Nightwish vocalist Floor Jansen says she’ll use the band’s touring hiatus to make her second solo album.
In April last year, the symphonic metal superstars announced that their next album won’t be promoted on the road. They released said album, Yesterwynde, earlier this year and thus far have kept true to their word.
In the new issue of Metal Hammer, journalist Dave Everley asks Jansen why Nightwish have decided to stop playing shows for the foreseeable future.
“Everything with Nightwish, we’ve done with 120%,” she answers, “but if you don’t have the energy to do that, it’s better to take a break. It’s as simple as that. It would be great to play it but…”
Everley then asks if Nightwish will eventually return to performing live. “Yes. That’s what we’ve always said – it’s a break from touring, it’s not a permanent stop. Otherwise we would have said, ‘That’s it, we’re not touring, we’re just going to make albums.’”
Even though the band are enjoying a break, Jansen herself will not. She says work on the followup to her 2023 solo debut Paragon will begin shortly, and that she already has material which stretches back to before the birth of her second daughter Lucy last year.
“Not touring with Nightwish gives me time to write my second solo album,” the singer says. “I have ideas, I have people I want to work with, I even wrote a song before Lucy was born. Nothing is finished yet, but it will come.”
The reason why Nightwish are hanging up their live gear for the Yesterwynde cycle has never been properly explained. The band chalked it up to “personal” matters when they first announced it, saying only that it was unrelated to Jansen’s then-pregnancy with Lucy.
In a Kerrang! interview this spring, keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen said fans “shouldn’t get worried” about the hiatus. “It’s not the end of the band,” he added. “[I]t doesn’t feel weird [to not be touring]. It just feels right.”
Yesterwynde was released in September to critical acclaim, including a near-perfect 4.5-star review from Hammer’s Chris Chantler.
As well as the Jansen interview, the new issue of Metal Hammer offers the essential breakdown of the year in metal. The magazine ranks the best metal albums of 2024, revisits Lzzy Hale’s stint fronting glam metal stars Skid Row, gets the inside story of Gojira’s show-stealing Olympic Games performance, and so much more. Order now and get your copy delivered directly to your doorstep.