Endless Forms Most Beautiful must be the most anticipated Nightwish album for Dutch fans. After all, this is their first studio album with their new front woman Floor Jansen. After a sudden break-up with former singer Anette Olzon in October 2012, she stepped in the spotlights, singing for the famous Finnish band. At the end of 2013, Nightwish already released a live album called Showtime Storytime with her as a permanent member, but now at last, a new album will be released with Floor on vocals. Time to talk about this new release with the new front woman of Nightwish. (Tonnie) Q: You already moved to Finland. Does it already feel a bit like home yet? Floor: Some things do, but there are just an awful lot of 'new things', things that I experienced for the first time. For example: It can get pretty cold (-10 to -25 degrees Celsius) there. You parked your car somewhere and then want to you drive somewhere the next morning. Now, I've got the luxury of an indoor parking spot and if it snows a lot, I don't have to wipe it of my car. But still, the frost creeps in everywhere. In that garage hangs a box at the wall with a device which helps your motor to start easier. It's an electrical thing and starting it that way is much less of an assault on your car engine. It's a standard, built-in device in every Finnish car. Another advantage of that thing is that it does warm the inside of your car a bit as well. These kind of things you just simply don't come across in the Netherlands.And because it can get so cold, you can't go outside to fetch something without being properly dressed. It's just too cold. Q: It's quite hard to grasp that kind of thing really if your Dutch.... Floor: Yes, and the kind of cold is also different. I can get the shivers in the NL, especially if it's a watercold (unpleasant damp cold with wind most of the time - .), but it's different in Finland, because it doesn't have a sea climate, at least not in Joensuu where I live. It is more like a dry freeze cold which can be very beautiful, a real cool wintery experience. Q: You really moved to the inlands of Finland didn't you? Floor: Yes, because most of the other bandmembers live in that area. That was the most important reason to move to Joensuu. Well, to Finland anyway. And I wanted to learn the language ofcourse.I think Finland is really beautiful, but if you want to enjoy that nature you won't settle in Helsinki. And I like to socialize with the people I met in the Nightwish circle, not only the bandmembers I mean, and they mostly live in that area of Finland. So, that was the important reason. Ofcourse I've thought of living in Helsinki, for it would be much easier to travel to and from, travelling wise. Living in Joensuu makes, especially international travel, a lot harder/longer, because it takes 5 hours to drive to Helsinki Airport.It's also not easy for my boyfriend who lives in Sweden, so yes, sometimes it is a bit annoying. But then again, as musicians we're used to a lot of travelling. All in all, it's not much of a problem. Q: Like you said, your boyfriend is Swedish (Sabaton-drummer hannes van Dahl) who's also constantly touring. I suppose you don't see that much of him as you would to? Floor: Not as much as I would like to, no. I do miss him ofcourse, but at last I don't have to explain to him why I'm constantly on the road..........And I also see him play with his bands, the passion with which he does drum in his bands.....Sabaton has got a very good dynamic, it's cool to see that. Q: Okay, now the new album EFMB. All of you spent a lot of time in a kind of summerhouse to write and practice. Have the songs also been recorded there? Floor: Yes, for the biggest part they were. We rented a whole boys scout camp for 3 months. All kind of cabins of different sizes. Something like that you won't find in the NL, not in that form. I got the smallest! It was just big enough to place a bed in. Like a old barn, but made of wood and quite romantic all of it. But you only slept in it. If you wanted to use the toilets or showers you had to walk to another building. Also the cooking was done in that place. Anyhow, we did the most cooking on the fire outside! Q: Wow, like you were living in the wild? Floor: It was a bit like that. The place was about one hour's drive from Joensuu. After leaving the city, you saw some solitary houses here and there and then.....nothing! And just when I thought: 'O, o, I've taken the wrong turn', you were there. In the middle of nowhere! It was far away from everything, but it also gave you a sense of total freedom. You're there with people you know well and you make music together. Simple, but just wonderful!To start the day off, you just jumped for a swim in the lake. We had gorgeous weather the whole period we were there, so it was really great! After the swim, you had some breakfast, enjoyed a cup of coffee and then made a bit of music! Q: It does sound like a wonderful place to get some inspiration? Floor: FAN-TAS-TIC !!!!After the music making you often felt a bit slow. Well, then you took a sausage, roasted it over the fire while enjoying another beer and listening to some music! Or you didn't! Then you could heat up the sauna and sweat there or you could go for another swim. It wasn't that much of a hard life really..... Honestly, that feeling of freedom, extraordinary! Okay, it's wilderness, it's an old scoutscamp and you have absolutely no luxury, but who need that if you could stay there? I didn't need anything really and found it very inspiring!We did it that way for a whole six weeks and almost immediately started recording after that. Also on that location. We did the most work there really. The only parts we recorded somewhere else were the choir and the orchestra which happened in London.
