VENUS DOOM

Anneli Valo · Founder Joined: 15 May 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Helsinki

That interview... Ville is awesome... he talks like heaven...

Super-fan Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage crosses a continent to interview Ville Valo and sheds some light on what makes this Finnish group and its strange brew of “love metal” hard rock’s most addictive concoction.
Howard Jones shouldn’t even be here. Tomorrow night, his band, Killswitch Engage, will kick off their summer-long tour in support of their new album, End of Heartache (Roadrunner), with a club show in Michigan. But this afternoon, the brawny and amiable Killswitch frontman is thousands of miles away, kicking back at a San Francisco hotel. The reason? Jones just can’t pass up a chance to see his favorite band in the world, Finnish rockers HIM.

Who—or what—are HIM? The short answer is they’re a Helsinki-based quintet whose dark and tuneful brand of hard rock has turned them into European superstars and inspired a small but insanely rabid U.S. cult—the latter despite the fact that only one of their records, 2000’s Razorblade Romance, has ever been released in the States. In fact, most Americans who are even remotely aware of HIM probably heard of them through skateboarder Bam Margera and his MTV show, Viva La Bam. Margera, a major HIM fanatic, has not only papered his bedroom with HIM posters but also (like Jones) proudly sports a tattoo of the band’s “Heartagram” logo; less well-known is the fact that he’s also directed four videos for the band, including its recent cover of Neil Diamond’s “Solitary Man.”

But though Margera’s enthusiastic advocacy has helped introduce HIM to America, the band (whose lineup consists of vocalist Ville Valo, drummer Gas Lipstick, keyboardist Emerson Burton, bassist Mige Amour, and guitarist Linde Lazer) is quite capable of winning new fans on its own, thank you. Their five albums—1997’s Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666, 2000’s Razorblade Romance, 2002’s Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights, 2003’s Love Metal, and the new import-only greatest-hits package And Love Said No—are filled with soaring melodies and dryly witty lyrics, delivered in an alluring baritone croon by the charismatic Valo. Musically, the band combines the gothic atmospherics of Sisters of Mercy and Type O Negative with the classic rock drama of vintage Alice Cooper, lending both mystery and commercial punch to songs like “The Sacrament, “Join Me in Death,” and “Your Sweet 666”.

Now, with Love Metal topping the charts in most of Europe (and “Solitary Man” breaking the band into the U.K. Top 10 singles charts for the first time), HIM are finally in a position to set their sights on America. Tonight, the band will play the first gig of a two-week U.S. trek at Slim’s in San Francisco; HIM hope to follow the outing with a new album and much larger tour next year. But this afternoon, Ville Valo has a date with Revolver. And since we knew Howard Jones was coming to town for the show, we thought it’d be fun to rope him into our interview as well.

Howard, it’s well known that you’re a huge HIM fan. How did you first get into the band?

HOWARD JONES I guess it was when we toured Europe for the first time. I may have heard a song or two before that, but then a couple of us picked up a few of the CDs, and before I knew it, I was pretty much addicted.

What is it about HIM’s music that’s so addictive?

JONES I would say it’s just good songwriting. It seems like there’s never a bad song on the albums.

VILLE VALO [Cringing] Argh! Thank god people have bad taste! [Laughs]

JONES How does everybody feel about you in Finland?

VALO We’ve sort of crossed the level to where, nowadays, there’s a lot of paparazzi shit going on, which I don’t like at all. I’d like to live in peace, but it’s impossible. I’d like to be able to go to the market in the morning and buy some toilet paper without a bunch of kids around asking for my autograph [laughs].

JONES Yeah, I was in Germany, doing some press. I’m watching TV, and I see a commercial come on for a compilation CD with all the big stars on it, like Snoop Dogg and Britney Spears—and HIM! [Laughs] I was like, “You’ve gotta be kidding me!”

VALO Back in 2000, when “Join Me in Death” was a big hit, it was appearing on kiddie compilations with all those shitty pop songs! It was so funny. Loads of people buy those things, and most kids don’t know that there’s other music besides the bad MTV pop bullshit, so it was good that we were somehow able to penetrate through that wall.

JONES See? Good songwriting!

VALO [Visibly flustered] Well, whatever, I don’t know. I don’t want to start to analyze it, because I’m afraid it’s going to take a bit of the magic away.

JONES Well, then, allow me to do that [laughs]. You guys are very melody driven. You start singing a chorus, and it gets stuck in your head for God knows how long.

VALO Well, it is pretty melodic. Nowadays, it seems like metal music or hard rock is either totally retro, like Jet, or so hard that it’s hard for people to actually get into it if they haven’t grown up listening to things like that. But I love melodies when it comes to songwriting—I’m a huge fan of Cat Stevens and Neil Young and people like that. But then again, I love to listen to Bon Scott doing his thing. So it’s a weird mixture of all that coming together.