Heartagram Club interview with Ville Valo
/february 2006/

Have you written any new songs, because I heard that the new album will be releasedÖnext autumn?
- Next yearÖja jaÖyes, thereís bits and pieces. But we still donít know about the production. We are not sure about the producer..we still havenítÖletís say we donít have a single song finished, with the band. So, itís gonna take time and when we know where itís heading towards, than we can start producing or performing.

You have ìHeartagram Recordsî for releases in Finland now, is it really only for the Finnish releases or do you have any further plans with it in future?
- We have the possibility of signing bands but we have been on tour constantly so we didnítít have the time to do it Ö

But have you been thinking about doing it in the future?
- WellÖlets say we havenít found a band yetÖlets see what happens.

Do you get along well with Warner and Sire?
- Ja. Well, itís a new relationship so..there are lots of new people we still havenít met, and lots of people we have met soÖitís a different way of working. Of course ,for our band itís exciting if originally we had..you know at BMG Finland we had our offices in Helsinki. And now our new office is in New York, on Rockefeller Plaza.

How big is your influence in business decisions?
- WellÖbasically our manager does most of itÖ

I mean generally the band towards the record companyÖ
- WellÖyeah a lotÖitís very important.

So, if the record company wants you do to something you can still say no?
- JajaÖwe always do.

You always do?
- A lot of times, yeah. It is very important Itís likeÖlets say video costs for exampleÖyouíre fucking using 300 000$ for a video. And you gotta be sure itís good. Otherwise it would just be money thrown away.

How important is commercial success to you? If fame leaves you one day, would you still carry on/start from scratch?
- Hahaha, what a question! EeehÖLetís say, we are not earning that much money with our music. Itís enough to pay our phone bills and rents, and buy better instrumentsÖand buy more CDs. But thatís about it.

So you would never stop just because youíve stop selling well?
- Nonono, lets say we did it for..hold onÖwe did it for 15 years without getting any money out of it, soÖitís nice to be in a situation where we donít have to get another job for example, so we can concentrate all on music. And yeah, the more successful the better it works [? SorryÖville mumbled the end of this sentence and there where background noices...]. Successful doesnít necessarily mean commercial, it doesnít necessary mean that youíre a whore.

Do you sometimes question what you are doing? And if yes, in which situations?
- Well every day. When writing a song, figuring out how to do what we do better. Because it is important to try to be objective and see yourself from the outside and try to figure out what can be done even better.

There was this Kerrang interview where fans were sending you questions and one of them was if you would quit the band to work in your fatherís shop againÖand it became sort of a little scandal..even on MTV Germany there was like: ìVille Valo wants to quit HIMî and shit like that and everybody was getting crazyÖ

*surprised smile*

SoÖwhat would be a real reason for you to quit?
- AhmÖahmÖnot having fun. I think thatís the best thing.

And..you are still having fun?
- Well, thatís the only reason why we are here. That it feels good, and we still enjoy the music we play.So you know, if it feels bad one day, there is no reason to continue because we are not making super lot of money, we donít do it just because of travel, we do it because of music and if the music doesnít feel good we have to think of something else.

HIM is constantly present in both, mainstream/teen and scene/underground media, do you think itís good or bad?
- I think itís interesting. Itís like Dark Light. Just to have different entities coming together. Teenagers are fucking people as well, and I think itís really healthy if a teenie magazine has a band like us in there.

Well thatís how lots of the fans got to know youÖ
- WellÖnot necessarily that our band exists, but the whole genreÖrockíníroll in general, and thatís why I consider it to be a good thing. But itís a bit different in different countries. And especially here we still get this Bravo stuffÖand then we just did an interview for Gothic and Orkus. I find it really cool. I find it really nice that so many differ so many different people are into what we do.

Do you catch up much gossip about you from the internet, tabloids or whatever?
- Ahm, from the tabloids a bit.

Do you care? Does it make you angry or worried do you justÖwell...donít care?
- Depending. When theyíre like stupid lies that make my mom and father like wellÖyou knowÖworried. I donít like that. When they are like complete lies I usually laugh about them.

There was this story recently in Iltalehti about you arguing with your neighbour and throwing a flowerpot at his doorÖ
- WellÖthatís what I did.

AhÖok. How do you generally feel about people who are discussing your private life in ìpublicî?
Ahm, lets say that especially being in Finland, thatís thatís my home country, and thatís where my fiancÈ livesÖand thatís the only place where I have like myÖprivate time. So it would be nice, if it would be less discussions about private thingsÖbecause you know, being in a band is a different thing than trying to be a good Öfuture husband.

Some critisism I have heard from many fans: the setlist is rather stuck on playing ìhitsî only.. People are missing ìspecialsî and ìsurprisesîÖ [he didn't let me finish and therefore got it totally wrong...
Weíre doing Itís All Tears,weíre doing Razorblade Kiss, weíre doing Poison Heart by the Ramones, weíre doing Soul On Fire which was never a single, what else do we do? Weíre doing Play Dead from the new album I think almost half of the setlist werenít hits or singles.

