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 HIM News - Archive 1996-2011

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tatianaf
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1996 - 1997

HIM Jyrki - 22nd November 1996






1997

Ville Valo HIM Nummirock 1997 (in finnish)



Ville Valo - Interview 1997 (in finnish)






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1998 - 1999

1998

Ville Valo interview 1998 ( VIVA Overdrive )



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2000 - 2001

2000

Ville Valo interview 2000-RockPalast-OsterRockNacht



Him - Festival interview 2000+ Interview Jyrki 2000




Ville Valo & Mige Amour interview about HIM album Razorblade Romance & Join Me In Death 2000



Ville Valo & Mige interview (Bl!tz 2000)



Ville and Mige interview (Hurricane Festival 2000) Part 1/2



Ville and Mige interview (Hurricane Festival 2000) Part 2/2



Ville and Mige interview at Southside Part 1 (2000)



Ville and Mige interview at Southside Part 2 (2000)



Ville & Mige 2000 Interview SWR3



Ville Valo interview (Jyrki 2000)



Ville Valo talks in Polish interview (14.11.2000)



HIM Ville & Migé Interview in Cologne



HIM - Poland 2000 - Interview + Autograph Session + Part of "Resurrection"



Tiikeri - Interview with Ville + Gone With The Sin (TV1 14-10-2000).



Interview with Ville & Mige (Gurten Festival 2000)



Ville Valo -London Pub Interview (part 1)



Ville Valo - Interview at London Pub (part 2)



Interview Ville Valo at airport Athens



Interview Ville & Mige (VIVA Swizz TV) Part 1 from 2



Interview Ville & Mige (VIVA Swizz TV) Part 2 from 2



Ville Valo & Mige at meeting in Finnish embassy in Berlin



Ville Valo and Zoltan interview (Viva2 News)



Ville Valo & Mige Amour M'era Luna interview 2002



13th floor Movie Interview

HIM - Poland 2000 - Ville Valo and Mige @ Wroński Beat





Ville & Mige on movies



Join me 1999_2000 интервью



HIM versus Kafka




2001


Ville Valo and Migé - Interview 2001





HIM - Poland 2001 - Ville Valo interview (VIVA Polska)





Interview with Ville and Mige Rock Am Ring 2001



HIM - Pretending - COMET 2001+ interview with Ville



Ville Valo Interview 2001 - Fast Forward - part 1/3



Interview with Ville Valo (ViVa 2 from 2001)



Ville Valo & Mige Interview 2001 - MTV Masters - part 1



Ville Valo & Mige Interview 2001 - MTV Masters - part 2



HIM,s Ville Valo - interview at Ruisrock 2001





Backstage interview with Ville Valo. Part 1 from 4



Backstage interview with Ville Valo. Part 2 from 4



Backstage interview with Ville Valo. Part 3 from 4





Última edição por tatianaf em Qua Jan 11, 2012 7:03 pm, editado 3 vez(es)
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2002 - 2003

2002

Ville Valo Interview & HIM live at Turku



2003

Ville Valo HIM Interview by Thomas Rainer



Ville Valo Love Metal Interview & The Funeral of Hearts video



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2004 - 2005


Citação :
H.I.M. with Skindred and Finch
Orlando, FL Nov. 3, 2005
by Jen Cray

H.I.M. may not be a household name here in the States yet, but in their native Finland they are rock royalty. Embarking on a "celebrity" endorsed tour (Bam Margera is rather obsessed with them, calling them "the greatest band in the world," and adopting their heartagram logo as his own), they are surprising American promoters by selling out the mid-sized venues they've been booked into. Add that to the fact that their audiences are fanatical, and you've got the makings of a cult following. Just weeks into their first major U.S. tour, this band has already outgrown the midsized venues of America.



Jen Cray
Skindred
The House of Blues looked like Halloween, with the majority of its patrons wearing varying degrees of Goth chic. It's amusing and encouraging to see so many young faces bold enough to smear on heavy eye liner and wear black lace. I felt 19 again, going to '80s goth/industrial night at The Embassy! With such gloom and doom coloring the audience, it's amazing that openers Skindred went over as well as they did. A rap/thrash/punk/reggae outfit from South Wales is an odd choice to pump up H.I.M.'s crowd, but singer Benji Webbe's presence onstage is irresistible. Even if the music doesn't grab you, his charming ways will. Dressed in black and highlighted with rasta colors, Webbe ignited the crowd with his exuberance and his tongue-in-cheek ridiculing.

"If this were a contest, this side of the crowd would be kicking your asses," he calls out to half of the pit. When someone gives him the finger he replies, "Fuck me? For telling the truth?!"

After Skindred's 30 minutes of pure entertainment, Finch played. Watching them makes me ponder a question that's been aching my brain for the past couple years: When will emo die? It's on its way down, but it can't get there fast enough for me.



Jen Cray
Ville Valo and crowd
The wait for the headliner's set induced more than the usual amount of impatience. This crowd was so desperate for H.I.M. (and specifically for singer Ville Valo) that people were piling into the floor area at such an extreme rate that the fans upfront were begging security to help them. Crowd surfers were toppling over heads not in elation, but in a desperate attempt to get out of the crowd, "I can't breathe! Get me out!" was a common plea. As the security hands pulled bodies from the masses the mostly teenage wreckage inevitably collapsed at our feet in the security pit. Few passed out, most looked on the verge of vomiting. All of this, before the main act started!



Jen Cray
Valo
Having delayed their set an extra 10 minutes, presumably to allow for the crowd to settle, when the lights lowered and the famous heartagram backdrop was illuminated by blacklight, all worries of suffocation seemed to cease. There's the roar of the crowd that naturally welcomes a headliner, and then there's the reaction of a H.I.M. crowd, which was borderline maniacal.

Opening with their current single, "Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly," Valo's baritone crooning and slow-paced seductive presence onstage reminded me, oddly, of Frank Sinatra. Yet his style of dress could be likened to Willy Wonka, and his smile to The Joker. He's a strange arrangement of influences that can only be categorized within the title they have personally chosen for their musical sound, Love Metal.



Jen Cray
H.I.M.
Spending the majority of his time at the edge of the stage, singing to the largely female audience upfront, Valo is a metal frontman who seems to want to romance his fans rather than nail them. Backed effectively by four very versatile looking Finnish men, H.I.M. has something extra to offer that it's difficult to label. It's not just their music, which doesn't do much to satisfy my ears, it's their presence. Specifically it's Valo and the aura that surrounds him. The fans can certainly sense it. Over the course of the long set, which included the Chris Isaaks' cover of "Wicked Game" and the dark and sexy "Your Sweet 666," the Orlando audience rested comfortably in the palm of Valo's hand.


Citação :
Interview: Ville Valo
Larger Than Life

Years of hard work have launched Finland’s HIM
from a band with a modest cult following in the
United States into the mainstream. With some
help perhaps from their “Heartagram” logo, HIM
has become a household name among hard rock
and metal fans. At the band’s stop at the 2006
HFStival in Columbia, Md., frontman Ville Valo
spoke to Jason Price of Live-Metal.net about the
band's song writing process, the status of the
band's next album, the struggles of touring in the
United States and more. In the end, Valo squashes
the solo career rumors and discovers that all roads
lead to Black Sabbath.

Live-Metal: What is the biggest misconception about HIM?

Ville Valo: 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! [laughs] And watch Jim Carrey movies.

Are you a big fan of Jim Carrey?

No, I hate him. No, I hate comedies. [laughs]

How do you feel that you have evolved as a band through the years?

It is hard to say how we have evolved because I have known the bass player and the guitar player since I was nine years old. So we have grown up together and we were playing in different bands. When we started out we were kids and now we are getting into our mid-life, our mid-life crisis type of thing happening [laughs]. You know the more you do, the better you get, hopefully!

How did the “Heartagram” logo, so heavily associated with the band, come to be?

Let's see. I am turning 30, so it was like, about nine years and seven months ago when I turned twenty. I always draw things, so I was drawing and waiting for the rest of the guys to come to my apartment with kegs of beer and getting ready to start celebrating me turning into a man, so closer to one, and I just drew it down. I have always loved Led Zeppelin, their four symbols on their fourth album and Rob Zombie and White Zombie's visuals and stuff like that. I always wanted to make a symbol for our band, and then we got it.

You have had a slow build in the United States. As you have toured theU.S. for the past few years, how has touring changed you?


Well to be brutally frank, touring in the States is a pain in the ass every now and then because the travel is really, really heavy, especially on this tour. We just flew in from Seattle, tomorrow we are flying to New Orleans, so it is like zig zag, zig zag, zig zag. The distances are so long compared to Europe. Europe is a lot easier. It is like maybe 200 miles a night. You have a bit more time to hang out and sleep better and stuff like that. This is heavy duty traveling all the time. With Dark Light being the first album properly released here, we have been doing some press for it and it's being played on the radio now, thank God. Of course it has changed the vibe. A lot more people know who we are.

What was the biggest challenge in making Dark Light?

In making an album, there are always a lot of little tiny challenges. On Dark Light, I think that the biggest challenge was to try and sing the background vocals while they were shooting a Playboy video at the same spot where we were recording. It was pretty hard because all we could see was naked ladies running about so it was really hard to concentrate.

Understandably! How long did it take to write the album?

