Soundi
September, 2012

Ville Valo hugs me.

-How great to see you! You are fresh from the shower.

I have to confess that actually I’m sweating. I have just carried loads of beer and other alcoholic drinks to the place where I’m going to interview the band. It’s important that we don’t run out of drinks when we are diving into the world of HIM.

An hour later the whole band have taken off their clothes. I feel like a prophet. We are wondering, if we should move to Katmandu. Linde tells that he have been there.

An hour from this, we are wondering if HIM is a cult, where certain astronomical elements meet. The laws of the cult is different from other rules, the world of dreams become reality.

The next day, 11:30 am Linde opens the door and is the last member of the band leaving. The interview is over.

HIM is already twenty years old. That is impressive for any band, but the band members assure me, that you don’t even notice the time passing by. When you do something with great intensity, time flies and you don’t even notice, says Ville Valo. We have had a million things and a lot of changes, both good and bad. I have speculated over this with a few friends, if it is like this for everyone or just for rock musicians. The rhytm of life is different.

Does this mean, that we have an artist’s celebration? Mige asks. No, says Ville. Artist’s celebration is a happy celebration of all the accomplishments of the artist career, continues Burton.

-Well, we have been gay so many times, also with Juho (the journalist), Ville Valo says.

Okay, maybe now is the time to correct the rumours. When I was writing the book “Gone with the sin” about HIM ten years ago, Ville and I were making an television interview for ATV. We told them that during making of the book, we had lived together for six months, lying in the bed naked watching television. This wasn’t true, obviously, but afterwards the rumours about our sexual orientation started to circulate in the net. The power of the television is huge!-So, do you still have a love nest in Key West? Asks Mige. Certainly not!

So, in the end you can see that there haven’t been much peace during the time with HIM, says Ville. As strange as it seems, the most peaceful and yet stressfull time have been the time, when Gas couldn’t play because of his hand. For a few months he couldn’t even carry a jar of milk, but for eight months he couldn’t play drums…I’m certain it was psychosomatic! Ville says.

It’s possible, says Gas. The recovery took time, and I was worried about if I can play at all.

But otherwise life haven’t been too peaceful, Ville continues. As a creative person, there can be times when things are very difficult for you, you are trying to find yourself.

I have to admit, that I am very nervous about the future. It’s not only because we haven’t played for a while, but the whole thing about making a new album.. But it’s not a negative thing, it is good to have a little pressure. Now all these things come in the same time, the collection album, four gigs around New Year in Tavastia, the new studio album and the health problem of Gas.

The upcoming collection Two Decades Of Love Metal have twenty HIM songs, through the whole career of the band. There is one new song, Strange World originally from K?. – We didn’t have much choice about the songs, says Ville. I see the album as an introduction to new people. You should put the best song in the album, and often they are the ones played in the radio. Of course there is some songs, we couldn’t fit in the album. This album is for new fans, and people with bad memory!

HIM entered the studio in the beginning of september for the new album Tears on Tape. Ville tells, that the music is basically ready. Now we are going through the songs, making small adjustments and trying to make as good HIM-album as possible. We have a tight schedule, we want the album to be out in february-march. We don’t even have a record company at the moment, so that is also one thing we try to work out. That is mostly the worry of our manager Seppo Vesterinen. These days it is no longer so important to have a big record company. It is more important that the people working in the company actually care about the band. That was our problem with Warner. The people working with us were constantly changing, and we were all the time feeling like “what the fuck is going on now?” We couldn’t concentrate to the most important thing, making the music.

- But now it is Seppo who decides! We are just pawns in his game, Mige says.

This must be familiar problem for many bands, I point out.
On the other hand, it is pointless to complain about the music industry, says Ville. Music is music, and that is the most important thing. We like Maiden, Sabbath and many other bands..Bisnes is for other people. We should think about the music, not the taxes.

It is interesting that music doesn’t sell like it used to. Bands have to go on tour all the time. There is excess of gigs, and the bands are themselves suffering from it. But you can still do the thing you like the most, music. You just have to decide what’s the most important thing and make time for it.

And I get it, when a young guy has the possibility to download music for free, he will do it. Ville says. -I wouldn’t ! Says Mige.- But that’s because you are old school.

The last gig HIM played together was Sonisphere- festival two years ago. After that the band members didn’t see eachother regularly. But last summer they were again spending lots of time together, rehearsing the new songs. They are also eager to start touring again. In the same time, they want to become even better at what they do. The band has neer been satisfied just doing the same thing over and over again. We want to do something Tolkienlike, go from the Hobbit to the Two Towers, says Ville. From difficulties to the victory!

