Interviewer: Well, hello hello, Ville Valo. We're sitting here in some dungeon-like basement room. Ville: Nah, you can barely call this a dungeon, this is our very own suite in the heart of Helsinki, designed by Remu Aaltonen. This place is cool as can be! I: So, Ville, let's get down to business right away. Tears on Tape, your new album, an eighth studio album by H.I.M. - I have to take a peek at my cheat sheet here. Before you have a new album coming out, I've understood that you like to compare it to certain artists. (V: Is that so?) I: And before "Tears on Tape" came out, you mentioned that we're basically dealing with a sort of Bermuda Triangle in there, consisting of Smashing Pumpkins, Black Sabbath and Roy Orbison. Now that you listen to the outcome, how did it work out? V: Like Bermuda Triangles usually do, something was lost along the way and it's never coming back. We can never really erase Black Sabbath out of the equation, because they are such a big influence for us, a bit like Type O Negative are. And as for the Roy Orbison -reference, I'd recall I only mentioned it to the parties who don't know who Tapsa [Tapio] Rautavaara was. It was about having some gloomy Finnish melancholy meet heavy guitars, which we have done before as well, but this time it was more like, we tried to make it so that all these elements are present in each song. That is to say, not the sort of an album where there would be one extremely sad easy song and one very heavy rock song. Instead, we wanted songs where you can have a really heavy riff going on, like in "Into the Night", which has a sort of punk-ish riff which is very moshable, and at the same time, the verses and choruses are beautiful, melancholic and melodic. That sentimental stuff for which we are best known. I: Hiili Hiilesmaa has been partaking in making this album, of course, being your trusted producer. And then there's Tim Palmer, a British guy with whom you have been previously working a lot with as well... How was it this time, working with a familiar set of faces? Did you get in any fights? V: Well, of course there will always be occasional fights, but they are positive fights in a way, sort of constructive criticism. It would be awful if everybody always liked everything that is proposed! [sniffles] This time, the point was that we had a pretty clear vision about what we wanted to do with that album. Specifically, the skeletons of the songs are quite pretty and melancholic, but we didn't want the album to be TOO pretty, we wanted some roughness and big, impressive guitars. And nobody does that sort of thing better than Hiili does. And then, because Hiili is this crazy laboratory assistant - um, a laboratory guy, an inventor, genius, you know, Doctor Frankenstein - and our band is a bit of an oddball as well, Tim is just perfect for when we have done a hundred tracks' worth of shit, he can actually turn it into something to which you can actually listen... So, in that sense this album reminds me of "Love Metal" from 2003, it is rough, it's lively, it's organic, it's rockety-roll and you can smell the sweat, but yet at the same time it is beautiful and good to listen to, and, hopefully, memorable. That's what we are aiming at. I: How does Ville Valo compose? Do you still do this thing where you sit at home in your undies, strumming an acoustic guitar like you were sitting at a campfire? V: Umm, nowadays there's no underpants, I've thrown them away because they have holes in them... No, really, most of the songs, most of the melodies are created like that, or then with piano, although I'm a terrible pianist. But, but I think that it's truly important to construct a song so that it will work with minimum accompaniment, on it's own, after which we will add flesh and fat around it at the rehearsal place, so... But then some songs, like the last- or the second last song of the record, When Love Starts to Die, it was born when I just started humming the riff on a taxi ride to our rehearsal place, and I had nothing on me with which to record it. I had to hum it like for half an hour in my head until I got there, and then I just grabbed Linde's guitar and played the riff, and the song itself was made on the spot, in two to three hours or so, the whole idea of it. What, to me at least, is interesting about making music, especially rock'n'roll, is that the journey to completing the song is so different every time. Sometimes it starts with tinkling the piano, and other times with something completely different. And it's really fun that it isn't a routine nor a method, not always the same journey from point A to point B. I: Well, Ville Valo, I know that you like the band "Sisters of Mercy" a lot, and Andrew Eldritch, who is the primus motor and the front man of the band, has at some point mentioned he thinks it's more important that the music touches a few people very deeply instead of superficially pleasing the big masses. V: Oh, you've seen the same interview as I have... [chuckles] I: [laughs] Um, how many compromises has H.I.M. had to do, for instance in that sense, have you had to compromise in the