I write constantly, so it may take two months to record and a month to mix it. I write all the time, so maybe four years. I usually write a lot of stuff that is not necessarily ready and we start working on it later on. We are not one of those bands that would go into a pre-production stage and write everything there. A lot of American bands, for example, do it.

What is the typical song-writing process for HIM?

I have a hangover and sit down on my bed, I have an acoustic guitar and start strumming and pretending that I am Neil Young. Then we put on the distortion pedals and we rape the song. That's what we do!

How many songs will you normally write in preparation for an album?

Only the good ones. I hate songwriters that write 100 songs for an album and pick up the 10 best, because it is a fucking waste of time. We try and write the stuff that feels really good and we are sure that we want to record it. So if there are 12 tracks on an album, maybe 14 all together.

After listening to HIM, what do you want people to walk away with?

Walk away with the understanding that all roads lead to Black Sabbath in the realm of rock n' roll.

For those how haven't seen HIM live, how would you describe it?

Umm ... We are like a very miserable version of the Backstreet Boys.

You used to do a cover of the Backstreet Boys.

Back in the day we did, 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.

What are some of your favorite songs to play live?

Well that is the good thing about being in this band. It differs from day to day because at some places people prefer some songs and when you are playing live it is supposed to be an interaction thing happening between the crowd and the band. So it keeps on changing everyday. That is the only reason to do it or it would be boring.

Do you get a different energy from playing a small club versus a bigger venue?

Well you know, thank God, we use so many strobe lights and heavy lights that I can't see shit nowadays anyway, so it doesn't really matter. I just see the three first rows.

Your music translates very well acoustically. Any plans for a possible future acoustic release?

No, well, no. Umm. Fucking hell, no. I think that there are so many good acts doing great acoustic stuff now and our forte is doing what we do, so not necessarily. Maybe we will incorporate a bit more of acoustic sections in our music in the future, but no, it would be boring. I hated the "Unplugged" series.

Have you started working on your next album?

Yeah. We have about eight songs that I am working on at the particular moment.

So you have been writing while on the road?

Yeah, I carry my guitar with me, so I try to read and write and do everything as much as possible.

What does the future hold for HIM as a band? I have heard that you have contemplated some solo work in the future.

Well, no, no no. I have a few more Pink Floyd-ish things that I have been writing in the past, but we will probably incorporate that into HIM's music, as well. Because at the end of the day when I start writing a song, it always ends up being on our album.

What do you think about the state of rock music today?

I think that the state of rock music is really good. I think there are a lot of good
bands that we have had the pleasure of touring with, like a band from Seattle called Aiden on this tour and they're great. Kill Hannah's new album is really good. The Strokes new album is really good, the latest one. I think that there is a lot of good happening, but people think that rock is dead. But it has never went away.

You guys have been on the road for a while now, and toured relentlessly. How has life on the road affected you and your music?

The more you tour, the more liberating it becomes. You don't think about the technical aspect of it anymore. You just have fun. It is a bit more loose, and the hangovers are worse. That is what it does to you! [laughs]

Any stories from your life on the road that you might want to share?

Plenty, but most of it is very X-rated. [laughs] You know, the normal stuff, just watch Spinal Tap and it has all happened to everybody who has played in a rock band and been touring.

Have you ever had any “Spinal Tap" moments onstage?

We, you know, I am always losing myself. I never do soundchecks, so I never know where the stage is, so I always keep on fucking that up. I always walk in the wrong direction. We've had most of it. We never had the cocoons where our bass player couldn't get out and we never had Stonehenge. The rest is very close. [laughs]

What was the first album that you bought?

The year was '84 or '85 it was Animalize by KISS. I still have the vinyl.

What about the last album you bought?

The She Wants Revenge album.

Aside from that, what else are you listening to?

I am listening to Killing Joke and Kill Hannah and everything that starts with a "Kill." I don't listen to a lot of music. I think that nowadays the best music is books. So I am reading a lot of Chuck Palahniuk. I think that is more inspiring than listening to a lot of rock bands or pop bands or whatever. And Damian Marley.

And finally, when do you think Chinese Democracy will be released?

You know, hopefully never. I haven't heard the songs that leaked onto the Internet, but somebody told me that they were shit. I think that they should either do a reunion or you should call it a day.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?


Ummm ... No! [laughs]


Credits: Article's Owner


Última edição por tatianaf em Qua Jan 11, 2012 12:43 pm, editado 2 vez(es)
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2006 - 2007



Citação :


Drunk becuase Panik Attacks"

HIM frontman VILLE VALO became an alcoholic after he discovered drinking helped him cope with the panic attacks he began suffering while working in the studio. The 29-year-old Finnish star refers to himself as an on-off alcoholic but is determined his problem will never get out of hand. He says, "Look I'll be honest. What happened was, in 2003, while we were recording LOVE METAL, I started having panic attacks. I got so scared of them, I had to have two pints of beer just to be able to get into a taxi. "I still suffer from that but I'm getting better. I've always taken things further than anyone else in the band. I've been... diving into some deep ditches. "But not so far that the others haven't been able to drag me out."
07/04/2006 19:24



Citação :
Valo once attacked by scissor - Wielding Psicho

Finnish rocker VILLE VALO was once attacked by a psychotic fan armed with a pair of scissors, but he refuses to let the experience put him off meeting his public.

The HIM singer likes to accommodate music fans seeking an autograph and a chat, but is now all too aware of the potential for unhinged behaviour.

He says, "We have the odd person who will come up and talk to us about flying on a broom stick and we had one incident with a girl, who we call 'The Polish Motherf**ker', who tried to attack me with scissors and cut my hair even though she wasn't drunk or under the influence of drugs. She just had a pretty vacant look in her eyes.

"It was pretty scary a fan like that can take it too far but there is nothing wrong with showing dedication to a band you love."

10/01/2006 17:10 .

Citação :
HIM struggle with Topless Models

Finnish rockers HIM struggled while recording their new album DARK LIGHT - their Los Angeles mansion was overrun with topless centrefolds.

The group rented a live-in recording studio only to discover that their fellow tenant was Playboy magazine.

Frontman VILLE VALO says, "I was doing my backing vocals and watching, like, a sea of breasts outside.

"It was good fun for the moment, but our balcony was filled with people setting up lights, and it's not easy to have naked people running about when you want to concentrate and do an album."


04/10/2005 09:14 .

Citação :
12 Acts in the Running HIM Including on Eurovision Contest!, final decision 17 th Febrauary 2007

Finnish finalists known on November 8th

The race to represent FInland on home ground at the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki is truly under way. The announcement of the finalists, originally due on Monday 6 November, will now take place on Wednesday 8 November. YLE have been in close negotiations with all major record labels and are looking for entries that will become hit records in Finland.

The announcement of the 12 finalists that will bid to follow Lordi as Finland's representative is highly anticipated. YLE has sworn all artists involved with the final 12 acts to secrecy, so don't expect any news to be confirmed until the press conference next month. We saw in neighbouring country, Sweden, last week that artists can be disqualified from the selection procedures for making public statements that can influence the selection process.

Escfinland.eu suggest that YLE will avoid the fans believe that there should be a large rock contingency in the final after Lordi's win in Athens, and will seek to provide a wide cross section of Finnish popular music.

The selection format for 2007 will remain the same as last year's. There will be four semi-finals, in which three artists will peform two songs each. The public will select each act's best song by televoting. This will leave all 12 acts with one song in the final. The final will take place on February 17th 2007.

Speculation in the poll run on popular Finnish forum, ww.viisukuppila.fi, has centred around PMMP, Hanna Pakarinen, Anna Eriksson , Antti Tuisku, Sunrise Avenue, Annika Eklund, Apocalyptica, Don Johnson Big Band, HIM, Indica 17 , Tarja Turunen, Tiktak, Agnes, Arja Saijonmaa, Dallas Superstars, Paula Koivuniemi, Rasmus, Firevision, Lauri Tähkä & Elonkerjuu, Olavi Uusivirta.

Of course since Lordi won the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest with Hard Rock Hallelujah, Finland is automatically qualfied for the final of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest.


Citação :
13.02.07. Summer festival dates in Finland, and a new album on its way

HIM has been confirmed to play the Ilosaarirock and Miljoona Rock festivals in Finland this summer. They'll be hitting the stage alongside other Finnish bands including PMMP, Apulanta, Popeda, Neljä Ruusua, Eppu Normaali, as well as legendary German rockers The Scorpions and British prog-rockers Porcupine Tree.

Read more on the Ilosaarirock and Miljoona Rock websites.

Meanwhile, the band will begin recording their new album later this month at Finnvox studios in Helsinki, with producers Tim Palmer (Love Metal, Dark Light) and Hiili Hiilesmaa (Greatest Lovesongs Vol.666, Dark Light). This as-yet untitled album will be released worldwide sometime in July, while lucky Finnish festival-goers will be treated to a performance of new material at the Miljoona Rock festival and the following day at Ilosaarirock festival.


Citação :
Ville Valo Says Sad Music Makes Finnish People Happy

In an inter

"I still consider that 'Finnish-ness' very important - that Scandinavian melancholy. Sad music tends to make Finnish people happy! They never want to listen to that happy-go-lucky stuff".
In an interview with Music OHM.com Ville Vallo, the front man of Finnish band HIM, which had a huge success and gained fame with their album "Love Metal", said the most representative Finnish song of HIM is "Wicked Game".


