Metal Hammer, July 2003
At home with ... HIM
Frontman with Finnish goths, HIM, Ville Valo's abode leaves a lot to be Desired in the tidiness stakes. And then there's the sex shop he owns… Hammer sent round the extermination squad. Feather Duster : Martin Carlsson. Dyson: Michael Johansson.
'Untidiness prohibited' reads a sign in the narrow alley way that leads to
the courtyard where Ville Valo's apartment building is located. It's a remnant
from the 1920's, when the workers quarters in this neighbourhood were built.
These days, the population in this area in central Helsinki, the capital of
Finland, is made up of mostly affluent citizens who do their best to keep theses
surroundings tidy. Someone has clearly forgotten to inform HIM's singer of this
quaint local ordinance. His pad is the true definition of a dump. Over the past
decade we've visited many homes of rock musician and as far as filth Goes Ville
Valo's is undoubtedly on par with Lemmy's Hollywood den. Granted, the Fridge
does not reveal a decomposed steak, which is best before date expired a year
Ago ( as was the case with Lemmy". Still we're in a state of shock.
"I invited you to my apartment during sort of a second of lunacy, which
I go through every now and then. I felt the need to invite you over to reveal
all secrets of my sanctuary", explains Ville as he welcomes a reporter
to his home for the first time.
Ah. So how do you people react when they come here?
"They usually have reactions like vomiting or bursting into tears of laughter.
I don't let that many people in, this is my own place. This is okay with me,
it's me Anyway so who cares? There's no need for me to be a clean personality.
I don't wash my hair, my body or anything. It's more organic that way. I like
to keep all my stuff around, so wherever I look there's always a piece of history.
For me it's like living diary. When I see a guitar I remember when I bought
it, what tunes I've been writing with it, for whom and because of what and what
happened through those songs."
In all fairness, the one-bedroom apartment itself ain't shabby. With some tender
love and caring, the 700 English Pound a month flat could easily be transformed
into a cosy abode. It's just that its habitant likes to wallow in his own dirt.
When Hammer photographer Michael Johansson opens the door to the toilet, Ville
sends a strong message of warning:
"You can take a shit, but I wouldn't recommend it. You never know what
might come up there!"
To put it mildly, it wouldn't make much difference if you were to throw up or
take a dump at any given location in the flat. It really is that gross. The
thousand of girls who view the front man as a sex symbol will surely be taken
aback by the fact that their idol is a slob of great proportions.
"Don't you think this is sexy?" he ask slightly disappointed and goes
on the offensive. "It's the fucking sexiest apartment there in on this
fucking planet! That's very gay in a non positive way, keeping your place in
such an orderly fashion. It's bad. The place where you live has to be organic,
there has to be things that attract your eyes. I'm a visual person, not great
visually but I enjoy seeing colours around. I don't have to take so many mushrooms
any more, it's easier that way."
The 26 year old left to live on his own nine year ago and reckons this is his
thus far most tidy place. He's called this home since the autumn of '00.
"I was living with a girl a couple of blokes away from here. One particular
night I was drinking loads of beer and eating good food somewhere with the rest
of the band. All of a sudden I got a call and it was her screaming mad that
someone just broke into the apartment. It was on the ground level and someone
broke through the window of our bedroom while she was sleeping. Thank God it
was dark and nothing happened. Some smack addict or whatever broke in and stole
a cool camera from the 70's, which my daddy gave to me years back as present,
as well a s some cash. The guy was never caught. I ran back to the apartment
and was almost as mad as she was. She got freaked out so bad that I thought
it best to find a place that's not so easy to crawl into. This was the one.
The Bagman
Located on the first floor, opposite what until very recently was a hospital,
this place Signals that the people across the courtyard better keep their nosiness
to themselves. You wonder just what the neighbours believe is going on here.
For all they know, Ville Valo could be involved in some strange cult, sacrificing
chickens and drinking their blood. When his girlfriend left him last summer,
the singer took the drastic step of blocking out the sunlight with heavy duty
garbage bags.
