Ilta Sanomat
/juny 2005/

* Ville Valo grabs the balcony railing. He is posing for a picture on the balcony of a hotel in New York but everything's not all right.
- I am afraid of heights, he says.

* The album [Dark Light] is the most anticipated Finnish album of all time. For the first time a big international record company is putting all their effort world-wide on a Finnish band.

* Valo has spent all spring in the United States. In March and April he was working in a studio in L.A. When his bandmates returned to Finland, he went to New York to keep an eye on the mixing of the album. In May it really was necessary. Ville Valo knows better what HIM should sound like than any "studio wizards". And Ville doesn't worship any appearances: a week of working together with Andy Wallace -who has been the mixer for e.g. Nirvana and Limp Bizkit in the past- was enough. Wallace was fired because Ville thinks that he made HIM sound like one of those American bands with no personality.
- He didn't understand our Scandinavian "twistedness", tells Ville.
They hired Tim Palmer to do the job.

* Ville will approve the final mixings before HIM's only Finnish festival gig which is Turku's Ruisrock on the 9th of July.

* Vesterinen tells that HIM is really popular at the moment. They have a deal for seven magazine covers in Germany. Thinking world-wide, a really important one is the next issue of Kerrang which will feature Ville together with Ozzy Osbourne and Guns n' Roses' ex- guitarist Slash on the cover.

* Ville is presenting me his new look. Apparently there is nothing dramatic behind the new haircut, like it's not designed by any American image consultant for example.
- I always cut my hair in the beginning of recording. 'Cause sure it'll grow back.

* Ville has got himself a new tattoo. He now has a picture of a young Timo K. Mukka on his right hand. Well there's something for the American rock fans to wonder at! And Mukka is not the only reference to Finnish culture.
- We put some U2 into the music but some [Tapio] Rautavaara in the singing, Ville summarizes.

* - You need to do what you know best and the rest is up to God.

* On HIM's next American tour they will play in places that can hold 2000 - 3000 people. For HIM to break into the bigger division in the U.S. they need to have a radio hit song. It is believed that HIM stands a good chance with their upcoming album. For example the ballad titled Dark Light might get noticed in the so called adult radio stations.

* At the moment HIM together with the record company are trying to figure out which of the songs would be the best as a first single. Dark Light [the song, I assume?] will probably be released in the fall. In summer HIM will try to get noticed with a faster song.