Ville said: "When we started playing as a band one of the first songs we ever played together was Wicked Game by Chris Isaak and I think that song has that Finnish quality. I still consider that 'Finnish-ness' very important - that Scandinavian melancholy."


"Finnish people, especially, are a bit more influenced by the Russian and Eastern European things, where all the traditional stuff is so sad - and you know that sad music tends to make Finnish people happy! They never want to listen to that happy-go-lucky stuff."


When asked about the meaning of HIM's latest single "Wings Of A Butterfly", Ville Valo said: "I have no idea what the f**k it's all about! [Laughs.] No, I read about some ancient myth or legend - I can't remember but it wasn't a Finnish one - saying that immortal souls have the wings of a butterfly."


"So I was thinking, for me, it was more about ‘rip out the wings of a butterfly for your soul'. I was thinking: 'Are you willing to destroy your past and burn some bridges down to be able to step up to the next level, in a relationship or even spiritually?"


Although Ville is engaged he said he and his fiancé Jonna have not set a date for the wedding, but they "got some kooky ideas" about it. He said: "In a way it's going to be a marriage between heaven and hell, so no worries!"


When asked whether his marriage will change his music, Vile Valo said: "Well, every pint of beer changes your music, every day you live changes your music, so it's hard to say. But it's definitely not going to be some sissy, poppy, naff crap! It's still going to be dark as f**k..."


HIM's latest album "Dark Light" has sold over 500,000 copies in U.S. and more than 900,000 copies worldwide, according to Billboard.com.

Published on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 5:26:00 PM GMT

view with Music OHM.com Ville Vallo, the front man of Finnish band HIM, which had a huge success and gained fame with their album "Love Metal", said the most representative Finnish song of HIM is "Wicked Game".


Ville said: "When we started playing as a band one of the first songs we ever played together was Wicked Game by Chris Isaak and I think that song has that Finnish quality. I still consider that 'Finnish-ness' very important - that Scandinavian melancholy."


"Finnish people, especially, are a bit more influenced by the Russian and Eastern European things, where all the traditional stuff is so sad - and you know that sad music tends to make Finnish people happy! They never want to listen to that happy-go-lucky stuff."


When asked about the meaning of HIM's latest single "Wings Of A Butterfly", Ville Valo said: "I have no idea what the f**k it's all about! [Laughs.] No, I read about some ancient myth or legend - I can't remember but it wasn't a Finnish one - saying that immortal souls have the wings of a butterfly."


"So I was thinking, for me, it was more about ‘rip out the wings of a butterfly for your soul'. I was thinking: 'Are you willing to destroy your past and burn some bridges down to be able to step up to the next level, in a relationship or even spiritually?"


Although Ville is engaged he said he and his fiancé Jonna have not set a date for the wedding, but they "got some kooky ideas" about it. He said: "In a way it's going to be a marriage between heaven and hell, so no worries!"


When asked whether his marriage will change his music, Vile Valo said: "Well, every pint of beer changes your music, every day you live changes your music, so it's hard to say. But it's definitely not going to be some sissy, poppy, naff crap! It's still going to be dark as f**k..."


HIM's latest album "Dark Light" has sold over 500,000 copies in U.S. and more than 900,000 copies worldwide, according to Billboard.com.

Published on Wednesday, January 03, 2007 5:26:00 PM GMT

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Citação :
HIM -" It's cool to be Licked"

HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 453qhvl


Citação :
Shelter from the Rain: Judakris Exclusiv Intervew with Ville Valo and Mige Paananen

Since October 18, 2007, HIM have been on tour supporting their latest release of Venus Doom. It is now October 26 and the band is in St. Louis to perform at the Pageant. On this cold and rainy night, lead singer Ville Valo and bassist Mikko (Mige) Paananen offer Judakris a bit of shelter inside their tourbus for an exclusive interview.
As my friend A and I enter the bus, we are immediately impressed with the amount of Halloween decorations that take up every inch of the place. Ville and Mige stand up to greet us and offer us refreshments: coffee, water, or beer. As we get situated in the lounge area A makes an observation about the amount of yellow crime tape. As it turns out, the tape is real and not exactly a planned acquisition. According to Ville, after their recent performance in Washington D.C. someone got shot about 6 feet away causing their bus to become part of the crime scene. The band was not allowed to leave until the investigation was over. Once it was, they drove away with the tape and decided to put it to good use.
We were allotted ten minutes for the interview, and it seemed a shame to have to get serious. I don't even take my sweater jacket off because I am worried about running out of time. But, when it is all said and done, the interview stretches into just over an hour, 15-20 minutes before the band is scheduled to appear onstage. And, it honestly doesn't feel like an interview as much as it does a casual conversation. Ville is intense but both he and Mige are extremely warm and personable and very good listeners. There is not a hint of bravado during the entire conversation. They take pity on an interviewer who is not just a writer, but a fan as well. Looking back, it all could have gone so terribly wrong. It could have, but it didn't.
I have the latest issue of Blender on me, in which a letter to the editor references Ville's comment on marketing HIM dildos (with realistic casting) and states that she would be most interested in Linde's because "he must be packin!" That's where we begin, but during the course of the interview we hit a number of topics including where Ville stands with writing the next James Bond theme song, the things they miss most about home, lessons learned, and of course, Venus Doom.

But, let's cut to the chase.

K: Will we be seeing HIM dildos?
V: No we're not doing that.
K: I'm actually really glad to hear that!
M: You're not curious?
[Laughter]
K: Me? No!
A: She's only saying she's not curious.
V: [Laughter]
K: I could be, though. But, moving right along. One of the latest rumors on the web was that you had been approached by the producers of the James Bond movies to co-write or to write the next theme song for the Casino Royale sequel. Can you confirm this?
V: It's a very flattering idea. Of course it would be great. We grew up with Bond, but I've never even met those people. It's just a rumor. It's good to do little projects like that rather than the same old same old.

K: Like Synkkien Laulujen Maa? [I murder this pronunciation and am quickly corrected by Ville] I have this cd and it is beautiful. Forgive me for not knowing a lot about Finnish folk music, but is this a good example of that?
V: All the time people are asking, well, wtf is Scandinavian melancholy. To Mige: When I sung that [begins to sing] "kun mina kotoani läksin"... that explains a lot about Finnish folk music. It's not necessarily pathetic, but it's really, really sad. That song is about you leaving your home and the world is treating you really cruelly and you're falling in love and you can't get the girl you want. It's a classic, folklore type of thing. That's the stuff we grew up with as well as Kiss and Black Sabbath. So that's probably where love metal itself came from.
K: On the latest album Venus Doom, the track Song or Suicide, is that in the same vein as what you're talking about with the folksy style? It's acoustic and it reads like a poem. It doesn't have the standard song structure.
V: That was the idea, yeah. It was more like an "intimate". That's because we had a long track (Sleepwalking Past Hope) that precedes it. Like in the 70s they had a lot of that shit happening.
K: Lots of prog.
V: Yeah, well like Led Zeppelin. Or if you listen to Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the tracks will be straightforward Black Sabbath, and then all of a sudden the third track is an acoustic intimate that lasts for five minutes. And not a lot of bands do that nowadays. It was nice to play around and not limit ourselves too much.
K: I feel like as we go farther into the future that everything has to be fast and immediate. Easy and fast pop seems to sell a lot and it's a challenge when you put something with more of an album feel, more complex, longer, etc.
V: True, but there's people that like David Lynch and there are people who love reading romantic poetry and there are people who love Stephen King. [laughs] There's nothing wrong with Stephen King.

M: No, absolutely.
V: But actually if you think of the world of literature, I guess that fiction is going in a good direction with stuff like Kite Runner. Literature seems to be becoming more proggy. The romantic novel structure is fucking dead.
M: Yeah, perhaps music goes in phases as well. People get sick of hearing the same thing. They have iPods with one song from every artist. Maybe our album was a reaction to that.
V: But there is a cool thing about iTunes. Just a couple of months back I set up my own account for the first time. It's strange, you know, if I'm all of a sudden, "what was that great song from A-Ha…The Sun Always Shines on T.V. I WISH I could hear it now." And then just you just 'click' and bring it down. I love that. It's great.
K: [Looking at A] We're obsessed with our iPods.
V: It's good.
K: Growing up in the 80s, I feel like it was all about the single. Same with the 50s or 60s.
V: Well, same with the 40s. The iTunes generation is nothing new. The medium is different, but albums started happening in the 60s. You didn't have long players before the 60s. So, this is nothing new. People want the best, which is their right, rather than spending 20 bucks on an album with only one great song. So, that's reasonable I guess. That's the thing that record labels figured out. Take Paul Anka, who got, like, 2 big hits, and they last four minutes altogether and you could put them on the A and B side of the single that costs 3 bucks. Why won't you sell an album that costs 13 bucks that has filler? Because you make more money out of it - obvious reason. Bands like the Beatles and Led Zeppelin, they changed the format. So, an album can be a conceptual piece. As musicians, we are fans as well and we keep downloading one-song wonders [correcting himself to say one-hit wonders], it's obvious that that's going to affect the way we start writing our songs. We get bored of that. So that's the reason probably Venus Doom as a whole is more like an album with more of an album flow. Some songs are longer and there is more mood in the songs, more than we've had before. That's our reaction to the iTunes 'thing,' which we still do embrace.

