HIM magazine

Very long interview for...

grapes — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:41:32 +0200

Very long interview for http://www.myspace.com/dsiremusic
Hi how are you?

What?

How are you?

I'm good, I'm good, jus flying back home, had a couple weeks off until festival season starts in Europe and then after that, I don't know….get started on the next album.

I just wanted to thank you so much for taking the time out to do this, this is really a big honor for me, thank you.

Oh come on! A pleasure.

So my name is Nattalie, I write for this newspaper called LA Youth, so we just set out to do band interviews with our favorite bands and that we respect a lot, so this is huge for me so…THANK YOU!

Oh I'm blushing here.

So you guys just finished up your tour, Digital Versatile Doom just came out, so how do you go about to readjusting to daily life again?

Um, there is really no readjusting. Um when we come back home, the only real difference is I have to buy my own toilet paper but that's it. I wake up, maybe check my email, play my acoustic guitar, maybe see a friend and eat, but that's about it. Very simple. It's not that different from being on tour. The only real difference is you have to do the laundry and buy the toilet paper. So kind of do the average stuff.

Right, like the daily chores.

Indeed. Actually it does feel kind of psychedelic and surreal to do that, because it's been a long tour. So in a way it does feel like a vacation to be back home and feel the normal stuff.

I'm sure touring all the time can be exhausting at times so being home, and just being in your own bed I am sure can be relaxing and good to be back.

Oh yeah, it's not bad, it's not bad. I got a bed, probably about, what is it like two or three years and maybe slept in it 15 times.

That's crazy! So I've read a lot of interviews, and it seems like you're so educated in all aspects of life from books, to paintings, to playing many instruments. And as a lyricist and a musician, have you trained yourself to soak up all this knowledge and store it for future references?
Um I've just been really lucky to meet the right people at the pub. So when you're a musician you talk about stuff with other musicians. Like if you're a plumber, you hang out with plumbers and talk about different aspects of pluming. So it's not that different in that sense. So I've just been blessed with the opportunity of traveling the world with the band and meeting a lot of people. I'm not very educated, but I know bits and pieces that are fragmented, all the information that I do have. So you know, I would not be able to talk about the entire aspects of… anything.

Oh no, that's not true! You mentioned you read a lot of books and recently you said that you were reading 2012 and the Oxford Book of Death, which I picked up and it's really amazing. What're some books you're reading right now?

Uh, what the fuck…back home I'm always reading, like, 7 books. I'm reading this pretty good book, Streaks at Midnight, its poems that are eerie and humorous. It's a book from the 60's, it like children's' poems, but really quirky, doomy, gloomy, weird ones. But I'm reading a lot of biographies on Aleister Crowley. I've read a couple of books about him and he's just a fascinating character, so I'm reading one of him, that's very sexual, that ones in my bedroom and the other is called, Do What Thou Wilt: A Life of Aleister Crowley, by Lawrence. And I'm reading Death, Desire and the Doll: The Life and Art of Hans Bellmer, that's very exciting. Then I'm reading, Kiss Me, Judas by Christopher Baer and I'm reading The Green King, by Paul Loup. So I'm reading a lot of stuff at the same time.

Do you draw most of you're inspirations from reading, or from music or cultures?

Well, I guess it's everything. It's just like, eyes open. You can get good ideas from, uh…well basically, all the good ideas behind songs they do come from, real life, from people I've met or stories I've heard. But then, reading poetry or reading literature, it helps me out to be able to function better as a lyricist. It gives me different options and different ways of explaining yourself better. Trying to put emotions down on paper is very, very hard. Especially for me because I wasn't brought up in an English speaking family, so it's complicated but at the same time, it's rewarding. That's why I keep on doing it.

Kind of like expanding your language and vocabulary, yeah that's awesome!

You know its fun. It's great to be able to do that as a profession and it's great the passion over the years is helpful in a way that I get the bread on my table and afford to buy my toilet paper with the money that I get from my passion. So that's fantastic and really rare. So, very few musicians are able to do that, so I'm very proud and I feel very humbled.

No that's so cool, and I was going to ask you, it kind of off topic, recently there was a war in Mexico between metal fans and Emo fans. Did you hear about that? And I read that, and I think it completely defeats the whole purpose of music for me which is initially to bring everyone together. What do you think about that, because our generation seems to have lost the whole concept behind music.
Well back in the day, I think there has always been, this kind of tribal behavior when it comes to music or whatever, some of them in fashion. You have lots, Goths in England and some Rockers in England back in the 60's, it hasn't changed that much. There have always been tribes, fighting against each other. It's the way of human nature I guess. Just labeling things, and fighting because of those labels, is just a waste of time I guess.

Exactly. And you guys are just so brilliant for coming up with your own genre so you don't have to be categorized and being put in this position.

Well you know, the whole Emo thing for me sounds weird because it started off as being Emo hardcore, which meant emotional hardcore, which meant that it was hardcore in lyrics and hardcore music with the lyrics that talked about politics, for example. Political or not, it was about emotional things that happened in each and everybody's heart. So, what's wrong with being emotional? I do understand that, that goes against the macho traditional of rock and roll or heavy metal. But you know, fuck em'.

Exactly!

Everybody is an occasional emotional bastard. It doesn't matter. I listen to Reggae, I listen to Disco. I listen to Black Metal. I listen to whatever I like at that moment, you know, or whatever makes my day better.

Exactly, it's like if you listen to one type of music you have to dress like that certain type and it's just so frustrating to see kids not being able to expand and listen to whatever they feel like listening to.

True. It is peer pressure. That's how it is in schools and I remember when I was back in school, you know we had some guys that only liked Iron Maiden and if you were in that gang you weren't able to listen to anything else.

Ha! You were stuck.

And I had the problem of liking Michael Jackson's Thriller as much Live after Death by Iron Maiden so I kind of fell in between all the different gangs, but, uh, such is life. I'd rather you believe in your self rather than the bullies around. You shouldn't even be bullied into believing everything either. You should find your own way of believing in things and you'll go a long way.

