†the ugly princess†

Congratulations on your engagement!

V: Ah! Well, you know... it was about time. I'm getting old & miserable already so why not get married and get like, even a bit more miserable, you know.

Have you set a date for the wedding?

V: No, there's no time for a honeymoon so... I haven't had a decent vacation since '91 so it's been a while

When you proposed, were you down on one knee?

V: er, I proposed to her several times, on several occasions and she always said yes, but it was a long time ago and we kinda like had these things tattooed. One of our friends, who is a tattoo artist, was in Finland and she did them so... it wasn't a big deal

I'd just like to ask a few questions about the new album

V: Of course - have you heard it?

I haven't yet, no

V: Oh Merda! - you should come to the office, I think they've got a copy...
whatever, yeah

This time around, it seemed to some of the fans that you had a tough time making the album, with a few ups & downs - is that true?

V: No, it was actually the most relaxed time of making an album ever for us. We've been together more than ten years, and it was the first time that eyeryone seemed to enjoy recording. I keep on stressing myself when working on an album.

I'm always like pissed off and grumpy.Because you want it perfect?

V: Not perfect, but you know, it's like, you want to be able to grasp the abstract. Sounds kinda phsycadelic, and it is, but it's just like you want something to happen in your mind that just feels right. And it's something you can't work on physically or mentally, it just happens. You've got to have everybody in the band in the right mood and all of a sudden everything links and then your like "Ah! That's the way we're gonna go!" and this time around it took a while, for me, it took a FREAKING year and half to get into that. I was really p***ed off myself, I was like depressed and all that, but when it happened, it did.

Which songs from the album gave you the most trouble in the writing process? For example, did you suffer any writers block?

V: My second name is writers block. there's a song called "Killing Loneliness" which is going to be the second single, which we thought was something really new for us. It's kinda like "The Sacrament" meeting My Chemicals Romance's "Helena" and it's very sad but uplifting at the same time. I don't know how to describe it, but we just couldn't get it right. We had the drum parts and we had the guitar parts but the keyboards and the vocals weren't there. It took us the entire 2 months for recording it and 2 or 3 months of rehearsals to finish it off, and at times, it is like that. Sometimes you write a song in a second, sometimes it takes 2 years, so we're use to those troubles.

What was the inspiration behind the video for "Wings of a butterfly"? It's very dynamic and almost Tim Burton like..

V: Oh, is it? Cool! Well we were mixing the album in New York and meeting a couple of directors and having their ideas on the song and we met the Irish man called Meiert Avis and he's been doing all the classic U2 like "With or without you", the black & white one and, of course, I tend to respect old people and er, well, he's not that old, but he was the first guy not putting scantily clad latex ladies into the video, he had something different in mind, and we actually gave him alot of freedom. You know there's that building? That building is on the cover of the album and that's the whole idea, when you get the album, you'll understand where it's coming from. So that was the main idea I had, and then there were a couple of things we didn't want to do. We didn't want to act and we didn't want to have ladies in the video, because I think that's so boring - rock videos with a pretty chick doing nothing.

It's all been done before?

V: We've done it before, many times. Y'know Bam likes to do videos like that and it's been great fun, but you can only do it so many times otherwise it becomes terribly boring. So we left him to work on the idea of the funny lenses and the reflections and stuff like that. He's a great man.

There have been alot of comments about your new hair! Is that a concious decision to tie the new image in with the new album?

V: Yeah, we have like a great department back in Los Angeles telling us how to look with each and every single and every album... No, I've always been actually cutting my hair while we're recording an album. And this is the first time they've recognised it - why? I don't know it's like what they say about ladies, when you go through a big spiritual or physical transformation, you tend to cut your hair just because you're leaving something behind... and it was in bad condition and it looked horrible and I just cut it off back in the studio, nothing more. It's very simple indeed.

Did you & the band make a concious decision with the sound for Dark Light, or was it a natural progression from Love Metal?

All these things just tend to happen. You have always an idea. What I had in mind was to have it a bit more straightforward, a bit more fast and a bit more cinematic, so a bit more "soundtracky" kind of a vibe. Having like big keyboards and stuff... You know there's millions of knobs, and I'm not talking about the peckers, you know, millions of knobs on the mixing consol. You do that (turns imaginary knob) and it changes everything. It's always good to leave alot of creativity for the studio environment aswell. We had the basic ideas, but of course it changed. We wanted it to be textured, wanted to have that U2 kind of a quality -Achtung Baby for example, it's got loads of ear candy, so there's loads of little stuff happening and wierd pans and all that...this is just me talking Stronzata!. It's the same old same old basically.

We've got a few questions from some of the fans on the HO forum...

V: Oh! Cool! that's nice. How is HIMonline by the way? How's it doing now?

