NIGHTWISH/REVAMP Singer FLOOR JANSEN: 'For A Year And A Half, I Was Completely Sick'

SonicCathedral.com recently conducted an interview with former AFTER FOREVER frontwoman and current NIGHTWISH touring singer Floor Jansen about her REVAMP project. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow bleow.

SonicCathedral.com: How does [the] new [REVAMP] album ["Wild Card"] differ from your last one?

Floor: We wanted to make it more heavy, more modern. The sound is heavier than, I think, the first one was; it's more diverse. The keyboard sound has been used in a different way; a more modern sound. I tried to get into an even bigger vocal variety by using growls; sometimes a very extreme "rocky" sound, then a more "operatic" sound, then a "poppy" sound. I tried to do as much as I could [vocally], and I think that lyric-wise, this is a more personal album; it has an extra layer and is written more directly.

SonicCathedral.com: Those personal lyrics are especially prominent in a series of songs on the album titled "Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown". Can you tell us a little more about that?

Floor: I had a general burnout; I got extremely tired, I couldn't do anything anymore. I canceled tours; I cancelled everything in my life. For a year and a half, I was completely sick; I couldn't do anything. So yeah, I wanted to write about it in my lyrics. "Anatomy Of A Nervous Breakdown" is really about that; the inspiration behind it.

SonicCathedral.com: Fans around the world can sign up online to take vocal lessons with you when you're not doing all the touring/recording. I recently interviewed another singer [Pamela Moore] who also does vocal lessons, and I asked her the same thing as I'm going to ask you: even though you're the teacher, what do you learn from your students?

Floor: Patience! It really depends on the person… I've been teaching for 10 years, and I've learned that music and singing is not an exact science where you have one theory that applies to every student. You really have to feel how someone learns, what kind of ways you need to reach someone's feelings. It's a feeling thing; singing is an internal thing. I think that's the main thing I learned throughout the years. The way of reaching people is different every time. Sometimes you use things that have nothing to do with singing and more for reaching a certain feeling. If you're focusing on vocals and using your voice [just] as a singing thing, it sometimes can't reach a different sound; a condition you have to step away from and then integrate back into singing and making music. It isn't always logical; and that I think I've learned throughout the years to just do what I feel.

SonicCathedral.com: So in some of your lessons, it's not about singing at all, but the voice in general.

Floor: It's about singing, but it's the way to reach a feeling. For instance, if someone wants to learn to sing more rocky, a rock style, or to sing higher…if someone has always been singing a softer or different vocal type, the only way to make them feel it is like a singing exercise starting with screaming. Sometimes when you're pissed, you're really feeling it, and what kind of sound do you make then? That has nothing to do with singing, but that is the way you do use your voice on a regular basis. So you learn, "that's how I scream," and then how to integrate it back into regular singing.

Read the entire interview at SonicCathedral.com.