Q: Why this seperation from the rest of the world to start a new album? Floor: Well, the guys have done it before, only never with the recording part included, only to practice the songs. They went to the summercamp and after that, a period of doing other things followed and again after that the recording bits happened. Now they wanted to do it all in one go and it turneded out to be a very good move to do it this way. I mean, the know-how is already there among this group of people with who we work. They've been doing it for a lot of years.We didn't have to hire a studio, because the bandmembers and technicians have already very good equipment, so it made a lot of sense to do it this way. We only had to bring it there, but then again, we have this very generous sponsor in Genelec, the (Finnish) manufacturer of great speakers who provided us with some bastards of speakers in our recording place, hahahaha. Q: What did you think when they told you that they were going to live like hermits for a couple of months? Floor: Cool !!! What's the point of moving to Finland if you don't like that kind of outdoor stuff ! I found it really cool! Q: Did you make any specific preparations for it or just thought: 'What the heck......I'll just see what happens there? Floor: Not really, but I found out soon enough that all the beds were too short for my 1.83 meters. Because of that, and because the beds were very old, I slept on an air mattress. I mean, I had already ordered a longer bed, but the delivery time took much longer than expected, so I slept the whole summer on that air mattress really. Which was not always so comfortable for my body. Hey, I'm not 18 anymore!That's what I found out as well! But the rest wasn't a problem. Q: How did the recordings go? Smoothly and according to plan? Floor: Yes, pretty much so! But that happened, because we took extended time for practicing and I started earlier than was planned. The idea was, that I should join the others a bit later, but then I got the keys of my house in Joensuu, wanted to see the boys and taste some of the atmosphere.Therefore I made a rather unplanned visit, just a few days after they had started. Being there, I really wanted to start singing with them! Q: So you thought: 'I'll just stay then'? Floor: Haha, as a direct consequence, yes. It was so wonderful! Q: But it wasn't planned really? Floor: Not really, no. They wanted to do some instrumental stuff first and the vocals were planned later. But, since it all went very smoothly, we were able to work directly from the general idea of the album. It worked out fine and because of that the recordings were a lot easier to do.It also provided me enough time to make the songs my own. That was important for me, because I had not written the songs myself like I was used to. You do get the vocal lines and lyrics and hey: 'Go work it out!'. So, how do I translate the songs to my abilities? Which vocal chords do I use? Which sounds? This is important, because the details make the difference!It was great being able to work together on those issues in that setting. If you had any doubts, I just asked them and they came up with ideas to try to do it in another way. It has been a very democratic process, where everybody could participate on all levels. I think you can hear that clearly on the album, because it really has a band-vibe sound. Q: You definitely had some input then? Floor: Not so much in the vocal melodies, but certainly in how to approach things. That twist in my voice here or an 'oeh' and 'ah' there, which you can't see in the lyrics. The translation from a piano-based written melody to a sung melody does make a lot of difference and that's exactly the area where I could fulfill my creativity. Q: It did surprise me that, when you joined Nightwish, a lot of fans were pleased, because you could also sing the old songs, especially because Anette had a lot less of experience on that level. Considering your talents, I was wondering why the operatic singing, like on Oceanborn and Wishmaster, is still absent on this album? Only on The Greatest Show On Earth I hear a bit of that. Floor: You're right, but it wasn't necessary, because the songs didn't need it. There were some parts where I, initially, anticipated a operatic part, but after rehearsing, a different approach turned out to be better. It's not like you need to do something, because you can.For example, Emppu is a great guitar player, but it is not necessaryto let him play a three minute solo in every song. That is the general thought behind it, so to say. Operatic singing isn't banned or disliked by us as such, it's just didn't suit the songs on this album. It's purely the music that lead us.On top of that, if you look at my personal development over the last few