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The passion of Ville Valo for this band goes back to the 90s, where an unrecognizable Ville Valo was sporting a nice Bad Brains t-shirt, during the days of one of his first band, The Donits-Osmo Experience.
Doniz-Osmo Experience, led by Vilma "Kristiina Halkola’s daughter" Melasniemi, will surely be dug by Primus fanatics and those who admire technical playing – personally I value most of all good melodies and catchy riffs and I haven’t found those in the band’s material at the three gigs I have seen. If the goal, on the other hand, is to combine musical elements in a contradictory way, Doniz-Osmo Experience has succeeded: Vilma’s flegmatic and laconic articulation is a great contrast to the band’s energetic playing. Source: https://hisinfernalmajestyitaly.forumfree.it/?t=41182012
Ville grew up with metal bands like Bad Brains, it was a step in Ville's musical life of extreme importance for shaping the Love Metal genre to which we are accustomed today.
I grew up a bit out of the metal scene for a while and went into more Jane’s Addiction and Bad Brains and all that sort of stuff. Kind of like trying to expand my musical palette.
In 2002, during the Live in Turku (FI), HIM played for the first time the Bad Brain Cover, Sailin' On
Also at Give It A Name on the 27th April 2007, HIM played a Bad Brain cover too, the same Sailin' On. -
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Interview with Jonna for the Iltalehti newspaper - My Family with Ville Valo
"Jonna Nygren, 25, has a strong handshake. Her glance is straight and eyes amazingly green like emeralds. Her fiancé s eyes are the same, with a hint of Aegean ocean s blue in them. Abroad people often think that HIM s frontman and his model fiancée, 173cm and 50kg, are siblings. Even their mothers agree that they look suprisingly alike." In order to read the interview you do click in "leer mas" . Credit: Province
Jonna has some Gypsy blood running through her veins.
- That s why I ve had a very strict upbringing. My grandpa made sure that everyone had good table manners. Parents have to be respected. You have to be honest, Jonna explains.
Jonna s mother was 17 when she got married to the blue-eyed white man. Jonna was born first, then her little brother. Jonna s father now has three sons with his new wife, the youngest is only one and a half years old. Jonna s mother on the other hand has a seven-year-old daughter.
- I love my little sister and brothers very much. Mom and Dad have always been my real parents. But because they are so young, we re probably more like friends than what average children and parents are.
Jonna says that she and Ville want to have children too. But they are in no hurry; Ville s only 28 after all.
- I suffer from a terrible fear of giving birth, though. I wonder how I could get rid of that? Maybe it fades once you get pregnant. Surely they ll get the baby out somehow!
Jonna doesn t think that getting married is absolutely necessary, even if they d like to have children.
- Oh, the children would be bastards, she laughs.
Eventhough Jonna s been the host for music programs on MoonTV and SubTV and worked as a model for Paparazzi, she is somewhat of a stranger to the major public, except as Ville s girlfriend and now fiancée. The reason probably is that she lived mainly abroad for three years. She lived in Manhattan with some models she knew, until she rented a 20 square [meter] flat for herself. In summer she used to come to Finland to work at restaurants, and the winters she spent in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
- Apart from English I also speak some Bahasa Indonesia, because I used to live in small fishing villages, away from tourism. Altough there were some surfers there every now and then. I don t surf myself, because I don t like the water. I can t stand it when I can t see the bottom of the sea. I suffer from a mild fear of closed-in places.
- But I like the Asian culture. Eventhough Europeans would think that they re lives are in very bad condition, they can still be happy.
One of Jonna s Finnish-English friends has founded a Children s home in Nepal. Jonna is planning on going there to work and help out someday, for longer than just a few days.
- My dream is to study to become a child therapist when I m older. I d like to be able to help the abused little ones. Many have to suffer a lot of damage because of their parents substance misuse problems or sexual abuse, for example.
Jonna s mother works as a therapist.
- Mother Amma and her messages to the world are important to me. When I read her books, it makes me want to care about people the same way, without demanding anything from anyone.
Soon it s been two years since Jonna started going out with a man that many girls and boys would like more than just HIM s music from.
- In Finland we basically just hang out. Watch dvds at home and meet friends in safe circles. Ville is the cook in our family. He cooks lovely Eastern food.
Jonna can t get Ville to join her at the public swimming pool where she goes to exercise and do water walking.
- At our friends summer places we can then relax naked. I fell asleep in the sun a couple weeks ago, so now I definitely don t have any sun lines, she smiles.
The love for Ville Valo was the final reason for Jonna to return to Finland in November two years ago.
- The other reason was Finland s cheap medical care. In New York I had to spend hundreds of dollars a week to a doctor. The pollution and the air-conditioning indoors made my asthma so bad, that I had to breath with the help of an apparatus.
Jonna s health has gotten better in Finland. But still she never leaves home without her inhaler.
- I had to quit smoking because my asthma got worse. Nowadays I smoke whenever I m at a bar. I simply like to have a smoke when I m drinking. Of course it s not wise - it wasn t wise when I did ballet and show dance and modern dance either.
And of course smoking doesn t fit a person who goes to the gym in winter to run on a treadmill and goes jogging for an hour every summer morning.
- No, I don t have poles with me. I can go fast enough without them, she laughs at my question.
She hasn t got her singer-songwriter excited about extra sports.
- I never think of Ville as the Ville Valo from HIM who s already, before the age of 30, earned so much money with his music that he d never have to work again to live a normal life.
- I consider Ville to be normal guy. All the fans and stuff seem really weird for me!
The magazines reported earlier that Ville and Jonna got engaged at Ruisrock and got theirselves Dilligaf tattoos that stand for Do I Look Like I Give A Fuck.
- Actually we ve been engaged for a long time already. We got our engagement tattoos at Ruisrock though, but they re not Dilligaf, Jonna says and shows me her left ring finger that has a beautiful V on it. Ville has a J on his.
- I have eleven tattoos. They are just pieces of flesh. Also Ville s V on my finger is a piece of flesh, just like we re a piece of each other s lives. If we break up someday, that part of our lives will be over.
Jonna doesn t wish that to happen, though. That s why she doesn t want to get a permanent job even in television, although she is fascinated by it. That s why she is working as a waitress and a model.
- I don t want to be clinging to Ville at every gig he does. But I want to be able to go with him when we both feel like it." -
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HIM have parted ways with our dear Gas Lipstick, apparently on amicable terms. But who's the new drummer?
It's only a matter of time... HIM are going to play on friday 31st of July 2015 with the new drummer... But who? Vote in this poll!
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All the Ville's Girls - Ville Valo's Girlfriends 1976-Now
Joys and sorrows of the sentimental life of our finnish frontman.
Susanna Niiranen 1998-2003
Birthdate: 5.11.1976
Height: Unknown
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Black
Nationality: Finnish
There are not a lot of interviews about Sandra and Ville. At that time, the management was trying to keep private their relationship. This interview is the only one that let us know more about Susanna: Interview with Ville Valo and Susanna.
Jonna Nygren 2003-2006
Birthdate: 1979
Height: 5' 8½" (1.74 m)
Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Nationality: Finnish
Jonnas and Ville Valos roads crossed for the first time in 2003, when Jonna was visiting Finland. She was slowly planning on returning to Finland, but when the love flamed the plans speeded up.
During thus relationship, the media totally assaulted the couple. They split in 2006 after a tumultuous relationship, made of ups and downs.
More infos about this relationship are here: Ville Valo and Jonna Nygren.
Sandra Mittica 2012-2015
Birthdate: 6 February 1980
Height: 5' 5" (165 cm)
Hair: Brown-Dark
Eyes: Blue
Nationality: French
Sandra Mittica has Israelian and Italian origins. She was an HIM fan since the very beginning, she also interviewed the band in the early days (check out this Q&A with Burton, Mige, Linde, Gas in 2001) and a close friend of many people connected to the band. She was also the girlfriend of the Vanity Beach band frontman, Jonas Karsten. Jesse Oliver Valo, the brother of Ville Valo, is the bassist of the Jonas band.
The first news about this relationship was dated back in March 2012, where in the finnish magazine Seiska appeared an article with photos of Sandra outside Ville's home, talking with him on his doorstep. We posted the scans of the article back in the day, read it here.
After that, many hints appeared from Sandra's social networks. Some of the things well known for the fans are the photos on the Ville's home roof, garden, with Ville's clothes, the engagement cake and many more.
Many says that this relationship was completely made up by Sandra. But there are some hints from Ville Valo himself, that helps us to understand better the situation. Let's read for example this excerpt from an Iltalehti interview:
Tonight to support Ville and the band came his girlfriend Sandra, who travels with Ville to fair amount of gigs.
- Despite the rumors we are not engaged to be married, even though we have of course been around for a long time together. Sandra travels with me to some extent, but she also has a life of her own. She is none like my pet, Valo takes a sip of his Coke and smiles.
From here: https://hisinfernalmajestyitaly.forumfree.it/?t=70966749
Christel Karhu 2016 - Present
Birthdate: 1994
Height: 178 cm
Hair: Brown-Dark
Eyes: Blue
Nationality: Finnish
Edited by Baudelaire In Braille - 23/6/2023, 23:41 -
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Care stopped the medication cycle”
Relationship crisis and burn out drove Jonna Nygren to take care of herself with medication and liquor. People close to her found the lonely rock wife and took her to rehab – 'Then I realized it isn't a shame to ask for help'
JONNA NYGREN, broken up with Ville Valo
“I returned stronger from the rehab”
In the world of society columns Jonna Nygren, 27, should have been a lucky girl. There Jonna lives as a rock wife for the lead singer, Ville Valo, 30, of the most successful Finnish band Him. She spinned around in celebrity-model events and got her own show to host at Moon-tv, Sub-tv and latest, MTV.
The couple got engaged last summer in Provinssirock, and instead of rings they got tattoos on their fingers, and bought a house from Helsinki's most expensive neighborhood. The fans cried for the taken Ville and Jonna got suggestions for an interview with the idea of 'Finland's most hated normal person'. She declined for that story, but in an other revealed that the couple were thinking of names for future children. Ville praised the power of relationship and told that his lady was hoping for a winter wedding.
At the change of the year mud was thrown over the dream headlines. Jonna threw a fit in a bar and screamed holes in her mans ear. Ville, thought to be a gentleman, shook the peace of the high class building, made noise and threatened the neighbor The rocker ended up in jail.
In the beginning of March there were news of the couples shock break up. A few column weeks later Jonna ended up in an hospital. Jonna says she has heard dozens of reasons and versions of why, and in what care she ended up in. Now shes feeling good enough to tell, what was really going on behind the tabloids.
