Interview with Ville Valo

Finland has made a name for itself as a country spawning some of the
most unique and best metal acts in the world over the past 2 decades. In
1991 a band by the name of HIM (His Infernal Majesty) formed to start a
new wave of gothic metal. Building a name for themselves within their
homeland their sound and style was so big, Finland and not even the
European continent could contain it. As of 2013 the band sold over 8
million records and growing daily. Their latest offering Tears On Tape (2013)
is holding peak chart positions worldwide. Recently we sat down with
songwriter and vocalist Ville Valo for a intimate look at the history of
HIM, breaking through in North America, horror movies and much more.
CrypticRock.com - HIM has been going strong now for over 2 decade. Your major label debut Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 (1997)
went platinum in your home country of Finland. Since then each album to
follow had success in all European markets. It wasn’t until 2001 when Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights
was released that you broke through into the North American market.
Tell me, was it difficult to finally break through to the American
audience?
Ville Valo -
Obviously when we started with the band we had the hopes of being able
to visit your country. As you said it took a while. I don’t think it was
Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights that really made a mark, it was Dark Light (2005).
We signed with a label in the US that worked for us to get our point
across there. It took a while but we had the pleasure of, for example,
having one certain Bam Margera helping us out. He started wearing our
t-shirts on Jackass, started directing our videos, and all of a sudden
we had this little phenomenon going on. I think more or less it was a
step by step project. It wasn’t that one album or song was the number
one thing to happen. We did it without even having a proper record deal
there back in 2003. We are a classic word of mouth band I think. With
the help of the internet obviously because news spreads so much faster
than it did back in the day. Let’s say we were just plain lucky.

Crypticrock.com - HIM is now internationally known and your logo branded all over. You mentioned Dark Light
in 2005 which was the height of the band’s success in the USA. The
album went gold in various markets. Riding high from that success you
guys have released 3 albums since then. Was your approach to the music
different at all after the success of Dark Light?
Ville Valo - Not really. It would be better to ask did our approach changed before Dark Light.
I think that usually with any band that has any success they don’t know
why they have success. Bands in general work hard and you should do
what you feel is the best, go with the flow, and trust your instincts.
That is basically what we did with Dark Light, it paid off, and that’s
basically what we continue doing. Obviously the whole world of music
keeps on changing. You meet your new favorite band everyday of the week.
We haven’t been getting much radio air play after that for example in
the states. Still we’ve been touring successfully and still there seems
to be a lot of people that enjoy what we do and enjoy following us
around, which is pretty amazing.

CrypticRock.com - The band has a very strong following internationally. Your newest album Tears On Tape is
really excellent. Personally I respectably think it’s one of the
strongest albums of all your work. Tell me what the writing and
recording process was for the new album?
Ville Valo - It
was a bit of a pain in the butt. We started working with stuff in early
2011 and worked at the rehearsal place to get some ideas down. All of a
sudden our drummer. Mika “Gas Lipstick” Karppinen, started feeling
severe pain in his hands. Everybody was kind of shocked and worried
thinking what the hell is going on. He went to the doctor’s and found
out he had some repetitive strain injury and some nerve damage as well.
Nobody would actually know how long it would take him to heal up or
whether he’s ever going to play drums again. In the middle of the start
of Tears On Tape we all of a sudden had to take a break for 8 months to
wait for him to get better. We utilized the 8 months to work on the
songs a hell of a lot more than maybe in the past. At the end of the day
I think it paid off. When Gas was fine again and he got the A-ok from
the doctor’s in May 2012 everybody was so relieved. That was a huge
boost of confidence for everybody in the band. We started working at
stuff straight away and worked our asses off May-August and went into
the studio in September. It worked itself out pretty quick, it was about
2 1/2 months of recording and your usual 2 weeks mixing and so forth.
We have done that a couple of times in the past so that part of it
wasn’t really new. The toughest thing was to have the mood and setting
right for the music.

