Powermetal.de Interview with Ville Valo

interview by Yvonne Daseking and Henri Kramer taken on 18.02.2008


http://www.powermetal.de/interview/interview-1411.html

interview by Yvonne Daseking and Henri Kramer taken on 18.02.2008


http://www.powermetal.de/interview/interview-1411.html



translation by Dani @ heartagram boards


H: Hi Ville, lovely to see you here in Berlin. How many interviews have you already given today?

V: About four or five. But that's fine.

Y: Is playing in Berlin somehow special for you?

V: Yes, it actually is. During our first trips to Germany we often visited Silke, who became our manager later on. She used to live in Kreuzberg and we often hang out at her place and went to clubs like the „Silver Wings“ and „Wild at Heart“. Silke's living in Finland by now.
Berlin as a city is a little too big for me. And meanhwile we don't have the time anymore to take a look around: We shoot in and out the city, we see the hotel and the venue. Today we'll have to drive to Mannheim after the show, which is 650 km away, so there's little time for anything else.

Y: So you're still on the road with the tourbus?

V: Yeah, like we used to. It's more comfortable, after the gig you can just lay down. It's better than to go to the hotel first because we could only get 4 or 5 hours of sleep anyway. We spend the day in the hotel and relax. In general traveling in Europe is easier, here you just need a day. In the USA it's different, you have to drive much longer quite often.

Y: So it is different compared to your beginnings?

V: Of course, back then we only played in Finland after all. And there concerts are only on weekends because otherwise nobody would come- so during the week we were at home.

Y: That brings us to your history. There's about ten years between your first album GLS Vol. 666 and now. How would you describe this time in short?

V: A huge mess (laughs). Besides all the successes there were lots of troubles of course. And we travelled more and more and further and further away. That's exhausting, we were often tired. And a life like that isn't easy because of the families waiting at home.

Y: So you're often homesick?

V: While we're on tour we're homesick, when we're back home, we're longing to be back on tour again. It's a vicious cycle (laughs).

H: And what have you learned in those ten years?

V: Hmm. I don't know how to answer that. We're not as scared as we used to be as teenagers and we sleep better.

Y: And how do you feel playing the songs from back then today- after all you are probably in a very different mood now than when you wrote them? So how does it feel performing the old pieces?

V: It's like sleeping with your ex (laughs). It brings up very mixed emotions. But the songs change along with us in time. And you always discover something new about them when you perform them on stage. But it's true, you do see them from another point of view.

Y: You recorded quite a few covers in the past, of lately a very successful project with the German actress Natalia Avelon. Can you imagine to collaborate again with somebody and cover Nick Cave for example?

V: Sure. But nobody's asking me to.

H: Ok. And what your plans for the near future?

V: After Europe we'll be touring through Australia and New Zealand. Then it's summer and festival time. And after we're done with that, we'll be beginning to write new material.

H: Let's look a bit further into the future then: Where do you see yourselves in 10 years?

V: There's no answer to that. A lot of things can happen in 10 years time. But I think, basically we'll stay who we are, only our priorities will change.
But I hope that should HIM no longer exist ,everyone from the band remembers all the good things of our time together ,and that no one regrets having been a member of our band.

Y: Back to the here and now. How do you rehearse?

V: It depends. For a new album we rehearse 3 or 4 months, but of course we're not spending everday in our rehearsal room, after all we don't have a normal 9 to 5 office job. And it's unnecessary to rehearse song like „Wicked Game“ for the thousandth time. We actually rehearse songs like that by playing them live on stage. Concerts are the best practice anyway.

Y: Now we're coming to the end of this interview: I know it's a strange question: In Germany there's still the cliche that Finnish people love their saunas. What do you say about that?

V: Actually I can't say that much about it. I have a sauna at home, but I don't really like it that much. Gas, our drummer, he loves to go to the sauna. I prefer long soaks- yesterday I spent four hours in the tub. And speaking of cliches about Finland: I'm vegetarian, I hate reindeer and I don't like ski-jumping.

H: Ok, so any final words for the readers of Powermetal.de?
V: Not dead yet.

not dead yet he's always so hilarious.
ps:see the coat he's wearing?
[ps,ps: i swear, i've got to forget the concert already..it's always in my mind -sorry about that ]