-The most ridiculous comment came from a half acquaintance. According to that, I was partying so wildly after the break up that I ended up in rehab. Right – last months have been absolutely hilarious, my life continuous May day . Things really aren't the way everybody thinks they are, Jonna corrects.
Well how are they then?
Going asleep and waking up with medication
In the beginning of May the tabloids were screaming 'Break up from Ville drove to a vicious circle-
JONNA WENT TO REHAB!”
In reality burn out and its self medication drove Jonna to rehab. Jonna counts that her problems started about half a year ago. When Ville was touring with Him, Jonna lived alone in the couples' apartment and killed time with working. Too much.
Real life really wasn't just living as a rock wife. Jonna has worked in restaurant business her whole working life and in addition to that has done modeling jobs and TV-hosting. The shifts at the favorite restaurants of Helsinki could stretch out to 3 am, and waking up for the days hosting job was at 5am. She started feeling overtired and irritated. Even though the fatigue weighted heavy, sleep didn't come.
-I was always tense, weepy and depressed. Was so damn tired, but just had to go on. I was constantly taking more work, although I wasn't feeling good.
Jonna started medicating her insomnia and bad feelings.
-When I got home in the evenings I drank red wine, so I could relax. Sleep, on the other hand, didn't come without tranquilizers or sleeping pills. That lead to that I in the morning had to stuff my face full with caffeine tablets, because the usual coffee wakening didn't help anymore, she tells.
Over-tiredness, stress and pressure of the relationship got deeper and worse. It was a full job for Jonna to get out of her house and take care of the agreed shifts, but still she couldn't recognize the condition she was getting into.
-In that treadwheel I didn't even notice the symptoms of depression. I felt violent anxiety and often felt like crying, but didn't stop to think what was wrong with me.
The final stop came in the middle of March when Jonna withdrew to her home.
-I was drinking by myself and was physically so dead tired, that I couldn't even drag myself to the bathroom or the toilet. Everything felt so overwhelming. My friends came to visit and found me in the apartment in a confused state of mind. I hadn't showered for a week. I didn't have strenght for anything.
The friends stayed for the night to support Jonna and contacted her mother. The psychiatric-mother, who works with youngsters who have drug problems, understood immediately that now care was needed, not scolding.
-Only after the others came for help I realized that this is what I needed. I felt enormously relieved. It felt like a rock had been lifted from me, when I was found and I got to say, that I needed help.
Mother guided to rehab
Although the ultimate reason for Jonnas sickness were depression and over-tiredness, firstly the drug dependence, that had formed in the near months, had to be taken care of. Jonna was guided to the Aurora hospital in Helsinki, but that didn't feel like the right place, not in her or the doctors opinion. With mothers advice she went to Pellas, which is specialized for rehabitation.
-In the connection you talk about drug rehab. Though I wasn't doing drugs, my medication dependency needed the same kind of treatment.
Jonna praises Pellas' 11-person rehabitation center. A home-like atmosphere and an intimate spirit dominated the little unit.
-The other recoveries were amazing personalities. I don't remember laughing so much in ages. We
were able to laugh at ourselves and our restlessness. That helped the recovery. On the other hand you realized it isn't a shame to ask for help. There are others alike.
Only in the rehab Jonna realized in what a bad shape she had been in.
She portrays herself as a performer who tries to please everybody, from friend to employer.
-I like to take care of others. That way you forget your own troubles. A nurse in Pallas reminded me, that now I was resting myself. There I realized that I don't have to be a superwoman and assiduously assure that I can handle everything. Its ok to say, that I'm completely dead tired.
Pallas concentrates on resting, discussing, eating well and exercising. Jonna had lost weight and was in a fragile condition, so rehab and insomnia were tough for the body, too.
-I did handiwork, when I got an allowance for knitting needles. They were forbidden in the house rules, but luckily the nurses saw that knitting is an effective way for me to calm down.
Jonna was in Pellas for a month. During that time she was only in contact with her mother. The rest of the world had to wait.
-When the month came to close, the thought of leaving was frightening. I had gotten used to having support near. My other life had been on pause for the whole treatment and I was nervous on what kind of pressures I would encounter in the outer world.
After the rehab Jonna started therapy. At first she had a threshold with talking to a complete stranger. When the beginning reservedness was gotten over with the care-relationship became encouraging. Therapy concentrates on taking care of the depression and finding out where it all started. A therapist doesn't give you advice, but helps you think and understand.
-I have learned enormously about myself and realized how things are connected to each other and how our experiences affect us. This has been an interesting journey in myself, and it probably would suit everybody, even if they weren't going through a dramatic stop like this.
Ville calls daily
“The relationship was ended over the phone- VILLE DUMPED JONNA” The engaged couples break was in the tabloids in the beginning of March. It was told that Ville left Jonna with a text message. Jonna doesn't talk about Ville and herself as “we” anymore. Instead of a break up she would rather call it a break. She doesn't want to chew over the reasons of the break here.
-We were both drunk then, one in Athens, one in Finland. We were having a war with text messages, racingly sending each other mean, bitchy messages. It was a blunder episode of two drunkards, where one was trying to focus on its job, the other on keeping its head together. Intoxication is the right state when going through these kinds of things, sneers Jonna
The relationship that has laster for three years is on penalty, until Ville gets back to Finland from his American tour, when the couple gets to talk face to face. The rumors of a complete break up are rubbish.
-We talk together on the phone daily. Ville always calls when hes going to sleep and again when he has woken up. We talk about this and that. How are you, eating porridge, what are you doing, watching a movie
Jonna reminds that every relationship has problems that are not supposed to be straightened out over the phone. You have to talk these things through face to face.
-Even though it's hard to believe, things have a habit of straightening out. I have my idea on how things are gonna continue and where I'll in the end settle up in, but thats between us.
For now Jonna lives with her mother in Hyvinkää. The ex-couples home in Kaivopuisto is on sale and Ville has gotten a new house from Munkkiniemi.
Jonna admits that a traveling job caused pressure in the relationship, but that staying apart also had its charm. Both got time for their selves, and the moments shared together are even more appreciated. Jonna toured around with Him in few occasions, for the longest she was with them on the American tour. Jonna was also going to go to Australia and Japan, but her sickness ruined the plans.
-Only on the road I realized what a hard job the guys are doing. In the morning you wake up to do interviews, then you transfer to where the gig is taking place. In the night you move to the next target where the routines are repeated. Glamour is far from it, and everyone who manages tour life deserves respect.
It also takes guts for them who stay at home.
-Maybe even more than for the one who leaves, Jonna remarks.
The one on the road has its traveling routines and can focus tightly on working, but frustration and longing lurks to the one waiting at home.
-But I don't blame the job for what happened between us. When I got into the relationship Ville was already a successful rockstar and I did know where I got myself into.
To the brake up fuss Jonna takes a humorous stand
-Luckily after it came the break up of the Kirvesniemis, Jonna laughs dryly. All respect to their relationship, but from my point of view it was a relief that the public got something else to talk about.
The seething gypsy blood
“Jonna threw a fit, EARDRUM RIPPED” In the end of last year Jonna screamed herself to the tabloids after a night that went too wild. They were playing spin the bottle with a group of friends, until Jonna lost her nerve and screamed so that the eardrum of Ville, who was sitting next to her, ripped. If the hole had been any bigger Ville would have ended up on an operation table and Villes American tour would have been canceled.
-I was told that for a eardrum to rip you need a 140 desibel shout. It seems I have a voice that carries far. Greetings to the boys of Nightwish, here it goes, Jonna smiles tamely.
She believes that one day this will be laughed about, although now its shameful.
-Never in my life have I been so sorry about anything, or to anybody, then I am about that stunt.
Jonna describes herself to be a mood person, who cries as easily as laughs. Emotions are not held back.
-I let everything come out in the moment I feel like it. My friends are used to it and let me rage for a while, because they know I'll get back to normal soon. I guess it's my seething gypsy blood, says Jonna motioning to her gypsy grandfather.
It was probably the gypsy blood in her when she at the age of 8 told her mother she was moving out of Finland when she grows up. Her friends would become hairdressers, nurses and truck drivers, she would be a traveler. At the age of 17 she left to Helsinki for a few days holiday, and forgot herself in her friends house for a month, and later moved there entirely. A few years later she ended up in New York just as spontaniously: a one month holiday expanded to three years.
Jonnas and Ville Valos roads crossed for the first time in 2003, when Jonna was visiting Finland. She was slowly planning on returning to Finland, but when the love flamed the plans speeded up.
Jonna says she wasn't the least bit interested in standing in publicity next to Ville, and didn't let it change her life. She had gotten her own share of publicity with her jobs on Moon-TV, Sub-TV, and now on MTV. To gossiping Jonna has an uncaring attitude.
-Half acquitances call and tell things on our behalf. So what? That doesn't feel like anything. There are always lurkers and I don't view them as my friends. We had a habit of sending SMS on who found the most 'bomb' headline
What doesn't piss you off anymore, strengthens
“THE SICK LEAVE CONINUES STILL” told the tabloids, but Jonna is on the better half of the recovery. Therapy continues regularly and Jonna has slowly returned to restaurant jobs. When MTVs Headbangers ball returns from the summer brake Jonna will continue to host it.
Right after the rehab Jonna felt like the normal life wouldn't work. She wasn't able to sleep and couldn't find a good rhythm.
-The next phase was, what doesn't kill pisses you off. With the support of others I could carry on, even if it was strength taking. Then came the best phase of recovery: What doesn't piss you off anymore, strengthens. I could look back and notice, that, jes- I went through quite a mess, but came through as a much stronger human. I understand myself, others and the society better.
Jonna used to think that exhaustion was a sign of weakness. Close relations and doctors have praised her to be brave, she did confess she needed help and even told the public about her hell.
-Going to rehab was the best opinion for me at that moment. I wasn't the first, definitely not the last, and asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of.
Jonna is thankful for the support her friends gave her. She hadn't realized how many people she had who cared about her.
-Though, then there are those who think I was in rehab because I was crazy
Jonna admits that she couldn't have survived without the help of her mother. Mom knew, that instead of condemnation, understanding was needed. It would have been easy to turn your back on your drunkard and take a condemnated attitude.
-My mother was an absolutely fabulous help, and the tough experience has brought us together. Lets see, when I bear to leave from her. There we lay next to my mom, my little sister and I. Right now it's the safest place on earth. -
City Tablet Book article April 2000 Interview with Ville Vale and Susanna Niiranen - Interviews From 2000.
