In a recent chat with Metal Hammer, Floor Jansen spoke on Nightwish’s future after their decision to stop touring.
“Everything with Nightwish, we’ve done with 120%, but if you don’t have the energy to do that, it’s better to take a break,” the singer replied when asked why Nightwish is taking a break from performing. “It’s as simple as that. It would be great to play it but…”
“Yes,” Jansen revealed when the host wanted to learn if Nightwish would come back to performing live. “That’s what we’ve always said – it’s a break from touring, it’s not a permanent stop. Otherwise, we would have said, ‘That’s it, we’re not touring, we’re just going to make albums.'”
Nightwish announced their tenth studio album, ‘Yesterwynde,’ on April 30, 2024, and released it on September 20, 2024. There was no tour for the album, as the band announced on April 6, 2023, that they would take a break from touring for two to three years after the release.
Troy Donockley explained in a September 2024 interview that the break was due to personal reasons and to avoid burnout. He said, “Well, I was part of the decision, as we all were. We weren’t forced into the conclusion, but we were pointed in the direction of it quite early on, even before the pandemic.”
The musician added, “We realized that we were in danger of burning out of doing too much. So we made the decision, and extraordinarily, the decision to have this hiatus, this time off, is for all of us. It has no time limit. We have absolutely no plans at all for when we will bring the band out again to play live.”
“So, it’s not terminal. It’s an extended time off. But I can envisage some more live work probably in 2027, which is the 30th anniversary of the band,” the rocker shared his prediction for when the band might reunite. “I should imagine we’ll do something live to mark that. We might do that.”
Jansen will continue making music despite Nightwish’s break from live shows. She announced her first-ever theater tour, ‘Strijdlust’ (Fighting Spirit), in 2025 in the Netherlands. During the tour, she will share her personal story, including her battle with cancer, motherhood, and music career, through music and spoken word, all in Dutch.