Exactly that's wonderful advice.

So I know you guys started a band because you guys were influenced by Black Sabbath, Type O Negative, Iggy and the Stooges, and these are all bands that people consider to be a foundation of music and are very important to music. So what do you think of the current state of the music industry and do you listen to any current music?

Well, I listen to a lot of current Reggae, I don't know why, I used to have dreadlocks back in the day. I was like a street musician playing the bongos, I was like 14. But, yeah I listen to a lot of Reggae, and uh, well if you're talking about current rock and roll, I've been listening to Disturbed. I still don't have their new album but, for some reason I never got them before and then all of a sudden, years after their first album was released, I heard the song in a bar or whatever, and it really struck a chord in me and I fell in love with a couple of the tracks and so, I'm a late bloomer when it comes to rock and roll. Nowadays, I never diss anything. I used to diss everything when I would hear a first album , I say "That sucks." Nowadays I know better, usually in a couple of years, I'll like some of them.

It'll grow on you.

Yeah, I'm indecisive when it comes to music. So it takes me a while to get into them. Yeah, Disturbed, they've been pretty good. I've been listening to Hercules and the Love Affair, and the guy singing is from Antony and the Johnsons. Their like a New York based/Italian based kind of live band. Their a good live band, so I like them cause I like watching people now.

Yeah, I think it all depends on the mood you're in. Maybe a two weeks ago you would hate the band and then maybe if you're in the mood for it three weeks later, they're the best band ever.

You know, exactly. It just you have to keep your ears and your eyes open. One week you might meet somebody that you appreciate and look up to and that somebody can give you great lessons and change life.

Exactly. So, I was going to ask you, in today's society, especially in American society, a lot of things are considered taboo. You seem to have an open mind to everything, but are there some subjects that you think are to touchy?

Um I mean, what subject do you talk about now? Maybe to write songs about, but not to talk about. But I don't know, what kind of taboos are you talking about?

Like anything. Like if you watch South Park for instance, they touch on a lot of things that most American people would consider a little bit crossing the line or you know, just not correct…

No, they do cross the line. I do watch the series but, I think it takes a certain amount of years to be able to laugh about something horrible that has happened. And I guess it if it had to do with the Hollicost or if it had to do with September 11th, there was an episode that had to do with the strength of human kind, where able to laugh at the most horrible things, just to be able to cope.

And yeah so that's ju…

Yeah that's what I was trying to get at was…

I'm sorry I got you off…

No, no, no your turn.

Yeah that's what I was trying to say, what is ok to laugh, should we talk about these things you know. Are these things ok for you?

Uh well, um... It's like, say you crack a fucking Pedophile joke. That's kind of like, crossing the line for me. Its not a funny thing for someone who has gone through it. I haven't personally, I've been blessed by not having had any sexual abuse in my youth but um, but hearing some stories, I mean, it fucks you up so deeply, that uh, at the end of the day its good to laugh about it as well but, at the end of the day at the same time, you should have respect, and sympathy, and give all possible, at least verbal help, you can, if you meet somebody. Because those things are tough and they really do fuck you up, and usually fuck you up for life. And people have to struggle a lot of times. Same thing with wars. Same thing with Hurricane Katrina. Same thing with Semptember 11th. Those are all really big things that do leave marks. So you have to be careful with what you laugh at.

Exactly and at the end of the day you really do need to know what you need to take seriously and what isn't.

A good example when it comes to humor is like Dave Chappelle for example. His stuff is absolutely crazy. The ingenious thing about some of his stuff is, if you're a white man, you can't say this stuff, but you'll laugh with him. But that's the beauty of the whole thing, there are such twists, like the Black/White Supremacists, one of the first jokes he had on his one of his first seasons. It was funny as hell, and when I saw it couple years back, I saw it in the tour bus. I couldn't BELIEVE the courage he had, you know, tackling all those things with such twists that you didn't know whether to cry or laugh. I didn't know whether to shit my pants as well.

I haven't seen that! I have to go check it out. Definitely.

For sure.

I'm going to kind of change the subject again, and you said you wake up with melodies in your head, do you ever find it difficult to take what's playing your head and bring it to life and write it down?

Um, not really, but make it in a way where you're actually nurturing them, as you would a flower or a plant, you know. And that's the hard part, because there are a lot of ideas floating about. Lot of ideas for me and a lot of ideas for all kinds of things, and I think that perseverance is one of the most important things when it comes to being a musician. You know, for example you have to try and be the best critique you can, with your own stuff and try to leave the bad things out and live with them and let the songs grow. Some songs take more time, like the song "Passion's Killing Floor," of our latest album Venus Doom, and that song took me about 10 years to finish. Some songs take about 20 minutes to finish. That's the beauty of music, songs are so very different and some are so ethical, at least for me. There are mathematics involved with music, but its pure mathematics and that's magic.

So that's cool, so maybe a song that you had 4 years ago, it builds up so kind of work at it and add things to it?

You know, you don't even add things. It's more of a subliminal processing. You write about a thing, and you're not even sure about it. It doesn't feel right. But after, something, whatever it mind of been, like a relationship has happened, or you met somebody or seen a new scenery somewhere or listened to a new CD. All of a sudden that experience can validate. It is funny. At least for me you have to see both ways. Or I don't have to experience something to have to write a song. It's funny when you write a song, and actually experience it later.

Wow, that's crazy!

It is. It's hypothetical. In my songs at least, I'm not talking about necessarily about that specific event. I am talking about or singing about specific emotions. Sometimes you just feel like there is something missing. There just something missing. Or you feel like there is a hole in your heart. And for some reason, maybe a couple years later, you feel complete and you complete a song and that's the combination of various songs. As a musician or a song writer, you are a sponge. You soak in all the information and you squirt it out at one point.

Yeah, kind of store all the different facts, experiences and information in you're head and put it towards music. That's really cool.

