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Return to the human air
Returning to the world of publicity and rock music, Ville Valo talks about how he has been affected by the COVID-19 era, the death of manager Seppo Vesterinen and his collaboration with The Agents. He does not promise the return of HIM - yet.
VILLE VALO, 45, is out in the open. He has been out of the public eye for more than two and a half years. That's how long it's been since Ville Valo & Agents played the last gig of their wildly successful summer.
Since then, only one three-song set of new music has been released. That solo career opener, an ep under the VV artist name, was not presented to the public by Valo during his first coronation spring. No, he retreated to his home studio to make more music like a leprechaun in a cave.
Admittedly, the anxiety and uncertainty caused by the koruna at the time was at times also discouraging.
- There were times when I would lie on the couch and think that there was nothing left to watch on Netflix," Valo tells IS.
But now he's smiling like a sunshine in a record company boardroom.
EVERYTHING seems to be the same: a black cap and shoulder-length hair frame a face that occasionally breaks into a familiar smile in the middle of an excited explanation. This is exactly how you're used to seeing him talking about the new releases from HIM.
HIM is one of Finland's most internationally successful rock bands of all time. But HIM is now history, and Ville Valo will release more music under the name VV. The new song Loveletting anticipates next year's Neon Noir album and VV's world tour, which starts in January at Tavastia in Helsinki.
Ville Valo has a new world in front of him.
He had the SAME SITUATION ON JANUARY 1, 2018, WHEN HIM HAD JUST PLAYED HIS LAST GIG AT TAVASTIA.
Valo left his backpack behind, leaving behind his old bandmates, whom he had already played with bassist Mige Paananen and guitarist Linde Lindström before His Infernal Majesty had shortened to HIM and the whole band had a record deal.
- HIM has been a part of my life for a long time. It was impossible to imagine in advance how it would feel when it no longer existed. Then, when he was home alone after the last gig, the feeling was calm - and relieved, he describes.
- After HIM's last gig, the table was really empty. Or I knew I was going to work for the project with The Agents.
IN THE SUMMER OF 2019, The Agents, led by Valo and guitarist Esa Pulliainen , was seen as the main performers at Finland's largest festivals. Although it was a temporary project, it seemed that Valo was just switching from one success band to another.
But being the soloist of a heavy-duty rock band is different from Agents accompanying their soloists with a quiet volume. The light describes that the change was great and instructive.
- It was quite exciting to leave the rock world, which is familiar and safe. And to perform in a band where one's own shyness cannot be covered with crack guitars. It was challenging but also rewarding, he says.
HIM has toured the world, Agents in Finland. Many venues were new experiences for Valo.
- It was great to get to know Finnish music life from a whole new angle. It was also fun to get to know the Pulliainen brothers and the entire Agents crew.
He admits that he was excited in advance about how Agents' vintage interpretations of the versions of the band's old soloists Rauli “Badding” Somerjoki , Topi Sorsakoski and Jorma Kääriäinen once were valid for the audience. Especially when the band performed in different places with each other, for different audiences.
- I was afraid in advance of what would happen at the Flow festival, for example. Will anyone come to see us in a place with a young gang and younger bands?
Another gig I remembered was at Pori Jazz.
- When I was 15, I performed at the final concert of the Oulunkylä Pop-jazz College summer camp on Pori Jazz's jazz street and played dixieland and fusion on bass. It was nice that we were on the main stage with the Agents now and got applause so that the audience stood up. It was a truly magical experience.
- On the emotional side and musically, jumping into the Agent seemed like the only right solution from the start. I didn’t think about it for a second after we had a first session with Esa. But practically excited. And it also seemed difficult to step into the boots of Kääriäinen and other Agents soloists. Am I throwing a little funny thing in the big boots of Kääriäinen I am a fan of? You have to be able to sing in it!
AGENTS-SUMMER, gigs and a record release gave Valo a chance to calm his mind after the band's long career - the band's recording career began in 1996, 21 years before the last gig.
Valo says he learned more: Badding provided attitude education.
- Badding's songs are so sincere and straightforward, Valo admires.
