(1) VV at Radio Rock in Rakkaudesta lajiin (“Do what you love - love what you do”) program “I’m a band member, not a leader” L: As our guest for this spring’s last episode of “Rakkaudesta lajiin” we have Ville Valo, arriving to our studio almost straight from the tour. First you had a European tour and then the American tour, and now you’ve even played on a few festivals. Has it ever crossed your mind once you jumped back into the rat race that “is this what I really wanted?” V: Ehm, I don’t, hmm - well, first of all, hi! L: Hi! V: Long time no see. I thought that summer would have started by now, but it seems it’s still the last days of spring. L: Yeah. V: Hmm well, yeah, I’m exhausted all the time but that we knew beforehand, it’s part of this job. You have no time to sleep and there’s a lot of stress. But what I didn’t expect, is that everything went so very well. Because there was a long pause and it was difficult to see which part was me and which part was HIM, and who liked which part in that whole thing. So, I was positively surprised to see that lots of people were there to listen, and then there were also a lot of young people, like in their 20s or even younger than that. And, also, people who knew my solo songs and not the HIM songs that much, which to me was very surprising. So somehow…the time is definitely right for this now, the stars are perfectly aligned and so forth. In that sense I am by no means feeling bad about the fact that I started to do this again. I’m just positively surprised, and maybe this also gives some hope for the future, that I might still have a chance- L: Yeah, that this is not the end! V: Yeah, and it’s not easy, well- it’s not as hard as building a house but maybe it’s no use comparing the two. Let’s talk about that in the house building radio show! L: Yeah, once you’ve decided to start building a house by yourself. Could you turn the mic just a little bit? V: Of course, to which direction? L: You know like- V: Towards you? L: Yes exactly. V: It’s almost like on my lips- L: Yeah, almost. V: I try to speak up a bit. L: It’s really good now. V: La-laa! L: Like you said, there really were people who clearly came to the shows based on your solo material, but did you have any uncertainties before the tour for the album Neon Noir started, like “will people show up”? V: Well maybe the uncertainties were about the concept as a whole. I mean, will people still be interested? Because you can’t know that and you’re not always that interested in your own things either, as they are long processes and sometimes you run out of respect for yourself, and you become pretty doubtful. But I think that’s the same thing for everybody. L: Mm-hm. V: That everybody gets annoyed and pissed off like, every other day, more or less. So…I don’t know, I’ve never done anything else than this. I’ve played and sung, and it feels strange- like, it feels like there are no other options. So, I need to check this one out to see if I’ll be left with anything, and it has been promising. Now there’s the whole summer ahead of us, and then in the autumn we’ll have a new tour in America and then we’re still discussing further concerts and so on, so I’m not going to be left out of work.
(2) L: Yeah, it’s not like you can take a breather and put your feet up and relax, you need to continue working. So, summer festivals are just around the corner. In Finland, you haven’t performed after the few concerts at Tavastia in January, wasn’t it so? V: No, I haven’t, not in the flesh. There were the Tavastia ones in January and after that we’ve been on the road, around 30 gigs in Europe and 30 gigs in North America, and if I remember correctly, now we’ve had four festivals done. One in Romania, one in Las Vegas and two in Germany. L: Some scale you have there! V: Yeah! L: You’ve been here and there! V: And that’s what’s so nice, they are very different in nature. And then, in every country the success with HIM or VV has been different, the slots are different, the public is a bit different, and then we deliberately play all kinds of festivals. We’ll go to Wacken for the first time where we never were with HIM - back then we fought back the idea that we’d be seen only as a metal band. We didn’t want to end up only in that genre. We sort of adopted the idea of falling in between, like Faith No More or Jane’s Addiction or so. We tried to combine things and because of that, we ended up belonging nowhere. Which was the result we were going for! L: So, you received what you ordered. V: [laughs] Yeah, exactly! L: With every last penny! V: Exactly. But that’s why it’s now interesting to go from A to B. And to me, it’s of course great after the project with Agents, because with them we were at Pori Jazz and other festivals that were very different in style. And it’s nice to come to Tuska. It’s all going really well. But there’s always the excitement and one at least shouldn’t be bragging about it before the job is done. L: Now is the first time after Agents you’ve started touring with a completely new band, so how many gigs did it take before it started to feel normal? That you are again touring with a new band? 5:28 V: You mean comfortably abnormal. L: Yeah. V: Well, hmm, it still takes time. You notice in a weird way your own routines and patterns, also in a physical way. I always look on the right to see Mige and then I’m like “oh right, he’s not there”. That kind of stuff, because you’ve done it so very much: I don’t even know how many thousand times with HIM. Sometimes in the same songs there are- I guess they are mannerisms in a way, sometimes mental, sometimes physical, sometimes something in between. But yeah, we’re still getting used to it. Which I find nice. We still have a kind of honeymoon. And the guys seem to be very excited because they haven’t seen touring in this way. They’ve mostly collaborated with Finnish