I N T E R V I E W

Interview Floor Jansen

Hi Floor and thanks for answering the following questions. We’re the French webzine "Aux Portes Du Metal". First of all, you’ve just done a long series of concerts with Nightwish across the globe, which must have been quite demanding. Aren’t you too tired? We remember you had health issues that made you cancel the end of the tour with ReVamp in 2011.

Indeed I have had a severe burn out for one and a half year. That forced me to cancel shows and stop everything I was doing completely. Fortunately I fully recoved and when I got the call from Nightwish I was good to go again.

How did this collaboration with Nightwish go? Has it been on a personal level, an enriching experience to tour with a band such as this one?

Of course. You do get a chance like this, maybe once in your life. You have to be at your very best and hope it's enough. To see that it indeed is enough and that the collaboration works really good at all levels (personally, musically...) is great and a big honour!

The fact that you had to fill in for Anette on such short notice and learn Nightwish songs as fast as you did is a true achievement. Was it a lot of work?

Yes, you don’t learn a 90 minute set in a few minutes. Lyrics where new, some songs I knew, some I never heard before. That’s a challenge to sing but then you also need to do this live on stage immediately knowing that everyone will chack you out on youtube the next day. I got a bad cold and had half of my voice plus the new elements of the songs, the lyrics and the show. Lot of work yeah ;-) But such a boost to see it worked and got better every day. The songs and words flew into my head and soon I got it right!

Would you like to extend this experience and become the official lead singer of the band if they asked you to?

I would ;-)

Now let’s talk about your new album, Wild Card. Was it written before you joined Nightwish? If not, has the tour with Nightwish influenced the writing or your singing for the new album?

85% was done before the shows with Nightwish and it didn’t influence the songs at all. Both bands are very different from each other!

What’s the current line-up of ReVamp?

The same as the first album but with Henk Vonk on bass instead of Jaap Melman. So it’s Jord Otto and Arjan Rijnen on guitar, Matthias Landes on drums and Ruben Wijga on keys.

You’ve said this album was the most aggressive you have ever recorded. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

The songs are heavy, riff-based, with guitar as the main instrument and more varied and aggressive than the first album. I vary more in my singing as well and even included screams and grunts.

On your first album, we could you hear sing a few duets with some guests, one of them with Russell Allen (Symphony X) was wonderful. Have you got new guests for Wild Card? I think I’ve heard the name Mark Jansen. Can you confirm it?

Indeed Mark Jansen from Epica and Mayan is one of the guest grunting on the song Misery’s No Crime! We also have Marcela Bovio (Stream of Passion) and Daniel de Jongh (Textures) singing with me in the choir parts. And on the track Neurasthenia we have Devin Townsend! :-)

This collaboration will remind everybody of the early years of After Forever. Is this a part of your career you are nostalgic about?

Well, I have sang on his album from Mayan and joined them live on stage and I sang on Epica’s Retrospect show so it’s not the first time we worked together. We also toured together on ReVamp’s first album so we have been in touch for years. That is a bigger reason than nostalia from long time ago.

Do you see ReVamp as a continuation of After Forever (as many fans do)?

No I don’t. The band is different, the sound is too. It’s in the same genre yes. But I keep the bands separated in my head because After Forever is no more and ReVamp is. Times changed.

On the cover of your new album, we can see you as a queen of hearts with two different faces. Do these two faces represent the two sides of your music? Or of your personality?

The music. It represents the diversety of the music, it can be nice and it can be heavy. It also visualizes the title Wild Card. An unexpected and unforeseen factor. The music is like that and a queen of heart is to. You never know what you’re gonna get.

You’ll give concerts to promote this album. How will you handle the tour besides the shows with Nightwish?

Nightwish’s last show is on the 11th of August. The album "Wild Card" comes out later that month and the first show is in September.

Tell us more about this tour for which you’ve started a campaign to raise money via social networks. Have you raised the money you hoped for? How come you have to do this? Doesn’t your label finance your tour?

Is was a very successful campaign which allows us to tour the world ;-) We did this because touring for a band as big as ReVamp is very expensive. The label can help but they have their expenses as well and with the current cd sales we all have to look for new ways to making everything happen. We are super happy to see fans got enthusiastic by the idea of making a tour happen together. A great new interaction between audience and band, a closer one.

I thank you and let you conclude this interview.

Thank you too and can’t wait to start touring! See you soon?! :-)

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