Translation of the recent Rumba article

I didn't translate the part about Helldone though (the white text on a black background in the scans that were posted earlier)because I ran out of steam. I'll see if I have time to translate that in the next few days.

By: sineresi

A VAGABOND BATTERED BY LOVE
HIM has played on stages from New Zealand to Mexico. Still, they are not considered a great live band. By the critics, I mean, because with the audience the demand constantly exceeds the supply. Rumba met Ville Valo on Helldone tour in December. How does Valo feel about criticism and admiration, about love and sobriety?

Helldone festival is a gathering of hardcore HIM fans, so I’m a bit nervous when I go to Tavastia on New Year’s Eve. In the line outside, I see the first sign of the hysteria that I had feared—an older woman is screaming that she got Ville Valo’s phone number from phone number information service and is not hiding her joy.

She might be a local nutcase more than an extreme fan because most of the audience inside looks like healthy young women like myself. Although young women covered with heartagram tattoos and HIM accessories.

During HIM’s New Year’s Eve gig I meet a girl who wants love in her life. But a potential boyfriend has to be “better than Ville”, which the girl knows is almost impossible. Because Ville would be perfect for her.

After the gig I meet Ville Valo who thinks it doesn’t take a lot to be a better man than he is. Dedication or idealistic admiration doesn’t scare him though.

“Everyone has idols. I too would like to be as tall and splendid as Peter Steele. When I was younger, I was a huge Fields of the Nephilim and Sisters of Mercy fan. The thing is that people copy what they like.”

The admiration of fans has shown itself to the band as mostly good and fun things. Proposals have been made during gigs, and people have even gotten married to the tune of HIM’s music.

“It would be an exaggeration to start speculating that we have a responsibility or become paranoid because of that. You would easily start to wonder whether you are making your tea in the right way.”

According to Valo, admiration is about escapism, the same escape from reality that HIM’s music offers to the listeners. Ville Valo himself likes music that is romantic in a classic way and “gives an adult the possibility for day dreaming”. Getting older shouldn’t mean that you become cold or cynical.

“The world is full of wonders. It’s the only thing that keeps my head together among all the bad things.”



HIM’s live performances interest audiences all around the world, and even in Finland the demand exceeds the supply. Along with Nightwish and Eppu Normaali, HIM is one of the very few Finnish bands that sell out big Finnish summer festivals. It has even been necessary to restrict the buying of tickets to the New Year Eve gigs. The critics who get free tickets to the shows, however, haven’t raved about the band’s performances.

“We’re pretty static on stage, so a lot of people criticize us for not doing anything. On the other hand, those people can fuck off. Music is so fucking subjective. When I was younger, I tried to copy my idols until I realized that I’m not Iggy Pop.”

“Perhaps the happiest thing in our band is that we don’t have crazy masks or roles. We do what we do in good or bad. There’s no extra-fake-testosterone in it, and we don’t try to lift ourselves higher than the stage.”

Because HIM’s genre is pompous and romantic rock, you would expect the live show to be a fantasy-full spectacle as well. Success abroad is thought to show in the gigs in something else besides sure-handed playing, and the straightforward rocking doesn’t necessarily match the images evoked by the music. Valo doesn’t see a contradiction in his band’s music and their performances.

“I think romance and fantasy are everyday things. The important thing is that you get the emotion through to the audience. What did someone like Jim Morrison or Roy Orbison do on stage? Or what does Neil Young do? Nothing.”

Valo says that he appreciates static and strong performers that for example the Finnish musical tradition is full of. He laughs when he realizes the collision of interests.

“I have to say that because I can’t do anything else.”

On stage, Valo interprets the songs with his eyes closed and with emotion but is careful not to connect with the audience in other ways. On the Helldone tour, Valo said his few speeches usually sideways and during the songs he made faces mostly to his bandmates.

“I’m a bit shy. I once talked with Nick Holmes from Paradise Lost about how we have the shittiest speeches in the world. Sometimes they get totally out of hand. Besides, often you can just be quiet and let the music do the talking.”

“I have noticed that some bands write their speeches beforehand, and I was pretty shocked about that. That’s a step towards theatrics and wrong for what we are trying to do. I think making the audience scream is fucking corny, and rock clichés are in no way necessary.

The lack of extra stimuli on stage puts the attention on the music. HIM’s turn of the year gigs were fast-paced and energetic. Even though someone may find the experienced playing just a routine, the songs make you sing along. The almost two-hour cavalcade of hits would be an accomplishment for any band.

“We’ve been so lucky with the songs. The quality of our songs is fucking good. You don’t have to like them, that’s a matter of taste, but you can’t say that they suck. Of course I’m saying that to my own benefit, but it’s been a great source of pride for us.”



HIM’s music has often been ignored when their front man has gotten media attention for other reasons. Valo says that every average Joe knows that he was drinking, which is more or less true.

“When you’ve been in the public eye for that kind of ridiculous things, a lot of people forget how much work I’ve done for all this.”

Valo is not bitter about the publicity he has gotten or its nature, more like amused. The headlines have given the band good laughs.

The gigs are escapism not only to the audience but to Valo too. On stage, he tries to concentrate only on the music.