years, you'll see that my operatic singing has moved to the background more and more. This all doesn't mean that it won't happen happen again ofcourse. Maybe we will compose a few songs on the next album that will ask for operatic singing, you'll never know. Anyway, during our live performances we will ofcourse play old songs where I will sing in an operatic way! Q: I think this album is unmistakable Nightwish? Floor: I think so too! Absolutely! And what Tuomas had in mind. Marco also had a big say in things this time. The sound of Nightwish is, no matter who sings, absolutely there. With these themes, which are quite different from anything before, there still is this poetic, romantic feel about it...that the music will take you away. I'm not really objective ofcourse, but that's because I'm still a big NW fan. Q: What's your favourite Nightwish album, apart from this one? Floor: I think Once. Not all songs, but it contains the most songs I really like. Q: Did the guys discover something about you of which you were not aware yourself, vocally wise? Floor: To be honest, yes. Especially in the area of soft singing, very soft. And low too. Q: You can hear that specifically in the last song where you sing in a lot of ways...... Floor: A lot of ways! But also on the ballad Our Decades In The Sun. That's a song that has a building up-structure. I sing quite softly at the start, but also in one of the refrains where I sing very softly. I'd never experienced to be expressive while singing softly. In particular not with Revamp, where I touched the more extreme singing in doing it raw and even grunted. After that, I started to listen to the other side of the vocal spectrum and practicing it by singing very softly myself, which I found boring before. Q: What did you listen to? Floor: Oh, to Johanna Kurkela for example, the girlfriend of Tuomas. There won't be many people outside Finland who'd have heard of her, but she has a really beautiful voice. Another name was Enya. Or singer-songwriters who sing their messages quite softly. I was quite triggered by all that. Q: Did it need many takes to record your vocal parts the right way? Floor: In the end no, because we did practice a lot. The vocal recordings went very quick, even faster than originally planned. Q: In Yours Is An Empty Hope your part is rather heavy. We've never heard anything like that before in NW? Floor: There's a bit of grunting in the refrain, although it has been softened by the mixing. Q: But there is some real shouting from you in that song? Floor: During the middle part yes. I've done it before with Revamp, but it's new to the whole NW-concept. I really like it that way, because it suits the song very well. Q: In which language does My Walden begin? Floor: Old Welsh. Troy does that. He also sings with us in the refrain of Edema Ruh and there are also some 'oeh's and 'ah's' from him in The Eyes Of Sharbat Gula which he does well, I think. Q: His role has become considerably bigger since the last albums.... Floor: More diverse I would say. Ofcourse he still plays the uileann pipes, but you don't need those in every song. It would be cool if that was possible, but like I said, you don't have to utilize a sound because you just can.He also plays the bouzouki on Weak Fantasy and ofcourse there will be flutes. Q: He is really multi-talented, isn't he? Floor: He sure is. Q: The red line on this album is the evolution theory.... Floor: Evolution, science.......the magic of life itself is the red line. The Greatest Show On Earth is the theory about the origins of life on earth and a possible future even. That's why it is such a long track.But on the other hand, Edema Ruh has nothing to do with that. That's a story about a group of musicians who travel all over the world to show off all their talents, but viewed from a fantasy perspective. The real Edema Ruh doesn't exist. Q: Richard Dawkins has a guest role on this album. I think Tuomas is a big fan of his work....... Floor: Tuomas for sure. So is Troy. By hearing about it, I also took some interest in it. Marco is a great fan of science in general. This album has triggered me to read a bit more about it. Q: During the recordings there was some bad news about Jukka. He had to leave the band for now... Floor: Yes, his insomnia got so bad that proper practicing got impossible. But he is already a lot better now, so we all hope everything will be better in the forseeable future. Q: The first single is Elan for which NW made a special video? Floor: It's indeed a very special video. Every bandmember was recorded with a wellknown Finnish actor on 6 seperate locations. These actors were all very experienced, so not that young anymore so to say, but everybody in Finland knows them. Q: A bit like Huub Stapel in the Netherlands? Floor: Yes, exactly that kind of figures. And they all immediately agreed to do it and enjoyed it as well. It is very special for the Finnish people because everybody knows them.It is also in particular wonderful for the story of the song. It's all about the joys of life. You'll see them first in a heavy profession, completely worn out. But then they meet someone from the band and rediscover the positive sides of life and listen to the song. At the end we all get together and celebrate the