Kind of yeah, it's like computer language. You have to de-fragment the hard drive sometimes. You have a lot of fragmented ideas and you have to bring them together sooner or later. But then again, there are some times where they just never work. You like them, but they never work. That's fine too. Creating those songs, and they've given you the pleasure of creating them, and in its self, that's enough.
Do you have a certain quote or saying that you live by?

Um, well you know, there is several, they keep on changing. Usually, their just quotes of somebody, and now I just had my first year of sobriety behind me…

Congratulations on that by the way! That's awesome!

Yeah! And, um, I've been laughing about this British poet and painter once said, that "You never know it's enough, until is more than enough."

Damn, that's a really good one.

It's a very basic kind of philosophy and everything, but its such a simplistic thing that it doesn't mean necessarily that you have to go over the top. But in certain things, you got to find your own personal bottom, to know what's too much for you. Its like anything you do, what's too much. Then you know the right amount. Whether your thinking, or reading, or bathing, or kissing or whatever. It covers things in our life. So that's been my motto for the past year.

Yeah its kind of like finding your limit and knowing what too much is, and having a balance throughout life.

Well, you know, in search of a balance. I guess balance, as a word for me, is the same thing that heaven means to Christians. You know, struggling to get there and try to become a better person, and get there imperishably. So I believe that in that sense, that's the balance. You're looking for that balance and hopefully get their by making the right decisions and also through mistakes, and life's mistakes. You learn a lot about the society you live in and yourself.

Exactly, and one of the hardest states to achieve is to be content and know what's to much, its just such a hard level of life to be at. To achieve that and be comfortable, I think that's a huge achievement right there.

Well, you know, then again, balance may also be in the situation of "want." When you're happy in the situation that you long for something. So basically, you're lacking something in your life. Lets say, I'm single now. I've been longing for a relationship. Longing for love, for example. In a way, that can be my balance. That can be my heaven. I know there is something important for me to look for, and I know that there is a goal in my life, yet to be reached. I am fulfilled because there are things to be lived for, for me to look forward to and have everything here and now.

Yeah and having a reason to wake up for in the morning and having a goal in life, and having a drive for something, I think that's what life is about, you know?

Sure. And it keeps on changing. You know, the problem with a lot of philosophies and a lot of religions and a lot of people, is that they think there is only one way, or one state of mind or one place you have to be spiritually or mentally, or physically to be able to reach that. I think its very natural for people to change their opinions on meeting different people and beings and its educational. Evolving in general.

I think people evolve year, so you can't be the same person and you're going to be changing you're thoughts and feelings towards everything, so I don't know, that's why, personally, religion has never worked for me either, because I change so much, so I take different philosophies and different aspects of religion and make it work for me, and I think that's what's important.

Well, you know, all the gods are good and do good. But you know, there is a lot of suffering, a lot of benevolent political restraining happening in religion. You got to do this or you have to be like that, to get into heaven. Or you're not going to be able to do this or that. So, a lot of people are slaves to other peoples thoughts, and I don't believe in that. I believe that freedom is personal freedom. Then again we can talk about morals, and everybody does have different morals.

Yeah, and not being confined to one thing and stuck in this box or oppressed mentality.

Yeah, and you know, to simplify the whole thought, it's the same thing that we were talking about with the music and that I said "Fuck, Disturbed, their shit heads, this sucks." And you know, I said this 3 years ago, 4 years ago, now I'm enjoying the spring come to Helsinki, and rockin', enjoying their stuff, and enjoying the whole vibe, feeling like I'm reborn again, and that's the soundtrack to it, and I'm really glad for it, to exist and if you don't like it, you don't have to buy it, you don't have to get it, you don't have to be force fed. Make your own decisions, and listen to what you want, and read what you want, the only thing I suggest is the old saying, "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." The thoughts, the errors, the political views, whatever views they might be, if you don't appreciate it, it doesn't mean that you can't be educated when it comes to them. Knowing people, and knowing why they believe in things, and want things they want, I think that that's key. We're understanding the world a bit more.

Exactly, I mean like you said, learning about things that you don't like as much, and having knowledge of it and just learning about everything I think is very important. I completely agree.

It is! It is. At the same time, just go with the flow, because you can't do everything. Cause there is such a limited amount of time that we have, so you know, you got to enjoy it as much as you can and just keep your ears and your eyes open for the educational part.

And, I know it is pretty early, but do you know what the next HIM album is going to sound like?

Um, you know, I have no clue. I had the idea that since a lot of the stuff for Venus Doom is pretty, uh, you know a lot of different things going on musically, lets say complex, for a HIM album. I was thinking about doing, the opposite, like a Misfits type of an album. Punk, in your face, very short songs. Not a lot of guitar solos. Straight, in your face, and straight to the point. That's a punk album.

That would be sweet! That would be very cool.

You know, it'll be fun to, as a musician, to make drastic turns and do something new. Obviously, it would mean that it would still be melodic, and melancholy, and still have a lot of uh…

The HIM elements.

What HIM's known for, yeah the HIM elements. We don't want to change that stuff, we're still happy about that, overall we're going step up the gear.

Oh man, I look forward to that! That's going to be awesome!

Yeah me too!

And is there any message, or any thoughts that you would like to share with your fans?

Um, well I think that we shared a lot. If you're going to transcribe all of that, that was one of the most philosophical conversations I've had an ages. So thank you for that.

Honestly, I learned so much, if I had gone to a week of school I wouldn't have learned as much. Thank you so much!

Well you know, the funny thing about school is that, a lot of people think that what you learn in school happens in the classes. But I think the most important lesson learned in school is that you are introduced to a social circle, where you have to meet a lot of people that you like, and a lot of people you don't like, and to go along with it.

And discipline.

So that's the importance of school, for me. You don't necessarily have to be excellent in math, but the most important thing is to get along with people and to understand that people come from different places and they all have different histories and they want different things in life. So it's kind of like social experiment, more or less.

I totally agree. Just being out there, and learning how to handle yourself, and being respectful towards each other, I think that's, like you said, the biggest lesson I've learned in school.