Of course, the same openness and personality was already present in the release of one single in 2016, when Ville Valo recorded Olet Mun Kaikuluotain (You are my Sonar), a version of John Denver's song Annie`s Song , recorded by Freeman in the 1970s in Finnish .
I think everyone liked the song except Andy McCoy?
- Oh yes, the five-fingered greeting from Malmö, Valo laughs.
In a documentary about the Tavastia club, Valo said that guitarist Andy McCoy had unexpectedly hit him in the face with an open palm in the back room of Tavastia, because he said that the Olet Mun Kaikuluotain (You are my Sonar) had made Ville Valo look like a "pop singer".
- That song is heartbreaking. I sang it in one take.
The traces of THESE Finnish songs can now be heard in VV's songs.
- Agents brought a lot of sensitivity and blue-eyedness. In English rock, you sometimes forget the complete openness and innocence that Badding's songs have. The kind that doesn't try to block out real emotions with its cleverness.
- Maybe I was trusting my 14-15 year old self more now when I first wrote love songs. At that stage, you don't wonder if something is corny, you just say it straight out.
And although the corona was paralysing, it also drove me to pick up the guitar.
- When the clouds are really dark, I start writing songs. That picking up the guitar doesn't necessarily lead to a finished song. But the process is important. Music is a lifeblood for me, always has been.
The VV project can rightly be called Ville Valo's solo project. He has recorded the songs for the upcoming album himself, not only singing on them, but also playing all the instruments.
- I wanted to show myself that I could do a song from start to finish. So that the music comes from inside me, and grows in front of my ears. That I do everything myself and don't have to adjust my practice schedule to someone else's babysitting weeks.
NEW ways of doing things, new perspectives... but do the new songs sound so different from HIM in the end?
- If you think about the lyrics, it's the same kind of speculation on the edge of the question. They are important things to me, at least on an artistic level. For me, every day is a matter of life and death. I like to make a bull out of a fly.
- I believe in the power of drama. They are stripes on my back and I don't want to get rid of them. Of course, at the beginning of the whole VV project I wondered if I should start doing something different, but it feels unreal. I felt that the right result comes from doing.
And Ville Valo did. We worked three days a week, from 12 noon to 6 a.m. - that's 18 hours in a row.
- Then three days of sleep. It's easy to get off the beaten track when it comes to making music.
Tim Palmer, the English producer of HIM's last albums, has been supporting Valo on the project, this time as mixer and co-producer.
- When I started over- or under-recording, Tim would chime in. I appreciate him, we have similar musical tastes. He knows how to dig the pop out of the hev and the hev out of the pop.
There have been plenty of trusted people in Light's life. Like Palmer, Seppo Vesterinen worked with Valo for decades. The management legend, who died two years ago at the age of 71, helped HIM abroad, just as he had opened doors for Hanoi Rocks in the 1980s.
- Seppo had reduced his workload and was no longer on site for any of the shows on HIM's last tour. That was a pity. It would have been nice if he could have come to Tavastia to say hello," says Valo.
- He was a saint of HIM. We looked up to him. He built art gardens in Töölönlahti and did a lot of things. He was a good dude and his knowledge and grip on things was second to none. You could trust Seppo. I am glad that I and others got to be part of Seppo's incredible story. My world is not the same after his passing.
Next winter, VV will perform new songs by Valo and HIM productions at shows in Finland and around the world.
The audience will be in front of something new, just like Ville Valo.
WHAT does Ville Valo want to say to people waiting for HIM to return?
- Have any of the bands that have returned been good? Personally, I've hoped for the return of many bands, but have been disappointed when those bands have come back as fumbling versions of what they were at their best," the singer says - and continues:
- But with HIM, I've always thought it would be cool to play together again sometime. But not yet. We were together from teenagers to middle age, we grew up together.
And what about the collaboration with Agents, do you dare to hope for a continuation?
- They don't want me back anymore. I'm a bit jealous of the Spice Girls, though, who are touring with Agents this summer.
Ville Valo's (VV) new song Loveletting will be available on streaming services on Friday.
Ville Valo's new song Loveletting will be available on streaming services on Friday.
Source: www.is.fi/viihde/art-2000008735594.html
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