"Since my girlfriend took all the curtains when she left. I thought I'd
just have black plastic garbage bags cover the windows so that nobody can see
me and I can't see them, "explains Ville. "I'm pretty happy with my
loneliness. People have just been laughing about the whole thing. I'm just a
silly person when it comes to that. I'm very bad at organising. Our band's bass
player two months ago told me how to pay your bills at the bank. I don't know
how to clean up, hang up curtains or pay my bills. When you're on tour a lot
or writing songs, that doesn't necessarily come first into your mind. I'm learning
how to be civilised gentleman, but it's gonna take a while."
The process of becoming a civilised gentleman started earlier today when Ville
took the bold step of doing what he refers to as cleaning, so that the Hammer
crew would feel welcome. In reality, that meant picking up items of clothes
spread all over the apartment and putting them in a big pile on the bedroom
floor.
Laundry neurosis
"For me personally it's bad to put all your clothes into wardrobes, it's
easier for me to find everything if I'm spreading it all on the floor"
he reasons. "When I was 13 or 14 year old I had a neurosis and I even had
to wake up during the night to fix the angle of fucking pen on a table. Everything
had to be right there geometrically. Then I thought it's best to quit and just
be a messy slob."
That the Finn's succeeded with this mission is a great understatement. The living
room got its latest taste of a vacuum cleaner last summer, but none of the rooms
have been properly cleaned since he moved in. One corner of the bedroom's used
for storage, simply because Ville doesn't have the energy to bring the stuff
up to the attic. Exactly what's piled up there, he has no idea.
"The problem is that I'm the artist type who rather plays acoustic guitar
and has a wank than holds a vacuum cleaner in his hands, "quips Ville.
"One of the reasons why I wanted to go public with this apartment was so
people would see the agony which I live in and understand the pain I go through
living in a such horrible environment. I need companionship. Hopefully my girlfriend
will come back and clean this place up. I've always been bad with cleaning.
I'm like my daddy. Even though he has money he loves to go through garbage bins
just to look for things that people have thrown away. Having all this shit around
I'm close to my daddy all the time. So I'm a family man?! I can't throw anything
away and I've even grown food of every beer cap and empty cigarette box on the
floor. It's a terrible job to spend a whole day throwing all those lovely little
things away. The little bugs crawling on the floor, they're my friends. Thou
shall not kill".
You're bound to kill many of them just by walking around this place.
"It's not intentional and I try to avoid it. I always use a flashlight
when I get up to take a piss at night."
Having lived here for almost three years, Ville has yet to use the kitchen for
cooking! Maybe after an examinator has sanitised it, on MIGHT be able to use
it as one, but currently this "bizarre avant-garde installation, the hall
of insanity", as creatures, mould and God knows what.
Luckily he doesn't have to pass the kitchen on his way to the loo. If a minister
saw it, he'd probably grab his cross and perform an exorcism in order to rid
this Hell's Kitchen of its evil spirits.
Your nosy Hammer newshound makes his way to the living room. Determined to investigate
every angle, I secretly peek into a closet. No clothes in sight, but a huge
collection of videos. Many of them so grotesque you'd be hard-pressed to find
even in the sleaziest of sex shops in Soho. Ville pulls out a couple of them
and pops the bizarrely title The Rites Of Uranus into the VCR. The sexual depravity
portrayed in this 70s cult flick is beyond Description and would undoubtedly
be deemed illegal in most countries. Scandinavia is very sexually liberated
as and you can watch hardcore gang banging on TV every night at midnight, though
perhaps not a dubious nature like The Rites Of Uranus or the next tape Ville
brings out, The Haunted Pussy.
"I've never seen tapes with so cool cover artwork and cool titles,"
he says. "I think The Haunted wanted to call themselves The Haunted Pussy,
but then they wanted to have some wider appeal and took the "Pussy"
away! It's a great source of inspiration, in many short of ways".