favour of touching the masses? V: Oooh, "touching big masses" instantly gave me very erotic associations - I really dig small masses more - but, um, umm, um, Eldritch's point, he's a very funny guy with a good dry sense of humour, and I understand his point, but when we're making music, like when we were at the rehearsal place doing "Into the Night", working on that riff, we have a tremendous time, we crack open a couple of beers and be like "Yeah, now we're in the flow", and we're thoroughly sweaty and all that... There is no way of knowing if anyone will like the song, the most important thing when making music, making a record, is that our band is having fun doing that, we like playing it. I hope that THIS will be conveyed from the record to the listeners, so that they'll hear something new and wonderful, and, like, event though the songs can be gloomy or melancholic, it's still melancholy you can dance to, melancholy with impressiveness, so that you can open a bottle of champagne while weeping. That's what we're aiming at. So, to answer the question, it is impossible to speculate beforehand whether it will be the masses or just a few people who will like a certain song. It is --- if that was possible, we'd all be like Beatles. I: Well, if you think about the history of your band, it's been 22 years since you established the band by the name His Infernal Majesty with your bassist Mige in Oulunkylä, and now H.I.M. is in the point where you have 8 albums and all kinds of achievements. How have you been able to stay together for this long? V: Uh, I have no clue! That's something I don't even dare to contemplate. It feels like there is magic into it, and if you start to speculate about it too much, you'll end up breaking the spell. I don't think there is any reason, really, other than that before the band even existed, we have grown up together, me, Linde and Mige, we've been friends since we were kids. We've known Burton and Gas from when we were teenagers. We have been sitting right there and drinking beer in the front of the Uspenski Cathedral since year stick and stone, the whole band was there already. I think it's one of the biggest reasons, that we're friends, and not 5 egomaniacs who are just after money and fame. Well, we started playing music so young that we knew nothing about money yet, nor fame, nor girls, nor cars. The only really cool things, to us, were the Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue videos that we saw on TV, to which we own our enthusiasm for music. I: So, you were 15 when H.I.M. was founded. Now you're 36 and you've grown with the band. You have had this unique story that you've been able to grow in this setting with it... If the 15 year old Ville would know where he would end up at the age of 36, what would have he thought of that? V: I think the current situation is pretty much what I thought already back then it to be, getting somewhere somehow, yeah, because there was no choice. Not that I'd have thought that I necessarily would be able to - I would probably have been disappointed, if at 15 - I thought that we'd be way more famous by now. You have to keep on aiming high, but, in relation to what we talked about earlier, even more important is that you do it by your own means. Because in the end, we're the ones with the burden, the obligation and responsibility of what we do, it's all on us. Not the record company, nor anyone else. We have to be content and happy about what we do, it's the most important point. And in that sense, everything has worked out just fine. But, I would have gone crazy if I would have known about all this beforehand, so it's better that this proceeded exactly like it did.
NuoraDiAngelo No problem! At least I had something to do while I'm not studying. I'm waiting to get beck to my translation studies, so this was good practice for me.
Ähh Ei harmainta aavistusta, toi on vähä sellane juttu ettei ees uskalla miettii sitä, ku tuntuu et siin on joku taika ja sit sä niinku rikot sen taian, jos sitä alkaa liikaa spekuloimaan En mä usko et siihen on mitään muuta syytä kun, et ennenku koko orkesterii on ees perustettu me ollaan kasvettu yhes Minä ja Mige ja Linde ollaa lapsuudenfrendei. Burton ja Gas me ollaan tunnettu teini-iästä, et me ollaan niinku istuttu tuolla ja juotu juotu bissee Uspenskin kadedraalin edessä. Niinku Vuonna yks ja kaks ennenku koko orkesterii oli olemassa. Must tuntuu et se on niinku yks tärkeimmist syistä, et me ollaan frendejä eikä viis egomaanikkoa, jotka haluaa rahaa ja mainetta. Me alotettiin soittaa musiikkia niin junnuna et eihä me tiedetty mistää rahast mitää eikä maineest mitää eikä tytöist ja autoist mitää. Et ainoo mikä oli niinku kova juttu oli joku Ozzy Osbourne tai Mötley Crue videot telkkarista, et se oli se minkä takia me innostuttiin tästä." Inspiroivaa ja ihailtavaa!
Do another interview with Ville!! Love seeing him. Samuli Väänänen is an awesome interviewer! Thanks for posting this!
4:40- omg!😂 Moto moton äänellä:"mä haluun isoo mä haluun massaa" tuli vaa mieleen nyt kyllä 😭😂🖤
Could someone translate it to english?
That would be sooo great!!!