K: Do you have a problem with filesharing? Bootlegging?
V: Well, bootlegging is a different thing. That's always a sign of a great band: the more bootlegs you have the better, obviously.
K: Besides that you once said that when gay rumors start that that was a sign that you had made it.
V: [Taking a drag] Mmm-hmmm. When it comes to the fact that people are downloading albums for free...the making of Venus Doom took me about two years to write. I gotta live off of something. I can't tour and write at the same time. I can't have a normal day job. To Mige: What was the budget for VD? It cost like 250 K to finish the whole album, with mastering, the cover art work, everything. Where the fuck do we get the money to pay for that if we don't get people to buy the album? But then, let's say there's a reggae artist called -----, who I'm a big fan of, but that stuff was never released on cd. I found a site where I could download the album where someone recorded it from vinyl digitally. I was like "yes!" I'm definitely going to buy the album whenever it comes out on cd, definitely. That's my rule. I don't want to piss on my own leg, you know, not on purpose anyway.
K: Ha, although we've all been there. [Laughter]
V: Haha. I guess my point is that especially with young musicians who download a lot of shit for free - what they're doing there is taking money off from the record label that one day might be signing them. But the label is lacking the money so they sign the band who downloaded the stuff for free.
K: It's a vicious cycle.
V: It can be vicious and at the same time challenging. And it's great that there is through Myspace and whatever there's a possibility for bands from little tiny countries such as Finland to be heard internationally. Wherever. Whenever. That's great. I've been downloading documentaries [on this tour]. You know, watching documentaries on Alistair Crowley that were aired on BBC4 back in '92. It's never been released on dvd or anything like that. In that sense you can get a lot of material that was impossible before. Back in the day you had to write letters to people who had copied VHS to get some rare material not available anywhere else. Like bootlegs. To Mige: Like old Bad Brains gigs from fucking Munich from the year '83. Actually, Berlin, '84.

M: It's just another moral dilemma, I suppose. People actually probably don't realize that this is really a moral dilemma. It's just something that everybody does and everybody thinks is ok. [Joking] Later on you find that musicians have been dying of hunger.
K: You think about kids from working class families who don't have the money to spend on albums. They aren't thinking about that for sure.
V: But, I was the same, man. My dad was a taxi driver as a kid and my mother worked for the city of Helsinki. They didn't have shitloads of money. I had to save for a long time just to get my first, like, Kiss album. It was exactly the same thing. What we did back in the day was people would record a couple of tracks for you and if you liked Twisted Sister more than W.A.S.P. I would go into the shop and buy the TS album. They were like demos or promotional tools that allowed you to listen to some of the stuff when you didn't have the money to buy everything.
K: When I was in high school, I can remember listening to that very kind of thing. On one side it was Faster Pussycat and on the other it was Guns N Roses. GNR won. Mige, going back to your comment about musical phases or cycles, there are always bands out there who critics hail as having saved rock n roll. Is that overused?
V: I guess the whole thing means that somebody uses old parts in an innovative way.
K: Like a revival.
V: It's kind of like a reminder of why the whole thing started in the first place. At the end of the day, nowadays it seems like the savior of rock n roll is Iggy Pop and the Stooges. You see him live and you think "oh my god, that's what it's all about." Fucking sweat and blood, etc. It doesn't necessarily have to be a new band doing it.
M: It is just something that brings attention to the start of rock n roll.

V: I don't know who's really big at this moment. Nobody's like, super big that may be new. Something that happened to me musically was to fall in love with a band called Interpol. I didn't know that they are not selling a lot of copies.
K: In middle America, no. But on the coast, especially the east, they are more popular.
V: It's all about media. A lot of media is based on the east and west coast, so that's what we get in Europe. Also, acts like Marilyn Manson, he is or actually he used to be hugely popular. Or an act like Eminem. He makes a big budget video and comes to Hamburg and plays to 2,500 people. It's kind of weird to have an illusion that the media creates. But you think that somebody is bigger than life and they aren't necessarily.
M: It's a hype thing, you know.
K: [My ten minutes have come and gone] Is it time?
V: No, no, we've got plenty of time.
K: [Continues] Recently I finished reading Clapton: The Autobiography and in it he says that fly-fishing is the hobby that takes him away from the chaos. What do you guys do to retreat.
V: For me, I have actually been thinking about things I would like to do. I guess, for example, now I'd like to be back home playing acoustic guitar and writing some new songs. That's always a new step for me. You kind of like find yourself with a character you don't know. All the information you've been collecting into your subconscious comes out. In my case it comes through music and I find new aspects and new ways of looking at things, looking at yourself, and your friends through music. So, I consider being on tour, I'm like a sponge in a way. You see so many cities, meet so many people, uh, watch a lot of movies maybe, read a lot of books and get that information and then when you go back home you kind of decompress. All the information starts flowing around, hopefully the good information through the acoustic guitar. That's kind of like what I'm looking for now so I guess my big hobby is writing music.

K: Mige, what about you?
M: I have been wondering actually.
K: Well, you have a family at home which I'm sure takes up all of your free time anyway!
M: Yeah, I guess hobby would not be a good word for that, though to some people I suppose it would be! I don't have a hobby and it's something that is worrying me.
V: He's a thinker, he thinks a lot. He's like a problem solver. [Likening to life] Like mathematical problems with varying results. There's a lot of things in life where A you don't wanna and don't have to and B you can't solve.
M: But you must underline that you try.
V: You also want to do a lot of things but you don't get the chance. [Like a mom talking about a son] He loves gardening.
M: Yeah, I like gardening.
K: I heard you were a gardener in a past life.
M: Yes. In a sense I'm half the man I used to be.
K: Oh now we're quoting Stone Temple Pilots.
M: Actually, it's not that I miss having a hobby. But I keep hearing that people need hobbies.
V: But everyone does have a hobby in one way.
M: Well, I have millions of ways to spend my time.
K: Hobbies develop naturally.
V: Watching T.V. is a hobby! On tour you never get the time to concentrate on a movie or whatever. You're on tour for months and months. So you go back home to do nothing. Um, fart, cook - for yourself, obviously! haha But, finally just getting to watch a movie. That's one way of decompressing. Mine is for now, I stopped drinking so I'm not hanging in bars so what I'm doing is put my house in order. I'm still unpacking my boxes and I moved there like, a year and a half ago. So, basically my hobby is setting my place up to be the perfect place for me to play my acoustic guitar!
K: Speaking of your house... in the VD cd liner notes
V: Booklet.
K: ...booklet, there is a picture of an owl in a window.
V: That's my window sill.
K: A little menacing isn't it?
V: A little? haha We started recording VD and I had a really bad time, nearly a nervous breakdown, I woke up one morning hearing the voice of an owl. I had never seen a live owl before. Well, in the zoo, but never like this. I woke up hearing it and I said "what the fuck is that? Am I hearing voices now?" because I live in the city and we have, like, four owls. And ornithologists know EXACTLY where THEY are at, you know. That particular owl came back twice after that. I borrowed a digital camera from my producer Tim Palmer and left it on the window sill in case I had the chance to see it. We were still partying one morning at 7 AM and he came back and I shot the picture. And he has never been back. This was strange because he wasn't scared of anything, like people moving in the halls or knocking on the window or anything.
K: Ok, switching gears. What's the hardest thing about touring in America?
V: [Thinks] The carpeting. And, uh, all the pillows are filled with feathers.
K: [Laughs and looks knowingly at A.]
A: You know, I have this thing I travel a lot with my job, and it's like, every time you have to ask for the synthetic kind. Good to see someone else has the same issue!
V: That comes from living in a bus, there's not a lot of carpeting because a lot of us guys we smoke and then we have the air conditioning on all the time. That's basically the only thing that makes it hard for me as a singer. Otherwise it's fine. If I was in the rodeo or a drunkard I wouldn't have to worry about it, but I gotta sing every night so...
K: Gotta focus on the job.
V: Hoh, it's not a job- it's a hobby that became a...
K: A labor of love.
V: Yes, a labor of love!
K: What do you miss the most about home?
V: Solitude.
M: No 'me' time.
V: The road is really social, which is great as well. You get to meet a lot of people and play hopefully to a lot of people. It's just when they're a lot of people in a small container like a bus you never have 'me' time. That's the reason we stay in hotels a lot when we're on tour. Would rather stay in a shitty hotel room for a couple of hours in a day just to have your own room, you know, to center yourself, or whatever you call it. That's what I miss.