A VALO PHENOMENON IN EUROPE
[The title is once again a play on words that’s pretty impossible to translate. Just remember that ‘valo’ means light and the title will make more sense.]
There is a Valo phenomenon in the European pop skies. Our reporter Walter de Camp witnessed this freak of nature at a HIM gig in Hamburg. “And we thought this gig was going to be a secret meeting for fans”, German fan Connie said with a whine.
When on a Sunday afternoon, a week after HIM’s gigs at Tavastia, I entered the bar of Hotel Monopol on Hamburg’s Reeperbahn, where the band’s press conference was about to start, I didn’t have a clear idea of how big HIM was in Germany.
A pretty large group of employees from HIM’s record company BMG Finland were chatting in the ordinary-looking restaurant. The band’s manager Seppo Vesterinen was hanging out at the bar with a latte.
I parked myself on the empty stool next to Vesterinen and after some light small talk I blurted out my wish. I would like to interview Ville Valo, I said. It’s not a massive project, don’t worry. A half an hour will surely be enough.
A painful expression spread on Vesterinen’s face. Wait a minute, I thought, did I say something foolish? The man looks like he has just heard that his old mother had been hit by a car and broken her hip.
The flower manager could barely utter a word. “We’ll see… it could be a little difficult… there might not be time… Ville might be too busy… might be too tired to do everything…”
***
This was when I started to realize that something has happened. The guys from HIM don’t sit around broke in Helsinki bars anymore, planning for their big international break. They have become so big that they have a minute-by-minute schedule.
A moment later things started happening. The boys of HIM were escorted down from their hotel rooms to the table in the corner of the restaurant. The master of ceremony let in the reporters and photographers who had been waiting out in the street.
I sat at the bar and watched the commotion feeling impressed. About fifteen media professionals rushed towards the band crushing each other in the process. Reporters clutched their tape recorders and microphones in their hands, photographers were already pointing their lenses while running. The kings of the pack were three or four fumbling TV cameramen with their heavy cameras on their shoulders. After all they always have the advantage of being able to poke and beat others with their big cameras.
This group crammed around the band’s table. The audio-visual equipment was directed at Ville. Ville boy from Finland. Maybe nobody expected any grand message about life or death from him. They just fervently wanted something to print in pop magazines, something to play on a hit radio when HIM’s single is on heavy rotation and to show on TV with their video.
“Do they give individual interviews,” I asked manager Vesterinen. I tried to keep alive my feeble hope about my own future.
“A few TV channels will get five minutes each,” Vesterinen answered laconically.
***
At a bit calmer moment during the trip to Hamburg, I asked BMG’s marketing manager Kimmo Valtanen what the band had been doing in the more or less a week between the Tavastia and Hamburg gigs. Not that that particular period of time seemed especially important to me, I just wanted to know what HIM does in a week nowadays.
What happens?
“In Helsinki there were all together six reporters from the biggest Spanish radio and TV channels, a group of fifteen Belgians of whom around ten were reporters, from Portugal there were seven people of whom at least five were reporters, and two people from English Metal Hammer. All this was coordinated through the record company because these are new areas where HIM is expanding to,” Kimmo Valtanen began his excruciatingly detailed but very interesting account.
“At the same time there were in Helsinki a reporter and a photographer from German Bravo and Popcorn magazines doing a special report. Bravo was told that the guys would go around Helsinki for two hours and they could take pictures of them. Popcorn got exclusive access backstage.”
“The schedule was that they arrived the night before and spent the night in Lahti, I think. From there they came to Helsinki around two in the afternoon. The first interview starts at three. Ville does promo for a few hours. Then the band was taken to do the soundcheck. Then they did two interviews, first for Metal Hammer and then for Iltalehti. It was nine o’clock at this point. After that the band was taken to Kaapelitehdas in a taxi to do a cover shoot for Helsinki Happens. At 10.30 they are back at Tavastia. The gig starts at 11.30. The guys go home maybe around 2.30.”
While he’s robotically downloading HIM’s schedule from his computer brain, Kimmo Valtanen waves around his right hand, the nails of which are painted with an obscene shade of red. When I asked why the marketing manager had only painted the nails of one hand, he lost his train of thought for a moment. Then he said that the nail polish goes well with his brand new stud belt. Besides, it would be corny if his nails were painted on both hands.
***
All the gigs of HIM’s German tour were sold out in advance. Two days after Hamburg the band performed at a sold-out arena in Berlin for seven thousand people. It was breathtaking. According to a German rock reporter, an unknown band hasn’t seen this kind of success in ten years.
The only club gig of the tour was in Hamburg. The traditional Grosse Freiheit 36 club is located at the heart of the red lights district like its name suggests. Across the street is the Rasputin brothel where I had a few beers among other things the last time I was in Hamburg.
Grosse Freiheit 36 with its upstairs balcony has pretty much the same feel as Tavastia. It accommodates around 1500 fans. Now it’s filled with love metal fans dressed mostly in black.
Germans seem to have adopted HIM’s term love metal with enthusiasm. English reporters still try to fight against it. What love metal? Here in England we have never heard of anything called love metal.
***
After the opening act had played their short set, I randomly interviewed a few Germans who had come to see the gig.
“ I usually prefer heavy metal but this is nice too, it’s fun to listen to in bed with my girlfriend,” a guy called Stefan said. “This is exactly the style of music I like, a combination of radio and heavy metal. And the band’s video Join Me is very transsexual and very fashion. I’m not sure whether (Ville Valo) wants to be heavy metal or more fashionably a pop star. It’ll be very interesting to see. He’s number one on the charts, really popular and makes a lot of money, but he’s really good.”
Stefan’s girlfriend Nicole had seen HIM two years ago at a tiny club in Hamburg. Now Nicole is worried that HIM are maybe becoming too commercial. She and Stefan are annoyed that there are a lot of people at HIM gigs who are not “real” heavy metal fans but just screaming teen girls. They are infatuated with HIM who are constantly on TV and radio.
Connie and Jan had bought their tickets six months earlier when HIM wasn’t nearly this famous. “We thought this gig was going to be a secret meeting for fans”, Connie said. Now she too is a bit bothered that everybody digs HIM. But there’s nothing they can do, even the early fans can’t abandon the band because Ville Valo has so much charisma, he has such a unique voice, and style, and so on.
The band gets a huge round of applause when they come on stage. And when Valo takes off his shirt after a few narcissistic songs, the crowd is jumping up and down.
After the gig, a secret door is opened on the balcony that only the VIPs can enter. The local celebrities – and you should keep in mind that Hamburg is the second biggest city of Germany – gather to suck down free beer and food and celebrate HIM’s gold record in Germany.
I’ll admit that there weren’t German celebrities there famous enough for me to recognize, meaning tennis, football or Formula 1 stars. But the atmosphere is relaxed and cheerful. The guys from HIM march in to receive their gold record. And once again TV cameramen almost knock us mere mortals over the head with their heavy cameras.
***
After about fifteen minutes of talk and pictures the band leaves. The stars are too big to hang around. After that there is a rumor circulating among the media people that the band’s manager has forbidden any more photos. The flower farmer is keeping the situation under control.
This doesn’t bother me a bit. I have already gotten a local paparazzi to take the picture that counts. He has snapped a picture of a dark, breathtakingly beautiful girl who sits at the very best table with a few other Finnish girls.
I congratulate myself. I’m the only reporter there who realizes her existence.
She’s Susanna, Ville Valo’s girlfriend.
***
Of course Susanna is a very well kept secret. Especially the record company bosses wouldn’t want fans to know that Ville has a girlfriend. So I promise not to tell the Germans.
At the gold record party there are also a reporter and a photographer from the 7 päivää [gossip] magazine. They have been to three gigs to see HIM. The poor souls haven’t got a clue about Susanna. The 7 päivää people don’t know that Susanna and another Finnish girl, who’s the girlfriend of another band member, have spent the night at the same Metropol Hotel with the band. I can imagine the aftermath there will be at their offices. How long can they keep this kind of screw-ups on their payroll?
Susanna told me later that in addition to the gigs in Hamburg and Helsinki, she had also been at the gig in Tampere. She traveled back to Helsinki in the same airplane with me. Susanna didn’t want to talk more. It was clear that the record company wanted her to stay quiet. “I’m a non-music related thing”, she said.
When I looked at Susanna, I realized that Ville Valo’s lyrics “let us be so dead so gone so far away from life close my eyes hold me tight bury me deep inside your heart” isn’t just symbolic poetry, even though it’s that too, all that flirtation with love and death.
No, everyone who’s ever fallen in love with a girl like Susanna or a boy like Ville knows it’s so painfully wonderful that you really feel death looking in through a forged mirror.
Susanna and the other girl are both brunettes, which goes perfectly with HIM’s world. Fair-haired girls don’t fit in the black pictures of love metal. Not that there weren’t several stunning blondes at the gig in Hamburg. They just weren’t naturally blonde. They were fake blondes. That’s an important distinction.
***
It’s petty to criticize HIM for being famous, in addition to Finland, only in Germany – the third largest music market in the world – and in Switzerland and Austria. You should keep in mind that Razorblade Romance hasn’t yet been released anywhere else.
The album will come out in the other European countries in April, and after the German tour HIM will go play gigs in new areas. Seppo Vesterinen specifies:
“Luxembourg, Amsterdam, Brussels and another place in Belgium, the first week of May we’re doing promo in Spain, TV shows, then eight days in Portugal, seven days in the UK, then we go back to Spain, Madrid and Barcelona, then we go to Latvia, and so on.”
Kimmo Valtanen says that the enthralled Spaniards are thinking of transforming a big disco into a gothic church for HIM’s album release party. Vesterinen believes it’s only a matter of days until Join Me is in the top five on the Spanish chart. That will open the road to Latin America which will be conquered next fall, in addition to Asia and the US. This is the master plan.
According to Kimmo Valtanen, the BMG International headquarters wish that HIM would be molded into a new Bon Jovi. But they have been made to realize that the band has to develop in its own way.
In Germany, the papers write that in the era of Europop and boy bands HIM might be the savior of rock. Our HIM! Isn’t it wonderful to be Finnish?
Original article by Walter de Camp -
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Soundi 2/2009 interview with Ville Valo - IN A STRANGE AUDIO LANDSCAPE
Ville Valo and Marko Annala are in the middle of a creative period. Both are currently working on songs for their respective band’s seventh album. Soundi mixed things up by switching the songwriters’ iPods for a few weeks. Did it open strange new doors? Did the shy look of the muse’s eyes get a new glow?
Ville Valo studies with interest the black iPod delivered to his door. The content of the 60 GB device makes him smile.
