No release in 2024 was as sonically or conceptually grand as Nightwish’s Yesterwynde, an album that drew on metaphorical ancient computers, the Welsh language, Tongan choirs and the very meaning of life and death.
As if that wasn’t head-spinning enough, Nightwish mastermind and keyboard player Tuomas Holopainen announced that the band wouldn’t be touring in support of it. Luckily for us, frontwoman Floor Jansen is here to shed a little light on the enigma of Yesterwynde.
What do you remember about making Yesterwynde?
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“It was a different album in the sense that some of the usual steps weren’t there. Usually, we make one album, release it, go on a world tour, then a new one gets written, we rehearse it and then record it. This time, Tuomas was writing the new album during the Covid pandemic.
We weren’t really in touch – everyone was just focussed on their own lives. But we knew he was writing and very inspired. When we finally started touring [in the summer of 2022], he started to play us the demos in hotel rooms. That was the very first time I heard the songs.”
What did they sound like that first time you heard them?
“They were probably 90 or 95% ready, musically. Of course, these demos don’t have vocals on them - the piano is playing the vocal line. At the same time, you’re aware that so much is happening – these are Nightwish songs, there’s too much to take in, you miss half of what’s in there. He maybe says something before the song, there might be lyrics that he wants to read while it’s playing… you don’t stand a chance to take it all in – you grasp maybe the tip of the iceberg.”
There’s a lot going on in Yesterwynde, lyrically. Did he need a wall chart to explain it?
“Ha ha ha! No, but he did make this special drawing with his wife for the song An Ocean Of Strange Islands. And sometimes to explain the lyrics, he would sing them. I made voice recordings of his explanations on my phone. I’m sure he hopes I never put them on the internet!”
Does Tuomas write his lyrics with you in mind?
“No. At the end of the day, emotions are very personal, and he writes his lyrics from his point of view and from his heart. From there, it’s for everybody else to do with them what they want to. Even for me – I will make a different interpretation of them, because I’m putting something of myself into them. That’s the beauty of it – he writes lyrics from the heart, I communicate them from the heart, and then you hear them and it becomes your interpretation. But every time, it has to start with something genuine and that comes from Tuomas.”
What does the word ‘Yesterwynde’ mean to you?
“It’s something that Tuomas and Troy [Donockley, multiinstrumentalist] came up with. Because I wasn’t as involved in this album at the start [Floor’s pregnancy meant she stayed at home in Sweden while rehearsals for the album began in Kitee, Tuomas’s hometown], I needed to grow into it. But me, it represents the love for nature, for history, for the human species.”
How has your relationship with Tuomas changed in the 11 years since you joined Nightwish? Do you work together differently?
“For sure. Back then, they’d never had their singers join them for rehearsals [for albums]. I couldn’t believe that. Of course I’m going to be in rehearsal! I’m a musician, I come from bands where I co-wrote everything. I wanted to be involved, be part of things.
Not because I’m a control freak – well, maybe partially because of that, ha ha ha! – but because I’m in there with my whole heart. Tuomas embraced that. That was super-new for all of us. And for me to have somebody who was going to direct us with the singing, that was new, too.”
There are no plans to tour Yesterwynde. What’s behind that decision?
“Everything with Nightwish, we’ve done with 120%, 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…”
Will Nightwish return to touring in the future?
“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.’”
What’s next for Floor Jansen?
“Not touring with Nightwish gives me time to write my second solo album. 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.”
Floor Jansen plays Wacken Festival this summer.