good parts of being alive and music. Everything is recorded at desolate, deserted places and it all looks a bit sad and lost, but it gives the video quite a melancholic atmosphere which suits Nightwish. In the end everybody joins in a deserted bar which happen to be my location and we even manage to blow new life in that bar as well! Foreigners probably won't understand the 'special vibe' of this video, because they are not familiar with the actors, but it;s a wondeful story and for the Finns it will be special. Q: NW will play at a lot of summerfestivals like Alcatraz in Belgium and there will be a concert in Amsterdam, so at last we will see you guys in the Benelux? Floor: Yes. A tour is planned for the end of this year and we will perform in Amsterdam. Because we have (to promote) the new album we will ofcourse play some new songs, but also old material. Q: Last question: Which song would you personally like to sing? Floor: I really would like to sing The Poet And The Pendulum.
Symphonic metallers Nightwish have been through a lot since their 2011 album Imaginaerum hit CD shelves. The band had already been forced to replace long-time singer Tarja Turunen back in 2005 and thought they'd found her permanent replacement in Swedish singer Anette Olzon, but, as it turned out, that wasn't to be. In the end, Olzon would only last for two albums and departed the band during their world tour back in 2012. She was replaced, initially temporarily, now permanently, by Dutch vocalist Floor Jansen. Jansen, who had been in Dutch metallers After Forever, initially came on board to help the band finish their tour, but is now fully on board and makes her recording debut on the band's new album Endless Forms Most Beautiful, which is released on Monday (March 30th). That wasn't the only difficulty to strike the band during the making of this album, long-time drummer Jukka Nevalainen was forced to drop out of the sessions and the band's planned tour after suffering from crippling insomnia. He was replaced by Wintersun drummer Kai Hahto, who will also join the band for the forthcoming tour. But out of all that change and difficulty came a new start and a new album. We chat to Nightwish keyboardist and key songwriter Tuomas Holopainen about making Endless Forms Most Beautiful, adjusting to life without Olzon and Nevalainen and why Charles Darwin and Richard Dawkins inspired their new album...This is your first album for four years, was it a tough album to make?"Quite on the contrary. Even though it took its time once again, (a couple of years to complete from the songwriting process to the mastering), it was a very smooth process. The songs were born really easy, we had loads of inspiring ideas and stories to work with, the vibe within the band was uplifting and the summer at the rehearsals camp treated us with lovely sunshine and warmth."How did you want the album to move on from Imaginaereum?"I don't think the evolution of music is something you want to calculate in advance. It comes naturally. It's nonsense to plan ahead things like "let's do a heavier album", or "let's use the orchestra more", or "how about trying to compose a hit single", etc. You feel inspired about a certain theme or story, and try your very best to bring that story alive. First by yourself as a songwriter, then together with the band family. Be humble before the song and not do things "just because you can".""At some point during the rehearsals we realised that the songs have an old school Nightwish touch to them, and that the album has a strong pro-life theme running through it. One way of putting it is that Imaginaerum was a tribute to the power of imagination, whereas Endless Forms Most Beautiful is a tribute to the magic of reality."This is your first album with Floor on vocals, how did she come to join the band and what impact did she have on recording?"Floor hopped aboard during our North American tour in October 2012. Things happened quick and today I have but distant memories of that era. The band was a survival machine on wheels for a couple of weeks but then things started to click and it's been a wonderful ride ever since. Floor has brought loads of good vibes, motivation and dedication to the group. Watching her truly nail the delicate essence of 'Our Decades In The Sun' in the studio was an overwhelming moment."You were without Jukka during the recording for the first time, was it difficult to adjust to playing with a new drummer?"We knew Kai beforehand, his down to earth personality and immense skills, so it was never a problem. Time was against us, though, since we had exactly 6 days to practice 12 songs before the drum recordings began. Kai had quite a few sleepless nights in his cabin writing notes for the songs."Did you experiment with any new instruments on this album?"There were a few, yes. Nipple bells was my favorite! It can be heard in the track 'The Eyes Of Sharbat Gula'. Troy also plays the electric bouzouki in 2 tracks, beautiful stuff, as well!"Why did you decide on the title of Endless Forms Most Beautiful?"It perfectly reflects the praise of the natural world - philosophy, which is present all through the album. It brings out the poetry in science. Classic Darwin!"A lot of the lyrics seems to be inspired by evolution and