Yeah, butÖsome people are complaining about not changing the setlist for a very long timeÖ
- Hold onÖ[now he got it] well you know ahmÖwe tend to change every night like one or two songs. [aha] BecauseÖif you rehearse the set very well, it is better for everybody because we know the draw, we donít have to think about how the set goes, we can concentrate on performing well [aha]

Okay.
[thinking about flowerpots and better changing topicÖ]

What would you like to say to journalists who write negative ìreviewsî about a record or a gig, numerating every stupid clichÈ which is connected to HIM, but forgetting to mention anything about the music/the performance itselfÖ
[this was my question, but the waiter arrived with his coffee at the mom and he had to sign something and stuff so the question he actually answered was]:

How do you deal with (bad) critisism?
- Well you knowÖI like constructive criticism. And itís the same with likeÖgood reviews. Because if someone who really likes what we do just writes a review just because he or she really likes what we do, I donít think this is necessarily good. I like writing in a neutral way that there are things that could be better and things that could be worse.

What I meant were actually those people who like, are just telling all the clichÈs like teenie girls screaming and theyíre parents waiting for them and so onÖ
- Yeah but actually I think itís a beautiful thing if parents can come with their children to our gigs. Itís a fucking awesome thingÖtell me one other band who can doÖmaybe U2, The Rolling Stones, so not a lot of bands can do it, thatís really cool. itís really cool that weíve had so much success or so much interest from young people, like reallyÖlike people who are 10. Maybe through what we say, maybe theyíll get into Black SabbathÖ

[I actually wasnt asking THIS but well...pretty interesting anyways *lol* ]

Yeah, Iíve actually seen lots of kids, the cutest one in London, maybe ten, sitting on aÖthing and shouting all the lyrics.
- Well you know, we met in AmericaÖ the youngest fan was a girl of three, so that was really really cool, she had like purple hair and like a rockíníroll gear. That was so cool.

In the UkraineÖsomebody opened a beauty parlour and called it Ville ValoÖ.
- *giggles* Ja..
Oh you know it?
- JajajaÖI havenít been there. Iíve been sent a copy of the logo, and they asked whether they can do it. We were justÖwe were laughing about it, because itís such a crazy ideaÖbut if they really want to, of course they can do it.

Itís so funnyÖbecause they have like Ville Valo written there, and like a womanís face profile right in the middle, and I thought it was so funnyÖ
- Yeah well, us too.
I think itís a positive thing. I think itís so cool that people like what we do so much that they wanna have theyíre business named after it.

Does it disturb you that the Heartagram got a bit ìout of controlî in the US? That there are lots of people who even donít know that the symbol is connected to a band?
Well they will. I think that anyway, you knowÖI think itís a better start, when there isÖletís say a million people who know the Heartagram, or two million people who know the Heartagram and maybe 200 000 who know whatís all about ..but itís a bit better like that, than to have just 200 000 who know whatís all about. Because you know, there is time and eventually if weíre going to be a bit more well known over there, I think that people are gonna understand the linkÖaaah okay, itís that band, itís not Bam or itís notÖthat thing, you know itís just Öyou know, I think itís a good thing.

Do you plan to play in FinlandÖI mean a real tour in the next couple of month?
AaaahmÖwe donít have time before eeehm before next autumn. Because we go for the first time to Australia and New Zealand and Japan and ÖandÖwe gotta do a lot of work in America because for the first time these you know like K-Rock [??] for exampleÖreally big radio stations started playing Wings Of A Butterfly. Itís getting better and better and weíre more well-known there so of course we wanna push that. Itís an important thing for us but, yeahÖwe should do somethingÖsomething in FinlandÖprobably in the autumn.

Imagine the following artists playing at the same time in the same town:
-Black Sabbath
-Kiss
-Elvis
Which one would you choose?
- AhmÖ*thinking*ÖSabbath definitely of course, yeah yeahÖthere are no options.

Which gig you ever attended impressed you the most?
- Probably the first one that I ever saw that was Iron Maiden in Helsinki at mhhhhm in mhhhm í87Ö[actually it was í88Ö]. And it was the first big rock concert with like pyrotechnics and everything and that was likeÖthat was blast for a young mind.

Can you imagine that for some people, HIM can be that impressing?
- Erm, no but hopefully. There have been people who came to our shows and Ösort ofÖyou know sang along/enjoyed(?) [could have been something else...ville's soundless but actually constantly ringing phone...like we discovered afterwards, you know...mobiles cause these noices on cameras and stuff...was too loud at this word] every song. Itís always a cool thing if they like it, you know.

Is there anything you want to say to your fans in general?
- Be educated. Education is never a bad thing. I thing itís the best way to rebel against the government, orÖreligion Öyou knowÖpolitics or whatever. A wise Chinese man once saidÖor Japanese, I canít remember. But he said that Öyou knowÖkeep your friends close but your enemies closer.

Did you tell me any liesÖ
- *thinking* noÖÖ.I never lie *smile*

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