CrypticRock.com - Yes it should be a good mix of rock and metal fans. Sadly your headlining
North American tour in May was cancelled. Can fans in North America
expect to have a headlining North American tour in support of Tears On
Tape in the future?
Ville Valo - We are working it out at the moment. We are trying to figure it out, let’s
do one thing at a time. We are doing the Volbeat tour and then we are
heading back to Europe to tour for about 2 months here, around Halloween
we should be done with that. Then we’ll see where the album is and
where the people are who want to take a listen to what we can offer.
CrypticRock.com - That sounds cool and hope to see you back here soon. Finland is loaded
with metal bands ranging from black metal, to death metal, to gothic
metal. Being from a country with such a strong metal scene and
especially so many gothic metal bands, what do you think the key to
HIM’s success is standing out above all these bands?
Ville Valo - I think that more or less the scene, as you said, has always been big but
there has never been a lot of band’s doing exactly the same old same
old. When we started out there were bands like Children Of Bodom and
Nightwish and bands like that. I think all the band’s have really strong
identities on their own. Even though we were in the same scene more or
less, all the bands sounded very different. We weren’t fighting, it was
more of a family sort of thing rather than be bitter enemies.
CrypticRock.com - Yes and HIM’s success spawned a massive amount of bands in Finland that
have a similar sound to HIM now. You basically formed your own scene
over there.
Ville Valo - I’m not taking the credit (laughs).
CrypticRock.com- I am giving you the credit (laughs). Now with that said HIM does have
many qualities of metal in the music. It’s not limited in sound though,
and I think sometimes people want to be able to label something
otherwise they don’t understand it. You obviously have different musical
influences. I’d like to know what some of your musical influences are?
Ville Valo - Well I think personally everybody in the band is pretty different. Like
Linde our guitar player’s favorite artist ever is Iggy Pop. Our bass
player, Mikko “Migé” Paananen, loves old school and soundtracks for
films. Our keyboard player, Janne “Burton” Puurtinen, loves classical
music, that’s basically the only thing besides Pink Floyd he listens to.
Our drummer Gas, he is kind of the old school metal head. He grew up
listening to Slayer, early Death Angel, Exodus and all that sort of
stuff. Myself when I was younger I used to play bass guitar and drums.
At one point I had probably 10 bands playing club gigs at the same time.
I was playing jazz one evening, reggae the next, and rock and metal the
next. I’ve always liked all kind of music. I think the bands that
everybody appreciates within HIM are Black Sabbath and Type O Negative.
Those bands are probably the reason we get along.

CrypticRock.com - Those are interesting musical influences. It makes for interesting music because it all bleeds through when you write music.
Ville Valo - Hopefully it does. Since I’ve said all those different genres that
everybody listens to it seems like everyone has expertise in different
genres. So I don’t have to fight about bay area thrash metal with Gas
because I know he knows it better than I do. When it comes to gothic
rock or whatever I’m the one who takes the cake.
CrypticRock.com - HIM’s lyrical and music theme is very sorrowful and romantic. Tell me what inspires you to compose the lyrics and music?
Ville Valo - Yes, I think all good music has to come from a personal place. Again it’s
the combination of when we started out we didn’t just want to play
gothic rock or just want to do metal. We wanted to, if possible, mix all
we love into this package called HIM. That’s probably the reason for
the way we sound, good or bad. Songwriting wise I’m a huge Neil Young
fan, Johnny Cash, Depeche Mode and all sorts of different acts. Usually
we are into melancholy music but I guess that’s very Scandinavian. We
don’t listen to a lot of happy go lucky bullshit.