- Ooh, good stuff. A lot of familiar albums I haven’t heard in a while... Rytmihäiriö. Which album..? Oh, one of the newer ones. Okay. And some Rattus, too. This could belong to someone from Tampere. Maybe the singer of Ääritila [Lasse Aaltonen a.k.a. Laturi, also known for the band Riistetyt].
He continues to pensively look through it dropping other names and excluding unlikely candidates.
- I don’t think it’s the Nosferatu of Nakkila [Herra Ylppö]... It could be someone from Oulu as well.
The soul of HIM is one half of Soundi’s experiment where two musicians anonymously exchange iPods. In a few weeks, they’ll meet and compare their experiences.
- On the other hand, there’s this Erkki Junkkarinen department too. Hmm, yeah. Good stuff for the road undoubtedly. And it points to the Lappeenranta gang. Could it be Hynynen [Jouni Hynynen from Kotiteollisuus]..? Even from Napalm Death there are only the albums with Lee Dorrian... The Finnish hardcore always points to a certain direction. Oh. Meshuggah. Hynynen might not have that... It’s probably one of the guys from Mokoma. One of Pätkä’s friends, that’s for sure.
The lighthouse keeper of Munkkiniemi is starting to get so close that he has to be distracted. Ville gladly starts to talk about the big work of Christopher Shy’s that’s hanging on his wall. And about another one that’s upstairs. But that’s another story.
A few days later, “one of the guys from Mokoma”, or more specifically Marko Annala, is turning in his hand Valo’s 8 GB, also black, iPod. Just like Ville, he’s making music for his band’s seventh album and is gladly participating in the iPod exchange experiment.
- Interesting music. Who could it be..? Maybe Jori Sjöroos. Or Ville Tuomi. Or Jyrki69 or Jussi 69. It’s hard to say. I don’t think it’s a metal musician, but rather someone who plays pop music but also likes metal. The ratio between the two genres is the exact opposite of the one in my iPod.
Marko returns to the issue with text messages. The first one reads: “The reggae is throwing me off because the goth and black metal are exactly what you’d expect. The only metalhead I know that also likes reggae is Ville Valo, but I don’t think you would have talked him into doing this.”
And so also the other participant has guessed right. Because I have to rudely ignore the message so that Ville’s identity isn’t discovered too early, the Mokoma frontman sends another message a day before the meeting: “After Ville, my strongest guess is Joa from Sara, but if it’s not him, it’s still a musician born in the 80’s. And a singer-songwriter.”
After about two weeks, Marko is walking down the nave of the Tampere Cathedral. His face breaks into a wide I-told-you-so smile when he sees Ville who’s making faces for the camera. Ville had wished that the pictures for the article would be taken at the cathedral because he’s interested in the building and especially Hugo Simberg’s art in it.
The singers greet and hug each other. Everybody feels like laughing. The look on Ville’s face says that he’s also glad for guessing right.
After admiring the architecture, the frescoes, and the stained-glass windows and posing for the pictures, we discuss the current situation of Mokoma and HIM. Annala has spent time in a rented cottage in Terälahti where he has put the finishing touches on his new songs with a method that’s uncommon for him.
- I haven’t composed songs acoustically before, but now I’ve tried that too, he says. – The guys were just there spending the weekend, and we arranged a few songs with acoustic guitars and an acoustic bass. I’ve been staring at lynx tracks and made music.
Valo and his group are a little farther along. 15 or 16 ideas are apparently in a trying-out stage, and they have even made it to their rehearsal place already.
- Gas’s first baby was born a week and a half ago, and now we have returned to our rehearsal schedule and turned the amps to position 11. It’s lovely to work on stuff in our family-like work environment again, and I’ve learned to trust more in the coincidences of a creative moment and in shared enthusiasm. It’s nicer to go to the studio when we haven’t beaten ideas to death. So that it’s not just mechanical repetition.
Annala thinks that Mokoma will begin work at their rehearsal place at the end of February. He hasn’t written any texts yet, but he sees clearly the direction they are going in. He estimates that the album will be in the stores “in the spring of 2010”.
Valo hopes that HIM will make a demo in March, go to the studio in the spring, and get the record out “in early 2010”. Selecting the producer is the next big step that he is going to go discuss with record label people in California later in the spring. The next album will not be produced by Tim Palmer.
- We have gotten all we can out of Tim and vice versa. Our love-hate relationship is mutual. You have to take a leap once in while. But we’ll find a role for Tim too; it’s probable that he will mix the album. What’s essential now is that the band likes to rehearse and everyone really likes what they are playing. Without compromises.
After taking the pictures, we move to a more earthly setting. Everyone just wants black coffee and “maybe also some soda pop”, but because Ville says he likes bars more than an average café, we head to a pub on Tuomiokirkonkatu.
The conversation starts with how they both guessed the identity of the other. The link between them is Pätkä who Ville mentioned earlier and with whom they both have recorded a long time ago: Annala with Slumgudgeon and Valo with HIM.
Marko: - I thought beforehand that the most embarrassing thing would be if it were some indie guy who I don’t really know or even recognize. I would sit here thinking who the hell is that guy. I was so relieved when I saw you!
Ville had later become a little paranoid with his guesses. He had started to wonder whether he had the iPod of someone very close to him.
Ville: - I even thought this might be Gas’s iPod. It was missing Queensryche, but otherwise it had a lot of stuff that he has too.
Marko: - It was easy to see that the owner was someone who actively updates his knowledge on music. There are a lot of guys who are our age that think that no good music has come out in the last ten years. And then certain stuff, for example Cat Stevens, Jenny Wilson and Jeff Buckley, made me think that it was a songwriter not just an ordinary member of a band. A songwriter’s iPod, definitely.
And as we saw earlier, Ville situated his borrowed device in the right geographical direction. It was in Lappeenranta where Annala started to make music, even though he has since relocated to Tampere.
Ville: - I was just certain that it was someone from Lappeenranta. Standards, challenging stuff, twisted humor. It reminded me so much of Pätkä. A little bit of the Finnhits stuff to laugh at and a little bit of pop – Kanye West and stuff – but also Morbid Angel. And quite a lot of heavy metal.
Marko: - Your iPod does say a lot about you, but I have to say that I don’t feel like a metalhead. The important thing for me is not that the music is heavy. I like all kinds of good music, it’s just that I’ve happened to find the most to explore within heavier music.
Neither of them confesses to having tried to make themselves look better; nothing has been added to their iPods for this interview. They both have, however, removed their own band’s demos and Marko also other artists of his record company Sakara Records – their presence might have made it too easy to guess his identity.
Ville: - I have a couple of other iPods as well, but I like carrying that small one with me because it has so little space. That way you have to update your selection more often. If you have too much music with you, there’s too much to choose from, and you end up listening to nothing in particular.
Marko: - I also often take my wife’s Nano that has only a couple of GBs with me when I go jogging. But the problem is that at home you think you’ll want to listen to certain stuff, and then once you get outside you curse yourself because there’s nothing you want to listen to. Last summer when I ran a marathon, I uploaded enough albums to last me those four hours.
- When you’re jogging, an iPod is good because without music you start to concentrate on your own panting and other sounds of your body. When you’re listening to music, you concentrate on that and running may get easier.
Ville: - I listen to my iPod too sometimes when I walk to the post office.
Even though both have also individual songs on their iPods, they both agree that they prefer whole albums. Annala has never used the shuffle function, and Valo doesn’t have good experiences with it either.
Valo: - I have sometimes tried it to see how it works. But it doesn’t make any fucking sense. I have sometimes been hooked on some individual songs, though. I occasionally use the repeat function pretty obsessive-compulsively. For example, Goldfrapp’s A&E is like that. A compact, perfect pop song. And I didn’t listen to it analytically or anything. It just made me feel good. I seem to be in that kind of phase right now.
Marko: - Could concentrating on individual songs be because you’re working on new songs yourself right now?
Ville: - No, at least not consciously. Right now I’m listening to Chuck Fenda’s Gwaan Plant where the message is “more marijuana we want”, and that really has nothing to do with HIM. “Farmer go and grow because we need more grass / The better the quality, the better for us / because we are rasta dudes.” That’s the chorus and the content. Ha ha ha. Concentrating on individual songs is a new thing for me. I’d also like to know what it is about. We’re really not talking about me listening to for example Solitary Man by Johnny Cash hoping for some unconscious inspiration.
Marko: - I’ve taken listening to albums so far that now I feel bad even skipping shitty intros! I still see an album so strongly as a whole that if they have put in some noise or an intro that feels unnecessary to me, I guess they have tried to say something with it. If I want to listen to noise, I rather put on for example Autechre.
Ville: - If were talking about albums, the last one I’ve really gotten excited over is Witchcult Today by Electric Wizard that has Sabbath and stuff like that in it. I must have bought it four times because my Mac laptop doesn’t read it or any other black cds. Same thing with the newest Katatonia and Cardigans. I couldn’t upload Witchcult Today onto my iPod, so I ended up buying it from iTunes. If you can’t listen to a new record you’ve been waiting for when you get home, it’s sure to piss you off. That’s the same thing that often drives people to get their music from other sources, so to speak. Same thing with the first copy-protected cds. The system actually made listening to music more difficult. It was pretty damn strange that a brand new cd wouldn’t play in your car stereo for example.
Marko: - I have very unwillingly bought a few copy-protected cds, and I remember being fucking pissed when Playing the Angel by Depeche Mode came with some player that had to be installed on your computer to be able to play it.
Ville brings the conversation back to the “songs vs. albums” territory.
- Often I also just want to listen to silence or the humming of the bus. If you’ve just played a gig and you have 600 kilometers of sitting in a bus ahead of you, the first thing that comes to mind is not blasting something like Disturbed.
Marko: - An iPod is a pretty impossible device on the road. In the Karelian yapping that goes on in our tour bus, it’s impossible to concentrate on anything, and you have to have time to play cards too. Often, when I leave to go on tour, I upload something that I assume I’ll listen to but it’s kind of like the books you pack with you that you never read.
Ville: - I have usually managed to read the books I have brought with me. Maybe the distances we have to cover are a little longer and there’s a little more time to kill while waiting around.
Both the 32-year-old Ville Hermanni Valo and the 36-year-old Marko Kristian Annala consider their iPod solely a tool. Neither is particularly attached to it or has customized its appearance in any way. Neither has modified the software either.
The frontman of Mokoma says, however, that he has turned off the volume limit of his player with the help of a friend. His colleague from HIM says he’s going to do the same. So far to blast music he has had to get out his oldest iPod made before such limits existed. The only more unusual program he says he uses is iPod Ripper.