It is sometimes suprising, how things work out themselves. When we were again playing together this summer, we found new features in our music. I can’t analyze it, it’s like our music, you can’t describe it, you just have to listen to it, tells Burton.

That’s true- we are like Type O Negative, just worse, Ville continues.

When you ask the band members if there have been any controversy inside the band, they smirk. It’s obvious that you can’t always love eachother, but they have never considered splitting up. When you have had the band for twenty years, you can’t throw it out like water, says Ville. Now, when Gas had trouble with his arm, and we couldn’t play at all, we grew closer than ever with Linde and Burton. We are old friends, and when you have so much action as we have had, you just go forward, and personal relationships are sometimes left aside. But really, is this Oprah Show, should I confess something?

During these two years, did you ever consider moving on to a solo career?

-I have always thought about it, but no, I’m not interested in that. Every time I play guitar alone home, it sounds like our band. And it always sounds better with the band. It’s not about ego. The most important thing is, that the music is good. Even if I do the melodies, this is teamwork. This really is a band.

And you are the frontman.

-Could I be the invisible singer? Let’s put a picture of an invisible man in the cover of the Soundi magazine!

-Or my talking ass, Mige proposes.

But you could imagine, that Ville grew tired of being under scrutiny of the tabloids five years ago?

-You mean my drinking and then quitting drinking? You make your bed, you sleep in it. I screwed up. In the end, that kind of publicity doesn’t matter. I think it is nice that people are interested in us, and they have some kind of respect for us, but no one needs to know everything about your life.
Or to know if it’s Miges willie in the poster of Hungarian Bravo- magazine.

Is it?

-Hell yeah! And other thing is, that we are not U2. We are just a pump from Helsinki. We are just a rockband who got incredibly lucky with a few songs. Wonderful! That’s it, and we still have eachother when things get rough.

HIM is recording the new album Tears On Tape in Finland, with Hiili Hiilesmaa. He has worked with the band since the beginning. Mixing will be done by another old friend Tim Palmer, who will do the final work in London.

-When you go to the studio abroad, there is only certain dates and times you are able to use the studio, says Ville. This way we have more freedom, but this is also more demanding for the band. You have to take hold of yourself. Same goes with the lyrics, they really have to be ready.

Do the lyrics still continue in the same dark romantic mood as before? Are you still in the same state of mind?

-Hell yeah! It’s important, that both the lyrics and the music express the same thing. Like Black Sabbath, Smashing Pumpkins and Roy Orbison. Melancholy meets ass fuck! Add to that the midnight worm from Ikaalinen (a Finnish small city)! If you don’t mention this in the interview, you are going to be killed! And I quess the devil is always around the corner, when it’s about our music.

Have any of you actually seen the Satan?

-I have, Burton replies surprisingly. Once playing pool, a guy came up to me and asked if he can have my soul in case he wins the game. I was faced with many decisions, it was a very important moment!

It is also a very important moment when HIM is again, after many years, having a New Years gig in Finland. This time it’s going to be four nights in Tavastia. Helldone-gigs have been such a tradition, that the fans were truly horrified when the band didn’t go on stage.

- It was strange for us too, Ville admits. It had become an automatic thing, and in the other hand sometimes you can say no, even if people want something from you. I’m going to be very nervous about these gigs. If you don’t get nervous, then it’s time to stop. But we want to do these things again. And when things happen naturally, they are close to magic!

-And if we don’t want to play on those gigs, we can always hire black actors to play us, Mige points out. A Kenyan HIM would be so cool! In the next music video there could be black bodybuilders playing us, with leopard skin hats!
( It’s a Finnish inside joke about a recent Finnish movie, where a Kenyan actor was playing our sixth president..)

The band members dedication to HIM is clear. No one has any other projects on the side. Even Lindes side project Daniel Lioneye is on hold for now. There is no need for it. They all reside in Finland, so they can concentrate on the band full time. Although Linde travels to England regularly. He have been together with Toni-Marie Iommi, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommis daughter, for a long time. The couple is always welcome to Tony Iommis house, as is Ozzy Osbourne.

One day I heard someone playing music in Tonys home studio and went there to see what was going on, Linde tells. – There he was rehearsing some Sabbath songs with Ozzy.

