JANSEN FLYING SOLO

As the singer of one of the biggest metal bands on the planet, Floor Jansen requires no introduction. The artist is presently preparing for the release of her solo album Paragon in March.

The artist’s latest album was catalysed by an appearance on Dutch TV. “It started with this TV show, De Beste Zangers asking me if I would want to be part of the show. Me never watching TV, I had no idea what it was. I soon realised, this is the ultimate way to present my type of music to a wider audience,” explains Jansen. “Metal is considered to be absolute underground in the Netherlands. It’s often looked down upon as just a bunch of aggressive guys with long hair that are smelly and Satanic.”

At the time, Floor wasn’t familiar with the other participants on the show. “I did not know everybody else who was going to be part of that season. But one I knew, and I was a huge fan of his back in the 90s when I started to listen to music, and that was Henk Poort, with whom I sang. As he was the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera in the Netherlands. So, the first thing I said when I heard that he was going to join, I said I want to do a duet with him. That was before even knowing there was a special duets episode in that whole season. So yeah, that’s how it came to be.”

Together Floor and Henk performed a rendition of The Phan tom of the Opera. The video of their performance on YouTube has gone viral and amassed approximately 20 million views thus far. “We never actually sang it together until the day of the recordings of the episode. There are things that you can’t make with music, or with any thing. There are just things that can happen, yes or no. And with us, we had this chemistry together. From the first time we sang it during rehearsals, we had a nice connection with each other. Also, on a personal level. And that really came out as the evening progressed, and especially this song was the last song of the last episode.”

As they say, the rest is history.

Performing on the show allowed Floor Jansen to do something different and put herself in the s spotlight as a solo artist. “I was already a forty-plus metal singer. Am I going to do anything on TV just by showing up and singing? I didn’t think so. My ambition would have been to put my genre in a more positive daylight. But everything else that happened was a complete surprise to me. And the Phantom, a song that has been done 100 million times by 100 million other people. There are 1000s and 1000s of videos out there would do anything special. No – but it did.”

Despite this, has Floor Jansen always had a burning passion to perform as a solo artist? “No, it really started after the sudden success of me on Dutch TV. Like, oh, this is really fun. It’s always good to have a plan B. When you’re in a big band, you never know what can happen. I don’t think anything will happen. But geez, I just got this opportunity handed to me on a golden platter. It would be almost stupid to not use this. But do I want that, to actually have that ambition? And what kind of music would I like to do? And do I want to write songs because I feel more confident as a singer, and as a songwriter,” she says. “But as soon as I started again, it was really good, and this is really fun. It’s wonderful to sing in bands; that’s why I’ve always done it, and I’ve never done solo before. But I did discover a new freedom in doing my solo stuff, and I got to steer things up how exactly I want to, and there’s fun in that too. Not just because I want to control things. But because it’s fun to be the creative energy behind something of your own.”

Paragon has allowed Floor Jansen to not only showcase her individuality and voice, but also her talents as a songwriter. Something which she doesn’t get the opportunity to do in Nightwish. “I’ve always been writing stuff, but for ten years now, I’ve been the singer of a band where I don’t write. And I sing in a band with a very extraordinarily good songwriter. So, I feel like I’ve been exploring my techniques and talents on the vocal and way more than I have on the songwriting,” she says. “So, when I started thinking of what I want to do for this project, if I’m going to go solo, what kind of music do I like? I’ve been doing metal and rock for over 20 years. I’m already in one of the biggest bands musically. I’m doing everything I want there. So, I want to do something else where less is more, there’s more focus on the voice or, in a different way, focused on the voice better said. So, I had to find my own sound, and that took a while.”

Working with a producer, Floor Jansen began to refine the sound for her solo project. “It wasn’t until I started working with Gordon Groothedde, who was also the producer of this album, that I could work with him to find my sound,” she says. “The order of things usually starts with music for me. But I do have a subject in mind, or I have a list of things that I want to write about. When the song starts to take shape, and it has a certain feel, then I know what it’s going to be about, and from there, it will grow together.”