Annala remembers that he got his first iPod “in 2004 or 2005 because I used it to listen to the demos of Kuoleman laulukunnaat”. Valo says he got “the very first model as a gift” from his friend, the American professional skateboarder/jackass Bam Margera “in 2002 if I recall correctly. The capacity was probably 5 GBs”.
The devices fulfil their intended purpose at the moment, so a switch to an iPhone for example doesn’t interest the men. Marko doesn’t want to “create more waste into the world all the time”, but he also finds a more specific reason for his choice.
Marko: - First of all, I’m waiting for another operator besides Sonera to start to sell it and for it to develop technically a bit.
Ville: - I’m scared of having all the technical appliances in one. I don’t like that you combine a phone and a camera and a music player. When one of them breaks, you can’t use any of them.
These attitudes are reflected also on how they view additional appliances.
Marko: - In Mokoma, we often think in a pretty communist way, so we have bought a docking station together for our rehearsal place and our bus. You have to follow some kind of ecological thinking.
Ville: - I have different… docking stations – the term always makes me laugh because “docking” has it’s own meaning in adult entertainment… if you’re not familiar with it, go find out. In any case, I must have five of those. When the first small stations came out, I bought a few just to try them out. We were on the road a lot back then and they felt like a good idea. But the lower frequencies suck. Especially with reggae they didn’t work at all. They were those cheap Altec Lansings and JBLs. And they all sucked.
- Then the first Bose docking station came out, and the bass worked in it as well. It was the wall-like model that weighed a ton, but it reproduced the lower frequencies well. Thankfully the new lighter Bose model finally has an “aux in” plug that I missed in the older one. Even at home I usually play music with AirTunes nowadays, which means that the iTunes in my laptop is running and I direct music to the room I want through it.
Ville says he’s listening to cds less and less. As an internationally touring musician who spends dozens of days a year on the road or in airplanes, he has noticed that many others are doing the same.
Ville: - If we get back to life on a tour bus, iPods have really revolutionized the whole thing. I don’t think anyone wants to return to the days when you dragged with you 120 cds without covers in those Caselogic suitcases. You always ended up pouring beer on them and all kinds of other shit. When you got back home, you always had to throw some of them out.
Why it is the iPod that has become the standard mp3 player and the most common model, the men don’t really know. They think one reason might be because it’s easy to use, another one being the design aspect that Apple has always been good at.
Marko: - iPod is like Pepsodent, Turun sinappi [famous Finnish mustard brand], or Aurajuusto [famous Finnish blue cheese]. A brand name that you use even if you’re not referring to a Mac appliance. In that sense, the branding of iPod has been very successful. I once borrowed a Creative player, but I didn’t like it. Nor the Sony tube-like device that I have even owned. Adding a screen to these gadgets was a pretty big thing. And when I found iPod, I didn’t have to look for anything better anymore.
One of the ideas behind Soundi’s iPod switch experiment was naturally that the musicians would find new points of view and stumble onto previously unknown artists and bands. Annala has listed Jenny Wilson, Silversun Pickups and CKY from Valo’s selection. The last one he confesses he has previously ignored with the thought “I know they suck without even listening to them”, but he has now changed his opinion.
Valo says that Annala’s music library made him experience several “retro flashes” that made him promise to himself that he will get reacquainted with artists he had for some reason forgotten. The list includes Faith No More, Steve Vai, Satyricon, AC/DC and Soundgarden.
- Goddamnit, Badmotorfinger is a great record! Ville enthuses. – Down on the Upside and their gig in Helsinki around that time left such a bad taste in my mouth, that it ruined Soundgarden’s older stuff for me as well. Which was of course totally unfair. I also remembered what an amazing singer Chris Cornell is. It’s pretty demanding listening to Cornell on Badmotorfinger because he sings so fucking well.
Both still like cds as objects and haven’t become regular customers of iTunes or other mp3 download sites.
Marko: - I really only use iTunes if I can’t find samples of interesting music on for example MySpace. I just bought one song from Carly Simon’s new album.
Ville: - First of all, I have to say that I don’t get Steve Jobs or whoever the hell it is that runs the iTunes store. If there’s such a thing as a “world wide web”, why can’t I buy for example one song as a gift for a friend from American iTunes? What is the point in that American iTunes has totally different stuff than European iTunes?
- The latest thing I’ve downloaded is the new The Crying Light album by Antony & The Johnsons because there is nothing in his album covers to make it worth buying them. That’s it. But on a principle iTunes pisses me off so much that I’d rather not use it at all.
The more sensitive download sites have become familiar only out of sheer necessity.
Ville: - I have always had a rule that if I download something illegally, I also buy it legally. I have done it with a few reggae albums, one I Killah and one Dub Judah. I also looked for Seed of Memory by the interesting British artist Terry Reid at one point for so fucking long that I ended up downloading it illegally. Later I found it on Amazon.com.
Marko: - I have the same attitude. I do it only if it’s virtually impossible to get an album legally. And even then I burn it on a cd and put it on the shelf. Kind of like reserving a spot for the real album as soon as I get my hands on it. I did it with Tulus’s first album that I borrowed and burned. Silent Hill soundtracks and the solo albums of Trey Spruance who was in Faith No More and Mr. Bungle are really hard to get in Finland, so I have agreed to burn them from borrowed albums. But I don’t even know what I should do if I had to go look for a place to illegally download the new Kanye West album, for example. I would be completely lost.
Ville: - I know it a little too well. I once looked for one Paradise Lost album for a long time when I was in a hurry to get it, and it seemed impossible to get. Then I went on some torrent site and after a few clicks and an hour’s wait, I had the whole production of Paradise Lost on my computer. That’s pretty gross. I was thinking: what the fuck. These guys have worked for 25 years, they have released albums and toured all over the world, and then everything they have ever released can be gotten like that for free. With one click. In a shitty quality, but still. Then I ordered the records from some internet store and went on a tour. It was nice to come back home and find the records on my doormat. Then I uploaded them onto my iPod in a better quality.
Ville thinks this is an interesting topic of conversation to study people’s sense of morals.
- Some new band whines that the record company doesn’t support their work, but at the same time they illegally download all the music they listen to. It’s a vicious cycle. Or let’s take the guy who plays the guitar and whose band dreams of a record deal, but because they have illegally downloaded all the music they have ever listened to, there no money going around. And record companies have no money to sign new bands. People are pissing in their own pants out of stupidity.
The quotes:
Marko: “Certain stuff, for example Cat Stevens, Jenny Wilson and Jeff Buckley, made me think that it was a songwriter not just an ordinary member of a band. A songwriter’s iPod, definitely.”
Ville: “I was just certain that it was someone from Lappeenranta. Standards, challenging stuff, twisted humor. A little bit of the Finnhits stuff to laugh at and a little bit of pop – Kanye West and stuff – but also Morbid Angel.
Ville: “I don’t get Steve Jobs or whoever the hell it is that runs the iTunes store. If there’s such a thing as a “world wide web”, why can’t I buy for example one song as a gift for a friend from American iTunes? What is the point in that American iTunes has totally different stuff than European iTunes?”
Marko: “In the Karelian yapping that goes on in our tour bus, it’s impossible to concentrate on anything, and you have to have time to play cards too. Often, when I leave to go on tour, I upload something that I assume I’ll listen to, but it’s kind of like the books you pack with you that you never read.”
Ville: “I have a couple of other iPods as well, but I like carrying that small one with me because it has so little space. That way you have to update your selection more often. If you have too much music with you, there’s too much to choose from, and you end up listening to nothing in particular.”
Original text by Petri Silas
Translated by Sineresi
Scans: -
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Guess who's back?
After exactly 3 years, the HIMI Mag returns with the 14th number. In 3 years, many things changed both for the band and for our fanclub. Exclusive for our Tsu followers!
Read it here (in order to read it, you must join us on Tsu, it's free): http://bit.ly/1eHZxyu
Edited by Baudelaire In Braille - 25/6/2015, 01:10 -
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Artist: Five Fifteen
Titel/Title: Death of a Clown (Ville Valo HIM)
Zustand/Condition: 1 OVP / sealed
Format: CD
Label: Record Heaven 2001
1 The Prostitute 5:24
2 Stone Cold Heartbreaker 4:49
3 My Oh My 4:30
4 Lick Your Fingers Clean 5:10
5 She Kicked Your Present Off The Bed 4:39
6 Season Of The Witch 3:55
7 Sometimes It Helps 5:04
8 Child Clown 7:05
9 Sweet Little Dreamer 5:10
10 From London With Love 5:05
11 Death Of A Clown
feat. Ville Valo from HIM doing background vocals on two tracks!! -
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E-cigarette sits in Ville Valo's pocket and hs laughter is sensitive. For all its worth the HIM singer was in a good mood, even though the man was seriously ill at the beginning of May, just after the new Tears on Tape album release and before the first concert of the U.S. tour which had to be canceled.
- The doc said it was pneumonia, which came to an asthma exacerbation. In addition the lungs were clogged and I was wheezing. It was difficult to breathe, Valo says.
The same happened in the past
Valo has been the same once before, seven years ago.
- We are a band that rarely cancel gigs, but you never know if you slip even on the stairs. Cancellation of the tour is painful.
Valo's doctor ordered him bed rest for six days and antibiotics.
- I was laying quietly in the States, because the doctor did not recommend flying.
Valo says he reduced his smoking.
- These days I smoke maybe 7 smokes a day. Asthma is also affecting many other things, such as what to eat, how to exercise and so on. Everything is impossible to calculate, long asthma sufferer explains and playfully makes asthma joke.
The home crowd makes one nervous.
Valo says tonight's gig is very exciting now that the band will come in front of the home crowd.
- Ruisrock is an important and a big festival, and we have not played in Finland for a long time.
Tonight to support Ville and the band came his girlfriend Sandra, who travels with Ville to fair amount of gigs.
- Despite the rumors we are not engaged to be married, even though we have of course been around for a long time together. Sandra travels with me to some extent, but she also has a life of her own. She is none like my pet, Valo takes a sip of his Coke and smiles.
Thanks to Team Heartagram!!! for the translation -
Teen Spirit March 2015 Interview with Ville - HIM Rock God Ville Valo Speaks Out - Interviews from 2015.