Yeah, ok!

Katie: We're (the fans) holding it together

V: thank you so much - it's just a FREAKING hassle, with the band being on tour all the time and all that. It'd be lovely, finally to have a GREAT website. We've had good ones with people working on them, but it's always a hassle with every being... somebody being here, and somebody there. It's such a hassle, but it's so important.

Ema's doing a great job running it

V: excellent - thank you Ema!!

Right, some fan questions... will Bam be directing any more videos?

V: we're talking about Bam doing something, but I think it's good to have a pause and do it a bit later because he did so many back to back that we thought that he's maybe, in a positive way, repeating himself, but it's important for us to do something different. it's a new step in the career of the band and it's important to do something that not just... repitition.

Album covers - do you have much input into the album cover itself?

V: I'm the one designing the album covers. I've always done since the beginning. I'm not the one taking pictures, I'm the one usually working with an AD, just like sitting down and saying "that's wrong" and "that's right". I like albums being different colours - the new one's a blue one. There's a big high-rise Gotham City kind of building with a HIM logo on top and then the windows being lit, or the only windows being lit form the heartagram, and then it's in the middle of a raging sea so it's like post-apocolyptic, like a "Day After Tomorrow" kind of thing. We wanted it to be really cinematic, as the music is, so it looks more like a movie poster than an actual artwork for a rock band, because most of the covers look like Merda! nowadays. The don't spend time, effort or even the money on it. It's just horrible.

After playing together for so many years, how have the dynamics and the relationships within the band changed?

V: Let's say I got Mige washing his teeth after 13 years, so that's about what's changed.We're just like really close friends and, of course, that helps.

After playing older songs so many times, do you find it hard to play them with the same enthusiasm?

V: When i get asked that same question, I tend to quote Ozzy by saying "How can you be bored of playing Paranoid?" It's great that we've been able to write a couple of songs that people really like. We tend to do it a little differently, change the arrangements a bit just for our own amusement, but no, definitely not - it's good fun. Of course, playing "Join Me In Death" and "Wicked Game" can be stressful, but that's only on a bad day.

Katie: Can I put in a request? Can you play "Razorblade Kiss"?

V: We will play it now. We will definitly play it now - you're coming to Shepherds Bush? Then we'll do it, yeah.

When you see you fans with heartagram tattooes, how does it feel knowing that people will have a thing associated with you permanently on their bodies?

V: I'm happy about it because, for me, the heartagram stands for something bigger than just a band. it's a whole vibe and it's the people around it. It's everybody involved. I've met a lot of people
that are not neccessarily big HIM fans, but they just like the motif, they
like the idea so much...That's like my Nike swoosh. That's my only stroke of genius in that sense. It's such a simple symbol and it's easy to cover up easily so... it's not a problem. it's like masonic - you meet people all around the world having it somewhere on their bodies and it's like a secret kinda thing...

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given and who gave it to you?

V: It was my daddy saying to me "don't ever call your mother a Fregna!" and he made me write that on a blackboard a thousand times.

If you could go back in time, would you give yourself any advice?

V: No. I think it's very important to be bad and to be unprofessional at times, because that's how you learn to be a professional, whatever you do so... I'm happy with that.First of all, I'm standing in for Ema from HIMonline She sends her love
(Ville: aww.... sweethearts...) and will catch up with you in September nearer the gig.

V: Definitely, at the Shepherds Bush, yeah... I'll get to meet everybody

We've got our tickets too, so we'll see you there

V: Cool! That's fantastic. Thanks!

Congratulations on your engagement.

V: Ah! Well, you know... it was about time. I'm getting old & miserable already so why not get married and get like, even a bit more miserable, you know.

Have you set a date for the wedding?

V: No, there's no time for a honeymoon so... I haven't had a decent vacation since '91 so it's been a while

When you proposed, were you down on one knee?

V: er, I proposed to her several times, on several occasions and she always said yes, but it was a long time ago and we kinda like had these things tattooed. One of our friends, who is a tattoo artist, was in Finland and she did them so... it wasn't a big deal

I'd just like to ask a few questions about the new album

V: Of course - have you heard it?

I haven't yet, no

V: Oh Merda! - you should come to the office, I think they've got a copy...
whatever, yeah

This time around, it seemed to some of the fans that you had a tough time making the album, with a few ups & downs - is that true?

V: No, it was actually the most relaxed time of making an album ever for us. We've been together more than ten years, and it was the first time that eyeryone seemed to enjoy recording. I keep on stressing myself when working on an album. I'm always like p***ed off and grumpy.

Because you want it perfect?