K: When you are home, do you have a lot of fans stalking you or hanging outside your window?
V: No. Finland is pretty easy. I don't have a doorbell that works so it's pretty hard to get into my fortress. You gotta have my cell phone number or be a friend to get in.
M: Finnish people are more reserved.
K: Not here so much. Stalking is a full on hobby for some!
V: [The Finns] have a respect for privacy. I've had some situations where fans have come up to the door, but normally I don't open up the door you know. It's my home. It's my own private place.
K: Where you're not on the clock.
V: Yep. So, I've been thinking about building a gate. Just imagine if you've got fans that start knocking on the door at 9:00 AM and I've just come off tour and I've got jetlag... even though their intentions might be the best, but you know, I can't be in the mood all the time. It's hard to put a smile on.
M: It is unacceptable.
V: That's the only place in the world I have my own peace. Surrounded by my books and just talk to my mom and my dad and play the acoustic guitar and read books and watch films and bake. That's what I do there.
K: That sounds almost lovely.
V: I may do that two months out of the year. The rest we're working on something so don't [you] think so. If you think about it, an average Joe works and is home five nights in the week. If the family is cool and the wife is a good cook, you know, it's fine to come home and stay in the same spot and then you have your weekends off and maybe have a holiday once a year where you go somewhere else. But we travel all the fucking time. We don't get to see any of our families. At all. And then there's the time difference. I only get maybe two months or a month and a half. Though, I keep on working when I'm home anyway, so... [being home] there's a lot of shit to sort out anyways.
K: How is it when you get home? Hard to decompress?
M: Well, it takes days. I'm not sure that you ever actually decompress. You can always get the most stuff out, but there's the knowledge that there are already future days booked. Because of that I'm not sure if you're able to totally decompress.
V: It's like a normal job when you take that vacation and you know that in a couple of months you have to go back to it.
K: Yes, we are account managers for a software company and we know the feeling when you take vacation.
V: It's not that different. We get things out of this job that you don't if you're staying in one place or whatever. Sometimes you feel that it would be nice to have a job like that rather than have to travel. For example, I'm single, I don't have a relationship, I don't 'need' to go back. You know, I've got my parents, who I care for, and my little bro- that's basically what I like when going back home. So I don't 'mind' touring and the travel. I travel a lot for promotional stuff, but it's been fine.
M: It's an attitude.
V: It's becoming easier now that I'm not hanging out in bars all the time. You really test the limits of your physicality by getting fucked up every night and touring and acting like a brat for months and months on end. Then it's harder to decompress. Even if you have just two weeks off, when you're actually sober you have a lot more time to yourself. The sleep is better. I've spent the last ten years in bars so it's almost like a new drug to be back home watching films I never had time to watch rather than puking in the toilet or waiting to get drunk again.
K: Did you find that changing your lifestyle made some 'friends' disappear?
V: Uh, nah. I can still hang in bars, I just drink coffee instead of beer. It's also been a luxury...the first time you're looking at yourself in the mirror and you're sober, your brain works and you have a lot more energy. I haven't taken that 'me' time for the past 15 years. I've been very social on and off the road. In that sense, the friends haven't gone anywhere, but I decided to not hang out with a lot of people. I've got a lot of friends who are fucking alcoholics. I don't have any problems with that. It's maybe more me making decisions than people running away from me.
K: Switching gears again. Helldone? Is it still on this year?
V: Yes, tickets go on sale next week. It's going to be three days. New Years is on a Monday, so it will be Saturday, Sunday and Monday. On the first day it's going to be, well, we're trying to sort out good A-class Finnish bands so that people can come and see a bit of what's going on in the hard rock music scene. It will be eight bands on the first night so people can get a good vibe of what we have. On the second day we have an international act there, and then a headliner and then we do New Year's Eve.

K: How long have you been doing this?
V: For about 10 or 11 years. We're trying to expand it a bit. Originally it was just a regular gig and then all of sudden we had a lot of people outside of Finland and then northern parts of Finland traveling to Helsinki just to hang with the band. We thought "let's just expand it" over a couple of nights to make it more worthwhile. A lot of people fly in and it's an interesting way to meet people who are outside of your ordinary realm. For example, South America, America, and Japan, even. It's rediculously interesting to see people hooking up with each other and making friends out of it. So, that was the idea of making it a three-day meeting point, kind of festival thing happening. We're still trying to expand it next year to make it bigger, but we're still looking for the right venues. This year it's going to happen in the same club it's always been in, Tavastia.
K: Will Hanoi Rocks be performing?
V: No. They're friends, but I had heard they will be playing a big gig with Motorhead in December and then they will do something right before Helldone in the same venue. You don't want a band who's played the same club the week before. I think that they've booked the gigs already. And, they may be a bit different from what an average HIM fan would like to see. But they are really good live.
K: Not to diminish their popularity, but Hanoi Rocks is most known for the loss of Razzle in the car crash with Vince Neil.
V: They were highly influential, but never sold a lot of records. They are a big cult band, like New York Dolls. They never sold a lot of records and still haven't, but everyone knows them, knows their story, and have fucking Johnny Thunders on their t-shirt.
K: I know all about the New York Dolls, but I could not name one song of theirs.
V: Sam Yaffa from Hanoi Rocks played bass for The New York Dolls.
M: Ah, there you go!
V: Like The Ramones. People know "Hey Ho, Let's Go" and they know the logo.
K: The seal.
V: Yeah. There are a lot of bands like that that changed the scene and were influential for other bands that actually became big.
K: [Since this is past our time, I say] I feel like I've taken up a lot of your time.
V: We can wrap it up or you can stay. We still have plenty of time.
K: Ok. Favorite venue?
M: There are so many. The one I really like is the amphitheater in Athens, Greece. It looks out over the mountains. The venue is nothing special, but the location is wonderful.
V: There are couple of festivals in Switzerland where the mountains are beautiful. When it comes to venues, in America it's great because you have a lot of old theaters.
K: Or old churches like The Tabernacle where you will be playing in November.
V: Yeah, that's a fun place as well.
K: I saw the Go-Gos there once. [Laughter from everyone]. You know, they had their time. We're kids of 80s. Also, when you have gay friends, it may be some unspoken rule that you have to see them at least once.
Tom, Tour Manager: Hey, they had the beat.
V: [Chuckles]
M: We have a lot of gay friends, too.
V: [Sarcastically] No, no. We don't have a clue about that.
V: But, you don't get cool venues like that in Europe. It's mostly old wherehouses or bars, so they're not visually that exciting. It's not like playing the Wilshire in LA or the State Theater in Detroit or yesterday we played the Congress Theatre in Chicago. Ornamentally and the paintings, it's like being in a movie. Sound-wise they are not always the best, but that's something we don't get in Europe.
K: With your music anyway, the ambience really completes the experience.
V: But we play anywhere.
K: I saw you guys twice on Projekt Revolution. And it was fantastic, but…
V: But it lacks the mood.
K: Yes. I prefer being at a HIM show, where it's you headlining. The music, the fans, the lighting, everything. It's great.
V: And obviously it's more rewarding for us as well.
K: How was PR for you?
V: It was a test of patience. When we started out, we always said to our booking agents that we'd rather play lead in a place that holds 25 rather than support someone somewhere bigger. So, we've never been doing the support thing at all. Which I'm really proud of. For example, in England where the record company didn't do shit for us in the beginning, but we still went there and it was great to see it grow in front of your eyes [over time]. So in that sense it was the first time we did tour and weren't the headliner. Also, playing in the sunlight, which I HATE. [Laughter]. Well, not that I hate the sun, but it lacks the mood, like what you were saying. And, we're not like an emo/punk band that can fit 10-15 songs in 40 minutes. We only had time to play 9 tracks. Obviously, we were able to play to lot of people who never heard us before and in that sense it was really good.
K: American fans will gladly take what they can get since you aren't always on tour over here. You performed a lot of the new material at PR. By now, do you have a favorite song(s) off VD to perform?
V: Sleepwalking Past Hope. It's challenging for us, but it's funny because there are so many instrumental parts that I can smoke fucking 3 cigarettes before the song is over. [Laughter] It's good playing Passion's Killing Floor, Dead Lover's Lane, Bleed Well.
K: I'm fond of Bleed Well.
V: That's going to be our next single. Hopefully the radio will start playing it. We'll see what happens. Now the set is taking shape. We'll start changing the set around later, but not now. Now we're fine tuning the new material live. Also, we're going to be shooting a dvd in LA during our gig. We'll see how it will turn out. It may be good, it may be a really fun night. Or it could really suck and we'll hide it somewhere in our archives. Or we'll just burn it [kidding]. But it's good, so now we're just focusing on fine-tuning the material. Trying to get a balance between the old songs and the new songs. We're trying to get the sense of drama when we're doing the set.
K: Do you ever play In Joy and Sorrow anymore?
M: Actually I was just thinking about that song.
V: Not for a long time.
M: It's a fine song. I really like that song.
V: We're trying to do 16 songs in an hour and a half. That's the max of what we can do. U2 are playing big stadiums where you can have fucking mirrorball lemons that you walk out of...
K: or that you can't walk out of!
V: So, really an hour and a half is good. There are a lot of songs like Gone with the Sin, In Joy and Sorrow, Heartache Every Moment- that's a nice track.
K: Fortress of Tears...
V: Fortress of Tears, Sweet Pandemonium- you know there are a lot of tracks that we can't fit in the set. Now we're trying to do a more 'in your face' set, more than ballady. I like it, we used to have so many slow songs in our set, and it was really moody, it was nice, but it is also nice for us to do something different. It's more challenging. Sleepwalking Past Hope is THE moody piece.
K: Join Me in Death has made a lot of my non-rock fan friends take notice. In 2000, this song made you famous in Europe. It's a wonderful song and timeless.
V: Yeah, I'm proud of the song. Hopefully we can write a song as good as that!
K: Oh come on.
V: No, we were lucky with it. It's funny, back in the day when that came out and all the radios loved it so they played it to death which meant that a lot of people who normally would never know us bought the record. Obviously that affected record sales. So, it's not even about it being a good song we just had a lot of luck. Somebody fell in love with the track and then just played it to death.
K: Your Sweet 666 is considered a seminal HIM song.
V: Oh! Playing the new material, you start to see the old stuff in a different light. We've been doing 3-4 tracks from each album, but we're not playing anything off of Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights.
K: Why is that?
V: It just doesn't blend that well. It was one of the albums that was so over-produced and a lot of people don't know the album that well. We used to play Lose You Tonight, Pretending, and Heartache Every Moment. I love Salt in Our Wounds and I love Please Don't Let it Go. Those were two songs I wrote on the acoustic guitar and they worked a lot better on the acoustic.
K: Last year I started playing the acoustic and chords from DSBH songs were what I used to practice. Definitely acoustic-friendly. What about You Are the One? Was that a b-side, or?
V: That was an extra track for Deep Shadows in the digi-pak edition.
K: Also a great song.
V: It's good, but it could be better. With that album we ended up in a situation where we started out recording demos and they started sounding very Queens of the Stone Age. And we LOVED it. But then things got over-worked. We ended up between tours working on the album and overproduced the whole thing. We should have stopped and rerecorded everything.
M: We had many producers coming in.
V: We had like five people mixing the album and it was just a big hassle. But it was a great learning experience, and it was something we don't want to do again. I love the songs. They just could have been better. It's also what happens, you know, we had a great successful tour supporting Razorblade Romance. A lot of bands, well, I think it happened to me, really, you know, we found out that we were successful and then when you pick up the guitar again you think it will be very easy thing to write a song. So, I could have worked harder on the songs. I love the melodies on the album, though. [Ville retires to the rest room]
M: They're not as refined as well because we ran out of time and we ran out of patience. We had been working on the same things for a long time. We were going all over trying to compete with producers and in the end we really didn't know where we were standing. But there's so much good stuff there.
K: That album stands out to me. To some degree, as a listener, perhaps as a female listener, I don't see the problems you point out, because it's full of haunting melodies and romance. But, I can understand that as the owning artist you have a totally different perspective. But there are so many people who love that album.
M: There are certainly a lot of good ideas on the album.
V: [Returns from the restroom] What?
K: We're still on DSBH.
V: Oh, it's fucked up. That was the time when we kicked out the keyboardist and we were touring and we got Burton and at the same time the expectations were really high obviously for the record company to have another "hit" album. We had to have a lot of bullshit meetings about what to do and what not to do and obviously we did what we wanted to do, but that's all the hassle you can come flying to your own work. If you've been working on one song for a fucking year you always get more and more ideas to rework and rework. To Mige: We should have just stopped, had a break, and then went into the studio and rerecorded everything. Anyway, it's a bit more wimpy to a certain extent, a bit more emotional. The vibe is more mellow.
K: Probably why I as a woman love that album! [Laughter]
V: It's a moody album and it doesn't demand too much concentration to get into the mood. You know, I'm really proud of it- just should have been more moody, more acoustic, and more melancholy. After that we did Love Metal, which was faster, then Dark Light was a bit mellow, and they all kind of reflect upon each other to have us do something different the next time around. Greatest Lovesongs, Love Metal, and Venus Doom are from one band, while Razorblade Romance, Deep Shadows and Dark Light are from another. There are two sides: one more feminine and the other more masculine.
K: The yin/yang thing.
V: Right.