And its still one of the things that people don't talk about. Which is weird, cause people are always talking about the grades talking about fucking prom, and who's the prom queen, and whatever. But uh, the beauty of the school is to be able to make friends, make the enemies and when you quite school and start working you meet a lot of people whom you have to work with, that you dislike. You don't get along on a personal level or philosophical level or whatever, but it is a very important thing to go to school because of that. And if you quite school or if you skip classes because you're not good at math, that's just a cop out. Everybody can learn the math. It's not too hard.

Yeah, and I've always wondered how people who are home schooled or don't go to school, how do they handle themselves when they're thrown out into the world? How do they handle themselves because you know, because you're oblivious…

It's the same thing that in religious schools, that they don't teach the evolution theory. Darwinism.

I can't believe that!

And that still happens in America. You don't have to believe in Darwin. But you can still read about it. So if you're really religious and you don't read about Darwin Theory at all, it still makes you stronger as a person when you've read about it, and know the arguments behind it. So that makes it easier for you to diss the whole theory when you start talking about your own personal beliefs.

Exactly, and I think it just goes back to learning about everything and just being a sponge, like you said, you shouldn't shun out whatever you don't want to learn about because you dislike it.

Manager (gives time limit notice): Hey Nat, I think we should wrap it up in a few minutes!

Oh ok, thanks so much Ville for taking the time out to do this.

Cool, yeah, pleasure indeed. Pleasure indeed.

Wonderful talking to you, thank you!

Thank you once again. Bye! Hopefully see you soon!

Bye!

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

    the most beautiful intro...

grapes — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:10:39 +0100

the most beautiful intro http://youtube.com/watch?v=MRhs9UT4PEw

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti (1)

a couple of lmfao fan vids by...

grapes — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:49:50 +0100

a couple of lmfao fan vids by instantkarma14 @ valo daily

http://i270.photobucket.com/albums/jj82/instantkarma14/?action=view&current=villepic.flv

http://community.livejournal.com/valo_daily/2479517.html#cutid1

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

no.

grapes — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:47:58 +0200

no.

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

VENUS DOOM   Leave all behind now...

grapes — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:06:36 +0200

VENUS DOOM

Leave all behind now to watch her crawl
Through our dark gardens of insanity
She’ll be the light to guide you back home
Just give her a kiss worth dying for
And open your arms
Watch me fall for you my venus doom
Hide my heart where all dreams are entombed
My venus doom
All dreams are of you
My venus doom
Grieve all your hearts out and she’ll writhe enthralled
In tragic ecstatic agony
And in her flames we will die some more
Just show me a life worth living for
And light up the dark
Hold me inside your infernal offering
Touch me as I fall
Don’t lose yourself in this suffering yet
Hold on

LOVE IN COLD BLOOD
Serpentine love’s thighs wrap around me in search for death
Drenched in blood the adored and beloved will give in to…
Love in cold blood
Breathe me in sweet suffering
Love in cold blood
Put me out of my misery
Love’s feline eyes in darkness shine on her web
Demonised with divine insight we draw our last breath
Darling take me home
To the castle made of skulls and bones
Sing me a song to remind me where I belong
In your arms, my love, in cold blood

SLEEPWALKING PAST HOPE
I hid the keys to unlock love’s heart
To hold you in my sweetest pain and suffering
Everything’s unfair in our lust and war
Redemption beyond right and wrong
In our hearts love keeps sweet-talking to despair
And goes on sleepwalking past hope
All is lost in this war
And all we can do is to wail and weep to the saddest song
Sleepwalking past hope
I unlit the light to embrace the dark
To be near but not to turn into you my darling
Forever we’re lost in our souls’ storm
Reflections of each other’s faults
I gave up long ago
Painting love with crimson flow
Ran out of blood and hope
So I paint you no more
My hell begins from the 10th and descends to the circle
Six hundred threescore and six
And from there I crawl beneath Lucifer’s claws just for one last kiss

DEAD LOVERS LANE
Despair has a face and all these wounds remain unhealed
Blessed to kill and enslaved are all hearts around love’s will
Thrilled to start all over again
Crawl down dead lovers’ lane
The maze of memories stained
And suck the blood right out of my heart
Scream out love’s name in vain
Embrace the pain again
And lose yourself alone in the dark
On dead lovers’ lane
Fear has a name written on unhallowed ground with dead leaves
Those words never fail to feed the hunger that dreams
Our needs beyond god’s grasp

SONG OR SUICIDE
Sorrow rebuild me as I step out of the light
Misery strengthen me as I say my goodbyes
I heal my wounds with grief
And dream of you
And weep myself alive

BLEED WELL
You had demons to kill within you screaming
With a gun loaded with guilt you opened their eyes
Love preys the living and praises the dead
In the heart of our hearts by death we were wed
Bleed well the soul you’re about to sell for passion deranged
Kiss and tell, baby we’re bleeding well
Bleed well the heart you’re about to fail for reasons insane
Kill and tell, baby we’re bleeding well…
…In hell
“No love lost under her will”, I heard you weeping
And on those words a church was built to keep the pain in
If death is the answer to love’s mysteries
Then bleed on my darling to the sound of a dream

CYANIDE SUN
Should’ve known how hard it is to stop tearing each other apart
Separating souls entwined with all these labyrinthine lies
I am dead to you, a shadow doomed
My love, forever in the dark
And of all untruths the truest is you
Too close to my heart
This emptiness I’ve made my home
Embracing memories of dreams long gone
One last caress from the corpse of love is all I want
Underneath the cyanide sun
We’ve sailed the seas of grief on a raft built with our tears
Looking for a way to disappear for a moment from our deepest fears
I’ll be drowning you in this river of gloom
Forever in my heart
EVIL
I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river and it made me complete
Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
I came across a fallen tree
I felt the branches of it looking at me?
Is this the place we used to love?
Is this the place that I've been dreaming of?
Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
So if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?
Oh simple thing where have you gone?
I'm getting old and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in
I'm getting tired and I need somewhere to begin
So if you have a minute why don't we go
Talk about it somewhere only we know?
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
So why don't we go
This could be the end of everything
So why don't we go
Somewhere only we know?

