Interview with Ville Valo at Lowlands festival
august /2008/

Ville: Live long in property, people. My name is Ville from a band called HIM from Helsinki, Finland. And you’re enjoying Toazted at the moment. So, stay toasted, brothers and sisters. Uh!

Toazted.com: So, you’re here. You’re back in the Lowlands festival again. How many times have you been here right now?
V: Well, you know, that was back in the days when I was drinking heavily, so… it’s all a blur, past ten years more or less. I guess it’s been 3, 4, 5 years, something like that, since we were here last time around. It was a long long…

T: Aaa…I saw you like… 2 years ago you were here actually.
V: You’re sure?

T: I’m really sure, I saw you, guys.
V: Are you sure you saw us?

T: I saw you perform, so…
V: Perform, like, on stage?

T: Yeah, on stage, yeah.
V: How well were we performing?

T: It was ok.
V: So, I performed ok?

T: Yeah.
V: Oh, that’s good. That’s good to know. OK is better than, you know, really bad. So, yeah, well… that was… I can’t really remember that. That’ funny. When you, you know, when you play a lot of festivals, we had the honor and the possibility of playing a lot of festivals, it’s just… There’s so many of them. If you play like 30 festivals and then you go on a proper tour for a couple of months. And then you start recording the next one. It’s just, you can’t remember all of it.

T: Yeah…
V: Well, that’s like shitty excuse, but I was trying my best.

T: Ah, eh… You don’t need to excuse yourself, it’s just what it is.
V: It’s just… I’m just trying to be a gent, more or less.

T: Do you still enjoy it?
V: Which part of it? Nah, you know, the forgetting part. Yeah yeah.. I enjoy forgetting everything, dimensions coming bit by bit. Ah… Yeeah, I do. It’s… it’s been eh personally it’s been tough couple of past years, like, maybe 2 years, something like that., since… you know… my heavy drinking escalated to super-heavy-drinking and at one point the doctor said that “you can’t do or you gonna die”. And it was tough being sober and doing all the tour sober and kinda missing all the parties, and getting fucked up every night, all that. But, you know, I read a lot. I’m the boring twat. But then again, I do write a lot more songs., so ah…so ah… it is fun, but it’s different. It’s very different. And then again, I probably said the same thing a couple of years back that it seems that we have our audience… All the audience seems so different form country to country. It could be that one album is really respected in let’s say England and not in Germany. And then a next one is appreciated in Germany and nobody gives a fuck in England. So, it’s kinda weird, we’re kinda like… Well like nearly a demo band in some country, and then we like nearly superstars in another country. And that kinda keeps us dancing on the razor’s edge, so to speak. And it makes it worth and makes it very challenging as well rather than having everybody kissing our asses, you know.

T: And then you must feel you must have a big show then.
V: Are you talking about this one?

T: Yeah, this or any big show.
V: Well, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality. It’s… you know, playing gigs is kinda tough since occasionally you get into situations when the technical aspects are not working, you know. Or you get into situation where you just feel like shit. Your audience is fantastic, everything’s fantastic, but you got the flu or whatever. And eh… you know, it’s a tough thing to get all the five members in a band, and eh… all our members, eh…in a tip-top shape to be able to perform in a way it would be entertaining for everybody involved, so… It is playing like Russian roulette with maybe 5 bullets instead of one. So, there’s a lot of possibilities of failure, but ah… but we keep on failing so extremely well that we… we’ve learnt how to cope with eh tremendous continuous pain.

T: What’s the worst experience you’ve had when you had to perform?
V: Eh, well, ahm.. Probably the one.. I’ve had.. I’ve been on tour while having diarrhea. And that’s not nice when you have to deal with a lot of Imodium, stuff like that, you’re kind of afraid that you gonna shit your pants and…

T: On stage?
V: Yeah.. and you do this “aahhhh!” you really go for the screams or whatever, you’re like “can I? can I? aaahhh!” and it’s kinda you’re (??) , cause there’s just so much pressure in your body that you, well.. That’s the reason why I’m… That’s what we’ve been saying why all these goth-bands wear black just in case they shit themselves nobody’s gonna notice. So… That might be the thing, but… As you can see I’m just…

T: You’re not wearing black.
V: Yeah, I’m… I’m… I’m comfortable with my (???) at the moment.

T: For now.
V: Yeah, for now. Obviously. It might be totally different next time around *laughter*.

T: Ok, but is everybody healthy now?
V: Ah… Well, Mige, our bass-player had diarrhea yesterday. He was eating some moldy raisins, so he had a little bit of problems. I think there’s mental problems, but everybody’s got a bit, ehm… yeah, we’re good, we’re good. We’re actually just kind of… it’s an ah… what would be the right word? Elevating moment in the way that we’ve just finished our Do… our Venus Doom tour, our previous album Venus Doom. This was the last gig for the album, so… We toured since last July, so…

T: So it feels good to be done.
V: Yeah, well… yeah… it feels good to kinda… You know… To start writing new material and trying to go into the studio and create a record that would convince a bit more people to like us.