orchestras, even though big ones like My First Band, but still, that’s more like concerts during the weekends while also staying in Finland. Risto Rikala had been to Germany with Ben Granfelt a very long time ago, but no huge things in that way. So, it’s lovely to see how the guys have new experiences. Many first times, many virginities to be lost experience-wise: Detroit, Motown museums, and that kind of stuff. And then there’s me, just frowning and cussing in my hotel room. L: Yeah, “I’ve seen it all”! V: Yeah! But no, it’s really cool in many ways and then the feedback has been great. And our technical group, the light dude, the monitor man, and this mixing dude, they are extremely professional, and people are always thanking them. I don’t get to enjoy their work in that way as I’m on stage, but it’s such a huge and important thing to see that there is this complete set. It doesn’t make any sense if I’m singing well but what people hear is screwed up. And I have to say, we put a lot of effort into this: we rehearsed a lot and thought about many things beforehand so it’s nice to see and hear that our preparations have resulted in something good, also regarding the festivals and so on. So yeah. But it takes a while. It’s really nice though, they are very professional players, I was positively surprised.
(3) L: As you do many things automatically while touring, have you noticed that you presume that people already know something? Like this is how we’ve always done this, until you realize that oh right- actually not with these guys we haven’t, but with totally different people. V: Hmm...I think it goes the other way round. I mean, I myself, I’m a band member. I’m not accustomed to being a leader. So, these guys, they used to be in bands that have a leader. And I think they are way too polite towards me. I’ve said to them you can always just say out loud if you’re annoyed or feel bad or if you’re having a bad day - everybody makes mistakes and there are bad moments and so on, it’s part of all this. After all, it’s very intimate and intensive to be in the same facilities for long periods of time. And then the fact that people are away from their families, there are pretty young kids crawling on the floors back home, so you feel it in your heart and in other parts as well, and there are many things that are nice to share, talking about feelings and stuff. But maybe they’ll see me as a member of their band someday, that I’m not just the- and this was the same thing with Agents. As with HIM I got used to being in a band and then Esa [Pulliainen] was clear on how he’s the leader and then they have a vocalist. L: Yes. V: Which to me was a totally strange way of seeing it. And it’s great, you learn new things all the time, every day. L: Once the band members start acting like pricks towards you, you’ll know that the honeymoon is over and you’re truly part of the family. V [laughing]: Yeah, and then I’ll start reducing their paychecks! L: Yeah, just as a small reminder there! Before we start going through these selections of yours, as I said before, the summer festivals in Finland will begin with Rockfest. So, what type of festival goer are you? In your wild youth, have you for example been the type that wanders through every festival of our homeland? V: If we’re talking exclusively about rock festivals, I’ve only been to one [as a customer]. I always said, at least I remember myself saying, that I’m not going to any festival until I’m playing there. But one time I ended up in Roskilde, and it kind of happened by half-accident. L: How does one end up in Roskilde by half-accident? V: In Teatro, there was this group of people who had reserved a bus or two, and someone who was supposed to go didn’t show up. We were having their, so to speak, farewell party - meaning, getting wasted just before they’d get on the road to Denmark. And then someone didn’t make it and I remember that we wrote an IOU on a piece of toilet paper that said: “Ville Valo owes X for the ticket”. Then I quickly ran home to get my passport. I didn’t have anything else on me, only my passport. And I remember calling my mom, back then we had answering machines, and I said “Mom, I know you’re on a horseback riding camp, but I’m leaving for Copenhagen now so I can’t water your plants.” I recall that the plants didn’t die, that was a big worry. But it was a fun trip and especially because we took a ferry, and on that ferry, there was karaoke and I sang some Guns N’ Roses- but that wasn’t the thing I meant to say, what I meant to say was that I found some guy’s wallet, I think it was on the (outer) deck, and I managed to find the guy it belonged to. He gave me enough money to buy a whole carton of white Marlboro which I used as a pillow throughout the whole festival. Because I had nothing. And then it kept on shrinking, that pillow… L: Yeah, and in the end there’s just like one pack, doesn’t help you much! V: And by then the festival would be over! It was in ‘96 or ‘97, the year when they had Rage Against the Machine, Slayer, Neil Young, Sex Pistols, Type O Negative, Cardigans, Ministry…you name it. I remember passing out when Slayer played Reign in Blood -or maybe I woke up, well anyway, one of the two. There were loads of friends and, Kilde was a real experience back then as it is so huge. I don’t know if you have been there.. L: Yeah, a couple of times. V: Yeah, so you know there are these long distances, and you end up walking like 15 km a day. And I loved it back then. I still love how they make out the outline of the artists, it’s a very wide scale. You get to see techno and all. On the same stage they had Typo O Negative, Cardigans, Life of Agony and something else and- well, not back-to-back. But in a musical sense, it’s a really important festival. There were many of my idols and others who have affected me later. You get a lot of inspiration from there.