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti (2)

great Live performance + interview for...

grapes — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:20:52 +0200

great Live performance + interview for myspace at Project revolution>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_NxYE580EA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxbydeLP-rI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Legz-V60bcI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-SIj6tLY_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17zrK4mZtZ4

love

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

HIM...

grapes — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:55:18 +0200

HIM Interview Transcript

Written by Kelly Crawford

Thursday, 16 August 2007

August 4, 2007 - Projekt Revolution Tour

Recently Euro-Rock Radio (ERR) got to sit down with the guys from HIM to talk about the new album, tour, and more. Though Ville and Mige did most of the talking Burton, Gas and Linde were there as well.

ERR: Thanks for taking the time to do this. We really appreciate it.

Ville Valo: Thank you.

ERR: First off how's the tour going so far?


Mige: So far so good.

Ville: It's okay. It's a bit boring.

ERR: (laughs) Boring?

Ville: Playing in the middle of the day, just 40 minutes, and then we have a lot of days off. So... I myself prefer when we play like hour twenty minutes, hour thirty, each and every night do like five gigs in a row then a day off. Just getting into the mood a bit more. It's like kind of weird. And we're done by like seven o'clock.

ERR: So what do you do with yourselves after seven o'clock?

Ville: We drive to the next town.

ERR: Oh that's fun.

Ville: And then we, you know, then we sleep and then we wake up and do the same old - all over again. And there hasn't been a lot of promo so it's just waiting for 40 minutes which is... You know it's great to be part of this festival I think everybody is glad, glad to be here but it's still something we're not used to.

ERR: Are you going to be doing a headlining tour once Venus Doom comes out?

Ville: Halfway through October.

ERR: October.

Ville: Yeah.

ERR: Good!

Ville: They're sorting out the dates so I think it's going to be public in about a few days or more, more or less. Going to be kind of like thirty gigs.

ERR: That'll be good. I know there's a lot of people here just to see you and they're shelling out $70 for 40 minutes...

Ville: Yeah that's also one of those things that's not nice and then in the daylight you know - we don't have the opportunity of using - we don't have the sound checks we don't have the opportunity of using the lights so much because you can't see shit because of the bigger light, the sun, you know.

ERR: How's the - I know you're playing some of the new songs, how's the crowd response been to the new stuff do you think?

Ville: People seem to know Kiss of Dawn pretty well. Um we do Dead Lover's Lane and Passion's Killing Floor as well and, um, well I don't really know - you know it's all depending on the day. And all the venues have been different and so in some places you know the, what do you call it the space between the first seats and the stage is really tiny and like we played Ocean View - not Ocean View that's the name of a band, Mountain View (Mige chimes in with the name too) um, we played there and that was weird because all the like first seats they were reserved for people with a lot of money - so it's weird when like the first 25 rows are empty or they're snoring - you know old timers, like managers of bands and those that have the money, and then all the kids are actually like 150 yards away and so it's kind of weird. So uh it's different every day and we're still getting used to it, it's not quite half way through the tour yet.

ERR: How did you decide which songs off the new album to play? There's been a lot of like bits and pieces of them out on the net already.

Ville: These are probably really the only ones we can play live. A lot of stuff on the album is really impossible to play live you know - to many backing vocals too many overdubs or whatever so probably on the tour we'll be playing those three and adding another one called Sleepwalking Past Hope that lasts more than 10 minutes so that's like worth three songs. And you've got to play some of the old stuff as well so - um - well we'll see. It all depends also on the reaction you know how people like the album and if there's certain tracks that are good for other people then we'll try to figure out a way of playing them. But um that's what we've got so far.

ERR: Some of the pictures that have been taken at the past couple of shows - everybody's noticing that you have a new tattoo and it looks like it says Venus Doom.

Ville: Yeah it does

ERR: Why - a question that's been going around on the net a lot is why get that tattooed when you don't have like Dark Light or any of the others, why Venus Doom?

Ville: Well it's the best name so far. And the album's pretty personal - a lot of shit hitting the fan you know this year and last year and when the album was done and I drew those monogram's down on one of the very last days of working on the cover artwork I drew those down and I thought I wanted some kind of like, some little tiny memory on my skin, after all the pus of making the album and actually getting it done. So that's what it means.

ERR: Speaking of the artwork, how did you choose that painting for the cover?

Ville: Well I bought if off a gallery. We were playing for the first time, and the only time so far, in New Orleans and we had a day off and I was walking around in search of blessed chicken feet, you know those dried up Voodoo ones. They told me Madam whatever she was called, she's got the best and most authentic ones - unfortunately she had a day off. So the shop was closed and I was walking about and went to the pub for a cold pint of PBR and after that saw a gallery like right across the street and I fell in love with the picture and thought I'd go, go in for the first time in a gallery and ask how much that painting was. And it was like a few thousand dollars, it wasn't to much, so yeah I'm gonna invest in it and hung it up on my living room wall and I ended up writing all the songs in the living room where I live so I was constantly seeing the picture so it felt natural to have that on the cover. It's a pretty picture I like it a lot.

ERR: Yeah it's cool. I guess this kind of goes to everybody - what would be your favorite song off the new album? I mean everyone would have different reasons for it I suppose...

Ville: I think it's Sleepwalking (Sleepwalking Past Hope) for everyone.

(Everyone agreed)

ERR: Why that one?

Mige: Um, well, it kind of breaks certain rules that are in music now a days.

Ville: And rules we've been using

Mige: Yeah we've been slaves to those certain rules, mostly subliminally of course, it's somehow - to have something like that on the album is a relief

ERR: Did you all - who did most of the writing on the album?

Ville: Me

ERR: Well I mean, I know lyrics and stuff but all of the instrumental also or...