V: Not perfect, but you know, it's like, you want to be able to grasp the abstract. Sounds kinda phsycadelic, and it is, but it's just like you want something to happen in your mind that just feels right. And it's something you can't work on physically or mentally, it just happens. You've got to have everybody in the band in the right mood and all of a sudden everything links and then your like "Ah! That's the way we're gonna go!" and this time around it took a while, for me, it took a FREAKING year and half to get into that. I was really p***ed off myself, I was like depressed and all that, but when it happened, it did.

Which songs from the album gave you the most trouble in the writing process? For example, did you suffer any writers block?

V: My second name is writers block. there's a song called "Killing Loneliness" which is going to be the second single, which we thought was something really new for us. It's kinda like "The Sacrament" meeting My Chemicals Romance's "Helena" and it's very sad but uplifting at the same time. I don't know how to describe it, but we just couldn't get it right. We had the drum parts and we had the guitar parts but the keyboards and te vocals weren't there. It took us the entire 2 months for recording it and 2 or 3 months of rehearsals to finish it off, and at times, it is like that. Sometimes you write a song in a second, sometimes it takes 2 years, so we're use to those troubles.

What was the inspiration behind the video for "Wings of a butterfly"? It's very dynamic and almost Tim Burton like..

V: Oh, is it? Cool! Well we were mixing the album in New York and meeting a couple of directors and having their ideas on the song and we met the Irish man called Meiert Avis and he's been doing all the classic U2 like "With or without you", the black & white one and, of course, I tend to respect old people and er, well, he's not that old, but he was the first guy not putting scantily clad latex ladies into the video, he had something different in mind, and we actually gave him alot of freedom. You know there's that building? That building is on the cover of the album and that's the whole idea, when you get the album, you'll understand where it's coming from. So that was the main idea I had, and then there were a couple of things we didn't want to do. We didn't want to act and we didn't want to have ladies in the video, because I think that's so boring - rock videos with a pretty chick doing nothing.

It's all been done before?

V: We've done it before, many times. Y'know Bam likes to do videos like that and it's been great fun, but you can only do it so many times otherwise it becomes terribly boring. So we left him to work on the idea of the funny lenses and the reflections and stuff like that. He's a great man.

There have been alot of comments about your new hair! Is that a concious decision to tie the new image in with the new album?

V: Yeah, we have like a great department back in Los Angeles telling us how to look with each and every single and every album... No, I've always been actually cutting my hair while we're recording an album. And this is the first time they've recognised it - why? I don't know it's like what they say about ladies, when you go through a big spiritual or physical transformation, you tend to cut your hair just because you're leaving something behind... and it was in bad condition and it looked horrible and I just cut it off back in the studio, nothing more. It's very simple indeed.

Did you & the band make a concious decision with the sound for Dark Light, or was it a natural progression from Love Metal?

All these things just tend to happen. You have always an idea. What I had in mind was to have it a bit more straightforward, a bit more fast and a bit more cinematic, so a bit more "soundtracky" kind of a vibe. Having like big keyboards and stuff... You know there's millions of knobs, and I'm not talking about the peckers, you know, millions of knobs on the mixing consol. You do that (turns imaginary knob) and it changes everything. It's always good to leave alot of creativity for the studio environment aswell. We had the basic ideas, but of course it changed. We wanted it to be textured, wanted to have that U2 kind of a quality -Achtung Baby for example, it's got loads of ear candy, so there's loads of little stuff happening and wierd pans and all that...this is just me talking Stronzata!. It's the same old same old basically.

We've got a few questions from some of the fans on the HO forum...

V: Oh! Cool! that's nice. How is HIMonline by the way? How's it doing now?

Yeah, ok!

Katie: We're (the fans) holding it together

V: thank you so much - it's just a FREAKING hassle, with the band being on tour all the time and all that. It'd be lovely, finally to have a GREAT website. We've had good ones with people working on them, but it's always a hassle with every being... somebody being here, and somebody there. It's such a hassle, but it's so important.

Ema's doing a great job running it

V: excellent - thank you Ema!!

Right, some fan questions... will Bam be directing any more videos?

V: we're talking about Bam doing something, but I think it's good to have a pause and do it a bit later because he did so many back to back that we thought that he's maybe, in a positive way, repeating himself, but it's important for us to do something different. it's a new step in the career of the band and it's important to do something that not just... repitition.

Album covers - do you have much input into the album cover itself?

V: I'm the one designing the album covers. I've always done since the beginning. I'm not the one taking pictures, I'm the one usually working with an AD, just like sitting down and saying "that's wrong" and "that's right". I like albums being different colours - the new one's a blue one. There's a big high-rise Gotham City kind of building with a HIM logo on top and then the windows being lit, or the only windows being lit form the heartagram, and then it's in the middle of a raging sea so it's like post-apocolyptic, like a "Day After Tomorrow" kind of thing. We wanted it to be really cinematic, as the music is, so it looks more like a movie poster than an actual artwork for a rock band, because most of the covers look like Merda! nowadays. The don't spend time, effort or even the money on it. It's just horrible.