Sex shopping
When Ville was 14 years old , his father gave up his job as a cab driver and
bought a sex shop in Helsinki. Ville's still the proud owner.
"I used to work there part time for a short while when I was younger, "reveals
Ville. "I thought it was a bit weird, but in the end it's paid off in some
many ways. It was a great way to educate myself sexually, because it's been
free and basically very 60s. The good thing is we didn't have to rent any porn
on tour, he gave us all the stuff for free. When we were on tour, all of a sudden
when our keyboard player left the band, all our porn archives went missing.
He claims he didn't take it, but it was hundreds of magazines and videos. Most
of them were about shit, we didn't go for the animal stuff. We have good morals!
Just shit, no piss. Piss is sick isn't it?"
Porn is blamed for everything from giving teenagers a distorted view of sex
to provoking men to rape women. What's your take on that?
"You can always come up with explanations if you want to blame people.
It's like blaming Judas Priest, Ozzy or Marilyn Manson for all the killings
which have been happening. I'm gonna rise up to the barricades for porn, I'm
the greatest supporter. But basically everyone in a band is so I'm just quoting
Lit!"
Every room is filled with rock'n' roll memorabilia. Album covers, posters and
dolls - Black Sabbath, Kiss, Turbonegro but, first and foremost Elvis Presley.
"Elvis is sort of like a Jesus figure to a certain extent," believes
Ville. "A guy had it all and fucked it all up. I've always been a huge
fan of biographies, I collect them in card boxes in my 'attic'. I love stories
about artist. They're all very similar towards the end. As they said when they
advertised his latest #1 hits album : 'Before anybody did anything, Elvis did
everything.' Basically he did, so I'm not under great deal of pressure, because
everthing's already been done by Elvis or Andy McCoy". ( Erm, guitarist
with 80 hair band Hanoi Rocks).
Toy Dolls
Removing a ton of debris, I'm finally able to recline in an old leather chair.
Only to find a used thermometer on the armrest! Ville insist that he's only
had it in his mouth, but not entirely convinced I stand up and check out the
rest of the living room. There are vintage guitars in all shapes and forms:
from '46, '57, '62,'62 and the 70s. All in all, the musician's forked out more
than 15,000 English Pound amassing this impressive collection. Anywhere you
look you'll also find dolls - on his latest trop to Los Angeles, Ville spent
2,000 English Pounds on Tim Burton dolls. But none of them are so precious as
Tyllerö, a teddy bear given to him at the tender age of one. "It's full
of piss 'cos I used to wet myself when I was young!" he cracks up.
Over the antique sofa rest a scary looking mannequin. It was purchased as a
guardian angel to his girlfriend, but she hated it and when she moved Ville
decided to keep it for company.
"Anton LaVey, founder of The Church of Satan had his own little doll house
with loads of animated mannequins. I started with one and it's already lost
its arms. I'll probably lose the head soon as well. I haven't been looking after
her much lately, which is a bad thing. That's probably why she cut her arms
off, to show me she's not happy with the situation. I call her different names,
depending on the night." In his teens, Ville was a promising artist and
attended art school. The urge to do music was stronger and he quit.
As a collector of self-portraits, I polity ask the Finn if he'd draw one for
me. An hour later, Ville Valo's immortalised on canvas.
"What do I see in that self -portrait?" he ask rhetorically.
"A wannabe rock icon trying to do what every artist does when they've reached
their certain peak of artistry. They normally try to do what Marilyn Manson
did, for example. I just don't sell them, I give them for free to friends if
they want them. Most of them don't, which is why I don't paint so much".
Weeks later he hands over the self portrait to me. It's been ripped to pieces
and taped together. What the heck happened?
"After you left, my girlfriend or whatever I should call her, came over
and saw it, "explains Ville. "She was very upset that I'd done a self-portrait
for a journalist when I never do any drawings for her. I was totally drunk and
to please her I kicked it into pieces".
And now, Ville's work of art is taking pride of place hanging obe rmy mantelpiece
- a portrait of a true filth pig!