Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
In a recent interview with Janne Vuorela of Finland’s Imperiumi, Nightwish vocalist Floor Jansen discussed her upcoming studio album, “Hytress,” scheduled for release on January 15, 2027, through REVAMP Music/Warner Music, as per Blabbermouth. She noted that “Hytress” will follow her highly praised 2023 debut solo album, “Paragon,” which has garnered nearly 150 million streams so far. Reflecting on her experience of stepping into the spotlight as a solo artist, with all musical choices resting on her shoulders, Floor shared her thoughts.
Let’s not forget that before I joined Nightwish, I had my own bands where I always wrote. So in that sense, it was nothing new to be more in the position of a songwriter or the one that steers up stuff. So, in that sense, if you look at the last 30 years, the Nightwish period has been more the one where I do different things than I usually do. So, that being said, it had been quite a few years, and the level had just gone up. I mean, if you join Nightwish, then the level is as high as it gets. And if you then put something out as the singer of Nightwish, but under your own name, it is, of course, under the eye of a larger public. And that is also why I really wanted to not make something that sounds like Nightwish, or like stuff that I’ve done before. So how do I sound without this huge bombast, without all of that happening, without even metal? Can it be dramatic and bombastic, but not metal? And that is sort of the journey I embarked on around the ‘Paragon’ album.
When asked about the musical elements she aimed to retain and those she considered letting go after nearly four years since “Paragon,” she offered her insights.
I don’t think we thought in lines like that directly from the get-go. It’s more we had the ambition to make the album heavier. With Nightwish not playing [live at the moment], it would not so fast live interfere with if I’m gonna do live shows in areas where also Nightwish has played, I don’t wanna have similar shows coming, but there are no shows [for Nightwish on the schedule], so that wouldn’t bite each other. Plus, that desire to really, yeah, still get back to my heavier roots came up. So the search started to find a heavier, more metal sound that is 100% me, but not like Nightwish.
Not because I don’t want to, but just because I’m already doing it, and I don’t wanna copy-paste something written by Tuomas. I mean, it’s as good as it gets, so it makes no sense for me to kind of try and do the same thing. So how do I make my heavy sound? And that really resulted into just more compact songs, which also were to be found on ‘Paragon’. They don’t have the long song structures that you can hear in Nightwish. These are so much more compact — in that sense, more pop songs, but with a very heavy jacket on. And I guess that that makes my sound a whole lot different from a lot of other acts. [The songs have] very catchy choruses, but a very heavy bass and, yeah, compact, relatively short songs compared to most others.
Regarding the “production decisions” that characterize “Hytress” as an album, Floor stated the following.
Well, one of them was definitely the format of the songs. And as we were searching for a heavy sound, we got much inspired by the down-tuned style, like in bands such as Bleed From Within and Gojira and even Periphery. But also that style of building, a double bass, drum-and-bass sound with that type of guitar playing, but then mixed with accessible choruses and my type of vocals. So I guess that’s, production-wise, where we really came to. And we also awarely try to avoid anything really orchestral. How can we get this kind of a feel without necessarily having to use the standard sounds?
And that’s so cool with nowadays how you can program what’s in the sound banks of any music program. It’s super inspiring, and there’s so much in there. Or how easily you can build something. So there are guitar sounds in there in the album that you would probably would not recognize as guitar, but it’s there. The base of it’s guitar and then it just got morphed into whatever sound fitted the atmosphere. You kind of build an atmosphere through that, and, yeah, that was very cool.
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