Floor Jansen has explained why she left Nightwish, three weeks after the two sides announced the separation by mutual agreement on 15 October.
Speaking to the Dutch outlet NU.nl, she reached for the comparison most people in her position avoid. "I compare it to a relationship," she said. "You go through ups and downs together; at times you grow closer, and then there's more distance again. But sometimes it just doesn't work anymore."
What made it impossible, in her account, was not the distance but the recovery from it. "We had to make sure that, as soon as we were on stage together, we were once again the band that everyone came to see. If that's no longer possible and you can no longer get through the tougher times together, it's over." She adds that this was not a decision taken lightly and that she did not rush into it.
She had sung for the band since 2012 and fronted them for longer than either of her predecessors. Her own dates run through January and February across Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and central Europe.