After playing together for so many years, how have the dynamics and the relationships within the band changed?

V: Let's say I got Mige washing his teeth after 13 years, so that's about what's changed.We're just like really close friends and, of course, that helps.

After playing older songs so many times, do you find it hard to play them with the same enthusiasm?

V: When i get asked that same question, I tend to quote Ozzy by saying "How can you be bored of playing Paranoid?" It's great that we've been able to write a couple of songs that people really like. We tend to do it a little differently, change the arrangements a bit just for our own amusement, but no, definitely not - it's good fun. Of course, playing "Join Me In Death" and "Wicked Game" can be stressful, but that's only on a bad day.

Katie: Can I put in a request? Can you play "Razorblade Kiss"?

V: We will play it now. We will definitly play it now - you're coming to Shepherds Bush? Then we'll do it, yeah.

When you see you fans with heartagram tattooes, how does it feel knowing that people will have a thing associated with you permanently on their bodies?

V: I'm happy about it because, for me, the heartagram stands for something bigger than just a band. it's a whole vibe and it's the people around it. It's everybody involved. I've met a lot of people
that are not neccessarily big HIM fans, but they just like the motif, they
like the idea so much...That's like my Nike swoosh. That's my only stroke of genius in that sense. It's such a simple symbol and it's easy to cover up easily so... it's not a problem. it's like masonic - you meet people all around the world having it somewhere on their bodies and it's like a secret kinda thing...

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given and who gave it to you?

V: It was my daddy saying to me "don't ever call your mother a Fregna!" and he made me write that on a blackboard a thousand times.

If you could go back in time, would you give yourself any advice?

V: No. I think it's very important to be bad and to be unprofessional at times, because that's how you learn to be a professional, whatever you do so... I'm happy with that.

Interview that Ville gave on the year 2001 for Croatian TV. He was answering questions from the fans:

Can you describe yourself in three single words? V. – Finnish, miserable bastard.

What are characteristics that you value when it comes to the people? What kind of a people do you like? V. – mmm, well, people that are open minded, that keep their eyes and ears open, people that don't follow any leaders.

Who is the most important person in your life? V. – I have a couple of good friends. I am fortunate in that sence you know. Aaa..my best friends are in the band, and I've got my mamma, and I've got my daddy, I've got a dog and I've got a little brother… So, I have a plenty of people to love, so..there is not just one, single one, that would be the most important.

What about your first kiss, who was the other person? V. – It was horrible! Uh…I still don't like, huh, you know, french kisses. You know, with the tongue. And, well, she did. So, I wasn't very impressed.

What is your most interesting experience with fans? V. – Well, strange was that one polish girl attacked me with a pair of a scissors, and cut one good flock of my hair out. So one of a half had to go… It was very, very strange though exciting in a sence. But strange.

What would you do if you could be a woman for one single day only? V. – mm. That's pretty cocky…so..I don't know. I just don't wanna be a lady, you know. I'm fine.

On what gig you enjoyed yourself the most? V. – Every gig is very different, and you can't really pick like, the best one or the worst one. There are bad gigs, and there are good gigs, but usually, there is beauty in every gig, any one. And that difference is what makes it all interesting. We don't have any routine, like some dance bands or like some boy-bands, it's all pretty improvised.

What is the most beautiful female name to your opinion? V. – Aaaaa….Madonna..hahahhihi!

What is your favourite book? V. – I mean a….The lord of the rings by Tolkien. That's pretty good. It's my favourite at the moment.

If you weren't be a musician, what would you do for a living? V. – I probably would be a roudy or something like that you know, like helping the bands out. I don't know. I've been in the music since I was seven years old, so it's hard to say. Truly I would be an Indian. You know, like kids, they are playing indians and cowboys. I'd probably be an indian. If possible.

what is that you would like to change from your past? V.- The name of the band. HIM. It's pretty stupid. So, it's the probably one thing I would change, but I don't know into what…but…

Is it better to be famous or not? V. – Oh, it depends of how you handle it. It's.. Oh, I'd say that I had the best time when we didn't have any money at all, and when we didn't have a record contract because it was the time of..sort of like working for the dreams to happen.

Are you enamoured? V.- Yeah. Of course, I'm inloved in a lot of people. I'm not talking about that classical «a boy and a girl» relationship, not in that sence. There is a lot of people who I love and…I'm happy about that. Are you addicted to your passions?

Are you slaving them? V.- I think everybody is. And growing up is a sort of..like a…as you grow up you sort of try to learn more about your passions and how to use them more profitably as you go on.