Teen Spirit March 2015 Interview with Ville - HIM Rock God Ville Valo Speaks Out
Transcript:
#01 ROCK GOD.. VILLE VALO SPEAKS OUT We met up with the legend that is HIM’s Ville Valo to chat about a career that has spanned two decades, dream fesitvals, and drinking with men in skeleton dresses.. elcome to Teen Spirit, Ville! I know it’s cold and dark outside, so thanks for coming to hang out with us today! Don’t worry we’re use to the dark and cold. The Finnish winters have barely 2 hours daylight, and if the moon doesn’t come out there’s barely any at all! As I’m sure you’re aware everyone loves you guys over here in the UK.. Not sure if everyone does, but we do try. It’s tough but since the release of our album ‘Love Metal’ which came out ten years ago, it really did open up a door for us as people started to enjoy and appreciate what we were about. But it’s a special place for us as many of our idols come from the UK so making it here was historical. / t he he ar t agram ww w. h ea r ta g r a m.co m So you enjoy touring the UK then? Yes! I love the nature, the language; even the weather at times. It’s a cool place to hang out! I’m happy that the tour is ending here. So Is this why you decided to record your music in English? I think it was natural as a lot of the Finnish rock n roll is fairly arty and we don’t have any ‘Finnish metal’; its very based on verbalism. The Finnish language doesn’t really give you the ability to talk internationally and as we grew up with Kiss and Maiden we had big hopes and we had to dream. It seemed easier to write in English. The bar is much lower as Finnish is a complicated language; as i’ve tried writing in Finnish and it didn’t work So you mentioned Kiss and Maiden, what would be your dream line up for a festival? Would HIM headline? If it was a dream festival we definitely wouldn’t be in it; we’d just chill. There are soo many influences so the likes of Type O Negative, Electric Wizard, Interpol, Bad Brains, Misfits - It would be a traveling festival.. and add in Iggy Pop of course as you can’t have a festival without Iggy.. What Festivals really stand out for you either now or when you were a kid? The Roskilde festival in Denmark, it has something like only 100,000 capacity but its a great festival in the sense of it has everything; all different kinds of music and from stage to stage you walk and you’re always surprised at each stage. I went back in 1996 and it was the only time I’ve been to a festival as a paying customer. But it had bands such as Sex Pistols, Type O Negative, Slayer - Some really heavy acts and then some folky acts. So it was amazing! You were force fed so many different kinds of music; as if you went to a Metal festival you get to that stage where you’re bored of the same music so this was a great festival with a great range of music So your career has spanned over two decades - you’ve been killing it for quite a while now. What do you think it is that makes you so relevant still? I mean, you have 8 albums now, that’s insane! So what do you think it is that has kept you in touch with your fans all this time? I think not being in touch with the fans too much. We’re not big on Facebook and social media and i think if its one thing we do well is trusting our gut instincts! I think its important to trust yourself and to please ourselves and hopefully this is the magic you can hear in our music. We’ve always been really independent and even though we have worked with major labels; we’ve always been adamant that our albums are our responsibility and our burden to carry to the pearly gates as so; so it’s something that we have to be proud of. There has to be passion and a reason to make the album. Whatever we do has to be heart felt as so many people nowadays get into it and lack the passion and prefer aspects such as social media and forget the music. That’s something that I think is not very special about us, but is very HIM. So Teen Spirit is all about the alternative - alternative babes, bands and, of course, tattoos. Now the Heartagram is one of the most iconic, recognisable band logos out there, how do you feel when you see your fans with it tattooed on them? Very Proud! I think it’s very similar to songs. When you write a song its yours.. when you rehearse it with the band, it’s ours. Then once it’s out of our hands it’s the peoples to interpret the way they want it. When I drew the Heartagram, I didn’t know what it was going to be like but it grew and traveled really well all across the globe and it’s really recognisable and acknowledged worldwide. “Im proud to be a part of that! I think the best things come when it just happens and goes with the flow. It’s the magic of it.” We didn’t have any hopes as it was just a logo and it’s been a very surreal journey! So, besides fans getting the Heartagram tattooed on them, have you had any really crazy fan experiences? What was the most intense? I mean different cultures have different ways. In some Eastern European places you have more aggressive people, where people think they own you and grab you. But everywhere is different. Take for example, we played in Wolverhampton and I was checking the city out on a Sunday night when I ran into a guy called Mr Death a big fan who was dressed in a Skeleton Dress and we ended up in a pub drinking pints and chatting shit about TV; so that is what I call a very crazy and intense fan but in a positive way! He listens to my music and we probably listen to each others favourite bands. But then we do have people come along and knock on your door in the middle of the night, which is crazy.. That happens probably once a month. Is there a song that particularly goes down well or have you got one that is your personal favourite to get the crowd going? I mean one song that goes down well, especially in the UK, is Buried Alive by Love. It’s one of the songs that got good plays and it was one of the first songs that people thought “This is HIM and this is what makes them special”. But people react differently every night to different songs. Some places you have a calm crowd and others you’ll get moshpits. “So thank you so much; its been a great pleasure! This is Ville Valo from HIM reppin’ Teen Spirit!” -
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A few weeks ago, we decided to stop posting on our Social Networks and on the Forum. After a break, we decided that we are going to take the best HIM fansite, HIMI, to the next level.
We noticed that with over 4000 followers on Facebook, only the 50% (in the best cases) was able to view our posts. On Twitter it's the same thing, 4000 followers but our users can't follow us properly because these networks started to offer "money-for-visibility". We don't like that, that's why we are going to take HIMI to the next level with...
Tsu it's a new Social Network that first of all displays your posts to ALL your followers, and also gives you a few money for your content, so we'll be able to buy some toilet paper, at least.
We are supporting the band HIM since 2008, with the forum. In 2009 the Twitter and Facebook page were made. Since that day many things changed, but our passion it's the same since day one. Supporting the band HIM it's our first goal. We are not moving to Tsu for the money, but because we are sick that Facebook and Twitter are selling out its users. We want a FAIR Social Network, and Tsu is the right way to be Social.
For now, we will continue posting on Facebook and Twitter via Tsu to help this transition.
If you want to take part of the revolution and join us on Tsu, we have a special invitation for you, directly from the lost city of HIMI:
http://bit.ly/1SywyeX
Fill the form and register to Tsu, it's free of course. Then, follow us. And we will give you the best News, Photos, Interviews and Curiosities about HIM!
Edited by Baudelaire In Braille - 21/6/2015, 21:54 -
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Ok let's say that this quote here:
Women are always beautiful.
Is way overused. We all know Ville's said that. But with this article we have collected some of the rarest Ville Valo's quotes and after this article they won't be rare anymore
Enjoy.
"You could say that we are the Scandinavian, dark version of any boyband. Except that we write our own music. And our choreagraphy is not that polished. Plus, we don't look as good as the Backstreet Boys."
**"Happy songs making me very sad. The worst are Vengaboys - I really get depressed!"
** Well I'm always in the same 'sex symbol' category as Marilyn Manson and Mortiis, so make your own conclusion.
**It's unbelievable, unintelligible and totally unnecessary. Everyone says I'm a sexsymbol 'cause you can see me with my naked upper part of the body on the 'Razorblade Romance' cover - laughable!
**You ate Rudolph?
"I usually don’t eat red meat, but when I hear ‘Rudolph the red nosed reindeer’ I start drooling. They make this long hard trip form the North Pole to bring us presents, and then we eat them. That’s the Finnish way of saying ‘thank you’."
** 'I love you', those three words are the beginning of every tragedy...
"Death Is In Love With Us"
The gothic hymn. There's also a bit Stoner Rock in it. This song is a part of our environment campaign 'Save The Goths'. Black lipstick is cool.
**I hate talking about my own songs. They're all about women anyway...
**My idea of heaven is a bit unusual...
**My lyrics are personal therapy, I'm saving a little money here. Actually I'm making a little...
**We share everything, we're like the gothic Kelly Family...
**The boys in the band are my platonic lovers...
**I write lyrics to express my own desperate teenage feelings...
**The less sex I have, the more inspiration I have for beautiful songs...
**we are like chameleons, we can be whatever we want to be. If one day we dedide to get really drunk we can paint our faces and pretend that we are Michael Jackson
**I hate make-up...
**A TV evening with the right person can be more erotic than sex with the wrong one.
**I have a real fucking bad emotional fixation...
"Back in Finland we have this childrens TV show and we found out that one of the presenters of this show was.....erm.....he was a peeeeeeedofeeel aand I was so shocked and saddened by this news I want you all to....Join Me In Death!!!"
"I'm an ugly fuck really, they just do my make up good, but I drink a lot....as you can tell *waving 7th beer at audience* but I only drink to forget all the beautiful women who have left me....making me a Solitary Man!!"
** It was an incredible feeling to move into your own place. One didn`t need to fear the toilet door would open while masturbating
**My parents probably were disappointed when I quit school. But I have a feeling that my dad is more disappointed over the fact that until today I haven`t passed my driver`s license.
**I was hyper active and around the age of seven they made me do all kinds of tests, like fixing wires to my head, to capture magnetic signals. But in the end the doctors didn`t find anything and I got a special permission to draw in class, because otherwise I wouldn`t sit still. I wasn`t really bad, just a bit wild. Apart from that nothing special really happened during my school years.
**Well I was never the kind of guy to have steady relationships, and in my school years I had no real girlfriends. I just dated some girls sometimes. The first time I had sex was so late, that I don`t even want to talk about it.
** Of course I could pretend that I had sex when I was twelve or seven - the way everybody wants to show off, even though it is all make-believe. Let`s just say I was already quite grown up. Until then I got by with the help of my right hand.
**"There is no need for me to be a clean personality.I dont't wash my hair ,my body or anything.It's more organic that way"
Music's always been really cathartic. It's the best drug for me to get away from the everyday pressures just for a second via a good song.
I like to listen to mellow stuff on the road like Travis, as we are constantly surrounded by rock music on tour and so its nice listening to mellow stuff. Obviously back at home I listen to a lot more rock music.
I think a good beauty tip is to think of good thoughts every day. It starts from within. Not necessarily positivity, but a bit of, kind of, how would I put it? Acceptance and understanding, if possible at all. If not understanding, then discussing and bringing forth what it is you’re not understanding and trying to figure it out. Because if you let those continuous loops of thoughts revolve around your head, that will make you old, that will make you ugly as well, that will wear you out, from within. We know how it can be. Everybody has gone through that stuff. But as opposed to saying some acne whatever gel is better than the other, I’m saying that it all starts from within.
There's always reason to make mistakes. Because then you make new mistakes next time. So they're beautiful mistakes..
Even at school I studied ethics instead of religion.
I've always been a huge reggae fan..I'm also a huge fan of James Dean, that got me start smoking..
We're trying to have the band create something beautiful that hopefully one day, 20 years from now, can be picked up by a kid and hopefully have the same effect that Neil Young had on me, or Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath..