the works of Charles Darwin, why have you focused on that?"For me it's hard to imagine anything more inspirational, more beautiful and comforting than the fact of evolution by natural selection. All us living organisms are cousins, sharing a same common ancestor, made of the same stuff." You’ve got Richard Dawkins on the album, how did that come about?"I wrote him a letter a bit more than a year ago and explained the ideas we had for this album, mainly to do with evolution. Since one of the tracks would be named directly after one of his books, it felt like a perfect match to try to get him do some reciting on the album. He sent me an email a few weeks later accepting the invitation. Later in 2014 we then recorded his parts at Hats Off Studios, Oxford. This is a huge honour for us, since Dawkins is one of our biggest heroes and his writings have been huge inspiration for the album."The last track on the album clocks in at 24 minutes, how long did it take to put that together?"For some reason long songs are rather easy for me to write, so it didn't really take any longer than any other song on the album. The mixing process for just that one song took about two and a half weeks, though."What are your plans to take the album out live?"The tour begins in April from North America and off it goes until the end of 2016. We also have a show in Wembley Arena on December 19th, 2015! Every musician's dream come true!" Nightwish's new album Endless Forms Most Beautiful is released on Monday (March 30th). You can pre-order the album in-store now.
Having followed the career of Nightwish since the release of their 2002 album Century Child, I’m aware of the challenges involved in fronting such a project. Both Tarja Turunen and Anette Olzon, the band’s previous singers, have encountered both love and hate from the rabid bands of this Finnish ensemble. There are so many people that connect with the band in such a deep emotional level that they feel that changes affect them personally, and so if they are not satisfied they are sure to make it known… in no uncertain terms.And yet, Floor Jansen‘s entrance into the band has gone without so much as a hitch, and it’s easy to see why. With a long career in heavy metal, from her days in After Forever to her solo work in ReVamp, she has proven again and again that she is an extremely talented performer. Nightwish fans know this, and their love has demonstrated it. True, there are a couple of rotten apples here and there, but the large majority of the fans know that this is really what they had been waiting for.I met with Floor during the Amsterdam listening session for their upcoming album Endless Forms Most Beautiful. A truly bizarre experience where you’re sitting in front of the artists, listening to their album, silently making judgments on the work they’ve put their sweat and tears into. For a musician, that must be awkward as hell.Floor, however, managed to remain as graceful as ever.It’s nothing but excitement!Metal Blast: Both Tarja and Anette have mentioned how although it’s a great experience to be in Nightwish, it can also be a bit “scary†because of the fanaticism that exists regarding the band. Was there some reticence at the beginning, when you just joined, because of the size of this thing?Floor: Mmmmmmm…. Well, to my surprise, I was actually received in an extremely positive way. A lot of people had a very positive reaction, and so the overall feeling was great. Also, because of the short notice when I joined, I fortunately didn’t have time to start worrying about how people might take it.The first few nights we performed for an extremely open-minded audience that understood the situation (nobody tried to leave or get a refund!) and had a fantastic interaction with them. They embraced me there. I’m sure that there are people who would like to see somebody else take the microphone, and I know that there are hate pages about me and all that stuff…MB: Really?!F: Yeah, I guess it became somewhat normal fact that you can just publicly hate people.MB: There were people who made pages against you for joining the band?F: That or me being on the planet in general, which seems to be a bit of an issue for some, no matter what I do. We have a Dutch saying, “Hoge bomen vangen veel windâ€, “high trees catch more windâ€, and so the more well-known you get the more of this kind of stuff that you’ll get.There are trolls everywhere, but I rather emphasize the positive things.MB: Well, the level of idiocy that you need to take the time to make a page about how much you hate someone says a lot about your mental health.F: Exactly! I feel sad for those people! You can focus on those few unfortunate souls that spend all that time in trolling other people… but I prefer to focus on the majority of the positive reactions, the fantastically warm welcome I got at the beginning, and the high anticipation there’s now for this new album.Floor Interview 2Photo: Ville Akseli JuurikkalaMB: Speaking of which, what can you tell me about this new album? How do you see it in regards to Imaginaerum? F: The first thing that pops to mind when you listen to it, or even just the first track, is that it’s 100% Nightwish. It’s very recognizable, it has all the ingredients that you might expect from us, and