NIGHTWISH Touring Singer FLOOR JANSEN Discusses New REVAMP Album In Audio Interview

TJ Fowler of Skullbanger.net recently conducted an interview with former AFTER FOREVER frontwoman and current NIGHTWISH touring singer Floor Jansen about her REVAMP project. You can now listen to the chat using the SoundCloud widget below.

REVAMP's second album, "Wild Card", will be released in Europe on August 23 via Nuclear Blast Records. The CD was recorded at SandLane Studio in Rijen, The Netherlands with Joost van den Broek (ex-AFTER FOREVER) and will feature guest choir parts by Marcela Bovio (STREAM OF PASSION) and Daniël de Jongh (TEXTURES).

"Wild Card" track listing:

01. The Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown: On The Sideline
02. The Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown: The Limbic System
03. Wild Card
04. Precibus
05. Nothing
06. The Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown: Neurasthenia
07. Distorted Lullabies
08. Amendatory
09. I Can Become
10. Misery's No Crime
11. Wolf and Dog
12. Sins (bonus track)

The CD features additional guest appearances by Mark Jansen (EPICA),Johan van Stratum (STREAM OF PASSION) and Devin Townsend.

The opening track, "The Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown: On The Sideline", was released as a digital iTunes single on July 19.

Regarding the album title, Jansen states: "This album became the most aggressive album I've ever made and in the lyrics I tell a lot about my personal experiences of the last years. This resulted into some heavy stories and some open-hearted 'screams' I needed out of my system. It matches the violence of the music in a great way; we wrote as a great team! But not one sentence or word can really cover the contents of this album. Its variety in all its ingredients makes it almost impossible.

"A wild card is an unpredictable and unforeseeable factor. You don't know what you're getting, or when. That's this album! It's 100% REVAMP and it's your wild card!"

The "Wild Card" cover artwork was created by Richard Stark of NI Concept And Design. Jansen explains: "I am the queen of hearts on it, who is a wild card herself. You see a 'nice' and a 'nasty' queen. The nasty one has a cracked lip, cuts in her face and a bleeding heart in her hand. The other queen looks nice even though queens of hearts never truly are...

"Again, what is it you're going to get? In that respect it visualizes the music, from aggressive and nasty to melodic and pretty. This theme has been important to me personally throughout my career and also in this album I played with it to the max. I used my voice in so many different ways now! The music invited me to do this.

"I am super proud of the amazing guitar riffs, the versatile and groovy but mega tight drums and the keyboard sounds and arrangements that bring something new to the table.

"We hope you like our wild card!"

REVAMP recently announced the addition of bassist Henk Vonk to the group's ranks. He replaces Jaap Melman, who left REVAMP before the band entered the studio to begin recording its second album. The CD was eventually completed with the help of STREAM OF PASSION bassist Johan van Stratum, who filled in on short notice and "did an amazing job to record and edit the bass parts," according to a press release.

Floor previously stated about the making of "Wild Card": "Never before in my career I faced a situation like the one we were in with this album. It was a huge challenge because of several reasons. My sickness caused a major break between the first album and tours, plus the writing of the first ideas for the second album and the actual finalization of those songs and the album. And right at the moment we started to pick everything back up after I was sick, I joined NIGHTWISH. Like a winter and a summer storm, they bring unexpected things, some nasty ones and some amazingly wonderful!

"Also the recording of this album was unlike any I did before because I was on tour with NIGHTWISH most of the time. Guided by Joost van den Broek, the talented musicians of REVAMP recorded all the instruments, and when I came back to The Netherlands, I stepped into the studio to find a rough diamond. A shiny dark crystal: ready for my vocals. That was magical! The singing went smoother than ever before. The lyrics are like a roadmap through our storms and through my personal detours and horrors.

"With pride we can announce our partner in crime from the first album will again join forces with us! Metal and rock giant Nuclear Blast will again make sure REVAMP's new album reaches YOUR music collection wherever you are on this metal-loving planet!!!

"Nuclear Blast knows about storms and their metal heart beats like ours. I am very exited they will release this album! The team is so good and with such great people I have no doubts our cooperation will again be fantastic."

REVAMP's self-titled debut album was released in Europe on May 28, 2010 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Jansen made her live debut as the frontwoman of NIGHTWISH on October 1, 2012 at Showbox Sodo in Seattle, Washington.

Jansen handled lead-vocal duties on NIGHTWISH's recent North American, South American, Australian and U.K. tours after the group parted ways with Anette Olzon at the end of September 2012.

"Wild Card" album trailer #3:

"Wild Card" album trailer #2:

"Wild Card" album trailer #1:

Photo credit: Richard Stark for NI Concept & Design