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HIM's Ville Valo discusses Tears On Tape and hitting Detroit on fall tour

Finnish rockers, HIM, have not been in the Detroit area since 2010 when they played in Pontiac at Clutch Cargos and in Grand Rapids at the Orbit Room while out touring behind their seventh studio album, Screamworks.

Over the last few years, the band had trouble getting into the studio to record a follow up due to a number of events including a record label change but in February, HIM announced that they had signed with North American independent label, Razor & Tie, and that they would be releasing their eighth album, Tears On Tape, in the U.S. and Canada on April 30.

Shortly after the news was released, the band announced a short North American run, Tears On Tour, to promote the album release that includes stops in May in L.A., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Toronto.

Yesterday, I spoke to HIM front man, Ville Valo, who was at home in Helsinki and happy that the heaviest portion of the publicity cycle for the new album is winding down.

Q: Is there a lot of stuff coming up the week of the release?

Ville: Some but not a lot. You've got to be careful to not do too much and you got to be kind of picky until the very end.

Q: For the album itself it seems like you got a good mix of what you would consider your early stuff and what you've kind of been working on with the last couple of albums. What was the mindset when you went in to record?

Ville: Well you know I think the important thing usually with a band is not to over think it; not to think about it too much. It's basically that we had a lot of trouble getting our sound together and we had troubles with our drummer, who developed this repetitive stress or strain injury and then the doctors found some nerve damage and blah, blah, blah! All of a sudden we were in a situation, because we are all school friends, you know we've known each other since we were like ten years old, and all of a sudden one of the family members was like seriously ill and the doctors weren't sure he was going to be able to play drums anymore. So it took about eight months for us to just wait it all out and now everything is fine and all that but it was really stressful. Existential crisis to the max! So basically we were just happy to be back at the rehearsal place together and just write down some riffs and pretend to be as heavy as Black Sabbath and as sentimental as Roy Orbison. You know, basically the stuff that we've always done in the past.

Q: When you finished it did you feel you captured the idea that you had when you went in?

Ville: Well I think it shouldn't be. I think that's nice that there's some surprises. You know these like surprise moments waiting for you around the corner all the time. It's like if you premeditate or try to figure everything out too quick you lose the magic. It's very close to the process of how it worked always. I start strumming the acoustic guitar and come up with the basic ideas and head over to the rehearsal place and we put the meat around the bones, the fat, and we add the distorted guitars and all of that stuff and once we're happy with it we just go with the flow. We never know how it's gonna actually end up being. That keeps all the band members, especially me, on our toes. It keeps me on my toes, which is good as opposed to taking it easy. That would be a cop out.

Q: What was your biggest inspiration when you were working on the album?

Ville: Probably autumn; the fall, because we started recording the album in early winter last year like in September or so and I wrote a lot of the lyrics and we finalized a lot of the songs when the leaves were turning red. It's always kind of you feel, or at least I feel, a bit misty eyed when that season hits because it's always some sort of a death of nature so I think that made the everlasting imprint on the sound of the album more so than an album by somebody else or a book or a film or anything like that.

Q: Is there a song on the album that best captures where you are as a band right now?

Ville: Well there's one called "All Lips Go Blue", which is actually I think going to be the first single to try to get some radio play within the States. That's the second track on the album. I think that's one of the first tracks that we got together on with the lads and I kind of like that in getting that song ready and sounding the way we wanted it kind of helped us to figure out the rest of the album. Kind of like we found in our years the balance between the guitars and the melancholy aspects and all that stuff. So that was important. That song kind of opened up the floodgates to the rest of the album you know production and video-wise. It's one of those songs that is three and a half minutes and it's pretty straight to the point and if you haven't heard our band before it's a good introduction. You get the idea of what we're all about.

Q: You are releasing different singles for different parts of the world. Are you filming different videos for each track?

Ville: Well yeah it's a funny situation in that we have a different label in Europe and a different label in the States and a different label in the U.K.. The Finnish label over here are going with a song called "Into The Night" and the U.K. and the States are having "All Lips Go Blue" and at least in Germany, and I think the rest of Europe, they're using "Tears On Tape", the album's title track as the first single. You know it's that the radio and the markets are so different. I'm just happy that there are still people who believe that we can still get some airplay and maybe grab a couple of new people who haven't heard about our band before into the ever growing cult of HIM.