T: Are there any plans or things written for the new record?
V: Ahm, I’m writing, you know, bits and… I have got couple of songs I’ve been working with. You know, you never know what’s gonna end on the album and what not. It’s all good. I’m just happy that I’m writing, because I usually have niamniamniam a writer’s block, and… you always feel like “oh, now I can’t do anything anymore” and you become this whiny self-centered bastard living in your house , you know… this, you know… it’s all all-over type eh despair hitting you. Ehm, you know, but songs are coming out of me when I’m in a rush with the next album. I’m gonna fly over to the States to meet some people in a record company, and we’re gonna just figure out what we can do better with the next album. Not musically, but, you know, with the whole machinery. You know, records sales are going down, you know. Record companies are kinda scared, I think. You know, it’s not a good situation. They expect us to live like rockstars, but where do we get the money, you know. That’s tough. We gonna live like rockstars being very cheap, so, cheap drugs, and cheap girls, and cheap booze and all that.

T: So, that’s why you have to tour so much, to make some money?
V: Well, touring is something you get used to, you get… It’s extremely hard and psychedelic for me to go back home and to relearn how to do the dishes, ahm, buy a toilet paper. Stuff like that. It’s so easy when you are in the hotels. You just get used to that kind of living, but... but ah touring is the way of life which sounds a bit corny, which it probably is. But it is a way of avoiding of growing up, and it is a way of seeing a lot of places you would never go to. You know, weird places. Minneapolis. I… You get your drinks spiked in Minneapolis, and waking up from a…you know…in a hotel with an hourly rate next morning with everything stolen off of you. It’s very… It’s like a… like Indiana Johns without the hat and the money. Kinda…

T: Well, you guys make good money on tour.
V: No, I’ve got the hat… no… no we don’t actually, because it’s like a lot of people don’t realize the fact that the bigger the venue, the bigger the tour, the bigger expenses are as well, so… You gotta put on a great light show and more PA and stuff like that. So, basically I guess the most money comes from merchandise.

T: Merchandise?
V: Yeah. So, t-shirt sales, stuff like that. I don’t know the exact figures, you know. I don’t wanna know. Butta, I think that the way that you keep on funding yourself. We’re not broke, you know. But we’re not (???) either. We’re not rappers, you know.

T: You want all the girls to keep buying your shirts.
V: Ahm.. Well, girls and boys and everything in between, you know. We’re trying to figure out new line of clothing for animals, well, so we expand our territory. To kids obviously. So, we’re omnivorous when it comes to that. Ahm. Oh, well, you know, it’s just a complex. We’re musicians, I write songs, we perform, and we’re happy doing that. We’re lucky enough to be in a situation with these people who design fairly good t-shirts, so that we don’t have to do that. We just can concentrate on the essential.

T: This making music, creating part…
V: Well, that’s the thing I’ve doing since I was a kid, you know. Obviously, I’ve been buying a lot of Iron Maiden, Cathedral and Type o Negative t-shirts as well, so I know what I like. Butta, but I’m not a businessman, I’m a musician, so… and ah… I’m not Gene Simons. Well, you know.

T: You take pride in that?
V: I’m thinking about Gene Simons’ sex tape or (???) sex tape. Yeah, I do take pride in that.

T: Ok. So…But, you have a good managers and stuff to work it a lot for you?
V: Ah, yeah… we’re glad actually to have Seppo, that’s the name of a guy. He’s been with us since the beginning of the band, so… He’s not stealing too much from us. He does have really fat illegal accounts probably in ??? islands. Or something like French ??? He’s got like mansions and shit, we don’t have like anything. Butta, it’s better than nothing. We still have the bread on our table, and we’re able to pay our phone bills. So, we’re good.

T: Do you like your job?
V: I don’t consider it a job. I consider it overwhelming, very much extended hobby. You know, passion, in a way. It has taken us so far. It’s very rare it feels like a job, and when it does feel like a job, that the time to actually go back home and relax. That’s the sign that you… I get a bit burned out. Something like that. Of course, it happens to people, to everybody, but not playing gigs, you know, you might be hangover; you might be feeling under the weather or stuff like that. But that’s not a part that you think could change… now we just may… you know… I gotta go on stage because I’m gonna make like a thousand euros for singing crapy songs for hour and a half. It’s not like that, yet.

T: Maybe it all reunion tour in twenty years?
V: Well, we keep on splitting up, so this’s probably like zillions reunions, or, in a way, but. We could do a proper one, sure sure. Just play … ehm, we’re gonna do extensive tour in Germany just playing Join Me in Death ten times in a row. That’s our way of celebrating our reunion, whenever that happens. But we’re trying to figure out also way to use cyborgs to make it bit craftworkier, the whole thing. So, we don’t have to be actually on a stage. Or like Boney M, have one original member in all the different HIM bands, you know. Have Gas having one HIM. And I do one HIM, and that’d be good, you know. We’d make 5 times more money and we still wouldn’t be rich, because of the percentage our manager takes off from us.

T: You should manage yourself then. That’s a job, and that’s not fun.
V: Well, you know, I do manage myself manually sexually in a hotel room, but not money-wise with the rock band.