Ville: Well, the basic ideas yeah. Once Linde starts jamming on the riffs they might change a lot. Keyboard things changes - I hum things to Burton and then Burton comes up with something. We arrange the whole thing together but most of the like lead lines and main riffs of songs that's something I wrote back home and then the like initial icing on the cake that's something we do together.

ERR: The Kiss of Dawn video - which is of course on iTunes and selling like crazy...

Ville: I still haven't seen it

ERR: You haven't seen it? Who came up with the concept for it? Was it the director?

Ville: It was Meiert (director). Originally we were thinking of shooting a video for Venus Doom as well. We were thinking of having two videos which would have some sort of like - would work as a mini movie or whatever. Not necessarily with like a huge plot but something that would start off from somewhere - first one would end where the second one would start and stuff like that and then we just decided to do one video and we all crammed up all the ideas. We shot a lot of material of a lady, like a ghastly kind of Edgar Allen Poe, like a ghost type of thing. I think that she was cut out of the video more or less.

ERR: She's in there a little bit

Ville: A little bit. Tim Palmer was in the video, the original version, the producer, and I think they cut his pieces out so there was a lot of stuff actually we ended up cutting out because it was just a mish mass of too many ideas gone wrong and we wanted it to be a good, pretty simple performance video.

ERR: Speaking of videos, what's the next video? Do you guys know yet or...

Ville: Hopefully we're not doing one

ERR: (laughs) Not doing one?

Ville: Last time around it took 8 months for Rip Out the Wings of a Butterfly to start getting any radio airplay here in the States so it was kind of like worthless to actually spend the money cuz a band pays like half the budget of the video to do a two hundred thousand dollar video for a song that doesn't get played cuz the album is kind of like done already when it comes to TV and then it comes to radio it's old news - so in that sense I don't - you know if people are in need of something different then we'll do something different but now already we have Passion's Killing Floor on the Transformer's soundtrack, we have Venus Doom as a B-side kind of for our Scandinavian release and they get all the Finnish release on the singles, double A side. So we have all our strongest songs for single use we have them in use already so I don't know - Dead Lover's Lane could be one. I don't know you know, we'll see. It would be cool to do Sleepwalking Past Hope just do something really crazy maybe just have an internet only release not edit the song down just have a 10 minute like video opera type thing - maybe. But yeah unfortunately the cost of videos are ridiculous. It's nearly worthless now a days. People are usually watching videos on really low resolution on their PCs or whatever computers they're using so what's the reason to shoot anything on 35 mil which costs ridiculous amount of money or do really expensive amount of CGI which will be shown on TV maybe once or twice or shown on DVD which maybe a thousand people will see or whatever. So it's like there's actually a lot more reasons to not do a video than to do one.

ERR: And you are doing a DVD right? There's a DVD coming out next year?

Ville: That's what the label wants.

ERR: Is that what you want?

Ville: No

Mige: No, not really. Because we already have a pretty good DVD out. We don't have the material yet to match that so would be kind of stupid to put out the DVD just because you have to, because your label wants you to. Wait until you have decent material for it.

Ville: We'll probably shoot a show or two from the headline tour and see how it turns out. If it's going be really good then...

Mige: Then of course, yeah

Ville: I don't know it depends also if it's going to released as the DVD, separate DVD or is it going to be a re-release of the album as what Greenday did. Just releasing the album again with the DVD cuz that's one way of pushing the album back up on the charts. That's record company politics. I don't really care. But in that sense then it would be wise to re-release the album so then people - you know you pay 22 bucks, 23 bucks to get the album again you can give it to a friend, whatever, to get the DVD and some special artwork rather than buying a DVD for 25 bucks that's just got a boring gig in it. We'll have to see.

ERR: How did Passion's Killing Floor end up on the Transformers soundtrack? And what do you think about that? It's Transformers - it's a good movie...

Ville: Nobody's seen the movie yet.

ERR: No?

Ville: No. I was more into Masters of the Universe (said with the usual smirk so you don't know if he's telling the truth or joking)

ERR: They're redoing that you know. Masters of the Universe..

Mige: Oh great!

Ville: Love Dolph Lundgren (played He-Man in the live action Masters of the Universe movie in the 80s)

Mige: You can't match him really

Ville: But um - I think somebody from Warner was working on the um the soundtrack - not the score soundtrack but the one with the bands on it, the heavy rock stuff like you do here in the States. He asked us if we wanted to have a song on there and we said yes cuz it's free publicity for us. Cuz you know Linkin Park fans buy the album or whatever and they hear us by accident so it's a bonus. Even if the movie is a flop, or if it would have been a flop, it doesn't matter we don't lose anything. If it's a big success we have everything to gain nothing to lose.

ERR: Everyone that was going to see it was posting on your official forums, asking where in the movie, did you hear it in the movie, where is it. It's like two seconds in one part of the movie and if you didn't know you'd miss it. But there were plenty of people that would yell and scream as soon as it came on.

Mige and Ville: Oh nice!

Ville: It's like fucking product placement. Especially here in the states with big blockbuster movies like having a bottle of water of some brand on one table and it's the hero's so you know all the heroes drink this kind of water so you need to buy that one so..

Mige and Ville: Everyone wants to be a hero.

ERR: What do you think about - there's a lot, I say a lot, several songs off the album that have already leaked out on the internet, are you worried about that at all?

Ville: Which ones?


ERR: Venus Doom is on youtube...

Ville: Venus Doom, Kiss of Dawn, Passion's Killing Floor...

ERR: Dead Lover's Lane

Ville:   A live version of it..