Q: Your band's fans are nominated for a Golden God's award for being the most loyal. How do you feel about the fact that they have stuck with you this long?

Ville: Well flattered and honored, of course. It's one of those things that you can't buy with money and it's something you can't like say let's play this kind of music so we have loyal fans. That's not the first thing that pops into my mind when starting to write a song so I'm happy that we've kind of been sticking to our guns and doing this for twenty years and that people are still very appreciative of what we do. It's an odd thing. It's something that I would have never thought would happen. I always thought that just happened to bands like our idols like Iron Maiden and Type O Negative or whomever so it's odd to see that there's people who are telling me that they've been playing some of our ballads in their weddings.

Q: Is there a particular reason that stands out on why you guys have kept going as long as you have? What keeps you guys coming back?

Ville: Well maybe the fact that when we started out playing we didn't have driver's licenses or we didn't have girlfriends and we started out so early that what was important for us was music. Back in the day in the eighties a lot of bands were talking about how they played music because they wanted the girls or they wanted to get rich or they wanted to do this or that and we thought that all that stuff might be a bonus. It wasn't the reason; the core for the existence of the band. The fact was that we were fans of a lot of bands and we loved music so that's what we started doing.

Q: You have the short U.S. tour coming up but do you plan on doing a longer one later in the year?

Ville: Yeah that's the idea. It's basically since the album is coming out late next month like end of April/early May in the States the idea is that we're just playing three gigs in Europe and then eight in the States right before the festival season starts. So we're doing a couple of festivals in Europe and then when the festival season is over in August then we're gonna head over either to the States or to Europe, we're not quite sure yet, we're still working on touring stuff, but yeah that's the idea to play a proper long tour and get to see more people.

Q: Can we expect a Detroit date?

Ville: Yeah well we've gotta. We have to play Detroit. It's very important when it comes to our idols from the Motor City so of course. A tour without Detroit would be a disaster!

Q: For those coming out to the few dates you have coming up, what should they expect?

Ville: That's always the toughest question because I'm never in the audience when we're playing so I don't know. Hopefully the guitars will be crunchier than ever and hopefully it will be a bit more intense. The new album is pretty straight forward and pretty rocking and I've been practicing on my acoustic guitar playing as well. We're gonna do some numbers which we haven't been able to do in the past. Track like "Gone With The Sin" from Razorblade Romance. It's nice to do some ballads we haven't played in ten years. So it will be a different kind of mixture of songs but obviously it's all depending on how the album does and how people react to that and since those gigs are the very first that we're going to do it's going to be nerve wracking and gonna definitely get the butterflies out and all that.

Q: Is there a new song that you haven't done yet that you're excited about trying?

Ville: Well all of them because I always think that even thought there might be songs that we have played a million times before it depends where you put the song in the set. You know how it works with the drama of the set; the roller coaster ride or whatever you want to call it. You know how a song like "Join Me In Death" played next to "Buried Alive By Love" works very differently than if it would be played next to "Rip Out the Wings of A Butterfly". So it all changes and the whole vibe changes and we always mess about with the intros and outros and mid-sections and what not and so there's always something to look forward to. It would be terrible to have it just as a repetitive process. It's good to have something new for the band that keeps us again on our toes. We like to be on our toes.

Q: Do you know who is opening those shows?

Ville: To be honest with you I still don't know. I don't want to name any names because I still haven't had a confirmation. There was one band I was partial to and I said that if we can let's go with them but I don't want to say anything and mess something up. I don't want to get into any trouble for myself.

Q: I took a few questions from some fans in the area.

Ville: Sure!

Q: What was the last terrible song you got stuck in your head?

Ville: Well I think usually songs that get stuck in your head are terrible. Well the most terrible thing probably was what that like Sisqo or whomever who did that "Thong Song"?

Q: Yes.

Ville: For some reason my girlfriend started playing that song on repeat and I had to nearly run out of the house and then when I came back to the house I couldn't get that out of my head. That was like three days ago. I said that she's banned from listening to any music when I'm around. [laughing]

Q: If you had a chance to sit down with your younger self what advice would you give him?

Ville: I'd probably just laugh at the young me and let me do all the mistakes again. I think that kind of ideology stems from the fact that people would have regrets but I think that if you don't have regrets then you haven't lived. Mistakes are very essential for growing up so you know there's a gazillion things we could have done. I could have done some things better or different but yeah exactly like that I could have done things different but maybe not necessarily better so I don't want to even think about it. I'd just probably buy myself a beer! [laughs]

Q: What do you feel is your biggest accomplishment?

