Nightwish keyboardist / founder Tuomas Holopainen is featured in a new interview with Overdrive. An excerpt from the chat is available below.

Overdrive: The recent news of Floor’s health had a lot of people worried about her, it’s great to finally know that she is now cancer free. I can only imagine how emotional it must be to be doing what you’re doing each night, knowing that just a few months ago, things were in a very serious place…

Tuomas: "The first show of this leg in Antwerp was just so emotional for all of us, but especially for Floor. It all came out during the song 'Sleeping Sun'; she couldn’t sing the song towards the end, and she just broke down. It was a positive breakdown, if you know what I mean. It was just a huge release of so much anxiety, and pressure that had been building up inside her. It was a culmination of beating cancer, finally do this tour, and that her voice was good enough to do what she loves to do. All of that came out at the same time, and it’s been wonderful ever since."

Overdrive: Of course, the new album Human. :II: Nature was released over two years ago now, as far as new music, you mentioned that the new album would be an extension of Endless Forms Most Beautiful and Human… Is that still the case?

Tuomas: "I can’t believe that it was released that long ago! It’s crazy to think, because of what’s happened. Regarding new music, we have twelve songs in demo form at the moment, which all of the band has been listening to on this tour. It’s such a privilege to be able to be ahead of time on this, because we have a year before we enter the studio. We get to let our imagination loose, and build on these ideas. It’s going to be a long, but lovely process that makes the music so exciting. It’s really my favourite part of being a musician. Don’t get me wrong; I love the studio experience, the live shows, touring, etc, but that first meeting with new music, and the effect that it has on me personally, that’s a beautiful moment for me, and one of the most magical things in the world."

Read the complete interview here.

Nightwish vocalist Floor Jansen recently guested on The Heavy Hooks Show, where she discussed her solo work, the future of Nightwish, being branded as Nightwish be branded as "female fronted", and being the inspiration behind the name of a new species of beetle.

On the new Nightwish album

Floor: "Tuomas hasn't been sitting on his hands during the pandemic and wrote an entire album. We, the lucky ones, have already been able to hear the demos of that. And this is the first time in the history of Nightwish that there is an album that is basically ready for us to work on. We'll be recording the new album in 2023."