CrypticRock.com - (laughs). That’s very true, there is a lot of dark music that comes from that part of the world. Why do you think that is?
Ville Valo - Why that is, no idea. Since back in the day, the traditional classic and
folk music has always been pretty dramatic and melancholy. It goes back
to the mental state people are in. Us Scandinavians, and Russians as
well, like their music dramatic, thick, and larger than life. Then again
there are other countries that are really great at making pop music
happen, making stuff that people want to dance to. I am more into
banging my head against the wall than shaking my hips.
CrypticRock.com - The melancholy aspects absolutely makes for good art. My last question for
you is regarding films. Crypticrock.com is a rock/metal and horror news
site so we like to focus on all genres. Are you a fan of horror films
and if so what are some of your favorite horror films?
Ville Valo - Well I am a child of the 80′s, born in 1976. I grew up VHS trading. I
probably had hundreds of horror films when I was a kid. That was a time
when it was impossible to get an original copy of the first Evil Dead (1981) or any of the Dario Argento stuff. During the resurrection of the whole slasher scene, I was there when Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) happened for the first time and all that stuff. Talking about favorites, I’d say Suspiria (1977)
by Dario Argento, probably one of my all time favorites. It looks
great, feels great, was really odd, left of center, and at the same time
really violent. I’m a bit too young for Night Of The Living Dead (1968) and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). More or less it was the 80′s stuff that grabbed my attention. Then after Demons (1985) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and all that stuff, it was a long period of nothing going on in the genre. Then Dracula (1992)
happened with Gary Oldman, obviously that became a big hit all over the
world. I still think it’s a great film. Since that it’s been the French
horror revolution happening with Frontier (s) (2007), Martyrs (2008)
and all those flicks. I still think it’s a colorful genre and there is
still no limits and bounds. The only thing I can say is the excessive
amount of gore, I think that it’s just boring. Those limits have been
tried so many times. To make something psychologically horrifying, all
doom and gloom, is worthwhile watching, and that’s the challenge.

CrypticRock.com - I totally agree with you. I myself love Dario Argento’s films and Suspiria is one of my favorite’s as well. I love those Italian horror films. Those are some excellent films.
Ville Valo - Yea I can’t change it but that is probably the first thing that got me and
Mika in the band HIM. That got us together and we decided to form HIM.
We love Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. We were horror geeks back in
the day. I dig Joe Hill, I haven’t read NOS4A2 (Nosferatu)his latest, but I got it. I’m waiting for good books and films in the genre to happen. I’m ready for it.
CrypticRock.com - It seems the genre is ready for a revolution. It seems everything is a
remake now. It would be great to see some new ideas or something more
original.
Ville Valo - Yes true, some of the remakes aren’t bad, but there is something you
watch once and that’s it. They don’t turn out to be a horror bible that
you watch or read a million times and that is kind of a shame. I think
it’s a vivid genre and there are so many things that can still be done.
I’m waiting for someone like Peter Jackson or whomever that could make a
good film on any of the HP Lovecraft things. With or without CGI I
think that could be pulled off these days in a convincing matter. I grew
up with HP so I love that kind of classical horror. It would be nice if
Clive Barker would be involved in the remake of Hellraiser.
The original was based on a short story or novella. He’s still got the
touch so I am sure if he’d stop writing the fantastical stuff and
concentrate on blood and gore he could come up with a great film.
CrypticRock.com - Yes I agree and there are talks about a new version of Nightbreed (1990) with extra footage which will be released.
Ville Valo - Yes I heard about it. I heard they shot a lot of material, had trouble
with producers back in the day that wanted to make it more commercial,
and they left a lot of stuff. That’s interesting and the book is great.
There is a lot of stuff that Clive wrote back in the day that would do
very well and be current as a film. Then again you have to just keep
your ears and eyes open, there might be some surprises, you never can
tell who will come up with the next classic.
Be sure to catch
HIM on the
Rock Allegiance Tour 2013 with Volbeat, All That Remains, & Airbourne. Dates are as follow:
9/03 Salt Lake City, UT @ Maverick Centre
9/04 Las Vegas, NV @ The Joint
9/08 Abbotsford, BC @ Abbotsford Entertainment & Sports Center
9/09 Calgary, AB @ Big 4 Building
9/10 Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
9/15 Sacramento, CA @ Aftershock Music Festival
9/16 Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Palladium
9/18 Grand Prairie, TX @ Verizon Theatre @ Grand Prairie
9/19 Houston, TX @ Bayou Music Center
9/21 Gulfport, MS @ Jones Park CPR Fest
9/22 Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
9/23 Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum Special Events Center
9/25 SAYERVILLE, NJ @ Starland Ballroom
9/26 Philadelphia, PA @ Skyline Stage @ The Mann
9/27 Lowell, MA @ Tsongas Center at UMASS Lowell
9/28 Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Waterfront

英文不好怎么破。

能粘贴翻译器翻译么。。