Interview conducted by Pam
V.=Ville
M.=Mige
Have you thought about making Heartagram dildo’s?
V. Yes, we have but there are very limited quality dildo’s in the
world. Some tiny companies, different quality woods. So we will think
about that but we haven’t found the right manufacturer yet. We
are talking to a chinese company now but the chinese stuff it’s
cheap.
M. It’s cheap doesnt really suit our band what we want to represent.
v. No
Do you have any ideas as far as colors and stuff like that?
v. I just want like different woods like birds eye maple or something like that
Are you going to organize Helldone again this year?
v. I think so yes we are trying to expand it but I still dont know how I
havent been home in ages of course im gonna go back home in june and im
going to talk to the owner of the club about that what we are gonna do
Thats at tavastia right?
v. Yeah Tavastia, we are thinking of making something I mean it worked
out pretty well last year its nice for people because there are alot of
people traveling you know from out of the country and from far away
like lapland and places like that. its nice that its more than just one
gig you get a couple of days like you can hang out there the whole
weekend
How do you decide on the support bands for your tour. Do you decide or does Warner?
v. Well of course warner brothers only seems to have shit ideas so we’re usually deciding everything.
So you decide who the opening band is, do you use press packs or…?
v. I get to read alot about music, I get to read all the music press there is, I try to get to know all the new bands
So you read about Aiden, I heard about aiden a while back they have been blowing up in the UK for a while now.
v. Yeah, I didnt know how they were live, but I thought live its pretty
much the same. You know, it's a little bit kind of dark but it's alot more
punk and a bit more metal then what we are so we thought maybe the kids
would like them as well. Originally we thought about playing with
bullet for my valentine from the UK, alot of bands are touring all the
time so you can't neccesarily have what you really want. Actually this
turned out to be alot better than we thought. because i didnt know what
to expect but those guys are really really nice. like last time around
we played with Finch and that like it didnt fit with the audiences and
that was the first time we listened to the label or the booking agent
or whatever and they do good every now and then but most of the time
not, because they just think about ticket sales, but they dont think
about how it works with the audience
If you could put together any tour what would it be?
V. we would probably like to support sabbath, black sabbath, but i dont
know we have been touring with great bands, we had an oppritunity to
tour with monster magnent and skindred. Alot of great people alot of
cool bands. Just like we are big fans of monster magnent so that was
great for us, we listen to that every night, so we will see what
happens iggy pop would be great to tour with
m. robert johnson
As a band after so many years do you still have as much fun getting on stage together every night?
m. it gets funnier and funnier
v. i think it goes its like a rollercoaster ride you know everybody
gets tired at one point, we had a great time recording the latest album
and the album is doing very well and of course that makes us happy and
seeing that there is alot of people who like what we do and like the
new songs and everything like that of course that puts and extra boost
in kicking ass, i think this tour so far has been best we have been
alot more animated alot more energetic than the stuff in the past.
I read some reviews from the first
shows down in florida before i came here, they seemed to be different
from the last tour, you seem more energetic..
v. you get in a certain mood and also with different albums different
sounds bring you into a different mood we have been in the mood for now
like the past half a year the mood of really rocking it out rather than
playing alot of ballads and stuff like that because we used to do that
we were in a point where we were really moody like in a type o negative
type of way and now we are in a mood of playing more fast songs and
stuff like that and that is what feels comfortable now. We dont know
what is happening next time around its always different and thats why
music is nice and thats why it is entertaining to us and funny
m. not neccesarily fun but always funny
Tell one secret about yourself or the band that you have never told to anyone.
m. we have gone so public with all those dirty little secrets
yeah you guys are always very open and everything
v. yeah there are no secrets really, nothing spectacular, im really sorry to dissappoint you
No not a dissappointment
m. we had once these santa clause figures we made one of them look like Elvis
v. that was pretty extreme
m. it was fucking terrible
Like polar bears in finland there are so many myths you can believe about Finland
v. just like there are so many myths about america
exactly
v. alot of people come and they never get to see anything besides maybe
NY and Los Angeles you know Europeans, usually we always start off in
Miama. places like Atlanta or places like San Antonio, or El Paso
and even for you all you dont get to see the smaller places like 2200 population and so forth
v. well you know you shouldnt be a loudmouth about cultures you dont
really know but there are alot of americans who dont know america so
its such a big place and alot of europeans who dont know europe because
its such a big place so we’ve gotten not necessarily to know all
the cities and the countries but we have seen alot of places still
so like experience
v. it really is
If you could name one band who has been a constant influence on HIM who would that band be?
