Linde interviewed by PlugInMusic.com
/october 2007/

How are you?
L: I'm pretty good, thanks for asking. Just got home from a little "tour" in Thessaloniki, Athens, London and Berlin where we had some great shows indeed. Now we are having a nice 3 week break. Well at least some of us are...

The release of the new album, “Venus Doom,” is still a few weeks away. As it approaches, how are you feeling about the album?
L: I'm very happy with how the album turned out and I believe the whole band feels pretty much the same way.

Aside from the track of the same name, what made you decide to title the album “Venus Doom?”
L: I'm not the lyricist but I guess it’s the same theme that has been repeated throughout all the Him album titles so far and the heartagram symbol as well. It’s about the bipolarity of things, you know, the jin and jang [sic] stuff. And this album has a lot of those lovely doomy middle parts too.

It has been rumored that the album will be the band’s heaviest sounding album to date. But the first single, “The Kiss Of Dawn,” has a rather light chorus when compared the song’s earlier guitar riffs. How do you account for the contrast and how would you describe the sound?
L: I guess that is the reason it’s the first single. The radio stations, at least in Europe, are scared of heavy guitars, so if you want to get any airplay at all - which is one of the reasons of even releasing singles in the first place - you might want to pick a track that would have even theoretical chances of being aired. I think it’s a beautiful song and that it is presented in a way that suits the particular song best. What is the point in trying to sound heavy just for the sake of it? You should always respect the song and find a way to make the song sound the best it can. I have personally never been interested in singles or speculating on which one would be the best track to "do the job." I leave that for the record company. But anyway, you are right, the chorus of "The Kiss of Dawn" is probably not the heaviest part of the album.

You’ve been playing Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour with Placebo, My Chemical Romance and others. How has that tour been so far?
L: Well the tour is over now and we had a great time. We got to play to a bunch of people that hadn't seen us before and got to spread our good news. But we only got to play for about 40 minutes and always in sunlight, so we are really looking forward to doing our own proper tour in America (starting the 18th of October in New Jersey) with a longer set, our own production and lights and so on.

How did you feel about being included on the “Transformers” soundtrack? Have you seen the film?
L: This is one of those record company things again. I just got informed that our song is on the soundtrack and I thought, “OK, great. They're spreading the disease, which is always good.” I haven't seen the movie, not really my type of thing. I'm more into French relationship dramas.

With “Venus Doom” being your sixth as a band, what do you think when you look back at your debut?
L: It has been a beautiful journey, both musical and emotional. Crashing and collapsing, sometimes easy, sometimes hard. Sometimes lying down with your intestines hanging out on the field, as we say in Finland. I wouldn't change a thing.

Who are some underrated bands that you think deserve more attention?
L: The band that Iggy Pop used to work with just before reuniting with The Stooges; a band called "The Trolls" with Mighty Whitey on guitar, his brother, Alex on drums and a bass player whose name I can't remember either. They might not be the tightest or the most technical band on the planet but who cares about that anyway? You can hear and feel that they play from their hearts and they just rock!

What have you been listening to recently?
L: The Stooges' latest "The Weirdness." Totally awesome! And then I just got into Bad Brains big time. They've been around for a while, but better late than never, right? I only have the albums "Rock For Light," "The Quickness" and "Build A Nation," but it seems like I have to get their entire catalog. I'm hooked!

If you could have written any song, what song do you wish you had written and why?
L: Songwriting to me isn't about getting personal recognition. If you're writing songs just to be "the great songwriter" or something as silly, you're missing the whole point.

Anything you would like to add?
L: Hope to see ya'll on our fall tour! It'll be awesome!

Thanks for your time!
L: No, thank you!