(4) L: What was the experience then like when you also played there? First you have this quite confusing and sudden festival trip and then, in the blink of an eye, you’re on that stage yourself. Was it a strange feeling? V: I remember that our backstage was next to Satyricon’s backstage. It was weird, as the guys there looked so grim, but then one of them had bright yellow Nike shoes on. I guess sneakers are comfy when you paddle those double-bass lines, and the audience can’t see them from behind the drums. Really gloomy fellows. I think we got to play in the tents twice, and Kilde was the first one to have those massive tents, do you remember them? L: Yeah, actually, I’ve been in one at your show, completely wasted. V: Oh good, maybe that was for the best! But yeah, the ones that they have at the Flow festival nowadays where they have these horns- L: Like a circus tent. V: Yeah, where you can fit 10.000 people inside or something. That was something we’d never seen or heard of before. Which is nice for bands, especially regarding HIM, if you play around the time when the sun hasn’t set yet and if you don’t get the sunset, which gives the best effect - as playing such gloomy music during the daytime is not so great. But a couple of times I’ve been there. Usually, you don’t have time to see anything at festivals. Now as we hit the road, we have Hyvinkää, that’s a Thursday, and then on Friday we’ll be at Download, so we need to catch a flight to Manchester at six am, then drive from there to Download, play there, drive from there to London, catch a flight to Austria to Nova Rock, which is located just outside Vienna. So, there’s not much time to hang around. But maybe it’s better that way. We’ve had the time to hang around before. And it’s nice, it’s different when you get to see it from backstage. And playing music is great. The main thing in all of this is that it’s good to be back. It’s nice to see that I have the energy and the interest. I still find that smirk on my face and the twinkle in my eye as if I was a young boy, you know. And all this after covid, so that you won’t end up just lounging in a corner. At least for me it could have been an option, Playstation and lounging. L: Yeah. Last summer, when there suddenly were again these festivals, people had this stupid smile on their face like “wow this is so amazing”. [The festivals] were taken away for a moment and then one realized how much one enjoys them. V: And in that sense, one has the tendency to reflect on even the worst memories and see them as more golden, so maybe that was the good side of the pandemic. The things that were taken away are maybe appreciated double the amount now. And then you’ve also learned to appreciate your home and a certain type of peace. It’s a pretty big thing for many. L: Yes. V: But yeah. I was just thinking, I went to see Mission at Tavastia, it was fucking great. Carcass I saw last summer in Tuska. I could have gone out and seen more though. L: Yeah, if there was some festival where you’d have the time to go see some other bands and not have the need to jump in a car and on a plane and off to the next place- V: Yeah, and one of the things that you don’t realize as a guest at a festival, is that 99.9% of the bands that play there use ear monitors nowadays. There are no floor monitors on stage anymore. If you are standing on the side of the stage, all you hear is drums, that’s a fact. You’ve probably noticed it yourself? L: Yup! V: And there’s no point at all. In addition to that, the PA systems have recently developed. Before, they were sort of like spreading the sound all over the place, also behind them. There was this heavy pounding of the bass in the backstage area all the time, and the tables were shaking. But you could still sort of dig the music there, drink some beer and so on. Nowadays the PA systems are directional, even the bass, so it doesn’t pound that way in the back. I remember being at Provinssirock with Agents, and I was completely shocked. There was Apulanta or someone, I can’t remember who, but someone who plays loud, and I didn’t even realize that they were on because it was so quiet in the backstage area. So that has changed a lot. Now you have no that kind of access [to the music], unless you go into the crowd. You can’t get that same feeling backstage anymore. L: Yeah, from the side of the stage there’s no point in watching a show. V: I’ve tried reaching out to the festival organizers making a wish that they’d have floor monitors with PA sounds on both sides of the stage, because back in the day there were all these important fellows from the record company there. In Download I remember Tony Iommi was there enjoying a show once, and yeah, it was so cool. I too have seen many great bands from the side of the stage when getting the chance. But yeah. I don’t know why we started to talk about this but- L: Probably because we’ll be there again soon! V: Or there are no better things to talk about!
