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HIM – cute grouches!
I received the news of the trip to Salzburg for interview with the band HIM with enthusiasm: wow, this is one of the most beautiful European cities. I can not wait to see the castle, and then the other castle and Mozart's house ... Yeahh!!! Not gonna happen. Little did I know that I won’t be capable of doing anything after that interview. After our phone interview, which was published in our last issue, this was our first opportunity to talk face to face so we rushed straight to destination, since we settled in a hotel near the place where the concert was held.
Regardless of the fact that the concert will start in a few hours, we had to push through a lot of in love teenagers, who on the other hand openly envied us, as the guards immediately let us in, however Berty wanted to stay with the girls. After a pleasant conversation with the tour manager Seppa, his assistant, communicative blonde with a tattoo on her left shoulder, and some other people from organization, we headed towards backstage, where the others didn’t have access. At the entrance to a small dark room with irregular shape and full of various inscriptions, graffiti and suffocating smoke, my chin dropped down when I saw Ville, who on the other hand remain very much listless looking at me and my bad hair, “attractive” frog-green sweater, and my other physical and companying “advantages”. In person he is really drop dead gorgeous! Well, he is a bit skinny, but his beautiful blue-green eyes are even prettier when closer. He was wearing black from head to toe with black bandanna around his neck and black nail polish, destroyed but I suppose that’s the way it suppose to be.
The guys from HIM kindly welcomed us, but after they found out that they are short with time and that they won’t be able to go out to see the city after the tone sound check suddenly they’re mood went down and Ville gave us a cold RTG-look. From that moment on I have felt as if someone pushed me into the lion's den. The blond went out of the room along with the keyboard player Zoltan and the drummer Gas, they probably didn’t want to look at me and Berty tortured by grumpy Ville. The bass player Mige and the guitar player Lily stayed in the room; they were probably the bravest and curious. I tried to sound casual for it was silent like in a grave: “OK, we won’t bother you with classic biography. Let’s skip that and go to more personal questions.” Ville made a grimace, and Mige smiled cynically rolling his eyes. Let’s start with your childhood…I began and Ville interrupted me with an answer: “I was a normal child, I’m maybe a bit more relaxed now. Back then I was a hellraiser!” “Wow, what a tone, and I heard that you are cheerful and funny person”, I mumbled to myself, And Ville looked at me and said that he’s not in a mood for joke. “I’d really like to know who your idol was when you were a kid”, I asked rather apathetic, and he answered me even more apathetic: “Gene Simons from Kiss.” “OK and what did you wanted to become when you were a kid?”, and he repeated: “Gene Simons from Kiss”
“Great”, I said, “my editor will be very pleased with these short and very imaginative statements. With whom would you like to get stuck in an elevator?” “Gene Simons from Kiss”, Ville replied again.
“Enough with that guy from Kiss!” I yelled, after which he burst into laughter. That spontaneous and slightly unprofessional moment of my anger was obviously very funny to everyone, so Ville lay down on the couch holding horns above my head while I was talking to Mige, who on the other hand took off his shoes and sat down. From that moment on the lion’s den turned into the kindergarten, so the next phase of the conversation looked like this:
Mige, do you have some kind of phobia? Ville stop mocking at me I can see you!!!
VILLE: Ok, ok!!!
MIGE: Yeah, I’m afraid of ghost. As a matter of fact, I can see them around me constantly.
VILLE: I’m afraid of the heights.
LILY: I’m not afraid of anything, lalala…
Ville can you describe us your first kiss?
VILLE: Who remembers that? I’ve been kissing my whole life; I completely forgot what the first kiss was like.
I can see you’re not really romantic; do you fall in love easily?
VILLE: No. I was never truly in love. I think I’m too young for that.
What kind of pupil were you?
VILLE: Not particularly good, but not bad. I hated gym class. I hate sports in general.
Ok, guys. Let’s see, how would you seduce a girl?
VILLE: I would write her a song! And when it comes to approach, I don’t have a scheme. I always improvise.
LILY: I would buy her flowers!
MIGE: What a woos! I bet you would buy her a cheap, half wilted red rose. I, for example, would wait for a girl to approach me.
What if she doesn’t?
VILLE: He would probably wait for another one to approach him! (Laughter.) He’s very passive; he’s wild only on the stage.
What kind of personality traits does a person has to have to get your attention?
MIGE: Has to be very funny. And talented!
LILY: I like polite people, especially girls.
VILLE: I love when the person has in himself a certain dose of crazy and artistic spirit.
How can you see is the person “crazy” or not?
VILLE: That kind of person has to have a special sparkle in her eyes, and I see that right away.
Ville, we already heard how you got your tattoo while you were drunk, but why the whole hand?
VILLE: On that slogan: all the way! (Laughter)
How do you spend your free time guys?
ALL AT ONCE: We sleep!
VILLE: Actually I bathe and sleep.
MIGE: In addition to sleeping I’m also thinking.
Oh, you’re so very “interesting”. Do you remember at least some embarrassing moments in your lives?
VILLE: Oh, there were many. Once I striped my pants on the middle of the road and showed my behind to someone. In fact I think it happened to all of us.
Ville what does you room look like?
VILLE: It’s normal, with a lot of clutter. One of my biggest flaws is the I’m collecting everything. I have a million of things I don’t need. In the middle of the room is a big bed, and in the corner few old guitars from the 60’s.
What are you sleeping in?
VILLE: Regular underwear.
What kind of boxers do you wear?
VILLE: How do you know its boxers?
Well, it’s not thongs?
VILLE: Noooo, normal, black ones.
How do you bear with all the fans?
VILLE: I always use side entrance! (Laughter).
What’s the worst thing in this business for you guys?
VILL: I’m not complaining. Everything is great to me. The traveling, meeting new people and cultures, fans… all of it!
MIGE: The business bothers me. When people are talking about the money instead of music.
What’s the worse question someone has ever asked you?
VILLE: One journalist asked me am I enjoying necrophilia. (sex with the dead). I believe he only embarrassed the journalism as a profession.
In the middle of Ville’s answer the blond came in and said it was time for the sound check and they were late already. He cheerfully signed the photos and CD’s; he didn’t forget to draw himself horns on the photo. Watching him signing – with his thong out he was like a little child concentrated on his art work –it was clear to me why it took only one single to start a mass hysteria of fans all across Europe. When I saw Mige making jokes with Enrique Iglesias’s picture on the cover of our magazine (he was patting the cover amorously) we left him the copy, and politely said goodbye with the rest of the band, Seppa, and Ville waved to us and said: “It was nice meeting you! Enjoy the concert and... don’t hold something against us!” Of course we didn’t, and neither would you, believe us!
VILLE ABOUT THE BAND MEMBERS
“Mige has very good sense of humor (a bit darker), but he’ is lazy when it comes to taking a bath, so sometimes he has very unpleasant smell. Lily’s often walking with a silly turban on his head, as an attempt to tame his dreadlocks…and he has a big nose. Gas is eating too much Mars chocolate bars and Zoltan is new in the band and we’re still checking him out; so far we didn’t find anything positive, haha…”
HIM LIVE!
Concert was held in Rockhouse, the cult club in Salzburg which is sort of a squirt version of Zagreb’s Gjura or Kulušić. I forgot the name and everything about the bend that preformed before them, and Berty said it wasn’t in his job description. After they finished, around 20:45 Johny Cash started playing, and behind a pink flag with the heartagram emerged. This was an intro to “Right Here in my Arms” and the bend stepped on the scene, accompanied by the screams of the fans. The audience knew every song word by word and we only sang “Join me” (on our surprise they played it in the middle of the concert). The concert ended at 22:30.
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