As far as the difference between the American and the European fans is concerned I guess, for example, in Europe every country is different. When we play at home in Finland and Scandinavia a lot of people come to the gigs and don’t really party. They do clap their hands. But lets say an American crowd is really wild and so is the crowd in lets say Greece as well. I guess we’ve been fairly successful in getting these peoples asses shaking and getting their vocal cords ripped out before the gig is over...
“The ones who are wise keep their mouths shut.” So there is no reason to brag about any knowledge. I am still fairly young so what the fuck do I know and am as stupid or wise as everybody else. Keep on reading your books and treat your parents good that’s the only advice I can give you. To the younger and to the older as well. A lot of older people forget about their parents at some point but it’s always good to keep reading as much stuff as you can. A lot of people rely on wikipedia and there is a lot of shit on the internet so I don’t prefer to learn about life in the digital world, but to instead hook up with real people and share experiences that makes life worth living for.
My parents, they are pretty liberal, and not necessarily everybody in Finland is. For example, I wasn't baptized when I was born. My parents thought that if I wanted to believe, started believing, or wanted to be a part of a church, religion, or movement, I could make that choice for myself. So that's the kind of attitude towards life I really do respect. They gave me the opportunities to make a lot of decisions of my own and that doesn't happen too often, anywhere in the world.
We don't consider ourselves as a Goth band because Migé is too fat to be a Goth.
The name Him came from Helsinki ice-hockey maniacs and it was our protest to Haile Selassie's rastafarian religion, he used to be called His Imperial Majesty..but nowadays because of Linde's hair, we actually might be supporting him.
if I could change the past I would take away all the wars.
I'm afraid of heights.
My attitude to drugs is negative.
I hate Nazis.
I hope I'm not an example to young people.
I cut my hair because it was a psychosis.
My maxim to the young people is: "Don't kill"
I believe in God for the sake of orphan kids.
The kind of women I like is Tarja from Nightwish.
The kind of man I like is men like Migé.
The most important thing in life is sleep.
The most embarrassing question one reporter asked me was if I enjoy necrophilia. The only person he embarrassed is himself, and journalism..
Music for me is an emotional thing and it really does make me happy. It`s not a tool for me to get fame or see my face in the papers or anything like that. It`s about the fact that I really do enjoy it.
So basically, I think music at its best can be everything. It can be totally stupid and very intellectual and emotional at the same time. I don`t think all those things shut each other out.
Some genres I`m not a huge fan of but there are always exceptions that break the rules. There are always a few people doing it in a way weird enough to grab my attention.
It`s like that with what sort of ideas people outside of the band have of HIM. They all see it through a different lens as well which is beautiful. Hopefully, it makes it an endless topic of conversation.
The biggest misconception about HIM is that we are miserable bastards. A lot of people think that we play really melancholy music, people think that we are really miserable. Actually, you know, I think that it is a very cathartic thing. You get your shit into the music and you can be a happy person outside of it, and eat ice cream and listen to the birds sing! And watch Jim Carrey movies...no, I hate him, I hate comedies..
The guys in Kiss used some make up too so at first it was exciting. I`ve almost stopped using make-up nowadays.
I`m living my dream right now. I get to make music, perform and travel.
I`ve got asthma. When I was 17 I forgot to take my medication and was taken to a hospital for almost two weeks. After that I`ve taken better care of my illness.
Music is the same with visual arts, you have some really cool, wonderful striking images that make you think and then again you have wonderful striking images that just take you away from the existing world for a second. And I like the latter a bit more.
They ask me what is the pre-show ritual of our band...I try and smoke as many cigarettes as I can. No, basically some of the guys they sit down and play chess. The most ridiculous thing on our tour now is we want the local chess master from the chess club to come backstage so the guys can play a couple rounds of chess before the gig. It’s pretty nerdy, but we are kooky when it comes to that.
Personally, I don’t do shit before a gig except sit down and smoke some cigarettes and have a laugh with the guys, and then just hop on stage. We don’t sacrifice any babies or do like a circle jerk or anything like that. We are good boys when it comes to pre-show rituals.
I`m a collecting maniac and I buy a lot of books and records. I have over thousand cds.
Talking about covers, whether visually or sonically, if a particular combination of notes struck a chord in your heart in a way that you want to be a part of it by covering that song, then there`s nothing wrong with it.
Well, for us, it`s always better not to have too many expectations and to just go with the flow because then it`s always a big plus no matter what happens.
Art is always criticized and always an outsider gets the blame.
Εverything can affect us like the music that we hear right now(he's talking about a finnish song). I like songs from Madonna,Cradle of Filth,Manowar,Elvis Presley. I love songs and not their creators, I'm just sufficed by a nice melody. Only a chorus could make me feel good. In my opinion,this is the most healthy attitude.
If somebody asked us to recover the whole soundtrack of a film we would not accept the proposition if it was a comedy. As regards a drama, like "The English Patient",yes. I would surely write the music for a Tim Burton's film as well because we admire him.
Mc Donald's is art. Mc Donald's is also murder. Meat is murder. Remember that.
Am I supposed to remember my first kiss? I've been kissing all my life so I've completely forgot how my first one was like.
My room is like any other room, with a bunch of unnecessary stuff. I've got a million things I don't need. In the middle of the room is a big bed, and in the corner a few old guitars from the sixties.
After listening to HIM, we want people to walk away with the understanding that all roads lead to Black Sabbath in the realm of rock n' roll.
Back in the day we used to do a cover of the Backstreet Boys, yeah. Actually we played "Larger Than Life" at a couple of festivals. We wanted to piss off some goth fans. It was pretty funny to see guys like that know the chorus and be singing and dancing along to it....
"Many other artists who sing about hope think that it is something every single person carries within himself. I'm not so sure if that's true. For me, hope is the little light guiding you the way, which reminds you that life does have a sense, that you have goals. To believe in that is often more easily said than done."
Some rumors say that I am a descendant of Count Dracula. I wish I knew! My grandmother, who was of Hungarian/Romanian origins, did claim that we are descendants of Dracula. But she is dead now, and I can't ask her about that anymore. I am doing some research on it, because it would be very cool to be
relative of a vampire. But I myself am absolutely not into blood, you know. I'd rather have a good glass of red wine!
I love my mates even if we are different in some things...I had my last holiday in `91...Gas is going to watch some hockey matches in the United States of America, Linde and Migé just went to Nepal (Kathmandu) and I don't know where Burton goes. He is a mystery man, so don't have a clue. Mige is afraid of ghosts, I'm afraid of heights and Linde is afraid of nothing. If I wanted to seduce a girl I'd write her a poem. As for the approach, I don't have a scheme. I always improvise. Lily (Linde)would buy her flowers. Mige would laugh at Linde saying tha he'd buy a cheap, half dried up red rose because he would do nothing but wait for her to approach him. He's a very passive type of guy. He's wild only on stage.
To attract Mige's attention you have to be exceptionally funny and tolerant. Linde likes decent girls. I like when a person has a certain dose of madness and art spirit....and that person has to have a special shine in her eyes, and I can see that shine right away. But we all like sleeping, chess, the Adam's Family, we prefer night to day, Halloween to Christmas, weddings to funerals, X-Files to Friends, Abba to the Cure and Heaven to Hell because we all want to go there...lol.
I’d been reading about an old myth about souls with butterfly wings being immortal souls. That’s where I got the idea. To rip out the wings of a butterfly, to destroy something beautiful for egocentric purposes...
I think life is all about good manners. You should open up doors for ladies and you should say ‘thank you.’ You should not swear and you should not spit. That’s what my parents told me and that’s what I’m trying to do. It’s brought me this far.
I believe in music, and I believe in the power of love, and I believe in the power of friends and the people around me and my family.
A song or a painting can be a catalyst for yourself. It subconsciously alters your state of mind and it gets something out of yourself, and I think that’s a good thing.
The glass is half full or empty? Let's put it this way: the glass is half-empty, but the fact is, I can always get another drink.....
I've never been into lying. Even when I was a teenager and my parents asked me have I smoked pot, I just said: ‘Yeah.’
The people wearing white can be as evil, as dark and melancholic as the people wearing black.
In my eyes, perfection is imperfection. Perfect imperfection. That’s perfection.
My house was built in 1845. It was like a defensive tower. Supposedly haunted.
I’m immensely proud of the Heartagram. People having tattoos of it... it’s amazing. It’s not a symbol - it’s a movement. I love religious symbolism... The heartagram is like a modern popular culture version of yin and yang, because it’s got that heart and it’s got that pentagram. Both good and evil. It just looks good...
Nowadays music is filled with hate and egoism, and I can’t stand it. I would rather listen to Cat Stevens, because that is what touches my heart. I might be old-fashioned when it comes to music, but that’s really the only style that gives me goosebumps.
When I'm thinking, I think in English and Finnish, probably Finglish. Somewhere in between.
I love singing, but being on stage, being in the center - it’s nerve-wrecking.
When people feel bad, they usually never listen to positive stuff. They always listen to gloomy and doomy and rocking stuff. It’s kinda like a cathartic thing. They’re experiencing their pain with the artist, maybe from a different angle or on a different level.
We do have a light at the end of the tunnel and whether it is an oncoming train or not, we do have a few seconds to enjoy it before it hits us. That’s my way of celebrating life.
I have a lot of books at home, maybe 1500, and I’ve read maybe 70% of them. So I’ve got a couple of books left that I haven’t touched yet, since I haven’t had the time. Actually the world of poetry is so vast that it’s impossible to know every author.
I very rarely give up and I never want to let people down.
The first record you hear by a band is always the one that you hold dearest to your heart even if it is not necessarily the best representation of that band.
Record companies are devil worshippers - not us.
The world is a beautiful place. You never know what's awaiting you at the next corner.
If I was a candy, I would be a Kinder Egg, because they’re full of surprises, aren’t they?
I don’t cook. It’s a waste of time, very expensive and useless since I don’t have anybody to cook for.
I always find a warm home in a song, when it’s raining outside symbolically.
(about ‘Screamworks’): “We’ve always had that yin and yang type of thing. The word ‘scream’ is yin and yang in itself, since there are very different types of screams; screams of pain and screams of pleasure. So it’s in the head of the person who reads the title how they see it and how they feel about it.
I have given up on love several times. Love unfortunately doesn’t give up on me.
When it comes to art, or music, or expressing yourself, it’s one of those things that, in this world, in this modern time - everybody’s probably said that in the past 2000 years but - pain is a reminder of that you live in a way.