T: You gotta do it manually with all the girls screaming at the concerts?
V: Well, they scream at the concert, but they don’t scream in the hotel room.

T: Why not?
V: Maybe I smell, I don’t know. Maybe I smell bad, I’ve got bad (???)... I don’t know. I’m a very romantic person and I’m still waiting for a…

T: True love.
V: Well, not true love. I’ve been in love couple of times. And I’m very glad and very happy for that. Butta, I’d rather save myself. There’s not a lot to save, so I’ve gotta save the last little tiny pieces I can. My goods a very damaged.

T: Yeah? From what?
V: Excessive partying.

V: Yeah.
T: But it’s all in the past now?
V: Excessive partying?

T: Yeah.
V: Eh, I never say never. I don’t have any plans. I’ve been sober for about a year and 4 months, something like that, (but) and it’s been easy and it’s been fun, (but) and quite boring occasionally, as well. But I never say never. I get… that’s the way I’ve been able to sustain the sobriety for such along time. I don’t make any plans, you know. If you make plans you gonna be pressured to…you know.

T: And now you just smoke a lot...
V: I don’t even smoke that much. That’s weird. But that’s probably the rea(son), you know. You can’t smoke in bars anymore in EU anywhere. And, you know, since I don’t drink, I don’t smoke a lot, you know. I don’t smoke weed, I got asthma, my bronchitis gets really bad with smoking weed. Smoking cracks are not good for you if you are a singer, it’s not good for song writing. If you check Amy Winehouse, you know. It’s bad for your skin, so… you know, I can’t smoke a lot of things nowadays. I wish I could *laughter*.

T: You’re becoming a very healthy man.
V: Oh, well, physically yeah.(laughter) Now, look, you know, it's a... it’s a fucking phase, you know. I’ll be done in the gutter in no time. Just let me be for two month and I’ll be a fucking wreck. I’ll be all Ozzy Osbourne again. Don’t you worry about… I’ll let you know the next thing’s gonna happen from the gutter. I’ll be in the gutter, yeah.

T: Cool.
V: Isn’t it? It’s really good. That makes me need even less money. You know heed rock (???). Like, what is it? 20 $. Now well heed rock bottom (???), yeah, crack rock bottom. That’s a plan, you know. That doesn’t take a lot of money. It takes a lot of energy, though. But I’ll be hit into crack rock bottom. Crack rock bottom that would be probably Amy W. behind, right. Crack-rock-bottom.

T: Yeah. That’s a difficult one.
V: Ehm, I have a crush on her, but unfortunately she’s married. But the guy’s in jail, so…

T: She might forget she’s married.
V: I think she has on few occasions. If you believe what you read, so…I might stand a chance.

T: Do you believe what you read?,br. V: Yeah, everything. I’m like Dave (???) from (???)that makes me a wise person. You know, I’ve just got… I’m blue-eyed and I’m… I just believe everything I read. That’s the way. You know, everything from Wikipedia, everything, everything. I believe it all.

T: Oh, when can we ehm…When does the new record coming out?… You think? What do you think?
V: Well, you know, if I’m being released, it’ll be out august the 18th next year.

T: That’s a very precise date.
V: *laughter* Yeeah, I’m not sure whether that’s a weekend or something. So. Butta, eh, but since we know how it works, you know. If we gonna..if I’m gonna write a couple of songs, we’re taking a bit of time of, meeting with the record company, you know, to see if everything’s fine with a next release. We start rehearsing with the band this year, we’re going to the studio early next year, which meansthat that’s gonna be 2 month of recording, ehm, couple of weeks mixing, ehm, mastering, then shooting a video, probably, doing a couple of interviews, doing photo sessions, then playing summer festivals, auaeua, at the same time, hopefully, releasing a single. We can push a bit and say to people “Hei, we still do exist and we’re pretty good occasionally”. And when the summer festivals are done the album is in the stores and we start touring.

T: What in the entire process do you like most?
V: Sleeping. That’s pretty good.. I like the whole process… you know, the cool thing about being in the band is that it’s not just music. There’s so many things involved. You know, even though I say I’m not a businessman and I don’t check out all the details, all, like, designed t-shirts, it’s still cool to see t-shirts, and designing cover art work and figuring out if we have the possibility meeting some great directors for videos. We’ve been really lucky in the past, you know. There’s so many visual things in it as well. And the fact that you get to travel a lot, to see a lot of, maybe, museums or bookstores or, you know, gigs or girls, whatever, you know. There’s a lot of things involved. It’s not just playing a three and a half (???), so I like it all. It, like, balances everything out.

T: Well, thank you very much for an interview. And eh, good luck with the rest…well...
V: The rest of my life, yeah…

T: ..the new record and recording, writing it.
V: Well thank you. I’m, I’m very flattered, yeah yeah thanks thanks. It’s been a great pleasure and I’m.. you know.. ehm, hopefully, hopefully it won’t be like another 3 years, you know. Whatever it was. It’ll be good, it’ll be good.

Transcript - La Murka