Nightwish keyboardist / mastermind Tuomas Holopainen is featured in a new interview with Sweden's Rock Sverige. Following is an excerpt from the chat.

Q: Are you working on the next album?

Tuomas: "I´ve got all the songs done during the pandemic. I might as well use that time. We listened to the demos for the first time with the whole band about three weeks ago when we were in America. Things are rolling."

Q: I talked to Wolf Hoffman yesterday and he did nothing during the pandemic. How did you feel during all this? Did you ever get the feeling that you might never play live again?

Tuomas: "No, not even close. The initial shock was terrible. The album (Human. :II: Nature) had just come out and everything was cancelled. I was really distraught for maybe a week or two. After that I started feeling guilty pleasure, because it was so much fun staying at home doing nothing. I felt rejuvenated and it felt really good for a few months and then I started to get really bored. Then came the recording of the Auri album (II – Those We Don't Speak Of) and we have this black metal band (Darkwoods My Betrothed) get warmed up again and after finishing that I started writing for the next Nightwish album for about a year and then we finished the demos about two months ago. We´re hitting the studio next summer, so in about a year from now. Like I said, might as well use the time for something."

Q: Did you get any kind of inspiration from the pandemic?

Tuomas: "Yeah, lyrically there´s a couple of things that reflects the pandemic, but not in the way you would expect."

Read the complete interview here.

Nightwish performed at the 2022 edition of Hellfest in Clisson, France on June 23rd. You can watch professionally-filmed footage of the band's full set below.

The setlist was as follows:

"Noise"
"Planet Hell"
"Tribal"
"Élan"
"Storytime"
"How's the Heart?"
"Dark Chest Of Wonders"
"I Want My Tears Back"
"Nemo"
"Sleeping Sun"
"Shoemaker"
"Last Ride of the Day"
"Ghost Love Score"
"The Greatest Show On Earth"
"Ad Astra"