And with that it is time for the band to prepare for their show. A and I thank the boys for their time, take a couple of pics, and exit the bus. Tom leaves me with this: "K, don't lose the braces!"

We head into the venue with our little photopasses, rush up to the front, and take some live shots. A review of the show with pictures will follow soon. -K.


Ville Valo 2007 BMI Interview




Ville Valo Interview ( August 2007) part 1/2



Ville Valo Interview (2007) part 2/2




Ville Valo Interview about Venus Doom



HIM Studio Interview L.A. 20 May 07





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HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 Empty
MensagemAssunto: Re: HIM News - Archive 1996-2011   HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 Icon_minitimeQua Jan 11, 2012 12:33 pm

2008 - 2009


Citação :

SAVE NUTA (Helsinki, Finland) is a musical collaboration involving members of bands like HIM, Scandinavian Music Group, The Latebirds, Donits Osmo Experience, The Wrecking Queens and Stunning Guns. These local heroes got together in order to save their old "Rock'N'Roll High School". This famous youth center in Helsinki's Munkkiniemi is known for its world class recording facilities a.k.a. MD-Studio. The session took place at the studio in question on a grey Saturday afternoon in October 2008. Mixed by Mr. Mikko Karmila and mastering courtesy of our pals at Chartmakers. Special guest on this recording - TOMMY RAMONE!




[quote]Ville Valo immortalize

Photographer Jarkko Tiitinen has immortalized Ville Valo, Kari Tapio, Tuomas Holopainen as well as Mr Lordi at Bar Loose. They also exhibit artist's favorites dishes next to the photos. What's symbolic of this is that Kari is one of Ville's favorite singers. Also, Bar loose is one of Ville's favorite hangout spots. The best thing about Bar Loose is the fact that anyone who is famous, can be in peace there. That's one of the reasons why many celebrities like to hang out at Bar Loose. Michael Monroe or Ville Valo can actually stop by for a coffee and no one will flip out or have a mental breakdown. From the bar's official website: Located in Helsinki, Fredrinkinkatu 34, the notorious Bar Loose has become THE hangout, hideout and a shelter for the domestic and visiting rock'n'roll crowd. Right from the start "Löysä", "Lössy", "the Office" has been just what the founders Timo Koutala and Tipi Rasio wanted it to be: a non-formal, liberal living room for good people, where one can hear the Stooges and the likes, either from record, jukebox or live

HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 487547


HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 487548
[Tuomas Holopainen]

[quote]Ville Valo Voice at Madagascar Escape 2 Africa finnish version November 21st 2008

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/viihde/uutinen.asp?id=1598047

Ville will be a voice actor! He has lent his voice to an amorous hippo called Moto Moto in Finnish dub of Madagascar Escape 2 Africa. It will be in theaters November 21st.


http://www.madagascar-themovie.com/

HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 Madagascar-escape-2-africa-poster-0

Ville Valo interview (Madagascar 2)



Citação :
SOUNDI TRANSLATIONS:AUDIO LANDSCAPE
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.”


-Translated by sineresi
.

Citação :
Ville Valo’s HIM hits are odes to a dead dog, Sami

.HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 1633657_valo400

Now we know it: Ville Valo’s creativity wells from an exprerienced loss in childhood.

- My first brother was a cross-bred dog called Sami who died when I was six. It caused an enormous longing. It took a year after the dog’s death when I got allergies and asthma, Valo said on Tuesday.


He thought that the melancholy in HIM songs derives from that feeling of longing.


Valo opened up on Tuesday at Helsinki University in a unique event where Finnish export stars of science and art stepped together in front of audience.


Philosopher Pekka Himanen and Valo presented a dialogue lecture in the faculty of behavioural science in Helsinki University titled “A Creative Life”.


Professor Himanen from University of Industrial Arts and Oxford University and the solist of HIM are friends.


- I asked Pekka when he has lectures, I want to come to listen. The next day he called me and said we’re going to have a dialogue lecture. Pretty tough, I’ve never been into a lecture before, told Valo to Iltasanomat after two hours of talking.


It may be that Valo was nervous, even if he is an experienced performer. That didn’t hurt the rate. The memorable lecture was listened by a record audience.


The HIM solist lectured and the philosopher played Ella Fitzgerald and Beethoven recordings – and by himself the beginning riffs of the HIM classic Join Me.


When you hand an art piece over to audience at the same time you give up the exclusive right of interpretation.


- It’s weird to hear that people have used some of our songs as wedding ballads, when youself were really down writing that song, said Valo.


Even with new interpretations, the original meaning can still hold a remarkable meaning to the songwriter.


- Maybe my songs are odes to Sami, a longing for more blissful hounting grounds.


The link can be found here:
http://www.iltasanomat.fi/viihde/uutinen.asp?id=1633657


Special thanks to shadowdoomed & mhesh for translating.




Transcript for video (http://viihde.mtv3.fi/uutiset/musiikki.shtml/779275?valo_ville):


“Art is very subjective. It’s weird to hear... When I’ve written a song in a sad mood, and people use it as a wedding ballad, and they’re happily married, and they experience the song so differently than myself, it’s a bit weird occasionally. But still, it doesn’t take from me away that feeling of ‘nothingness’, because that is what kills the analytical thinking at the cheese counter of music.”


*People burst laughing*


Topic turns to a subject what are the essentials to conquer the world.


“There are no limits, just like with you [refers to the professor]. You probably didn’t think of doing your career and professorship as quickly as possible, but for the fact that you were so into it. The passion just got you – it’s like a whirlwind where you’re rolling and then you find yourself a place like this.”


“—surprising associations. The freedom of association is the foundation of everything in art. Keep everything open.”


“—If you are afraid of that you won’t be able to produce, let’s say, the emotion that is extremely important for you, in melodies, then it’s better to let it rest for a while. Because otherwise you screw up because you won’t be able to fulfil your own expectations that you have set for yourself. But if you screw up in, let’s say Hesari [I think he means Kallio, the ‘drunken’ area in Helsinki], that doesn’t matter.”


