On Tuesday, December 8, former NIGHTWISH vocalist Tarja Turunen took part in an Instagram Live chat with current NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen. You can now watch th entire 48-minute discussion below.
Speaking about how she has been spending her coronavirus downtime, Floor said: “I’m writing new music. I would like to release a solo record at some point. It’s super exciting, and time demanding to build up something from scratch, You need to get a whole new ball rolling.”
Regarding the musical direction of her solo material, Jansen said: “That’s what I’ve been doing this year — trying to give that some kind of form. I could only say it’s not metal and it’s not rock. But then there’s so much more you can do. And there are still certain flavors to my sound. I have a hang for dark music and melodramatic stuff, and I’m surely not a pop queen; I’ll never be that. So I’m kind of looking into what it is then. And that’s a slow, slow process.”
According to Floor, her 2019 appearance on the Dutch reality TV show “Beste Zangers” (“Best Singers”) was the impetus that she needed to pursue her own musical path in her home country.
“That changed a lot of things, and it kickstarted a solo career I sort of never envisioned, because I feel very fulfilled with what I’ve been doing with NIGHTWISH in the last couple of years,” she said. “My first question to myself was, ‘Is it not enough? You have a band. You have a family. Maybe that’s plenty.’ But it’s funny how things just start to itch, because creativity wants to flow. And I got more interested in writing myself again, and all the ups and downs when it comes to that, because when it comes to singing, I’ve been progressing more than songwriting-wise. So it’s, like, am I good enough? And who do I wanna write with? And who do I wanna team up with? But it’s such an extraordinary ride that I’m so happy that I’ve had a chance to do it. Exploring is vital, and it’s great. And if any time in the world would be good for it, it’s now.”
Turunen and Jansen previously performed a duet together at the 2013 edition of the Metal Female Voices Fest at Oktoberhallen in Wieze, Belgium. The women joined forces on a cover version of “Over The Hills And Far Away”, originally written and recorded by the Northern Irish singer and guitarist Gary Moore and previously covered by NIGHTWISH on the 2001 EP of the same name.
Jansen made her live debut as the frontwoman of NIGHTWISH on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington following the abrupt departure of the band’s lead singer of five years, Anette Olzon.
Jansen officially joined NIGHTWISH in 2013 and made her recording debut with the group on 2015’s “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” album.
NIGHTWISH‘s ninth studio album, “Human. :II: Nature.” , was released in April via Nuclear Blast. The effort is a double album containing nine tracks on the main CD and one long track, divided into eight chapters on CD 2.
Last year, Turunen dismissed Internet chatter about her possible return to NIGHTWISH after her December 2017 onstage reunion with the band’s bassist/vocalist Marco Hietala during a “Raskasta Joulua” concert in Hämeenlinna, Finland.
“I know a lot of fans would love to see something happen, but it’s a very long distance away,” she told Kerrang! magazine. “Personally, I don’t see anything happening with me and them, to be perfectly honest. Marco came a little later into the band; he wasn’t there since the beginning. He was always a guy I was close to. Me and [NIGHTWISH keyboardist/leader] Tuomas Holopainen, however, haven’t seen each other in a long time… but we have been in touch. It’s not bad. The past is what it is; we can’t change that. We can only change the future.”
Turunen was fired from NIGHTWISH at the end of the band’s 2005 tour by being presented with an open letter which was published on the NIGHTWISH web site at the same time. In the letter, the other members of NIGHTWISH wrote: “To you, unfortunately, business, money, and things that have nothing to do with emotions have become much more important.”
Holopainen later called the decision to part ways with Turunen “the most difficult thing I ever had to do.” For her part, Tarja said the way she was kicked out of the group proved that her former bandmates were not her friends. “Maybe one day I’ll forgive, but I will never forget,” she said.
Tarja‘s new live album “Christmas Together: Live At Olomouc And Hradec Králové 2019”, was released on November 6 via earMUSIC. Her latest studio LP, “In The Raw”, arrived in August 2019 via earMUSIC.