(there's a bit here where we talk about which songs are out on the net and Ville keeps asking Gas to close the door to the bus because someone has left it open)

Ville: It's not a problem. I think the whole album hasn't leaked and it's only a month to go so that's actually pretty good considering now a days and we'd rather be playing the gigs and giving people more. It's all nice on the album, good collection of songs, so hopefully it's, hopefully everything's worth the price whatever it is

ERR: So many people now a days are downloading albums instead of buying them, unfortunately

Ville: They're downloading songs not albums, as much, you know so the whole format of the song or an album has gone back to the 50s when we didn't have a concept of an album - first one was probably the Beatles. They had the first album with the old songs halfway through the 60s. So the whole concept of the album is pretty new. And then this actually just goes back to when people were buying 7 inches. Or stuff like that. The only challenge it gives to new bands is you have to prove your worth and all the aspects of your artistry in three and a half minutes. Which is challenging. It's a good thing I think. Hopefully it'll take some of the crap song writers out of the business. We'll see. It could be that we're gonna be under the light. Nobody knows.

ERR: There were rumors going around last year that you were going to do a solo album

Ville: There's been rumors all the time

ERR: Well yes.

Ville: I've been writing some stuff, some acoustic stuff, but everything's always ended up on the album. Cyanide Sun was one of them. So's Sleepwalking Past Hope. Usually cuz I write everything on acoustic guitar it all starts with the fact that I'm writing - but no not yet. Not yet.

ERR: Are you getting along with all the other bands on tour.

Ville: We haven't really spent much time with them

Mige: There's not really time. We come here we play...

Ville: There's time but we're lazy bastards we just stay on the bus.

Mige: And I think people are leaving pretty much after they arrive here they play the leave, I don't see them to much around.

Ville: I think it's good starts when it happens naturally. When there's a reason to talk to somebody and go and hang out rather than just shake their hands and tell them how fucking awesome your band is. You know. I don't know shit about these bands so..

ERR: Had somebody that wanted to ask you - they absolutely loved when you did Byronic Man with Cradle of Filth

Mige: Great speech. He's really a master of lyrics I must say

Ville:   He told me that he wants to uh be on the next HIM album

Mige: Oh. We'll have to find him a speech

Ville: Or a scream

Mige: Yeah or a scream. He has a beautiful voice. Talking voice, singing voice, screaming voice. It's hard to find the right spot of him but I'm sure we'll find something.

ERR: Another question, it's not really an odd question but - you're a big Elvis fan. Or so we've heard. Some people are wondering if you would ever consider covering an Elvis song.

Ville: No. There are some things to holy to touch, you know. He was a great singer. It's like having Gas play Rain in Blood or whatever it's done so well there's not reason to - or Mige playing NIB. We could always play it as a band, an Elvis song or a Slayer song or a Sabbath song as we have try to better something that you can't top would be worthless. At least for me.

Mige: And they a different voice. Elvis songs. If we would play them it would be kind of hard to make it really work.

Ville: But never say never though

Mige: Yeah we haven't tried.

Ville: It's the same as trying or thinking about trying to do Johnny Cash songs - you just can't. You gotta be a girl to do it to make it so different from the original that it would be a reason to do it. I think. Like doing Ring of Fire or something like that. It would be like why?

Mige: There's a German band that actually did it

Ville: Ring of Fire?

Mige: Yeah. Who was it for heaven's sake... (they try to think of the name, Gas chimes in as well). Whatever. It was a bad idea.

ERR: Well speaking of interesting covers we recently got a hold of a CD called Heartagrass. It's a bluegrass version...

Ville: I haven't heard it

ERR: You haven't heard it. It's interesting

Ville: Well it's - I don't know the fella - but I heard about it when we were on tour but if someone likes the songs so much they want to spend the time rearranging the songs into bluegrass format or the entire album.

Burton: I've heard it. It's actually quite good.

ERR: It's different

Burton: Yeah it's very different

ERR: We were in Helsinki at New Years and went to Helldone and someone was saying, I guess it was a Finnish paper reported that you had started a Helldone company or something like that. We were wondering was that true? Did you start a separate company for Helldone?

Ville: Yeah because just um - we were selling a bit of Helldone merchandise or whatever but that money doesn't belong to any of the bands or whatever, that's for the next Helldone or saving a bit of money for the next portion to be able to pay the artist who creates those characters and t-shirts and shit like that. So just logical it was good to have separate company than mix it in like that. Also the owner of the club he organizes like um Tuska the Metal festival and Ruisrock the biggest and oldest rock festival in Finland cuz he doesn't have anything to do with HIM it's easier to do one more company to sort out the - cuz we were thinking of expanding it. But probably don't have time this year. We're thinking of making it bigger cuz there's not a lot of festivals during the winter time. Maybe try something - I think cuz most of the festivals happen in the summer time for obvious reasons but I think it would be quite exciting to have people flying all over the world from America to Finland - it's so cold it's dark and it's different and the culture's different make it be more of a ya know last couple of days not just in one club but in several clubs.

Mige: Yeah or maybe even out doors. Like a big tent or something.

Ville: We've been talking about the possibility - of you know it takes a lot of time of actually setting up a tent getting all the you know paper work and permits and shit you know so we're trying to figure it out bit by bit. And also a lot of bands have that time off. It's really expensive to fly let's say an American band just for a one off gig just in the New Year cuz they're no tours happening that time. Summer's always easier cuz all the bands they always travel.

ERR: Yeah $900 a person to fly over there

Ville: Yeah or more than that cuz of the crew and everything it just comes to be super expensive. So we had friends and we had Cathedral last year. Cuz we'd been touring with them on our previous tours in England, you know - we got good rates off of it.

