I agree that it's a macho world, metal, but it's also a very, very social world, where people are loving music in respect for one another, female or male.

I never really thought of myself as somebody to move abroad. It just came on my path.

I think every physiotherapist will tell you that it's not a very good idea, and there are many musicians in the metal scene who have suffered severe damage - like, the guitar player from Iced Earth, Jon Schaffer, had severe neck problems due to headbanging.

I had the idea to spend the year off in 2008 and start writing a rock album. I wanted to do something else other than melodic metal after more than ten years of After Forever. I thought it would be nice to sidestep into rock.

Why should we bother making a super high-quality, expensive album if nobody is going to pay for it anyway and will just download it for free as an MP3 that has no depth whatsoever because of the small file size?

I wasn't personally that familiar with the Classic Rock bands. That is where Jorn Viggo came in: he played me tons of that stuff - Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, plus a lot of bands with cool songs, riffs, vocals, etc. We really listened to tons of music.

Thinking Slayer's music is not my thing doesn't mean I don't respect the band for what they are and what they've done. I just won't play it. As I can imagine they won't listen to mine either, for that matter.

Since the moment I joined with Nightwish, I have been working non-stop.

It's good to reflect on life and take a step back and sit and relax and do something else.

There's only so much planning you can do when it comes to pregnancies, y'know.

I agree that it's a macho world, metal, but it's also a very, very social world, where people are loving music in respect for one another, female or male.

The most metal? Some would say Slayer, but I think they're a dreadful band. Unbelievably boring. Terrible. Apparently it's not metal to say that, but it's a personal opinion.

Nightwish is my band, and so is Revamp. They both get my 100 percent, which is why I also cannot do them both at the same time. They're both my babies.

I cannot work on a Revamp album when I tour with Nightwish. And I cannot do any Nightwish stuff when I'm touring with Revamp.

Living in Finland as a singer of Nightwish, I'm used to having people around me all the time that know who I am. In the Netherlands, people never really knew or cared or whatever.

When a pregnancy begins, those cells begin their mitosis, and during the first three months, everything from limbs to organs to the brain and neurological system is being developed, and I never realized that would consume so much energy: it drains every bit of energy you have, and your hormonal status is changed dramatically!

To be honest, I deliberately tend not to post things like 'I'm having a relationship' or where I live. I'm a bit reluctant to keep this kind of information up to date because people are inclined to see things like that as statements, and I rather keep a little bit of privacy, if possible at all.

I'm not the kind of singer that's always super, super careful.

There is a project that I did back in 2008 with a Norwegian guitar player, Jorn Viggo Lofstad, who plays in Pagan's Mind. We wrote a rock album, and we never released it.

If I'm happy, you can tell, and there's no way of faking it.

I didn't like progressive jazz or anything. Rock was something I like to listen to.

Actually, I consider both Nightwish and Revamp equal.

I don't always have to be the best. Things don't always have to be perfect.

There seems to sometimes be an entire genre called 'female-fronted metal.'

Arch Enemy is a female-fronted metal band, but so is Delain. They don't sound alike at all. The only thing they both are are metal bands, but the style within metal is so massively different that it doesn't really say much whether there's a girl singing or not. So it's really not so important.

It's not so surprising that there are more women in metal bands. And they're not just fronting them. There are drummers and guitar players, bass players.

Make music when I want to in whatever style I would like to. That is something that I know that I'm not the only Nightwish member who has that. That's a luxury we can take, and we will.

Musically, I have little ambition. The only real ambition I have is to make music and do music whenever I feel like it, without any real ambition or planning.

Revamp is a band that would deserve the hundred-percent devotion a band needs, and at this moment, I don't see any future for another band next to a band such as Nightwish, and with the ambition to become a mother, I will have to let Revamp go, which is a very sad decision.

The success of Revamp is clear. We've sold a lot of albums, we've done very good tours, and wherever we play, we get a very positive response, and that's something that would be very nice to keep.

I'm very happy with what I can bring into Nightwish, but I will probably want to keep on writing things. And that can take many forms as well.