Ville: Well there's several. Band-wise it would be the fact that we're still together making music. It's really rare for friends to be able to sustain their relationship without any terrible drama which we've had on the way but it's never been so excruciating that we would have not gotten through it so I think that would be one. On a personal level I don't know. I think that talk about accomplishments is something that you should think about when you're sitting on a rocking chair when you're like eighty or something. There's still a couple of years to go so we'll see.

Q: Are you going to write your autobiography one day?

Ville: Nah, nah, I write music! Maybe a musical autobiography one day but that's what I've been doing my whole life so nah, no, no, no, no, no! I think autobiographies usually suck. They are so subjective. As a reader of a lot of biographies I usually tend to hate those the most because people want to know the good and the bad and usually the people writing about themselves tend to over edit some stuff. So I'll let a proper journalist or writer delve into the matter one day should it be interesting enough.

Q: I had someone ask what your true vocal range is?

Ville: I don't know how to say you know when people talk in octaves or whatever. I don't think that that's important in a vocalist because let's say Leonard Cohen. He doesn't necessarily have many octaves but his voice and his attitude and delivery is way heavier than a lot of people who do. You know like vocal acrobatics would never be my cup of tea. It's nice to scream and it's nice to do your falsetto pretty stuff and it's nice to sing low and all that but it's not acrobatics and it's not gymnastics. It's about trying to convey an emotion or deliver the lyrics in a confident way whatever that might be. So I don't know; 666 octaves? I think like to be honest with you, it's probably like three, three and half or something. People talk about four but I don't know how you calculate it because it depends on how when a guy's voice breaks when he switches gears into that kind of raspy rock and roll territory. I'm not quite sure if you can count that in or not. It's one of those odd things. For example, what I read was Axl Rose is actually a natural baritone which is so odd. So I don't know how you find those things I'm probably a natural contraltos!

Q: What's the one thing about being famous that is most disturbing?

Ville: Well we're not that famous so maybe the hunger for it. The more you eat the hungrier you get. Let's say the fame has been quite gentle and easy on us. Coming from a country such as Finland the yellow press/tabloids or whatever you want to call them are pretty easy going. There hasn't been a lot of trouble and most of the time people tend to respect the other's privacy and all that stuff. Obviously there's a loony here and there but at the end of the day there's crazy people. It doesn't matter whether you're in a band or not you can always get into trouble with people.

Q: What's the best gift you've ever received from a fan?

Ville: Well my house is filled with little things I've gathered along from the tours. I've got some good books for example. I've got some early edition Edgar Allan Poe stuff from back in the day which is great because I still have all those books. Then there was this posse who called themselves The Graveyard [Dirt] Crew and what they did was they went to the grave sites of famous people and put the grave dirt in little glass bottles and brought me a collection. I have grave dirt from Walt Whitman and Jim Morrison and H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire from all over the world. That's pretty crazy! That's rather memorable and it's nothing like sinister or gloomy. It was more like a latin thing and more about that I met those people several times and it was more about how is your collection doing. I actually made, for those people and I think we actually used it on the album too, I made a percussive-like effect box like a shaker and instead of using the normal sand you use I put all the grave dirt in the shaker and I call it the "dead speak" shaker. You can mike it up and you can shake it and you can hear all of those people's grave dirt and the percussive balance.

Q: I have another question. I interviewed Linde [Lindstrom, HIM lead guitarist] when he came through with Daniel Lioneye and we were talking about maybe one day seeing a Finnish package tour with bands like Apocalyptica and The 69 Eyes. Do you think that's ever gonna happen?

Ville: Well we've done touring in Europe with The 69 Eyes and with The Rasmus and all those people but it's usually that like right now we just finished up a album and I think The 69 Eyes are probably touring now and will then be heading back into the studio to make their next so it's really tough to get the schedules to work. It would be interesting though. It would be nice and I think that most of the people in the bands we all know each other from years back so in that sense it might be a nice family-type of a tour. You know, never say never!

Q: Finally, what are you most looking forward to for the rest of the year?

Ville: Well the whole touring extravaganza. We haven't toured properly in ages so that will be really interesting. Well I guess interesting isn't the right word but it's exciting. Exciting to hop on the airplane every other day and go into new cities that we don't know that much about yet and maybe see some familiar faces and play some good music.

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