Three weeks prior to the release of Tarja’s brand new studio album “In The Raw”, the official video for “Tears In Rain” sees its premiere today.
Taking you to the world of Roller derby, Tarja plays the roller Black Leijona who, together with her all-female team Killer Crows, is on the edge of losing the ultimate decisive game of the season. By facing and overcoming her own insecurities, she becomes the fearless team leader again.
“For my third single ‘Tears in Rain’ I was looking for a strong video”, explains Tarja. “I didn’t want to get into a cliché of tears and rain or a breakup story. The song is about overcoming difficulties that could apply to any aspects of life. The instructions I gave to director Florian Kaltenbach (‘Victim of Ritual’, ‘500 Letters’) was to avoid the obvious. I wanted an action video where I could take part in. He proposed the roller derby idea and I loved it.”
Naturally, the video presented a huge challenge to Tarja as it’s the first time she tried out the sport – unfortunately, not without any injuries: during training, she dislocated her coccyx.
“I haven’t been on skates too much. I have been ice skating in my youth, but I realized immediately that skating with rollers is a totally different thing. I had to learn, and I only had three days before the video shooting that took place in London!! I knew I was in trouble.
It’s already common for me to get hurt in my videos, and this was not an exception. I had an accident in a skatepark near home and dislocated my coccyx (Broke my ass!). Despite of terrible pain I did two shows and the video shoot with a broken butt. So – as in the story of the video – I myself overcame difficulties. If you see me in pain in some parts of the video, that is not acting. The roller girls and the video team took good care of me and I enjoyed the experience despite my condition. I had a lot of fun! When I recover, I wish to take my daughter to skate with me. We both got hooked on roller skating!”
The very emotional, highly personal lyrics of “Tears In Rain” stand in stark contrast to the musical rendition. Heavy guitars, an impulsive melody and Tarja’s crystal clear voice make for one of the most powerful, catchiest songs of her upcoming new album “In The Raw” – if not the core song.
The song is inspired by the famous monologue at the end of the Sci-fi classic “Blade Runner”.
“Johnny Andrews can make me fly with his ideas for new songs! It has always been a pure pleasure to write with him. After years, he also understands my voice and music taste better, so the writing process is easier in every way. Even though this time we didn’t sit in the same room while the song was shaped, still I have to say this one makes me very happy and proud. When we had finished writing the song, I already felt it as one of the strongest songs from the album. It just has the energy that drives me onward”, says Tarja.
“We used a very famous quote from Ridley Scott’s film ‘Blade Runner’. A classic that sets the tone for the story in the song ‘All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain’.”
The new studio album “In The Raw” finds Tarja and her beautiful voice sounding, as ever, truly stunning. It is possibly the one where Tarja has managed to embrace the best of all the energy of rock and metal without diluting her signature melodic style. The intention was to bring out the idea of rawness to match the feelings Tarja was having from the very beginning of the writing process and finds Tarja going to raw, personal places in her lyrics. Opening herself up more than ever before, “In The Raw” is gold-plated work of wonder!
“In The Raw” will be released on August 30th, 2019 on earMUSIC as CD Digipak (limited print run including hardcover O-card), 2LP+Download, Limited Box Set and Digital.