Mige: Excellent rates

ERR: Well thank you guys that's all I have

All the band: Thank you

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

  HIM: TALES OF THE TOURS...

grapes — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:39:59 +0200

HIM: TALES OF THE TOURS
HIM’s new remixes and rarities album ‘Uneasy Listening Vol. 1’ has recently been unleashed by Columbia Records. To celebrate, ROCK SOUND has been catching up with frontman Ville Valo and bassist Mige for an exclusive chat about life on the road…

"Touring," explains HIM frontman Ville Valo, "is the sweetest hemorrhoid on earth. It’s the loveliest pain in the arse."
Since HIM’s inception in 95, it’s taken up a greater share of vocalist Valo, bassist Migé, guitarist Linde, drummer Gas and keyboardist Burton’s lives than writing and recording,
nuptials and births, and heartache and melancholia combined. As a chart-topping act in Germany, Austria and Finland, the band have worked hard for acclaim. But for all their
road miles, Valo says touring doesn’t make them money, and any cash from merchandise is channelled straight back into the band. Rather than lavish themselves at home,
HIM use it to create more elegant stage set-ups, get better PAs, and allow the band to stay in nicer hotels. But back in 97 after the release of their debut ‘Greatest Lovesongs, Vol. 666’,
their touring experience was somewhat different."In Finland you can’t usually play on Monday and Tuesday nights so we gigged for the rest of the week plus weekends and then returned home,"
recalls Valo. "We did that for about a year. At first we started in the middle of winter, driving in vans with broken heaters, everyone huddled together. We played shitty gear,
roadie’d for ourselves, and got drunk every night – well, more than we do nowadays – but it was a blast."
The next year HIM did their first proper tour outside of Finland. But when asked about the 11-date stint around Germany, Mige draws a blank."I was so stoned I don’t remember any of it," he says in all seriousness. "I’m talented in the way I can play very stoned, but I can’t do that anymore."Two years later the band returned to Germany. By this time they’d had a Number 1 single with ‘Join Me In Death’ (99). Naturally, the quintet celebrated. "It was the first time when everything was handed to us," says Valo. "That we had the possibility of decent backstage riders and of course we overdid it."
"Like any young man would," chips in Mige."Nowadays we still do it every night," says Valo, "just a bit more moderately. We celebrate our minds."
Equipped with the facility to order most drinks within reason, Mige had an unusual request for the band’s rider: Bibles.
"I used to collect them so I’d have a lot of papers," he says. "I have all the Bibles at home just in case I start smoking weed again."

NOTION SICKNESS
Prior to his first glimmer of success Valo admits to worrying about every aspect of the night’s performance,
from the perfect setlist through to ensuring everyone arrived at the gig precisely on time. But with almost a
decade’s touring experience the frontman realises that technical mishaps occur and that no night is perfect.
As HIM’s lyricist it seems unimaginable that Valo forgets lyrics live, but the frontman considers such memory lapses as "kind of sexy". Still, there’s one thing he has no control over: pre-stage nerves.
"You have got to have butterflies," he says. "It’s a positive thing; about being excited, being nervous. A lot of times I throw up.
I should really eat earlier in the day so I can digest food but I just can’t. At times I’m so hungry I stuff myself two hours before the gig and that’s when the puking happens."
For a while, HIM even had a personal chef. In the early days friend Antto Melasniemi played keyboards but later left HIM to cook. Famed for his culinary skills, he’s cooked around the globe.
"Antto used to travel with us in the States," says Valo. "He was more like a psychedelic chef as he used to get more drunk and stoned than we did.
It ended up in a situation where he had all the cooking equipment needed to make a decent dinner, but got so drunk that we had to tell him to go grab a pizza for us. But it was fun."

BUTT OF THE JOKE
A committed smoker, Valo takes advantage of continent crossings to buy duty-free fags. Chooffing his way through up to 100 per day,
entering the US provides the chance to buy up to 400 smokes. But a few years ago he got slugged by Finnish customs for returning with too many cartons.
And at the very mention of Finnish customs Mige becomes enraged. He recalls an incident when he was 18.
"I was driving around Europe and had been to all the borders and no one had stopped me," he says.
"I came to the Finnish border and there was this c**t, and they thought I was packing weed so they made me stand next to the car naked while they examined my fucking arse-crack.
They kept me standing there for quite a while. I am traumatised by that."
Pivotal to HIM’s success is manager Seppo Vesterinen. Back in 95 at a Helsinki gig, the ex-Hanoi Rocks manager and one-time
poet detected their spark and has handled their affairs ever since. Vesterinen (who also manages The Rasmus) seldom accompanies the band on tour,
but when he does he takes on a more fatherly role, keeping a close eye on things away from the limelight. A constant in their lives, Mige is quick to praise Vesterinen’s wisdom.
"Seppo taught me a great way to masturbate on the bus," he says. "Because we have three bunks on top of each other, the best way is to take a sock and masturbate in it, then throw it away."
Oddly enough, along with shoes, cigarettes, money and men’s underwear, fans have also thrown socks on stage. "Subconsciously they must have known what we needed," surmises Mige.
Along with a love of performing, HIM say they have been lucky to tour with great bands. Among their favourites have been Monster Magnet, Skindred and Cathedral.
Valo says it’s actually "as much about the fellows as the music". But one band he’d love to tour with is Type O Negative. "I have met Peter Steele once or twice," says Valo.
"The first time I was like a little boy, shivering and shaking. I was as drunk as fuck, shook his hand and ran away.
The next time he was inebriated as he’d been drinking red wine. In a similar vein to Cradle Of Filth you never know when they are serious and when they’re not.
They are able to look in the mirror and laugh at themselves but not at their work. I think that’s very important, whatever what you do."
Robyn Doreian

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

EXTRA cool  

grapes — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:24:34 +0200

EXTRA cool

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

  kerrang...in the mind of ville...

grapes — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 12:26:22 +0200

kerrang...in the mind of ville valo

Pubblicato da grapes | Commenti

Tags: news, love, lyrics, him , ville, valo, old , article, grapes, kerrang

HIM magazine

Very long interview for...

&nbsp; &nbsp; the most beautiful intro...

a couple of lmfao fan vids by...

no.

VENUS DOOM &nbsp; Leave all behind now...

great Live performance + interview for...

HIM...

&nbsp; HIM: TALES OF THE TOURS...

EXTRA cool &nbsp;

&nbsp; kerrang...in the mind of ville...

the most beautiful intro...

VENUS DOOM Leave all behind now...

HIM: TALES OF THE TOURS...

EXTRA cool

kerrang...in the mind of ville...