(5) L: So, Ville Valo, let’s swing it. We were talking about new music. Many people have maybe missed what albums have come out. I take it you’ve listened to some new music now quite a bit. V: Actually, it’s like I haven’t been listening to new music, but I’m very interested in it. I don’t know if people were kind of saving up their albums during the pandemic but now there’s the new one from Avenged Sevenfold. They played in Vegas their first shows at the same time we were there, but unfortunately, I didn’t get to see them. I’m not a huge fan but I’m interested. And I appreciate their vibe. Last Friday the new album by Foo Fighters came out, the first song, is it called Rescue? L: Yeah. V: I’ve never been a huge Foo Fighters fan but I’m a huge fan of Dave Grohl. He’s a wonderful guy. I appreciate him a lot, he’s the DaVinci of rock n roll. He’s been able to do so many different things. And it feels like he’s so down-to-earth and he’s very cool and open. I’ve met him a couple times and he, it’s not like he has traditional charisma like “wow who entered the room” in a Perry Farrell kind of a way, but it’s like he brings an enormous amount of warmth and sparkle in the room. He’s really such a good guy, times 10. And they’ve been through very hard times, him personally and also the band, losing their drummer who had played with them for quite a long time, like 20 years or something. L: And, clearly, he had a very important role in that group and in the band. V: And they are not the type of a band that would keep on switching members all the time, it’s really been like a band all the way. Those are important, intimate and long-term relationships. So, in that sense- actually, I can give you two songs with the price of one, there’s also AC/DC. When they came back after Bon Scott had died nobody would’ve ever guessed that the first song would be Hells Bells. Because it’s- and I heard Brian just came back. They were playing at some festival now. I don’t know who plays in that band, are there relatives or what as they are pretty old by now. And people keep on kicking the bucket and so on. L: Yeah, and they start reaching that age when one’s physical condition isn’t good enough to be on stage anymore. V: But then again one sees how, as they’ve been doing it their whole life, they just belong there. That’s what they want to do. All these players, like Remu (Aaltonen from Hurriganes)- you know, your back may be broken, and you need another drummer to help you out, but you still have to be there. And I think that’s very honorable. One can refer to Foo Fighters here too, that after all that pain they didn’t call it quits but kept on going and making music. And through music they can give something that can be the best thing for us fans. That when you’re having a bad moment in your life you can put on a song that supports and comforts you. In that sense, their new album interests me. I’ve listened to it only a little, just a couple of songs. We just played Rock am Ring and Rock im Park in Germany and I feel bad for missing them. We played on different dates, but I would have loved to see them. I’ve never seen that band live, somehow, I’ve just missed it. Same thing as with Rammstein, never seen them live. Which is something many find surprising, but it just happens to be the case. L: Yeah. But maybe it’s just because, first of all you’ve had so many of your own shows and then, the timetables just don’t match in a reasonable way. V: Exactly. L: Is it that in your free time you don’t get inspired to go? V: I think it’s about the age as well, you don’t have the energy to just go hang around. Speaking of this, one very inspirational album that was just re-released is one by Demolition 23. I remember I went to see both of their shows at Tavastia, it was maybe in ’93 and it completely blew my mind. Makke (Michael Monroe) had the craziest, over-enthusiastic Iggy Pop phase going on with the same kind of hair Iggy had in ’83, he pulled the moves and all. It was when Nasse (Nasty Suicide) was there, and Sam (Sami Yaffa), and it was - if you remember when Flaming Sideburns first came and then Hellacopters, and people were like “wow, now this is rock n roll”, Demolition was like that. I didn’t know how to even take it all in, I was like “wahhhh!” L. You suddenly get almost out of breath yourself when you’re watching bands like that! V: Yeah! L: But it’s funny how Michael Monroe is like a perpetual motion machine, it’s impossible to imagine anything that would make his spark go out. V: Same thing with Yaffa. He’s been to so many things and he just keeps on going. He’s like, he’s such a good player and everybody loves him. He’s a wonderful person. Even though I don’t know him that well, just met him a couple of times but yeah. What’s important to me is that - if you exclude all the very first influencers, like Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody - you get kicks out of new music, too, so you have things to look forward to. For example, Queens of the Stone Age are releasing their new album soon. It feels like now there are more of those things coming up that I’m really looking forward to. I mean, it’s so nice to hear such news, it’s so interesting. Depeche Mode’s album was a bit like that too. And they too had that thing that one couldn’t know if they would hold on or fall apart. Now they were in the States at the same time as we were, and I heard from a friend who went to see them in Chicago and somewhere else that they were great and are in a very good shape, even though one member is missing from the stage. L: And for sure they’ve needed to take some time out to really think about what’s next, how are we going to carry on, or should we call it a day. V: Yeah, but one needs to appreciate all of those. And Demolition came to my mind when you said there’s no time to see live shows. I just checked the dates and we’re touring then in the autumn. It would have been nice to see them at Tavastia because it’s been roughly around 20 years by now, or 30 years, I don’t know how many…30 years, yeah. L: Always when you think “oh it wasn’t so long time ago” it was actually like 20 years ago, like what… V: That’s how it goes. L: Oopsies!
