FLOOR JANSEN On Songwriting Process For Next NIGHTWISH Album: 'It's Very Exciting'

NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen has confirmed that work is well underway for the band's follow-up to 2015's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" album. "[Keyboardist] Tuomas [Holopainen] has been writing already — he's been very creative — so it's very exciting to see what he's been cooking up, 'cause he keeps that to himself," she told Germany's Rock Antenne in a new interview (see video below).

Jansen went on to say that she understands why Holopainen hasn't yet shared any of his new music with his bandmates. "It's like baking a cake and you already present the cake just by the dough," she explained. "And as a songwriter, I understand that. It has to stay in his bubble, because the man is a true maestro, so he's got that. And of course, I'm dying to [hear] what it's gonna be. Yet again, today, it's one step at a time. We're in the middle of a very, very intense world tour. It's great, but everything needs its time and attention, and right now we're on tour."

Floor also talked about the NIGHTWISH creative process, saying that Tuomas "writes 90 percent of everything. Marco [Hietala, bass/vocals] has been known to add songs or parts. And with the first album I was on, the latest studio album, 'Endless Forms Most Beautiful', we took a very long time to rehearse together, so the demos that Tuomas made we went through together, and in that process, we all got to put in a bit of our own. And as soon as I start to play a part that was first just a piano melody and a lyric and I make it into my thing, that's where I can put in my creative energy, and that's what everybody does on their instrument. And in thinking together, that really made that album into what it is. And I can imagine we're gonna do the exact same thing."

This past July, Holopainen revealed that he had "about 80 or 90 percent of the material" already written for the next NIGHTWISH album. "It's gonna be 10, 11 songs, most likely," he said. "And we're gonna start recording next summer, in July, so if everything goes as planned, we're looking at a spring 2020 release."

Tuomas also said that there is a lyrical theme tying together all the songs he has written for NIGHTWISH's next record, but he declined to elaborate, saying: "No other bandmembers have heard anything. We've had some discussions over the things and some of the songs, but it's in such an early stage, and I'm still working at home on my own, so… let's keep it a mystery a while longer."

NIGHTWISH's next album will mark the band's second full-length release with Jansen, who has been touring with the group since 2012.

NIGHTWISH has spent the last few months touring in support of its recently released "Decades" compilation.