(Although finnish is a great language, i can't understand a word )
Interviewer: Well, hello hello, Ville Valo. We're sitting here in some dungeon-like basement room.
Ville: Nah, you can barely call this a dungeon, this is our very own suite in the heart of Helsinki, designed by Remu Aaltonen. This place is cool as can be!
I: So, Ville, let's get down to business right away. Tears on Tape, your new album, an eighth studio album by H.I.M. - I have to take a peek at my cheat sheet here. Before you have a new album coming out, I've understood that you like to compare it to certain artists.
(V: Is that so?)
I: And before "Tears on Tape" came out, you mentioned that we're basically dealing with a sort of Bermuda Triangle in there, consisting of Smashing Pumpkins, Black Sabbath and Roy Orbison. Now that you listen to the outcome, how did it work out?
V: Like Bermuda Triangles usually do, something was lost along the way and it's never coming back. We can never really erase Black Sabbath out of the equation, because they are such a big influence for us, a bit like Type O Negative are. And as for the Roy Orbison -reference, I'd recall I only mentioned it to the parties who don't know who Tapsa [Tapio] Rautavaara was. It was about having some gloomy Finnish melancholy meet heavy guitars, which we have done before as well, but this time it was more like, we tried to make it so that all these elements are present in each song. That is to say, not the sort of an album where there would be one extremely sad easy song and one very heavy rock song. Instead, we wanted songs where you can have a really heavy riff going on, like in "Into the Night", which has a sort of punk-ish riff which is very moshable, and at the same time, the verses and choruses are beautiful, melancholic and melodic. That sentimental stuff for which we are best known.
I: Hiili Hiilesmaa has been partaking in making this album, of course, being your trusted producer. And then there's Tim Palmer, a British guy with whom you have been previously working a lot with as well... How was it this time, working with a familiar set of faces? Did you get in any fights?
V: Well, of course there will always be occasional fights, but they are positive fights in a way, sort of constructive criticism. It would be awful if everybody always liked everything that is proposed! [sniffles] This time, the point was that we had a pretty clear vision about what we wanted to do with that album. Specifically, the skeletons of the songs are quite pretty and melancholic, but we didn't want the album to be TOO pretty, we wanted some roughness and big, impressive guitars. And nobody does that sort of thing better than Hiili does. And then, because Hiili is this crazy laboratory assistant - um, a laboratory guy, an inventor, genius, you know, Doctor Frankenstein - and our band is a bit of an oddball as well, Tim is just perfect for when we have done a hundred tracks' worth of shit, he can actually turn it into something to which you can actually listen... So, in that sense this album reminds me of "Love Metal" from 2003, it is rough, it's lively, it's organic, it's rockety-roll and you can smell the sweat, but yet at the same time it is beautiful and good to listen to, and, hopefully, memorable. That's what we are aiming at.
I: How does Ville Valo compose? Do you still do this thing where you sit at home in your undies, strumming an acoustic guitar like you were sitting at a campfire?
V: Umm, nowadays there's no underpants, I've thrown them away because they have holes in them... No, really, most of the songs, most of the melodies are created like that, or then with piano, although I'm a terrible pianist. But, but I think that it's truly important to construct a song so that it will work with minimum accompaniment, on it's own, after which we will add flesh and fat around it at the rehearsal place, so... But then some songs, like the last- or the second last song of the record, When Love Starts to Die, it was born when I just started humming the riff on a taxi ride to our rehearsal place, and I had nothing on me with which to record it. I had to hum it like for half an hour in my head until I got there, and then I just grabbed Linde's guitar and played the riff, and the song itself was made on the spot, in two to three hours or so, the whole idea of it. What, to me at least, is interesting about making music, especially rock'n'roll, is that the journey to completing the song is so different every time. Sometimes it starts with tinkling the piano, and other times with something completely different. And it's really fun that it isn't a routine nor a method, not always the same journey from point A to point B.
I: Well, Ville Valo, I know that you like the band "Sisters of Mercy" a lot, and Andrew Eldritch, who is the primus motor and the front man of the band, has at some point mentioned he thinks it's more important that the music touches a few people very deeply instead of superficially pleasing the big masses.
V: Oh, you've seen the same interview as I have... [chuckles]
I: [laughs] Um, how many compromises has H.I.M. had to do, for instance in that sense, have you had to compromise in the favour of touching the masses?