(6) V: But that’s not actually a very long time. L: No, it’s not, it’s really a very short time. So, Ville Valo, let’s move on to people, we were thinking before whether to name huge world-class stars or maybe some people who are closer to us. V: Yes, and micro influencers. There are loads of those. And then you always have mom and dad who are of course very important in many ways. If you don’t get along with your parents, then you’ll have to show them. Like “see what I did there?”. And if you do get along, then you can show them that “hey, putting me through music school did pay off”. L: Yeah, like it wasn’t a complete waste. V: Exactly. I was just thinking about Tiina Vuorinen who was extremely important as our booking agent here. She introduced us to Seppo Vesterinen. Seppo had connections to Demolition 23 and Hanoi Rocks, and Tiina was involved in that too. Tiina in a way introduced the world of rock n roll to us. She was just the right person to do that and to give us some advice, sometimes holding a metaphorical rolling pin in her hand. L: So, let’s put Tiina here as the first one. V: Tiina is great. She’s a beautiful human being and that’s all too little appreciated. One should remember that more. I think that there should be an official Tiina Vuorinen remembrance- L: Appreciation day! V: Yeah, appreciation day! I don’t know which day of the year it should be but yeah. These are hard to pick out. As for my own career, Tony Taleva was a very important figure who kept the whole rock and heavy scene in Helsinki together. First, he fought against Tavastia by arranging club nights at Teatro. Tavastia back then wouldn’t want to arrange any. Through those, Apocalyptica and we with HIM got our first gigs. And Taleva has been that type of a guy that he never asks anything for himself for the work that he does. He’s been like that strange guru. He’s used a tremendous amount of time and energy to help others out, and kind of forgets about himself from time to time. He’s also the type of a guy who one should hug and pet. L: More of that, yeah! V: Maybe that remembrance day, or, remembrance- I mean appreciation day should be divided between- L:…Tony Taleva and Tiina Vuorinen. V: Yeah. But there are loads of things along the way and then pretty often, it can be just one conversation with a person that suddenly changes the whole perspective and the angle. And they can be very short meetings, too. L: Yeah. Let’s go back a bit to Tiina Vuorinen- V: Sure! L: She’s been beside you through your career for years and years through thick and thin, so what kind of scolding have you got from her in the worst of times? V: I think it went both ways. But um…yeah that’s why I mentioned the rolling pin, a symbolical one. She speaks up about things when it’s necessary, and she can be loud, too. But Tiina is also a very gentle person, kind of a mother figure. She really cares for her artists. She’s clearly never been in this business for money. She just likes it, it’s her spot, her life, her thing. And it’s something one should appreciate in musicians, too. Sometimes, when people talk about why they even start to do something, they don’t know, it’s just their thing. With me it’s music. I have no other options. And I think it’s like that with Tiina, too. She hasn’t reasoned it through, she has just ended up there through various coincidences and found her home there. She has introduced me to many people and sold gigs to Dave Lindholm, who I appreciate very much, and to Tuomari Nurmio. Through her I’ve met my heroes for the first time. But I have to say, if there will be young bands in the future who work with Tiina, and if they are as wild as HIM sometimes was, I suggest she’ll change her rolling pin into an XL size one.
Oh thank you so much!! It probably taked u a lot of time! I love Ville’s interviews in Finland and specially in this radio…looks a bit different, maybe for the questions (not the repetitive ones). So, THANKS!!! P.s So heartbreaking when he mentioned look to the right and not found Mige 😢
Thank you so much for posting the translation here. Hats off to the person who translated this gem of an interview for letting us all, non-speakers of Finnish, get to know Ville better through this interview. I absolutely adore it when Ville gets carried away and talks to a friend as opposed to merely an interviewer (which in most cases is also much fun). While reading or listening to such interviews, I get transported to another world, the world of art through his perspective. It's magical.
Summer started 21st of June in Finland. So officially it was still spring. The interview was recorded on 5.6. It was on radio on 9.6. And later published on Supla app. I just now got to post the translation.