“The greatest thing is when you can forget everything around you. I think the audience can feel it too.”

The collective concentration makes HIM united on stage.

“There aren’t five guys that shoot from different loopholes at different parts of the audience, it’s just one big plasma cannon”, Valo describes grinning.

Off stage, it’s better to forget about the music though. On long tours the band stays together with the help of their bad sense of humor.

“We have such a bad sense of humor that you forget the music and that routine traveling that you could call work. It sucks every once in a while, but so does everything else. Then you just have to think about the good things. Especially since we are five people together, so this is like some kind of fucking Mormon marriage where it’s really hard to keep everyone satisfied.”



Ville Valo and his band are in many ways a journalist’s dream, also because HIM’s music can be called love metal and no explanations are necessary. The genre that Valo invented while hung over is still the band’s niche.

“Fuck yes, we can be in any niche, it doesn’t matter one bit.”

Musicians think that categorizing is usually totally unnecessary, but Valo finds it human. It’s easy to describe music by comparing it to other bands and genres. So does HIM still play love metal?

“If you want us to. It’s a kind of Ville Valo music that is played by Mikko Paananen, Mikko Lindström, Janne Puurtinen, Mika Kristian Karppinen and sung by Ville Valo.”

“Niches have always existed. When we started out, the black metals were getting out of hand and all the fucking emos appeared and neo-god-knows-whats and so on. It was more fun to invent our own niche than say that we are for example gothic rock.”

The love metal composed and written by Valo deals with the thing itself. In HIM’s songs love unabashedly flirts with the devil: love usually kills, dies or suffers. Is Valo fascinated by love because of its imperfection?

“Imperfection in itself is interesting. Beauty spots give you character.”

“I wasn’t raised in a very religious family, and I have never been very politically aware, so I have learned the most about myself through relationships, and perhaps that’s why I automatically write about them.”

“Love isn’t necessarily as tragic or desperate as in those songs, but I have difficulties writing songs like Syksyn sävel or Kaikuluotain. Love is poetic, all-empowering and fucking stupid, stupid meaning child-like. At the same time. Love makes even the toughest guy a little child for a moment. And on the other hand, it’s the one thing that all people have in common.”

They have death in common too.

“Yes, but death is just theoretical speculation. It’s in no way important, and you don’t have to make a big deal out of it because it’s automatic. It’s more interesting to find out what kind of mark death leaves in life.”

Love metal is not only its obvious parts, but the power of music is deeper inside.

“To me the most interesting thing in music are the atmospheric moments that can’t be described with words. They can be blissful, heavenly or absent moments in a poetic sense, some kind of meditative half-death. Music at its best is such, at least when you make it yourself, that you don’t know whether you should laugh or cry.”



Ville Valo’s music has made millions of record buyers all over the world laugh and cry. When talking about success, Valo often mentions his parents and hopes they are proud of their son. Are they?

“They claim to be, and I believe them. Or else they are damn good liars.”

To Valo, however, traditional Christian values are more important than sinful pride.

“The important thing is to be a good person and lead a happy life doing what you want to do.”

Valo is proud of what he has accomplished but not of himself.

“I have done things that I didn’t think I would do. I’m proud that I have managed to find so many friends and situations and energy in myself to make it this far. But that doesn’t mean that I like myself.”

At the moment, Valo is in his second year of touring sober. Things have changed, for the good and the bad.

“Touring is hell of a lot more boring, but I’m in better shape.

His stage fright is the same.

“Before, I used to drink beer, but I was still nervous. Sobriety doesn’t affect that in any way. My articulation is a bit clearer, and I have a lot more energy.”

Alcohol became a problem when it started to affect the gigs.

“I didn’t want to be a musician so that I could drink a lot but because music is fun. It took a pretty long time to take a look in the mirror and realize that it might be more important to be in good shape for the music. But easier said than done.”

Valo admits that by being sober he is missing out on many nice experiences but also on “bad sex and terrible hangovers”. He talks about alcohol as if it were an old friend he hasn’t seen in a long time.

“Everyone has their own way. A good friend of mine said that some people are built for drinking. Some can do it for a really long time, and that’s fine. I thought my liver was made out of titanium, but it wasn’t.”

Even though sobriety requires a conscious effort from a rocker, you can’t necessarily hear it in the music. It doesn’t affect the material on HIM’s next album.

“I’ve always composed sober, although I’ve written quite many lyrics while a little drunk. Alcohol has never been essential for making music; it’s only been a way to reboot my brain. But this is interesting and challenging in the sense that you can put so much more energy into it, when you don’t have to spend your free time sitting in a bar.”

Valo, who arrived to the interview with an iron saw, has had to invent new ways to spend his time.

“For ten years, I sat in a bar six hours a day, now I have six hours to go buy iron saws. It’s hard to say if it’s any smarter. It’s just different.”

Even though he seems satisfied with the current situation, he doesn’t feel the need to make any final promises.

“The world is not running out of booze, and there’s a bar on every street corner, so if you want to get back into the amazing world of beer, it doesn’t take a long time.”


thank you so much for the translation sineresi