„Suicide is always an option. Not the best, more the worst, but it's good to have it.
"Would you care for another cup of coffee? I also have some more French toasts for you." Again a fresh smell of coffee came through the comfortable darkened breakfast lounge of the Hyatt West Hollywood at the Sunset Boulevard and mixed with the wonderful scent of the warm toast, while soft music filled the comfortable rooms and created an ambiance which actually didn't match a Rock'n'Roll hotel. And though we were in that special hotel in Los Angeles, in which already Jim Morrison, Led Zeppelin and The Who did some legendary parties. Televisions flew through windows, motorbikes drove through the lobby and even some songs got written here. But today it was pretty quiet in those legendary halls and excitement was only found by the attendant music-journalists who specially came from Germany to listen to the successful Finnish band HIM's new album in the afternoon.
Punctually at 2.00pm "HIM – mommy" Silke Yli-Sirniö congregated everybody in the lobby to go to the Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Pretty unimpressive from the outside and actually only identifiable with a sign from the Paramount Studios parking lot they've been found to be very impressive and roomy in the inside. Some gold and platinum records decorated the walls from the reception area to the recording rooms in the back part which are only lighted by dimmed light and candles, where HIM-Manager Seppo Vesterinen, Producer Tim Palmer and of course HIM-leader Ville Valo were already waiting to present the finally completed masterpiece.
Quickly some chairs were put for the journalists and manager Seppo already ran busily through the rooms, while Ville got – anxious waiting for their opinions– to the with a glass pane shielded recording room and Tim happy and proudly presented the new songs. Songs like Bleed Well and the acoustic Song Or Suicide sounded, while Venus Doom, Dead Lover's Lane and Passion's Killing Floor rocked the studio so Tim couldn't help himself playing the air guitar and in the next moment already rock on with the non existent drums or write down the song titles so everybody got the right track list in their notes. Arduously first impressions got written down, which seemed in view of the diversity of the songs almost kind of back braking. After an hour there was only one thing with which everyone agreed: Venus Doom is a damn rocking record, which's success seems to be preassigned.
Not only Tim Palmer seemed to be happy with the first reacts, also Ville, who already wanted the HIM-mommy to finally tell him what they think about the new album. A little bit tired from the party of last night but obviously relaxed he also was with the interview:
Ville Valo: Thank you very much for taking some time to get here.
Rockoon: My pleasure! Although the flight was really hard, cause I don't really like flying.
VV: Oh, I hate it too! I'm always afraid of it. Mostly I take some anodynes and try to sleep. We actually have to fly all the time. The rest of the band loves the flying. They always call "now we're crashing!!" and I:"AAaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!" Not very calmative.
Rockoon: So it's good that you flew alone this time. How long have u been in LA now?
VV: I'm here for like one and a half week and I'll stay a few more weeks. Tim and I mixed the album here. He actually even started to before I arrived here. But we know each other already pretty good so it doesn't take a lot of words between us. It gets changed a bit here and there but then it's exactly the way we want it.
Rockoon: But the album got recorded with Tim and Hiili Hiilesmaa in Helsinki, right?
VV: Yeah, in Helsinki.
Rockoon: Was Tim in Helsinki for the first time so you could show him a little bit of the city?
VV: Oh no, he already was there a couple of times. But this time it was like, I slept and he partied. We also recorded the album when we were all together. We wanted the album just to be finished and the last time it was pretty stressful because the whole traveling costed a lot of time and energy. And it wasn't really easy this time anyway because Burton, our keyboarder, also got a baby.
Rockoon: oh really? I'm sure that's exciting for him.
VV: yeah. Although I haven't even seen it yet. But they're very happy. I mean, it was born in October.
Rockoon: The baby got born in October and you still haven't seen it?
VV: well yeah, we all work out very well and we like each other a lot but you have to keep something private for yourself. We spend a lot of time together, like, in the studio, in the bus, when we're on tour… I think I haven't seen Olivia – the daughter of our guitarist Linde – for almost a year. It happens. When you have your break, you have your break. Then you don't think of the band anymore and you need some time for yourself. Well at least we try to take some time for us.
Rockoon: Tell us something about the new album. The title, Venus Doom, is it something like an advancement of Love Metal? Venus is the goddess of Love and Doom could describe the way to heavier and darker sounds. Is it like this or more like a word game?
VV: It's not an advancement of Love Metal. Is has to do with demolition and is a bit like the Kali-symbolism. Kali is the more-armed goddess of the Indian mythology and means demolition but also regeneration. Something has to be destroyed, so new things can be created. That's what love means to me.
