reason to leave to Argentina with my husband wasn't to run away, but the fact that speaking about the issue has been extremely hard, and to tell the truth, the first week went in all that shaking so that I wasn't able to form a decent sentence to discribe my feelings. Nobody could have made any sense about my feelings. It was the reason I could not talk about this earlier.

These are the things I want to talk with you, I want to tell about my future plans, but I also want you to know, how the band had been progressing during these years, how our chemistry matched, and how this uprising nine year career has looked from inside. I will go through this quickly, beacuse it would propably take nine years to cover all nine years completely. I will make things as clear as possible, but of course this will be my view of everything. I have made a list of issues for myself, because I never was very good at speech, not even at school.



- Where I'd like to start is, maybe from the third album, Whishmaster. By the time we were in such a bad condition as a band, that everything felt falling on us and there were loads of problems, even when the band had been touring Europe and so on. We were unable to solve our problems, and they had been piling into so big, that Tuomas said he couldn't go on with the band and whistled the game to an end.

At the moment I was in Germany, had a bad feeling and had been thinking, and also found some answers how we could come over these problems and the fact of not speaking to each others. We had had too many gigs in short period of time, and as the vocalist I got tired faster than the other bandmembers.

It became very hard, especially at the end, because I had not been the so called nagging bitch from the beginning and I felt that we all were rowing the same boat, and I had real reasons to keep complaining. I did honestly believe, that the others understood what kind of a singer I am, where my background was and it was the big difference that made it so difficult for me.



- This brought us to the point where I heard in Germany from my good friend who called from Finland, that the story of Nightwish is about to end. I mean, I did hear it from her, not directly from Tuomas, but later I was told that he wants to go on with the band, that he didn't really want to throw everything we had achieved into a trashcan.

He put on certain demands, he wanted to make changes and one was that Sami had to leave, because he was unable to continue working with him any more. And all this I heard about in Germany. I decided that I wanted to hear what Tuomas had to say and we met him with my husband, talked how we could make things easier, while Nightwish had gained such a status in the metal genre which made these things important.

We made a decicion, that long tours were not to be made with too tight schedules, because it only lead to the whole band suffering from it. We tried to make the circumstances for everybody as comfortable as possible.



- I have always had a feeling, don't know where it came from after all, that we never were able to talk about anything. In the beginnig we knew each others and then this grew so big and we were no more able to talk, it was all a kind of smowball phenomenon we only had to live in. We were shy people in the situation, maybe there was the issue of respect which held us from going to tell others how we wanted things to be done. Tuomas agreed to continue with these terms as far as it ever was possible.

The most important point then was that both of us wanted to concentrate on making music, not to get involved with outer issues like busines. We needed people to help us out and Tuomas had decided to take a good friend of his for help and he would realize his visions through him, so we could keep on making music. This friend of his and people surronding him become this management of ours.

Meantime I couldn't collect my thoughts or wasn't able to trust things getting better based on one discussion. I wanted my husband to help and give me support, - and I don't want you to stick on this why I wanted Marcelo, because it is very normal. In a crisis a human being wants help, and usually help is asked from close, like from your father, brother, husband and so on. It could have been someone else but I did choose my husband, because of his business background from long before Nightwish was founded.





- We decided that we have these two parties and based on this, we will make things with good feeling. Thing really did get better and we went out touring and making a new record. I felt in my heart that everybody was trying their best, but then this issue of not speaking rose again. What will make a person change, I cant tell, I can't order anyone to change oneself, even I sometimes might say something like that in a rage of anger.

So the habit of not speaking went on and on and obviously created problems again, especially during hard and difficult tours. The thing that was difficult, - we agreed in our discussion about scheduling gigs that we were not to make three gigs in a row because it would be too hard to my voice. It was never self-evident to me that my voice would be in good condition every day, and I had to work a lot with it while on tours.

I tell you, that if we didn't agree with these certain things, I would not have this voice of mine any more. If I was able to say 'yes' to every offer I got, I would not have my voice any more. While I'm a singer, a trained singer, who heard every day when studying, that you better take good care of your voice all the time, those words had an influence on me on tours when I had to stress my voice very hard. Five week tours with three gigs in a row and a day off and the same again for several times. It was hard for every bandmembers, not only for me.



- These things were talked about in meetings, but we never talked while on the road. Of course it was tight when we realised at the time of publishing Century Child that the situation was about the same as at Wishmaster times. The same bad feeling had returned, and I wasn't able to handle it, not even with those people I was in contact with.