*Audience laughs*

“ – Who am I to talk. All our albums sound the same. We’ve polished the format.”

*And more laugh*


“Try to do this, especially if you have children. Turn off the TV for two weeks and see what it does to your ability to concentrate, and how it affects being awake in general. – Talking about ADHD and everything, the flood of information is so heavy that nobody can concentrate on anything. It also associates with creating art.”

Citação :
New interview with Ville from Euro Rock productions.

New interview with Ville from Euro Rock productions. I will post the mp3 link in the bottom of the post but here is the transscript in case the link no longer works:

I’ve got a few, I’ve got one of Klaus Kinski, a German actor. It’s just a cool one. It’s from a picture, he’s an adult sucking his own thumb lying on a naked lady." Valo: So that’s uh, that’s such a psychedelic image and it looks exactly like that but Kat Von D did that one too and it’s on my lower stomach and it’s looks really good. It’s guaranteed after that tattoo, I’m never going to get laid. Valo: Um, so that was my mission to get a tattoo that will kill all possible sex. ERR: I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen! VV: Well um you know I guess I need to find a blind chick. ERR: Aw! Alright well I tried to stay away from any kind of naughty questions because a lot of those came in but uh this one (laughs)I have to ask we’ve seen video of this and it’s been talked about on the HIM forums and everything…The concert in Tilburg during the Venus Doom tour.. VV: Oh with the vibrator? ERR; Yes, Yes. The lady that threw that up there .. Her name is Wendy by the way um.. she wanted to know what you thought when that came up cause she said your face was priceless when you saw that VV: It’s, let say that it’s one of the few moments I won’t forget especially when it comes to gigs so, so um. It was a fun thing and a great thing since you know she probably knew that I’ve been working in a sex shop. I kinda know how those things work. I was checking out the brand and stuff like that. I was, I was just laughing my ass off but then the funny thing happened after that, after the gig. Somehow the Finnish press got wind of that thing and they started speculating whether I lost my mind. They thought that I brought that vibrator to the gig and I’m using the vibrator as a prop you know during a gig and it’s not necessarily a bad idea but it’s not necessarily a good one either. So, that was a punchline for the whole thing. It got totally out of hand. ERR: (laughs) But it was hilarious though. There is video of it all over youtube. VV: oh yeah. It was great. I’m extremely happy about it On The New Him Record and Being Sober Ville Valo told Kerrang! magazine he's finding it difficult coping with being sober. "When somebody has to be sober it's always a sad existence," he told K!. "A lot of people think that if you're sober everything's good, but in fact you see all the shit much clearer." Valo also went on to reveal that HIM have begun work on their seventh studio album and fans will be shocked by the band's new material. "It's a bit of a departure from me this time around," he said. "This time everything is very direct and straight to the point.

HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 Ohivcp

Citação :
Ville's Favorite book: The Lord Of The Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Another one of Ville's favorite (and my personal favorites too) The Lord Of The Rings. The story of the The Lord of the Rings is divided into six "books" and has been published in both one and three volume editions. The three volumes are entitled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. The story of The Lord of the Rings takes place in the Third Age of Middle-earth, embedded in Tolkien's larger conception of a legendarium about an alternate mythological past of the world. The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by the English philologist J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II. Although intended as a single-volume work, it was originally published in three volumes in 1954 and 1955, due to post-war paper shortages, and it is in this three-volume form that it is popularly known. It has since been reprinted numerous times and translated into many different languages,becoming one of the most popular and influential works in 20th-century literature.
The title of the book refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who had in an earlier age created the One Ring that rules the other Rings of Power, as the ultimate weapon in his campaign to conquer and rule all of Middle-earth. From quiet beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land not unlike the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth following the course of the War of the Ring through the eyes of its characters, most notably the hobbits, Frodo Baggins, Samwise Gamgee (Sam), Meriadoc Brandybuck (Merry) and Peregrin Took (Pippin). The lands of Middle-earth are populated by Men (humans) and other humanoid races (Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs), as well as many other creatures, both real and fantastic (Ents, Wargs, Balrogs, Trolls, etc.).
Along with Tolkien's other works, The Lord of the Rings has been subjected to extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger work Tolkien had worked on since 1917, that he described as a mythopoeia. Influences on this earlier work, and on the story of The Lord of the Rings, include philology, mythology, religion and the author's distaste for the effects of industrialization, as well as earlier fantasy works and Tolkien's experiences in World War I. The Lord of the Rings in its turn is considered to have had a great effect on modern fantasy; the impact of Tolkien's works is such that the use of the words "Tolkienian" and "Tolkienesque" has been recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.
The enduring popularity of The Lord of the Rings has led to numerous references in popular culture, the founding of many societies by fans of Tolkien's works, and the publication of many books about Tolkien and his works. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, and subsequent literature. Adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. The 2001–2003 release of Peter Jackson's widely acclaimed Lord of the Rings film trilogy prompted a new surge of interest in The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other works.


Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and Merton Professor of English language and literature from 1945 to 1959. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis – they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.
After his death, Tolkien's son, Christopher, published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earth within it. Between 1951 and 1955 Tolkien applied the word legendarium to the larger part of these writings.
While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien, the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when they were published in paperback in the United States led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature —or more precisely, high fantasy. Tolkien's writings have inspired many other works of fantasy and have had a lasting effect on the entire field. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'.


[quote]Ville Valo's Interview with Mayra (with translation by tatianaf)

02-07-2009

I recieved a lot of e-mails of Fans all over the world, and I also appeared at a special HIM magazine from Italy. I discovered that the girls are crazy to know how was the meeting with Ville, and I'm going to tell you. Since 2008 Ville haven't done any interview, I think. I'm honored to had this chance.

Ville Valo has arrived our Hotel in the centre of the city, walking, with a bag over his sholders and smoking a cigarret. Has shook everyone's hands and went to the hotel pub, where we have done our interview.

In Finland, me and Ricardo Campos(Roadie Crew Manager)were a team. He focused the technical part of the artists work, and I, the personal part. The goal was to beggin with the technical questions, about the sound of the band, of the new album, of the other finnish bands/artists such as Jyrki, that was for long hours of points of view discussion.

Ville shows himself more confortable when he started to talk to me. My interview was about his new life experience, a new step that he is living now, without drugs, alcool, girlfriend, with a new album release comming on Valentine's Day. I was nervous to ask more questions, because I didn't want to bore him,but I was surprised to see that he wanted to talk about what I wanted to know. More..with absolut good sense of humor, and humbleness, drinking a redbull.

Ville told me that he doesn't like dates. He likes to falling in love sudenly. I asked him if he is looking for a love and he answered that he is trying, he is available but he didn't find a good one already. He said that he is waiting to be completely fallen in love..blind love, and many other things..

We have talked about the death of dearest friends, literature, the new album producer, who has worked with Panic at the Disco and Katy Pery, about to stop drinking, drugs and sex....

It was a wonderful interview. Ricardo said that he had to paid a lot. Meybe it was one of the best interviews I have made, because I have made a great job.

When the interview finnished, Ville stayed a little more, hunging out with us, talking and smoking. He was planning to meet us at the Candlemass show at Tavastia. However before to go, has made special favors: have made a promotion for Spin Earth with the CD of Ricardo in his hands, and a photo for my friends of Bastardz.

I would say, An example of a Rockstar. An example of Human Being. We love you.



Recebi um monte de e-mails fofos de fãs do mundo inteiro e até saí em uma revista especial do H.I.M na Itália. Descobri que as meninas estão loucas para saber como foi meu encontro com o Ville, então vou contar. Ele não dava entrevistas desde 2008, parece. Sinto-me honrada.

Ville Valo chegou no nosso hotel no centro da cidade caminhando, com uma mochila nas costas e um cigarro na boca. Apertou a mão de todos e seguiu para a boate do hotel, onde realizaríamos nossa entrevista. Na Finlândia, eu e o Ricardo Campos (editor chefe da Roadie Crew), éramos um time. Ele focava na parte mais técnica do trabalho dos artistas e eu na parte mais pessoal. O plano era sempre começar com as perguntas dele, que acabavam envolvendo os músicos no som de seus próprios músicos preferidos. Muitas vezes, como no caso do Jyrki, isso durou horas. No caso do Ville, porém, somente amoleceu o terreno pra mim. Minha entrevista falava sobre a nova fase da vida de Valo - sem drogas, sem álcool, sem namorada, lançando um disco novo no dia dos namorados. Estava nervosa para fazer minhas perguntas, pois não queria perturbá-lo, mas surpreendi-me ao perceber que ele estava louco para falar sobre tudo que eu queria saber. E mais: com bom humor e muita humildade, bebendo um Redbull.

Ville me contou que não gosta de "sair em encontros" (date, ao pé da letra). Ele gosta de se apaixonar de repente. Perguntei se ele está procurando um amor e ele respondeu que jogou sua rede no mar, mas ainda não encontrou um peixe bom. Disse que está louco para ficar de quatro novamente, entre outras coisas.

Falamos sobre a morte de pessoas queridas, sobre literatura, sobre seu novo produtor que já trabalhou com Panic at The Disco e Katy Perry, sobre parar de beber, drogas, sexo...

Foi uma entrevista maravilhosa. O Ricardo inclusive disse que pagou um pau. Talvez tenha sido uma das minhas melhores, pois consegui segurar meu entrevistado na palma das mãos.