v. really the only answer we could say is black sabbath and other than
that type o negative, maybe neil young there is alot we listen to all
kinds of music so like levi the reggae artist
m. its hard to name one
v. mega death dave mustane
m. dave mustane is christ
i dont like dave mustane
v. dont judge a book by its cover
m. he has a heart of gold
v. a whore with a golden heart
If you could redo one HIM song, as if it had never been released what song would that be?
v. I’m really happy about everything we have done because the
belong with that time they were written that was a part of our lives a
part of the band and a part of where we were as individuals there is
little tiny things that go into it so i wouldnt want to change
anything. We did redo like Wicked Game several times and love said
no..so we kinda did things just to check it out but the magic is there
when you do it the one and the only time.
I personally think that HIM is a band
who has made it possible for smaller bands from your area to emplode
onto the US scene, how do you feel about your part in this Scandinavian
invasion?
v. I personally dont consider us to be a wingman to the wheel so like
Hanoi Rocks was one of the first bands at an underground level to
become known by like Guns and Roses and have really gone for it so they
are the ones we followed
I think this time these bands are able to come over because you did do it first for this generation
V. Coming over to this country it costs alot of money its always like a
gamble, you are gambling with it and alot of people dont have guts to
do that and because we were pretty well known in Europe we just saved
all our money to be able to tour our asses off no matter how much it
cost or whatever we wanted to be in a position to where we could be on
a zero line you know we didnt lose but we didnt gain any money as well
so you had to wait
v. yeah sure we had the possibility and we were willing to go for it
because otherwise that would have driven us nuts just to be hanging out
in Europe because we have been touring all over Europe for ten years
already so we wanted to expand the territory and be able to go to new
places because its inspirational in itself for the music and for the
band
how do you feel about bands that do come over from everywhere that are losing money on tours in the us
v. i think they should make better albums i think that if you are a
good band and if you write music that people want to hear then its not
a problem of course there are alot of people who are disillusional
about their situation and they maybe think that they are better than
they are and i think you earn your props by touring your ass off first
in your home country then expanding bit by bit take baby steps around
rather than trying to conquer the whole world because I think thats
impossible.
Then wouldnt it be smart to tour your home country and at least hit the UK before America?
v. its better luck like we did Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria,
Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece, Czekoslovakia, Poland
then we did the UK. We did the other side of Europe before we hit the
UK, then we started working on the UK, then we had an opportunity
through some contacts to play in Philadelphia for the first time.
Gradual and I like it being gradual nothing like exploding at one point
because it would have probably done our heads in, like if we would have
gotten this great global interest, there is still a challenge in
different places and we are not that well known and I love it because
that puts us in a situation to where we need to prove to ourselves that
we are worth it and prove to the audiences that we are worth it
HIM as a band has pretty much covered the world though right?
v. We still haven’t done South America we have done Mexico
I know you have a fanbase in South America
v. It is just such a big place just a fucking vast ball, it’s
impossible to do all the gigs you know and people have families back
home we have to have a normal life as well and with that normal life to
be able to recharge our batteries
So south america is not a possiblility right now but maybe in the future
v. we are thinking of going there in the fall, we are doing a few gigs
in Columbia at the end of the year and austria yeah. We may go there as
support you know some of the American bands draw really big audiences,
bands like Linkin Park so you never know what will happen. Nothings
planned out yet, we have been in constant tours since October of last
year. So we need to recharge the batteries and work on some new music
as well. We don’t want to be on a never ending tour.
Have you all already started on writing music for the next album yet?
v. We have no idea yet, we have been writing some rifts and melodies
stuff like that but of course we don’t have the time to do much
with traveling all the time. You read a book in the hotel and calm down
and get yourself ready for the gig. I’ve got an accoustic guitar
with me I am working on idea. It is gonna be probably July when we get
back home and then we will have some oppritunity as a group to start
working on it.
Alright guys I will let you go and get ready for your show good luck tonight!
v. Yeah I am going to go work on this setlist.
M. I am going to eat.
Then we hung around a few minutes
talking about what books we are all reading right now and
theory’s on certain writers. I am such a nerd thats what I talk
about.
Enjoy!
