Jyrki Interview with Ville Valo & Patka 1997 (Rare)

very rare interview with Ville and old drummer in finnish



thank you winterfull
Translation by KauhavaRockCity:

Here´s one of the bands which is contender in the upcoming Finnish Emma Awards, and it´s contender in two categories actually. HIM, you´re contender in categories "Rookie Of The Year" and "Debutalbum Of The Year". What do you guys think about that?

Ville: Well, we are waiting for that. It would be great victory for finnish metal if we´ll win Emma. I´m very excited and my mom would be proud of his son if I could be in television smiling with the award.

Do you know who are your opponents?

Ville: Well.. I have seen one of them at least, they´re different. We´ll see..
Pätkä: I guess that we are the only heavymetalband there..?

Yes, you are. There are Sami Saari, Nylon Beat, Mascara and others, and they all are in other genres. So yes, you´re the only heavyband there. But, if we think about Finland, you are playing heavy in English so you should not be so popular than you are right now.

Ville: Oh?
Pätkä: We are playing in english..

You´re playing in english and singing in english..

Ville: Sad to say but yes. Well.. It´s my dream to get in MTV Music Video Awards and hang around there trophy in my hands thanking..
Pätkä: Mother?
Ville: Mom, for example.

What are you thinking about that you´re "the band" right now what people are talking about now? Why you´re that popular now?

Pätkä: We´re so fucking tough guys.

Is it the only reason?

Pätkä: Well, almost..
Ville: We´re mainstream as a metalband.. Oh??

(sound in the background)

There´s a new term now with you, "love metal". What is the achievement of that?

Ville: Well it´s huge. We are marketing our music just for young women. It has been good so far.

How significant is the background team of yours?

Ville: Of course it´s significant. We can´t sell gigs by myself or stuff like that. We have to thank the team cause they´ve been so eager to do their job.
Pätkä: It´s big help that there are people who now what to do.
Ville: Their job is 50% promotion cause you can push everything trough..
Pätkä: Oops?

You´re starting to tour Finland tomorrow. It´s the first official tour..

Ville: Oh, is it a tour?

It is, there are so many gigs.. How do you feel about that?

Ville: It will be very intresting cause I have never ran around Finland before and now I can see new stages and stuff like that so it´s cool. And so far people have liked us, people have been friendly, girls have been beautiful..

So could there be anything you can hope anymore.. Lets talk about soon about the album which is in my hand right now but first, lets talk about this letter what I found form the internet. Big fan of yours, Juhani Paaso has made tabs for one of your songs so guys, check out is there everything OK with the tabs..

Ville: Lets see.. oh.. hmm..
Pätkä: This is the song of Chris Isaak so I don´t know..
Ville: This seems to be OK. More or less.. I can´t see it in five seconds..

Of course you can´t.. sorry.. But I have to take up the CD (Ville: What´s the hurry?) you brought with you from Tallin. Where did you find this CD?

Pätkä: From the market of Mustamäki. We were looking for it and it seemed to be sold out there but then we found this, eh, "Gratest Lovesongs vol. 666"... It was 30 krons more expensive that the other CD:s, it´s so new..

Hey, what do you think about these illegal copies of your album?

Ville: It sucks, cause I won´t see a dollar of the money but I can be proud of myself cause they appreciate our music so much that they even do those pirates. But they´re doing business and feeding their family by the money they get from our CD:s..
Pätkä: So it´s OK.

I would like to continue with you but we´re in a hurry.. So thanks for visiting, you´re heading to tour tomorrow. And good luck for Emma!

Ville: Thanks.
Pätkä: thanks.