Anyway, the fact that the band began to gain success and Century Child began to make success meant that it was not only bad things happening. Those were great moments, Century Child opened us many possibilities and we really lived high times. We got the chance to play at big venues and got to choose what we wanted to do. Really, all the fans around the world and in Finland motivated us, and without them I think we were not able to carry on so much we did. To me it was one of the most important things because the lack of communication and other things, when information did not move between us.

It was really frustrating when many times nobody knew anything and then I suddenly got a message that in five minutes I have to go to do promotion on TV. Another very big thing was, how I had indicated that I want to know what we are going to do and improve in the band, on tours and anything, before starting on anything. I want to know wht is coming next. If we are negotiating a new contract with a record company, I want to know the terms before it is brought to me for signing.



- When we talk about this career of Nightwish, I was never feeling myself offering anything. I have sung in this band for nine years, in good and in bad times, but but it was never about offering myself for the band. I can't see it like this. I am grateful for what I have achieved with the band and their music.

For example the fact how I was accepted in the scene of heavy metal, the music itself, and how I felt good when I began to undestand wht heavy metal actually is about. Earlier there were so many things I did know nothing, I didn't know where I was heading to and the situation was the same with everybody. I don't agree that I alone have changed so much during the years, because we all changed, grew up into adults. The world tends to change your personality.

These problems were so big that we definitely were unable to discuss things and it ruined a lot. After Century Child I had to decide if I was going to continue with the band or to begin something new. Marcelo stood beside me and he really tried to bring up the positive sides, like the fact that I just had learned to sing the band's music and to enjoy about everything. After that I really enjoyed our concerts more and more. Music and the people around the world were the most important things to us all, and because of them I decided to continue, digging energy from whatever sources when necessary, like from supportive fans and people around me.


- At that moment we came again to the situation where I had to slow down our pace of gigs because for me band's success in making of which we all were involved, isn't an excuse for endangering my health. Circumstances were a lot better, but the fact remained that I was singing, and I have my limits.

Things were about to outstrike each others, issues once discussed and taken care of were neglected again which of course brought in frustration and feeling of not taking it any more. I tried contacting, sending emails asking why we have come to this situation again, when no messages move and there are again so many gigs booked. How I was to plan my private life if I was only occasially told that there will be a gig next week here and there. Even I plan my private life like any person would do.

This kind of messages were to arrive randomly and this was the case with the Oslo gig which was sold out before I was told there would be a gig in Oslo. The gig happened though and I did sing there, no doubt of that. I feel that I haven't been treated very well, when I was not told about things to come. On top of that I got pressed with claims that the gig must be done, while there has been a contract made about it.

We do travel because of our audience, but it can not be the only reason to make contracts on gigs located randomly. In Oslo we stayed by my friend when the rest of the band left back to Finland instantly after the gig, because some had deals to fill and the others had not, so we stayed in Oslo with Marcelo, and we never were told about things.



- This kind of things happened all the time and I had no energy to live among it all the time. We had gone really far in all our lack of communication. Our popularity had grown enourmously, and the days off actually were not days off any more, because we made a lot of promotion and so I announced the band that maybe the others might want to do these promotions a little bit more, because my strength is about to meet the limit.

Anyway, these issues were on top all the time and I needed to know about things, like in what kind of conditins we were to do gigs and so on, because knowledge of it would ahve helped me to figure out if I can make it under the circumstances. For example about not smoking at backstage, since I wasn't able to take care of all this, even it was honoured especially in the beginning. I was given a private room to change clothes and to open my voice, which might not be the most convenient thing to listen to, hence I don't want to do it in public and this kind of special arrangements were necessary.

My husband helped me with all this, like ensuring a private room at backstage, but unfortunatey it did not work in very many venues. I mean, how issues like this were forgotten, while other members' instruments were set ready on stage in good time. Our gig included my outfit changes, but a room wasn't considered important, even like in priciple I only needed a microphone for my performance. My husband was with me in this just like the others had their technicians, there wasn't too many differences in that and it wasn't necessary to bring him up in publicity as an issue."
_{Met dank aan The Enigma van het Nightwish forum.}


Deze transcript is overigens niet compleet. In het ontbrekende stuk werd er gesproken over Tarja's toekomstplannen, maar ten tijde van publicatie was er helaas geen audio bestand beschikbaar van dit gedeelte.

De persconferentie is hier terug te zien (voor de finnen onder ons), en voor foto's van dit gebeuren kun je hier een kijkje nemen. ( ).