Rockoon: And what does love exactly mean to you?
VV: It kills you. It rips your soul. And you're going to be reborn if you love again.
Rockoon: Interesting thought which could be also taken for other subjects. Like the aspects of your older albums, which almost have something destructive or at least don't sound that complaisant like at the time they were created. For example, you said after the release of Dark Light, that this kind of music is exactly what you always wanted, and after recording Venus Doom you said, that there were too many things happening on Dark Light.
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: Probably almost every musician says something like this, right? It's like you just found the perfect trousers or the perfect woman. So you shouldn't misunderstand it. I'm still very satisfied with Dark Light, just like with the albums before.
Rockoon: So it's perfect in the moment of creating, because it's exactly what you're feeling at that time.
VV: That's the way you could word it. We always give our best and cause of that we always want more. It's very important to advance.
Rockoon: You said that Venus Doom is a lot more heavy and darker, and that's true. What was the reason for choosing this direction?
VV: Heavy music is fun! I also had some hard times privately and so you can hear it on the songs. Private is of course relative, cause I don't really have a private life in its actual meaning. I write about personal emotions in our lyrics and so already tell them to public for years.
Rockoon: What do you do to improve you musically? For example, the singing or the guitar playing?
VV: Actually we don't really think about that.
Rockoon: So you just play and sing?
VV: Well, you're always trying some new things. I've never sung as deep as on the new album. My voice isn't like Robert Plant's [Led Zeppelin]. It's as deep as Peter Steele's from Type O Negative. But he didn't sing so deep anymore for quite a while, so, I'll probably beat him in that now (laughs). He's actually one of my idols. I love his voice and so I'm trying to advance my own voice. And I think that's also the way you should work and live your life – as good as possible and always trying to reach the best possible.
Rockoon: Tim told about that the acoustic Song Or Suicide was recorded in a hotel room.
VV: That's right. Song Or Suicide is probably the saddest song I've ever written. The recordings weren't easy too, because the transport and the buildup of the equipment we needed took a lot of time. We recorded it in the hotel in which I'm currently in, just at the Sunset Boulevard. John Belushi died there, Neil Young recorded there and also Anthony Keates sang his song parts there. It's a hot place, but it really got an impressive past…
Rockoon: I heard that Kiss Of Dawn is dedicated to a friend.
VV: Yes it is. He hung himself.
Rockoon: Oh. I think that's nothing of which you like to talk about.
VV: That's no problem. What the hell is death? He was a very good friend of mine, a very talented young fellow, with which I passed some beautiful times. One day his girlfriend called me and told me that he's dead. Things like that unfortunately happen. It was his decision and I hope it was the right for him.
Rockoon: What do you personally think about suicide? Is it really an option?
VV: Suicide is always an option. Not the best, more the worst, but it's good to have it. But it's surely nothing, of which I'm considering right now.
Rockoon: fortunately! And there isn't - at least not for public – a reason for it visible. What about the cooperation with your new Label? A good and especially personal teamwork seems to be very important for you. Did you find this for you?
VV: Absolutely. We signed in by Sire Records in New York. A small label that also got The Ramones, Madonna and Depeche Mode, latter for America, under contract. It's working pretty good, cause we're working with people with which we get along very good. It's a small label within a big one, so everything goes on very personal.
Rockoon: You also created a label by yourself. Did you already get some bands signed for Heartagram records so far?
VV: No, not yet. We'd really like to do that and we already talked with a few bands, but not more. We don't really have enough time and probably also not the required know-how to coach the bands so far. I think we're not really ready for that now.
Rockoon: Do you already have some special requirements for these bands?
VV: Not really. It's more about friends and music. Also the music direction, although we'll probably work more in the area of Rock, doesn't really matter.
Rockoon: A totally different question. How would you explain, that lots of singers, which say they're actually shy, to which you count as well, seem to search for the midpoint, cause they're regularly doing gigs in front of a huge audience?
VV: Hm... That's a hard question. I can't tell you because I don't have an explanation as well. What I know is that I love to write music. That's what I really like, also at home for myself. It's a bit like writing a diary.
Rockoon: Finally, do have a good suggestion for a place to go out here in LA?
VV: Oh, well you should go to the Rainbow. That's the legendary bar directly at the Sunset Boulevard, in which also Lemmy [Motörhead] hangs out all the time. He even got his own Flipper there. So, it's really worth going there!
Subject: Rockoon interview with Ville Valo 
Thu 13 Sep 2007 - 19:14
