Soundi 11/02

"There's a guy in a German record company called Wolfgang Funk which we look up to mainly because of his name. It was his idea to collect the money off and release a sinlges collection for Christmas market.

We heard about that just while we were rehearsing for the new record and having some gigs so in that rush we thought that yeah, whatever… Then it was released. It's funny why it isn't "The singles collection" but "The single collection". Because of that spelling mistake the "gunthers" once again showed their way how to market something. This is the way how to make money with poor musicians like us.

Let's say it's not fun for me to be involved in a project where there are some spelling mistakes. It could not interest me less. It's dedicated to the long time fans who is still missing some single or something. They are all in that box. It's not in that way very special for us, I mean we are making a whole new album now. The mind is in the future, not in the past. Now when the book is finally finished, we don't have to wonder anymore that what did happen in Leipzig 1998".

Ville tells that with this new album they want to find the joy again of making music as they had before while they were hanging in Mige's apartment in Tuusula, where they played without any breaks for 7 hours terrible shit music and still enjoyed it. But it still does not meant to be like garage-rock. Led Zeppelin is always the goal and dream. HIM has once again promised to play at Tavastia on new years eve and there are also package trips sold in foreign countries. There are no plans for a real tour at this point. If the album comes out in April, there will be festivals in the summer and meanwhile they are doing them, they will plan for the upcoming tour in the fall.

"Lets see what people think about the new album, that will they move us from the main stage in Ilosaarirock to smaller once. Before next fall there will at least not be any club gigs".

Juho Juntunen says about working with the guys & the book:

"Ville Valo called me last February and asked me out for a beer. I was at that time in another city and had some vodka so I couldn't go but we met the next night when I was in Helsinki again. So we went for a beer to different bars and Ville showed me his cosmic pope tattoo on his leg. At some point we were both getting sentimental and Ville asked me if I wanted to make this book about HIM. Some other people had also asked Ville if they could write a book but the guys had said "no" at that time. I thought about it over the night and the next evening we were having a night out again with Ville and then I told him "yes, I wanna write the book". I've been asked before to write some books about bands but they didn't interest me. HIM in the other hand interested. I wasn't a fan directly but I had always liked the attitude the guys have and their records and also that everything has happened so fast. In the upcoming book you wouldn't have to write about the boring years when nothing happened.

Now someone may think that this is a dream job. Spend nights with the guys having a few beers, talk & make some money. Sure I did all that but everything wasn't still like a dream. Even if HIM was basically on a break at that time, they still did the Finnish tour and a couple of gigs in UK, so it was pretty hard to put up a schedule to meet up, especially when Ville never answers your phonecalls. Also you would have to write and sit at nights in front of the computer. Then you had to go through the material with the band, listen to lots of tapes full of interviews and also try to reach the former members of the band. There's nothing bad to tell about the HIM guys. I got probably through this pretty easy when Mige and Linde had decided to spend a complete sober period so they didn't drink any alcohol, both can be pretty unpredictable when they are drunk. Ville didn't do that and he also told me in the first place that you should always try to urinate beside the toilet. That gives a freedom, - there's a message in that. We met many times at my place and I always checked out the toilet in the morning and was pretty careful".

Translated by Heidi Ekbom