Ville Valo & 10 commandments

1.Which books, movies or records have inspired and interested you recently?

-About books I have to mention Aarni Koutas book “Lusiferin kannel”. He’s the one who translated Nietzches Antichrist in Finnish. He wrote esoteric, magical poetry and he is very interesting.

-Burton found the book from some antique store. It’s a source of inspiration, and such a interesting texts. ( and then two long quotes from poems that I can’t translate!)

-About movies, the I have to say Drive (2011) is super, one of my favourites in many years. It’s filmed in fantastic way, wonderful colors and always dig that kind of Charles Bronson-type of attitude that you can find in many Clint Eastwood-films. There is something about it!

-I have terrible taste, hah. And hey, one of the books is also Kill Your Friends (2008) by John Niven. It’s about the British music business in the 90?s. It sounds really boring, but I’m not going to tell more about it. It’s a bit like Guy Richies movies. You go from left to right and right to left, and every direction, and the kind of things happen, that leaves the reader to wonder what the hell is happening. It’s one of the best books I have read in ten years. And on the top of that, it’s a book you read in a second. Incredibly fun book.

-Then I have all Baudelaires on my table, like The Flowers of Evil, and then I have Bukowski and the same time Apathy For The Devil by NME- journalist Nick Kent. And of course short stories by Amy Hempel. She writes about big things in short sentences.

-Then I have a huge pile of movies I have to see again, if they could bring some new ideas. It’s because we are in the process of making the album.

2.You have several portraits tattoed in your skin. Who can you find there and who are still missing?

-On the back I have the eyes of Edgar Allan Poe, on the hand Timo K.Mukka , Baudelaire and Bukowski. And of course Maya Deren. She was a surrealist movie director from the 40?s. I heard she just walked out from the theatre in the middle of the movie if she didn’t like it, and she had clothes full of clocks/watches. Deren was also a choreographer, film theoretician, writer and photographer who studied voodoo in Haiti.

-Of course I have all kinds of ideas, but for me tattoos are related to certain periods. They are influenced by where you are at the moment and who you are with, and what’s on your mind in the given time. It’s not the idea to collect faces of all the writers on my skin. First of all, there is not enough skin, and second, those decisions are so much about the moment.

- It’s like, if you would drink half a bottle of Koskenkorva, you too would take a tattoo of Timo K. Mukka! It’s also strange, that Timo K. Mukka was tattooed by American (Kat Von D). It’s a bit contradictory, just like with Baudelaire, who is French. Interesting combination in itself!

-Of course I hope that a part of those people have transferred to me in the tattoos. You can see it in two ways. I’m righ-handed, so every time I write I see the pictures and they set the standard for me. Or they remind me of the values. They remind me, that you should write something good instead just writing shit. The third thing is of course when I jerk of. Do I want to see those pictures then?

3.Are the new HIM songs very different from the old? Can you find some definite difference?

-It doesn’t matter how far we try to go with the band, it always sounds the same. People always say that it’s the same old shit. Or the same good stuff. But for me the concept of the album is the Bermuda triangle. There is Smashing Pumpkins, Black Sabbath and Roy Orbison. Those are the three I want to meet in the music. Or Elvis Presleys Love Me Tender meet Black Sabbath Nib. That contrast could be taken even further, if possible. So basically we are doing the same thing as before, just better.

4.What do you do in your spare time? Do you have spare time in general?

-I don’t have a lot of spare time. In my yard, I have snails. They are really bad for the plants. I have been this little gardener. So when it’s possible, I collect snails and boil them, and then I throw them in the carbage. It’s my hobby! But music is just like writing, it’s always on your mind. No matter what you do, it’s always there. It’s a curse and a blessing.

- I haven’t been to gigs in a long time. Somehow I lost interest in it. Before I went to see all kinds of things like every other day. All I have done this year is to practise my acoustic guitar and trying to get as good as Kari Tapio. His soul rest in peace!

5.HIM has been making music for twenty years. Is there anything you regret? Is there anything you get pissed off about?

-No! Like you may know, you have to screw up to become stronger and wiser. Without the mistakes, you become nothing. You have to make a certain amount of mistakes to find yourself in a better place. Life would be terrible if it was just heavenly. Specially for us satanists!

6.You have travelled a lot around the world. Is there any cities, you especially like?

- It’s rare that you actually have time to experience any city. But for example Seattle is one of my favourites, and also I really like Denver. Also Oulu and Melbourne.