there’s a more band-oriented sound. We’ve rehearsed with the band for quite a while before we recorded, and actually went straight from those rehearsals into the recording studio, so that whole band-vibe was also put into the recordings.Of course, my voice is different; I sound different than the previous ladies. Tuomas really challenged me to use a lot of different styles and sounds within my voice, even more into this softer, lower and ethereal singing, something I haven’t done all that much in previous recordings. This was really cool, it was a personal wish of mine to explore this, especially after all the more aggressive-focused things that I’ve been doing with ReVamp. There is also an epic part to this album, a 24-minute song that sticks out and which really brings something new to the table that even Nightwish has never brought.MB: You mention this band-oriented sound, which I guess is also the consequence of this “summer-camp experience†you had in the recording studio. Can you tell me about that?F: Indeed, it was actually a boy-scouts camp in the middle of nowhere, near Tuomas‘ hometown in Kitee. Usually there are boys running around, making campfires and jumping into the lake. Now it was us doing it! [laughs] We all had our little cabin where we could sleep and have some privacy if we wanted to, which also allowed us to have our spouses, children, friends or whatever just coming around. In one of the main houses we built a rehearsal studio, and upstairs from that the recording studio.In the beginning of July we started rehearsing, and even though first they wanted to start with the instrumental base, I visited just out of curiosity. It was just so cool that I just stayed, which gave us even more time to go into details in regards to the vocals, something relatively new for Nightwish to do during the rehearsals.The majority of the recording was done there, but some choirs and the orchestras were done in London.MB: Speaking of orchestras; since your voice does lend itself to a more operatic style, is this something that will also be featured in this album?F: Yes, but not so much. We’ve been playing around with a lot of vocals types and dynamics, and it’s always the songs that do the talking. We mostly ended up using different sounds, but there are a few moments where the voice is more at the front, but there are also some backings with that kind of [operatic] stuff.MB: I think a lot of people were happy about you joining Nightwish because it gives you the opportunity of, at least, perform some of the classic songs in a way that is more true to form. Do you find it difficult to perform the songs that people just associate with your predecessors?F: That’s the entire back-catalogue, that’s how I started out! Without being disrespectful to the previous ladies, I never tried to sound like them, because that would make no sense. I am a different person…MB: I think you made that clear in Wacken!F: Thank you! I have to look at the material through my own eyes, and fortunately I’ve been around long enough to know what my sound is like. Because of the versatility that I’ve managed to learn, there was a nice opportunity in the new album to play with the existing material. The songs did the talking, not the previous singers, because I am not a karaoke singer. I approached it from my own musicality and sound, together with what the songs asked for; there were sometimes things that were different from the original, and it’s a back-and-forth process, because it has to sound natural.Floor Interview 3Photo: Ville Akseli JuurikkalaMB: Since we’ve talked about the expectations that come with this new album… The í‰lan single was leaked before its official release, and the band showed their disappointment on Facebook, etc. Do you see the issue of leaks as something that’s pretty much inevitable nowadays?F: No, absolutely not. That would be like saying that this is just “things that happen†in the modern world. I don’t think it’s normal or that it should be accepted at any level. It’s a criminal activity and it destroys a very well thought-out campaign, the anticipation that a lot of fans are having, and then it just comes too early, in a bad quality, and with nothing but negative energy around it. There is nothing good about that, and it’s not something that should be normal, or that should be considered normal at all.MB: So I take it you were pissed off? [laughs]F: I was furious! I was really, really furious, and even more so when people started asking me why I was so angry since it’s something that usually happens, and that I should be happy that it “only†happened a week before the planned release of the single, and that it wasn’t the entire album. Happy? Really? I can’t see it that way at all. [laughs]MB: You actually read what people comment?F: Yeah, we do. And then we usually have to stop, because it’s terrible.MB: If you watch any video on Youtube, it doesn’t matter what it is… well, considering the kind of comment that people leave on the internet, don’t you think that it’s a bit masochistic to just go into it?F: No, because there are also a lot of positive reactions. It’s not just about our egos, or about our campaign getting destroyed, it’s also about the fans that had been waiting for the release, and who didn’t