The first solo single to be released from Paragon was Fire. A track which became Dutch station NPO Radio 2’s Top Song. Thus, raising the bar very high from the off of this exciting new venture. “The first single, that’s the first thing you’ve been promising for years and been talking about, and it’s going to be completely different from metal,” explains Floor. “You don’t want to disappoint the metalheads. If they’ve maybe thought that I’m still going to do another metal song and then come out with something completely different. But what is the sound of Floor if she’s not doing metal? And maybe the whole world would just not like the song, or they couldn’t identify me with it. I think that was one of the biggest tasks of the whole project to really do something that is authentic to me. But it was wonderful to see how well received it was and everywhere. It’s really landed globally.”

But what do Floor Jansen’s fans think of the sound and direction of her new solo project? “Thus far, people have been surprisingly positive about it. Also, maybe because I wanted it to be so different from Nightwish. There’s no reason comparing it; it will be apples and pears there. And that’s something I did get back was that authenticity, the me in it’s really there. That they can both hear and feel it. That’s very much appreciated.”

There has already been a huge demand for tickets to Floor Jansen’s solo shows. As a result, more solo touring is on the agenda in the future. “So, we will do once again a short tour in the Netherlands. Once again, all those shows are sold out. So, we’ve added one in December as well. But everything that we’ll do right after the release is sold out in April. Then in May, I’ll go to Germany, and I will also do the German version of that TV show. So, I’ll do Germany, Austria and Switzerland for about ten shows there,” explains Floor. “Then it’s a lot of summer festivals with Nightwish. I don’t have much time left to do festivals with my own stuff. So just a few. Because we also will record a new album with Nightwish. So yeah, my first six months of this year are pretty packed. And after that, we’ll see because the UK is definitely on our wish list to come and play.” Floor concludes: “The world is a big place, and I’m already touring the world. So, my focus has to lie on just a couple of markets within this big world because I can’t divide myself up even more. But the UK is definitely high on the wish list. And we’re working on shows as we speak actually.”

Words: Adam Kennedy Photo Credit: Laura Zalenga

Scottish doom stoner quartet The Rhubarb are poised to release their debut album, the poetically titled Symptom of Failure. The latter will be released in March via Milky Bomb Records.

So far this year, the band have been keeping things on the down low in the buildup to the album release. “We’ve been quite quiet rehearsing away for the album launch in March. We’ve been getting some new material together and tightening up all the old stuff. It’s still quite quiet, but as soon as March hits, we’re all good to go,” says guitarist Michael McConville.

Hailing from Glasgow, Scotland – The Rhubarb are proud of the strong metal scene that they are part of in the city. “There is a definite strong metal scene. Guys like Red Crust Promotions are putting on really good gigs. Guys like Johnny from Triple G are putting on really good gigs. There’s a really strong metal scene,” explains Michael. “Maybe not as much on our side of things for the heavier, sludgy, stonier kind of stuff. But as a whole, the metal scene is great. It’s probably much like anywhere else where you can go to a show and meet people you know, and network with other band guys and just kind of see what the deal is.”

The Rhubarb was formed in 2015. “We were all going to college together at Riverside Music College in Busby, East Kilbride. I wasn’t actually in the band at the start, but we all met and became really good pals,” explains Michael. “We went through various different lineups. We had two guitar players at one point, then one guitar player, and then back to two, and then now only me doing it. There’s been a lot of different chapters and stages and processes that we have gone through to be what we are just now.”

Much like a lot of groups, the tracks on the band’s debut release have come together over a long period of time. “A lot of the songs on the record we’ve been playing live for maybe about a year and a half, just to test the waters. As I said before, with going through a couple of lineup changes, the sound has vaguely changed,” he says. “When I joined, and the other guy left, we thought we’re going to hammer this down and try and test the songs and see what people think. We’ve got a fantastic response to a lot of the songs. So, it’ll be good for people to hear the recorded versions of them, because there’s always stuff that you want to be able to do live, but you just can’t do it. It’ll be great to put out those perfect versions of them for people to consume. So yeah, there’s a lot of nervousness and excitement for it coming out.”

The band are stoked about having a physical release for the album. “We’ve all been huge vinyl fans for our whole lives. So, getting the chance to put us out on vinyl with Milky Bomb Records is quite a big deal. So we’re very excited about that,” confirms Michael.