- There is places, where you accidentally meet really nice people, who tell you nice stories. They lead to interesting conversations and through them you get closer to the city or even the feel of the whole country.

- You spend two nights in some city and you have time to go to a pub. There you meet someone, who tells you an interesting story. That’s how you get an unforgettable memory of the city.

-Like in Denver, where I found this tiki bar in a small hotel. I was sitting there and having a few drinks before the gig, and the bartender told me about a magazine they had, called Modern Drunkard. I was admiring it like “wow” and he wrote for me “ Now you’ve finally approved to be part of international drunkard” on the cover of the magazine. Those kind of things stick with you, and I have the magazine still in my bedroom, next to my books. Those are the important little things.

-Another great tiki bar in on Sunset Boulevard, number four thousand and something. It’s this small shack and only one building, and that’s why you can smoke inside, because it’s isolated from the other buildings. The owner of the bar died some time ago, and his son runs the bar now. Every day at seven, all the customers have a shot for the memory of the dad.

- Those are the places, you remember forever. It’s so wonderful that you got to experience that. It’s not so much about the place or the city, it’s about the certain case.

7.When you write songs, does it sometimes take half an hour to complete them, or does it sometimes take two years for one song? Do you have a clear pattern in writing the songs?

-In our last album there were a song called Disarm Me (With Your Loneliness) and it took like seven years to finish it. And in the other hand, The Funeral Of Hearts from Love Metal-album was created in an instant. We had already completed the album, and then I just started to strum my guitar. Suddenly I got this feeling, that hell, we have to put it all togerther immediately, it happened so fast.

-That’s how you keep the interest in music in general, that sometimes you create the songs really fast, great songs at least in my own opinion. Sometimes you can create the song in one hour, but in other hand I believe that all life lived and those tiki bars in itself are making the songs all the time. And it’s also true, that in a sense, you are making the same song over and over again, like writers are writing the same book. It’s just that they have different angles. That’s how I see it anyhow, even if it’s difficult to explain.

8.Which of the HIM band members evoke the most sexual thrill in you, and which object you would like to stick in his ass?

-I have to say Gas, because he has the most Sodom and Gomorrah. And he is the most obscene. If I would have to say, then it would be the most obscene guy. And definitely that way, that I don’t give, I take. Linde would be too easy. Same goes to Burton, too easy. Mige in other hand is too close, it would feel like incest.- And of course I would stick my own dick in his ass! If you take, then you really take. If you start something, you have to see it through!

9. If you would do a duet with a woman, who would you do it with?

-I did the song Summer Wine with Natalie Avelon at one time. And it was a great succes, which was surprising. We did other things with HIM at the same time, and the song accidentally became a huge hit, especially in Southern Europe.- But if I could choose, I would propably do a duet with Annie Lennox. That would be so great, fantastic.

-And now when I start thinking, even more pleasing option would be Debbie Harry, but it must be because I had a teenage crush in her, and it would be great to meet her. I have heard that she is a wonderful person. But that’s a classic, the bigger the star, the nicer the person. Young scamps are always the most full of themselves. Debbie Harry would also fit into our world, our ideology and the feeling of our band.

10.You have never been a materialist, but is there anything special you would want?

- I had this surprising and great luck. In one museum in Finland, I found these unborn elk calves. I managed to make a deal and now I’m waiting to have them delivered to my home. It’s this incredible story. An elk was involved in a car crash and died. She had two almost fullgrown calves in her tummy.

- One of the best taxidermists in Finland mounted them. It’s very unusual and thought-provoking story. It’s done very beautifully, they look like they are sleeping side by side. You get this strange feeling from them, kind of sad, but in the same time you feel the miracle of life. You are wondering, what could have happened to them, how would they have lived, where would they have gone. It evokes your imagination. I was thinking of taking them with me in the studio, when I sing. It gives you this feeling.

-Otherwise I’m not missing anything, except a huge hit album!

Mige&Gas Fears and passions

-This kind of manifests..Or let’s put it this way, HIM is a strange way to live your life. But the awards are big and the lashes are deep, says Mige.-Twenty years ago it was impossible to imagine how it would actually be. It’s a bit like eating a moldy christmas ham, really great but…- Of course you sometimes think, what would have happened if you didn’t join the band. But I’m sure everyone has times, when they feel like it would be nice to do something else. But I have no regrets! Pentecostals think that regretting is something for people who love truffels more than the ham.