If I was a city, I’d probably be Helsinki, because Helsinki was bombed back in the day. It’s ugly, but it feels like home.
If you play ‘Love Me Tender’ I will cry. That song unlocks a lock in my heart that no one else has been able to. And that’s enough. You don’t have to analyze it, as that is what’s so beautiful about it. That song is more powerful than 666 cans of Red Bull. It gives you that kick up the ass.
What’s the biggest compliment you’ve gotten from a woman? “I often hear something positive about my singing voice and that I look better in reality than on TV. But those compliments don’t really do anything for me, since I know that I’m a good singer. It feels good if they compliment my songs.
Love is madness. You can't put it in doses. It either surges over or under.
It´s like thinking whether the politicians are human beings or not. And of course everybody knows they are not.
I still do believe that people learn from their mistakes, and that’s probably the only way you can actually learn. You do something, and all of a sudden you realize that you feel really bad because of it. And it makes you not repeat that thing, which means that everybody does have their own rules of good and bad.
I hate talking about my own songs. They're all about women anyway...
I hated school. And school hated me. Even though I quite liked some opposition. I was interested in history and maths. Art and music were also okay. At the age of 9 they forced us to learn Swedish, which I absolutely didn't feel like. To this day I still don't know a single word of it. English was much easier, because I already knew that from television. They don't synchronise films in Finland, you know, they only subtitle everything. The teachers couldn't stand me, cos I was wild and violent. I constantly had rows with anyone. I still don't move out of the way for a good fight."
I can't remember anything about my first girlfriend. It's also difficult to say who exactly was your first girlfriend. The one you first held, the one you first kissed? Or the one you first slept with? I was always in the company of girls anyway. They are more easy-going to hang around with. What I looked like, I dread to think. Probably like shit. But the girls liked me anyway.
I've never been interested in anything else but music. Sports I found terrible, doing it myself at least. But I also can't understand how people can like watching it on television. My most valuable possession? Probably some old vinyl record of mine.I collected everything I could possibly lay my hands on: records, jewelry, antiques, Catholic art - Through the years that only became more difficult instead of easier!
My mother has Hungarian roots, lives with my father and mybrother in Helsinki and we have a very close relation. When I quit school, she let me do what I wanted and tried to support me. She was just disappointed that I couldn´t go to the army. Now she´s proud of me and my success. My mother and my father are happy. They often ask me for free-CDs. But actually it´s nothing special for them to see me on stage. They have seen me preparing myself for this moment and rehearsing since I was fourteen. Now they are happy that I finally can do what I´ve wanted to do for a long time, and that I can pay my rent and get by. She is the woman on the cover of the EP "666 ways to love"...
The good thing about sadness is that it usually tends to end. Life is a roller coaster ride. You gotta be sad to be able to really enjoy the moments of happiness. If you’d just be happy all the time, you wouldn’t be able to appreciate the happiness.
I’m ready, willing and able to go mad myself, as well. I’m pretty mad already. I lost my mind years ago. Insanity is my companion.
I was lying when I said I didn’t bathe very often. I bathe every day.
I have a big heart and a small brain.
I listen to good songs, so the genre is not important.
Mige: “Which one are you (Barbie or Ken)?” Ville: “Probably a mixture. Ben.”
I love hearts. They are symbols for life, love and humanity.
Why is the ‘Razorblade Romance’ cover pink? Ville: “My idea originally was to have the cover pink, because it was kinda like a small f*** off to the goth freaks that tend to think that there can’t be any self-irony in there..
I don’t really mind if somebody believes in whatever if it helps that particular person to cope with life.
Charlotte Roche: “I’m allowed to swear. It’s my show.” Ville: “Think of all the kids. Think of the influence. There might be two four-year-olds: "Oh, she said ‘f***ing." Now I can say ‘f***ing.’ "Imagine that! You destroyed a couple of lives."
What wouldn’t you wear in any case at the first date with a girl? Ville: "Any STD. Sexually transmitted disease."
Ville (about Gas): "His heart is so f***ing big that it pushed some of the brain out of the ears when he was growing up."
I’ve always been writing all the music sober, but I’ve never toured sober. During writing the previous albums maybe I was working on a song, and then at the end of the night I went in a pub and got wasted. So this time around I was just working on a song and went to bed when it was finished.
In the case of me talking about particular painful things that caused me to write a song, I would destroy the image that people have created about our songs.
If you are friends with someone, you don't give a fuck if your friend likes Madonna, or is a boy and likes boys, or likes red meat. It doesn't mean that you have to like boys, or eat meat, or like Madonna. You can just enjoy their company.
Music is my God, and is the only love that has never left me.
Ville (about the first time he sang on stage): "I felt like I was going to s**t my pants. I was always afraid to sing because I was shy and I was meant to be the bass player. I’m still afraid, but they make me do it. After a couple of beers, I’m fine. Before, when I played bass, I was at the back somewhere, laughing my ass off. Now I am up front! The first time I sang I wore brown bell bottoms, just in case I really did s**t my pants"
I don’t have a driver’s license. I can’t write about Ferraries.
I wanted to be in a band because I have the same passion that Frodo had in ‘Lord of The Rings.’ I want to put that ring somewhere. I want to create a body of work. I want to create a great body of work. I want to do things right.
I have a love/hate relationship towards performing. I was really nervous about singing at school, and didn’t dare to do it, and then suddenly, the little egomaniac in me popped out. It happened when I heard ‘Angel Dust’ by Faith No More and ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ by Jane’s Addiction. The personalities of Mike Patton and Perry Farrell intrigued me, so I thought I’d give it a shot. I thought if I tried hard enough, I could do it too, and so far, it’s been working out pretty well.
What was the most embarrassing thing ever happened to you on stage?
Ville: “The funniest thing was probably Mige. The crotch from his jeans ripped off and he doesn’t use any underwear. So it was pretty funny playing in German Arena. Loads of little kids in the front. He was like trying to hide his little pinhole with a bass guitar.
What qualities should a rock god possess? Ville: “Wit and the ability to perform verbal acrobatics. They don’t even necessarily need to have a good voice. It depends on what you want. I like those guys who are visually great, but then again, I also love people like Neil Young, who have something to say.”
Some people are at ease with their partner; I feel at ease with music. With my guitars around me, I forget about everything, I forget the pressure of real life. Music has always been the escape.
I remember this garage that always had pin-up calendars. I was probably only three years old, but it was my first proper boner. I was like: ‘What’s this happening inside my pants?
No, I'm not pessimistic. No, no. I'm a Finn.
Do you love to be a front man?” Ville: “I’m scared of it. I was supposed to be a bass player of HIM or a drummer, but we couldn’t find a singer. That’s the reason why I started singing. I still don’t really feel comfortable.
That's the root of all evil - to expect something.
I’m proud to be pagan. Finland is not really a religious country. I’m still looking for my god.
Our song ‘Your Sweet 666’ is more of a tribute to Led Zeppelin and Iron Maiden’s ‘The Number of The Beast’ than to something actually evil.
A lot of people see art as a kind of a shield, like a mask that they wear, so that they don’t have to apply to the rules of society.
If I was a fairy tale figure, I’d probably be... There’s couple of options. I’d probably be the Little Red Riding Hood, because I’ve always wanted to wear red and be a little tiny girl.
Are you a little bit nervous before you go to stage or you are used to it by now?” Ville: “It’s like giving a lecture in front of a class when you’re a kid at school. So you’re really nervous before, and then when you go there, a couple of seconds - all of a sudden the nervousness is gone.
“I love you” - those three words are the beginning of every tragedy.
Music is like sonic painting, and that’s what I consider myself to be pretty good at.
I love religious symbolism... The heartagram is like a modern popular culture version of yin and yang, because it’s got that heart and it’s got that pentagram. Both good and evil. It just looks good.
I was brought up in a non-religious family. I haven’t been baptized. I don’t believe in Satan or Satanism or the Christian dogma or Islamic or whatever.
That music and the lyrical aspects of Razorblade Romance is so personal to me that, now with me being grown up a bit and meeting new people and doing new things, it makes me look at the same things I was writing about back in the day through a different colored lens.
We went to Roskilde ’96. I was not supposed to be going. We drank our asses off. Then I woke up with only one pair of whatever on me, my asthma medicine, and one pack of cigarettes. I woke up in Denmark. It was quite cool. I didn’t even have a tent or anything like that. I was trying to get into tents, but people wouldn’t allow me.
I hate happy music. That makes me sad. Sad music makes me happy.
”Too much work makes Ville a dull boy.”
I love kids, a lot of my friends have been having them. I think we've reached that age. If I was a father, I'd like to be able to be around for the kid and that isn't possible in the band at the moment as we're traveling so much.
I'd be a hell of a dad. I've got a good sense of humor, good music taste and I collect toys and cartoons. I have everything a kid needs! You've got to be strict to a certain point. I think honesty is the most important thing. If you give your kids the benefit of your experience and tell them the dangers, then they can make their own minds up. I'd tell my kids that they're never on their own, that there's always someone there to care for them and that they should respect that.
Everybody's a piece of art. Everybody's got a story to tell. Everybody tells it in different ways. Some people tell it with the way they walk, some people tell it with the way they talk or the way they smile, you've just got to have some imagination.
We are very lucky that what we do is something that people have really taken to their hearts and we thank them dearly. I think the people who hate us are the sort of people who still think that Manowar are the be all of rock and roll and still think that Rob Halford is straight....
There are many magnificent records, but I must mention Kiss's Animalize. I got the sparkle to get to music business, when I was little and I saw Kiss's gorgeous big budget music videos, with hairy chests, expensive cars and beautiful women.
I don't read much, I don't have interest in books like I have in music. You can listen a record again and again, you read the book once and that's it. I don't like fiction, the mostly I like true stories, like Rauli Badding Somerjoki's (a Finnish musician) life story.
I don't like winter. Then I try to work as much as possible cause you can't do anything else. And in summer it is far too hot. I can't stand too much heat and I hate sweating but Finnish summers are quite manageable. Summer in Finland means the sun never goes down at all. I do love it but I also love the fact that autumn is coming afterwards.Autumn and spring are my favourite seasons.
My favourite city is Oulu. Good atmosphere and mentality, pleasant people and nice cafes.
Admired person
There's lots of them, I can't choose just one. I'm going to answer to this very Finnishly: Tapio Rautavaara (a finnish singer). He is an all time idol, a man who reached much and screwed up a lot, but never loosed his face.
Love is the funeral of hearts. Falling in love is the best way to kill your heart because then it's not yours anymore. It's laid in a coffin, waiting to be cremated.
Posts written by Baudelaire In Braille |