Quando a entrevista acabou, Ville ficou um tempo conosco conversando e fumando cigarros. Ele havia planejado de nos encontrar à noite para o show do Candlemass no Tavastia. Antes de ir embora, porém, fez favores muito especiais: uma propaganda para a Spin Earth com o CD do Ricardo na mão, e uma foto para os meus amigos do Bastardz.

Um exemplo de rockstar, eu diria. Um exemplo de ser humano. Obrigada Ville. Nós amamos você.


...


Meu livro novo já está à venda, gente!
COMPREM E RECEBAM HOJE MESMO: http://www.livrariacultura.com.br/scripts/cultura/resenha/resenha.asp?nitem=2818870

Uma comunidade já foi criada no Orkut pelo meu fiel fã Felipe. Participem!! : http://www.orkut.com.br/Main#Community.aspx?cmm=91282672

Quero muito saber a opinião de vocês sobre "Mil e Uma Noites de Silêncio". Aguardo ansiosamente pelos comentários e tópicos na comunidade!



HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 1246546715090_f



2008

Ville Valo interview on Scuzz TV



Ville Valo interview @ Hultsfredsfestivalen 2008



HIM - Ville Valo - Interview Xmas 2008



Ville Valo GoTV 2008 Interview part 1/2



Ville Valo GoTV 2008 Interview PART 2/2




2009

Ville Valo Talks About Love, Relationships, Literature, Drinking and Drugs SPIN Earth Interview 2009



Sonic Seducer

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Laura interviews Ville Valo

Part 1



Part 2




H.I.M. - Interview Ville Valo 2009





Última edição por tatianaf em Qui Jan 12, 2012 12:12 pm, editado 9 vez(es)
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2010 -2011

2010
Ville Valo (HIM) after the Secret Gig 2010



HIM - Ville Valo shows his tattoo in front of the AquaDom



Toazted - Ville Valo interview extra 2010



Kerrang! Podcast: HIM




Ville Valo 2010 Shockhound Interview



Ville Valo 2010 Interview @ The Rave (Milwaukee)



Interview With Ville Valo + Extras



Ville Valo im bigFM Interview




Ville Valo 2010 RockInvasion Interview (1/3)



Ville Valo 2010 RockInvasion Interview (2/3)



Ville Valo 2010 RockInvasion Interview (3/3)



Ville Valo Interview on Bravo WebTV 2010



Interview with Ville Valo from HIM @ Radio Energy (January 2010)



Ville Valo-HIM-interview April 2010



Kerrang! Ville Valo Interview at Download Festival June 2010



Finnish interview with Ville Valo (04-02-2010) Part 1/2



Finnish interview with Ville Valo (04-02-2010) Part 2/2



Ville Valo 2010 Interview on WMMR 93.3 (1/3)



Ville on WMMR 93.3 (2/3)



Ville Valo of H.I.M. interview @ Artist direct 2010


An interview with Ville Valo of HIM April 16th, 2010



Interview Ville Valo with Music Bytes March 2010



HIM The replay of the HIM Rockline interview ville valo 2010 part 1



HIM The replay of the HIM Rockline interview ville valo 2010 part 2



HIM The replay of the HIM Rockline interview ville valo 2010 part 3



HIM The replay of the HIM Rockline interview ville valo 2010 part 4



Ville Valo from HIM- If I Were a



HIM-Ville and Mige Rock Am Ring Interview 2010



Ville Valo and Mige interview for Valo Daily @ the Fillmore



ville valo-HIM-interview 2010 estonia 15/06/2010




Ville Valo interview in Finnish before the Secret Show 2010 (Berlin).



HIM - Ville Valo exklusiv Interview at Radisson Hotel



Ville Valo on UniScreen july 2010



HIM Rock Am Ring 2010 Interview on MTV with Ville Valo And Mige



Ville Valo from HIM Makes andPOP Intern's Dream Come True



Ville Valo interview with B-Sides on MYX.




SECRET SHOW HIM



DunlopTV - HIM Linde & Mige



MTV Home





Ville Valo bei der SWR3-Fahrstuhlmusik mit Jason Derülo



DASDING.tv | HIM im Interview bei Rock am Ring 2010




2011

Velvet Six & Ville Valo | Ilves Bar | Helsinki





HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 HottestDude_Reveal

Ville Valo "on being voted the hottest dude in hard rock and metal by Revolver Magazine


HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 Gas+Lipstick+%25287%2529



Segundo artigo pulicado recentemente na revista filandesa Iltasanomat, Gas Lipstick, baterista dos HIM, continua em recuperação e com acompanhamento médico.

Foi diagnosticado uma inflamação, localizada nos pulsos, que atingem os nervos e provocam dores agudas. Uma doença rara que normalmente ocorre nos membros inferiores, pernas etc., mas também pode surgir nos braço e ante-braços.

Gas tem estado em tratamento durante os últimos três meses e continuará pelo menos por mais algum tempo, um mês ou mais.

No entanto refere que se tem sentido melhor, dia após dia e pretende voltar ao trabalho o quanto antes, logo que se sinta confiante e a 100%. A pausa se prolongrá pelo menos até Dezembro deste ano.

Ficamos a torcer pelas suas melhoras rápidas e esperamos ver de novo HIM a 100% com o novo projecto e nova tour na estrada, para alegria dos fãs.

Here’s the Translation of the article in english, gently written by small_monkey from Valo Daily

HIM’s drummer Mika “Gas” Karppinen has been forced to take a long sick leave due to a rare medical condition. He has been suffering from it for about three months now.
The nasty and painful illness showed its first signs at the end of the summer, when HIM was in the studio working on new material. Gas’ hands started to get very sore and playing was hard.

Gas went to see a doctor in August and both of his hands were diagnosed with forearm splints. Splints usually refers to pain and inflammation in lower legs, but it can occur in hands as well. Forearm splints is a rare and a painful condition. Gas has been on a sick leave for three months and the sick leave is going to continue for another month or so.

The daily life of the drummer has also suffered because of the splints.

- At the beginning I wasn’t able to carry much anything. Sometimes it got so bad that I couldn’t lift up anything heavier than a coffee mug, Gas says.

According to Gas he is suffering from a stress injury. Stress injuries in arms are typical injuries for drummers, but usually they just suffer from tenosynovitis. Forearm splints is a rare condition even when it comes to drummers.

- It’s a result of playing too much. We made new songs in the summer and played all the time, Gas says.

What makes Gas’ condition even more unfortunate is the fact that HIM’s songwriting process has been on hold for months and will most likely stay so until December. HIM has been on a break since summer 2010. They started working on new material this year.

- My condition has definitely slowed us down, although Ville has been writing new songs all the time, Gas says.

Gas is slowly recovering, but he won’t be going back to the studio until December at the earliest.

- I’m still recovering, so it’s hard to estimate when I’ll be completely okay. I’ve been playing a bit by myself for some time now, but I have to be really careful about it, because I don’t want to harm the recovery process. But I’m definitely doing better and better all the time.

- Luckily you’re able to recover from this illness completely if you just take your time and don’t do anything stupid. I just have to take it easy for some time, Gas says.

Original Source: ltasanomat.fi





HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 Ville_valo_avelina


Many of you have been asking me on facebook, when I plan on starting the 2nd H.I.M competition. I just wanted to let you know that it is being planned, and should be announced fairly soon! The prize for this competition is a ‘
Queen Of the damned‘ canvas signed by the Gothic Metal God himself VILLE VALO!

Muitos dos fãs de Ville Valo e HIM, têm colocado questões relativas ao segundo concurso HIM. Gostaria de informar todos vós que o mesmo está a ser planeado e deverá ser anunciado brevemente! O prémio será “Queen of the Damned” autografado pelo próprio “Deus do Metal Gótico” Ville Valo!



Avelina de Moray

Ville Valo voted as "The most hottest dude on Hard and Heavy Metal Music Scene"


HIM News - Archive 1996-2011 Orig-20235601

Credits: Elegy_69 V.D.

Ville Valo, vocalista da banda finlandesa HIM, fundador do movimento artistico e musical "Love Metal", cujo símbolo foi imaginado e criado pelo artista, o Heartagram, foi recentemente considerado o mais "HOT" vocalista do " Hard and Metal Rock Music Scene" pelos leitores da revista Revolver online.

Mas não é só a beleza, que o destaca e aproxima do público. Possuidor de uma uma voz e presença em palco inimitáveis, com apenas um acender de cigarro e o fluir da sua voz através do microfone são suficientes para ter a seus pés, uma audiência completamente rendida.

Tradução: Tatianaf


Ia -me dando uma "coisinha no coração" quando estava a ver o programa na Sexta -feira, sou uma fã do mesmo e HIM, como tem muito sucesso na Alemanha, faz sempre parte de quase todos os tops de HTS temáticos e lá estava ele! O nosso Ville! A minha irmã vio comigo nos concertos de Portugal e acompanha a banda e achou o Ville mais giro heheh:D Claro que eu disse logo que ele sempre FOI giro lol..

Ok brincadeiras á parte aí está o homem mais procurado do momento ;D



Credits: Video Owner


Última edição por tatianaf em Qui Jan 12, 2012 1:41 pm, editado 11 vez(es)
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