want any negative energy around it, and yet that was the first thing that came out. For a true fan it isn’t nice, the whole magic of it is taken away. That magic is something that we highly value with Nightwish. We don’t make all of those expensive trailers, and build up the expectations about the release, just so that some idiot can put it out online before we get to do it. That whole thing could just result in us saying that we’re not even going to bother with it; 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.We really want to keep bringing high-quality, well thought-out stuff to the table, when we choose to release it, and anybody that tries to get in our way is a criminal. This is why we’re not sending out the album, and we have listening sessions like this. It’s an unfortunate situation, because then you can listen to it only once; but we don’t want to send it to anybody because the inevitable then happens.MB: Speaking of these listening sessions, how do you feel about people who’ll inevitably write a review after this single listen?F: I don’t understand people doing that. We have seen it happen in the past, and we don’t really understand that. If you really want to review it, then you need a bit more time.MB: Considering the upcoming release, the upcoming tour, etc., has it been a very stressful time for you? I ask this because of your past problems with burnouts. Has this added stress affected you in any way?F: Yes, of course, we are working our asses off! But it’s fun! [laughs] Things always get exciting around the time of the release; the great thing for me this time is that I’m doing the things I’m good at. Back when I got my burnout I was doing a lot of work because nobody else was doing it, and there was a lot of energy taken from me just because I was trying to do a lot of things that I am not good at. I might just be working harder now than I ever did before, but I am focusing on the things I’m good at, which gives me way more energy back in order to keep on doing it at such a high tempo. It’s perfect, and in this big “machine†(and I say that in a positive way) I feel in the right place, and it’s nothing but excitement, like “It’s finally coming!“MB: Because of your commitments to Nightwish, do you feel that your work will ReVamp will be diminished?F: It’s inevitable, and from the day I joined Nightwish it has affected ReVamp. I found it very difficult to do both things at the same time. When I joined Nightwish we were in the middle of the writing process, we had just planned to go to the studio, and we had to postpone the release. In between tours I was recording an album, promoting an album, and then when I started to tour with Nightwish I was also touring with ReVamp, which was just a lot. This is not something that I wish to do, if only because of my own sanity and health, and because I feel that both bands need 100% of your devotion and time, and doing both at the same time just isn’t possible for me.So now it’s full-on Nightwish time, and there’s no time for ReVamp. Once we’re done with this tour we’ll have to sit together and see where everybody is in their lives, and see if there’s a chance to continue. It would be great, but I can’t tell the future.MB: So now ReVamp is on hiatus?F: It is; it has to be.MB: That’s all I have for you today; thank you so much for your time. I’m looking forward to a great album and amazing tour.F: Thank you!Interviews
Nightwish is confirmed in Brazilian's Rock In Rio WITH JUKKA!http://rockinrio.com/rio/line-up/
MetalTitans and The Invisible Orange have announced that the NIGHTWISH show in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 25 at The Orpheum will be filmed for a future DVD release.NIGHTWISH is currently on the road in North America with special guests SABATON, a Swedish heavy metal band that gives us a history lesson in their songs on war and historical battles, and Duthc female-fronted metallers DELAIN.The VIP package for the Vancouver show — which is now sold out — included a meet-and-greet with the band, signed poster, show program and a general admission seat in the orchestra section (floor).NIGHTWISH's new album, "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", was made available on March 27 in Europe and March 31 in the U.S. via Nuclear Blast.The "í‰lan" four-track single, which arrived on February 13, features the album version of the title cut, a radio edit and an alternate version of "í‰lan", as well as the non-album bonus track "Sagan".The cover artwork for "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" was created by the band's longtime collaborator Toxic Angel. Famed evolutionary biologist and atheist writer/leader Richard Dawkins appears as a guest on the effort.Longtime NIGHTWISH drummer Jukka Nevalainen sat out the recording sessions for "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" due to health issues. He has since been replaced by Kai Hahto (WINTERSUN, SWALLOW THE SUN, TREES OF ETERNITY).Singer Floor Jansen, who officially joined the band in 2013, made her live debut as the frontwoman of NIGHTWISH on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington.Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/nightwish-vancouver-show-to-be-filmed-for-dvd-release/#6mRszaH1jIyKuof1.99
