M.S:First of all, may I ask you about Andre? Is he totally recovered? Was it hard for him to join the band again?
Floor: André cured really fast and recovered even faster. He was back behind his drumkit already in June at the Fields of Rock festival. It was as if he never left us and also today he is still doing very well!
M.S:Let’s now talk a bit about you now. When you were 16 you joined After Forever, you were very young. How did it all arise? & moreover taking into account that After Forever played Death Metal at that moment?
Floor: Yes, I was very young, like the rest of the band. You must imagine though that we where a young group of people who wanted to play metal. The first few years we barely played live, we only rehearsed and worked on our own songs. The band played death but melodic metal when I joined, they where still searching for their own sound. That kept on going when I joined the band in 1997. In 1999 we released our first demo. We never expected it to become such a success :
M.S:Since that very moment you decided to start taking music lessons, & nowadays you have a very extensive career appart from After Forever, with singing lessons, the "Wanna be a star?", etc. Are you having a lot of success with all that side-projects???
Floor: Back in 1997 I never had any lessons. I started the Rockacademy (that´s like a conservatory but then for rock and pop music). While the band was growing I finished my education and also took extra lessons on the conservatory. Today I still study classical singing one day a weak, I give singinglessons and my performing course Wanna be a Star. A busy live but I like it and it´s going very well!
M.S:You’ve said that due to your musical training you can sing in many different styles, such as metal, pop, opera… Does this mean that you’re planning any different proyects not related with the "metal" world?
Floor: I am open for anything : )
M.S:Talking about your new album, the front cover is completely different compared to your previous works, & you appear at the very front of it. Why did you decide to make it like this?
Floor: It´s indeed different. But a band needs to change, grow, have an evolution. These things are very important for After Forever. You mention that I am on the cover, so is the rest of the band! We wanted to show the face behind our music. A lot of people know us as a very good live band. We wanted that sound and looks also on our new album. Next to that we wanted to do something different. A lot of female fronted bands started to make the same kind of covers we also had, we wanted to stick out and show you can do it different to.
M.S:Another curious fact that i would like to emphasize is the quality of the outfit you use on stage. Do you design them yourself?
Floor: Thanks for the compliment : but no I do not design them myself. Of course I do have a clear view of what I want and the girl who designed and made them turned her and my ideas into these great outfits!
M.S:When hearing at your new album, Remagine, we notice very different songs… faster ones such as "Free of doubt", agressive ones such as "Face your demons" or "Only Everything", even the standard one like "Being everyone" or the marvelous ballad "Strong". Was it a difficult composition process?
Floor: Not at all!!! Even the most easy one ever! Our main songwriter has always been Sander Gommans. Now he worked together with our new keyboard player Joost van de Broek. They had this special chemistry going on that made them write song after song. They made the basic instrumental parts. Then they introduced the songs to the rest of the band (I already knew them because I always joined them or followed the process). They added their parts and I made the vocal lines, choir and gruntparts. We knew what we wanted and it was there before we knew it!
Floor: Yes, it´s one of our favourites too! The song is like this: Imagine a little red devil on your shoulder who wants to let you face your deepest fears, he or she seduces you to face them and to be afraid. The lyric has quit a funny intention, it also fun to sing, especially live!!!
M.S:Last summer you took part on the Within Temptaion’s special concert in Java Island, which they were recording for their next DVD. How did you feel in that concert? Was it crowded? Did you sing a song with Sharon?
Floor: It was great, really nice of them to invite us for it. And yes, Sharon joined us on stage singing Beyond Me along. That was great and the audience loved it too! Also the rehearsal Sharon and I had was great, we talked more than we sang :
M.S:Well, that’s all. Thanks a lot for your time, & if you would like to say anything to our readers & spanish fans, this is the moment. We’ll see you in February. Thanks!!
Floor: Thanks for all your support! We´ll come to Spain this very weekend to play on the Piorno Rock festival and we´ll be in Spain agian in Februari 2006 (check the giglist on www.afterforever.com) Hope to meet you all there!!!!!! Greetzz, Floor
David A/ Marcel.lí Dreamevil