V: Oooh, "touching big masses" instantly gave me very erotic associations - I really dig small masses more - but, um, umm, um, Eldritch's point, he's a very funny guy with a good dry sense of humour, and I understand his point, but when we're making music, like when we were at the rehearsal place doing "Into the Night", working on that riff, we have a tremendous time, we crack open a couple of beers and be like "Yeah, now we're in the flow", and we're thoroughly sweaty and all that... There is no way of knowing if anyone will like the song, the most important thing when making music, making a record, is that our band is having fun doing that, we like playing it. I hope that THIS will be conveyed from the record to the listeners, so that they'll hear something new and wonderful, and, like, event though the songs can be gloomy or melancholic, it's still melancholy you can dance to, melancholy with impressiveness, so that you can open a bottle of champagne while weeping. That's what we're aiming at. So, to answer the question, it is impossible to speculate beforehand whether it will be the masses or just a few people who will like a certain song. It is --- if that was possible, we'd all be like Beatles.
I: Well, if you think about the history of your band, it's been 22 years since you established the band by the name His Infernal Majesty with your bassist Mige in Oulunkylä, and now H.I.M. is in the point where you have 8 albums and all kinds of achievements. How have you been able to stay together for this long?
V: Uh, I have no clue! That's something I don't even dare to contemplate. It feels like there is magic into it, and if you start to speculate about it too much, you'll end up breaking the spell. I don't think there is any reason, really, other than that before the band even existed, we have grown up together, me, Linde and Mige, we've been friends since we were kids. We've known Burton and Gas from when we were teenagers. We have been sitting right there and drinking beer in the front of the Uspenski Cathedral since year stick and stone, the whole band was there already. I think it's one of the biggest reasons, that we're friends, and not 5 egomaniacs who are just after money and fame. Well, we started playing music so young that we knew nothing about money yet, nor fame, nor girls, nor cars. The only really cool things, to us, were the Ozzy Osbourne and Motley Crue videos that we saw on TV, to which we own our enthusiasm for music.
I: So, you were 15 when H.I.M. was founded. Now you're 36 and you've grown with the band. You have had this unique story that you've been able to grow in this setting with it... If the 15 year old Ville would know where he would end up at the age of 36, what would have he thought of that?
V: I think the current situation is pretty much what I thought already back then it to be, getting somewhere somehow, yeah, because there was no choice. Not that I'd have thought that I necessarily would be able to - I would probably have been disappointed, if at 15 - I thought that we'd be way more famous by now. You have to keep on aiming high, but, in relation to what we talked about earlier, even more important is that you do it by your own means. Because in the end, we're the ones with the burden, the obligation and responsibility of what we do, it's all on us. Not the record company, nor anyone else. We have to be content and happy about what we do, it's the most important point. And in that sense, everything has worked out just fine. But, I would have gone crazy if I would have known about all this beforehand, so it's better that this proceeded exactly like it did.
Stanzara thank you so much!!
You did a great job, it was a whole bunch of work I guess :)
NuoraDiAngelo No problem! At least I had something to do while I'm not studying. I'm waiting to get beck to my translation studies, so this was good practice for me.
Stanzara mites on opiskelut sujunu
@@Stanzara Wow. I'm impressed by your translation. Especially that Finnish seems to be a very difficult language.
❤️❤️🇨🇴😘😘🎶🎸
:D🖤
Ähh Ei harmainta aavistusta, toi on vähä sellane juttu ettei ees uskalla miettii sitä, ku tuntuu et siin on joku taika ja sit sä niinku rikot sen taian, jos sitä alkaa liikaa spekuloimaan En mä usko et siihen on mitään muuta syytä kun, et ennenku koko orkesterii on ees perustettu me ollaan kasvettu yhes Minä ja Mige ja Linde ollaa lapsuudenfrendei. Burton ja Gas me ollaan tunnettu teini-iästä, et me ollaan niinku istuttu tuolla ja juotu juotu bissee Uspenskin kadedraalin edessä. Niinku Vuonna yks ja kaks ennenku koko orkesterii oli olemassa. Must tuntuu et se on niinku yks tärkeimmist syistä, et me ollaan frendejä eikä viis egomaanikkoa, jotka haluaa rahaa ja mainetta. Me alotettiin soittaa musiikkia niin junnuna et eihä me tiedetty mistää rahast mitää eikä maineest mitää eikä tytöist ja autoist mitää. Et ainoo mikä oli niinku kova juttu oli joku Ozzy Osbourne tai Mötley Crue videot telkkarista, et se oli se minkä takia me innostuttiin tästä." Inspiroivaa ja ihailtavaa!