FLOOR JANSEN

I've studied classical singing, but not to a great extent.

When After Forever stopped, I didn't want to first find a band, then see if I could write with them, figure that whole thing out, then record an album. Instead, I worked with people I knew would be good songwriters out of an idea how I thought it would sound like.

People think that when they come up to me, screaming things into my ear, that I will respond according to what they want. I'll turn around and smile and take the photo. But I'm not somebody's marionette.

Meeting fans and taking pictures is an extra I would like to offer when time and energy allow it. It's not something a fan can presume to have.

I think every physiotherapist will tell you that it's not a very good idea, and there are many musicians in the metal scene who have suffered severe damage - like, the guitar player from Iced Earth, Jon Schaffer, had severe neck problems due to headbanging.

Why should we bother making a super high-quality, expensive album if nobody is going to pay for it anyway and will just download it for free as an MP3 that has no depth whatsoever because of the small file size?

I joined a metal band with only guys when I was 17.

I tried to learn the Finnish language, which is really, really, really hard, and I realized that if I want to really learn it, I need to move to Finland.

I do know I will enjoy family life. What I've seen from moms, or heard stories from people who became a parent, it's such a consuming thing; it's such a wonderful thing. I consider it an extreme luxury to have that time and to not have to do anything else, and just be with my kid.

Musically, I have little ambition. The only real ambition I have is to make music and do music whenever I feel like it, without any real ambition or planning.

Living in Finland as a singer of Nightwish, I'm used to having people around me all the time that know who I am. In the Netherlands, people never really knew or cared or whatever.

I cannot work on a Revamp album when I tour with Nightwish. And I cannot do any Nightwish stuff when I'm touring with Revamp.

There seems to sometimes be an entire genre called 'female-fronted metal.'

The most metal? Some would say Slayer, but I think they're a dreadful band. Unbelievably boring. Terrible. Apparently it's not metal to say that, but it's a personal opinion.

No... I don't like Slayer.

Thinking Slayer's music is not my thing doesn't mean I don't respect the band for what they are and what they've done. I just won't play it. As I can imagine they won't listen to mine either, for that matter.

You always speak the language you hear most.

When a pregnancy begins, those cells begin their mitosis, and during the first three months, everything from limbs to organs to the brain and neurological system is being developed, and I never realized that would consume so much energy: it drains every bit of energy you have, and your hormonal status is changed dramatically!

I agree that it's a macho world, metal, but it's also a very, very social world, where people are loving music in respect for one another, female or male.

I didn't like progressive jazz or anything. Rock was something I like to listen to.

I find the opera part in 'The Greatest Show on Earth' challenging.

If I'm happy, you can tell, and there's no way of faking it.

If you are waiting for this thing that might happen tomorrow, it probably will never happen. You need to activate it now! No one else is going to do it for you, and ten years are going to go by before you even know it.

Now, when you've been in the band for three years, you get used to the position, in a sense. I don't think about it every day like, 'Oh my God, I'm the singer of Nightwish!'

Not everyone is as equally as adventurous as me. I get that.