20 Years Of Heavy Romance

HIM has returned to the studio and soon to the stage. Making songs is still like cutting himself for Ville Valo.

Ville Valo, 35, rides down the hill of Arinatie on an old mens' bicycle to Finnvox studio. For the most well known Finnish rock musician, his day begins like anyone elses'. Actually HIM is preparing for a celebration. At New Years' it has been 20 years since their first gig and to honor this,  HIM returns as the main act of their own Helldone festival at Tavastia. All four concerts were sold out in 20 minutes.It is a good sign since many old fans started to get worried about the destiny of their favorite band.

After the tour of 2010 and the mildly successful Screamworks: Love In Theory and Practice album, HIM retreated from publicity for almost two years. The record deal with the United States based Sire had ended and many people speculated the story of the crown jewel of Finnish rock was over.The reason turned out to be a bacterial infection in the arms of the drummer Mika "Kaasu" Karppinen which prevented him from playing.HIM continued training in the May of this year and are currently recording their 8th album at Finnvox studios under the name of Tears on Tape.Ville Valo sits down at the smoking room of the studio and opens a can of cold beer."We have known each other so long making music is not an issue. We relax, drink some beer and create riffs. That's when ideas flow."

The post-break HIM does look a lot like the band that broke through in mid-90's with their unique blend of metal, romantic rock and folk music.Usually Valo participates in interviews alone but today he's joined by the founding members Mikko "Mige" Paananen and Mikko "Linde" Lindström.According to Valo, the new songs are a combination of "Black Sabbath meets Smashing Pumpkins and Roy Orbison".In outsiders eyes HIM may seem like a hit creating machine which produces a portion of love metal every few years. Valo and Paananen reject the idea that HIM had delibaretly aimed for fame and thus succeeded. According to Valo the success of the band relies on lack of alternatives."Mom and dad helped me with rents and I guess they believed something would come out of this. It gave a chance but it demanded a lot of time", Valo says.Valo thinks HIMs sound was born way before their first album at the training studio of Tapanila. The key song was their version of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game, recorded for their first album in 1996."In it Frank Sinatra style crooner meets AC/DC style head bashing."Paananen thinks HIMs music has been very personal and confessional since the beginning: "We create a public performance out of an intimate situation where we reveal ourselves and our feelings."

The songs of HIM tell more or less about Ville Valo's life and world. The lyrics oozing bleeding hearts and gothic melodramatics have been carefully planned and revised."I try to make lyrics in a way that they have at least two ongoing stories in them", Valo says."Inside stories, small things that point to very personal stuff, baring myself for the public. It gives me pervertic pleasure if even the members of the band don't know what's going on in the lyrics."Eventhough the roots of HIM lie in old metal, Valo has not made his songs into fantasies loaded with abstract symbols. He said he's tried writing lyrics from an outsider's point of view but was disappointed at the outcome."Lyrics I write - were they good or bad - are very personal. Little by little I start to see it in  a negative light. Would be nice to sing about dragons in a sci-fi setting. For me each lyric has been like a cut of a knife, otherwise I wouldn't feel they're worth it."For Valo, creating a song can take years. He has been known as a perfectionist and an authoric leader but during the years the führer of rock has relaxed."Back in the day I was more anxious and as a kid I wanted everything right now. I'm still anxious but I have more patience."

The 20 years of HIM have been a turbulence in the musical world. Finnish pop music has fared well abroad but digital downloads have dented sales numbers.HIM has sold well over 6 million records. If  the band had been formed earlier it could have reached even more. Now it stumbled into a record sales crisis after many good years. Valo has a clear stance on online piracy. "It's not essential to grow bigger but to stay alive.  People want their music for free and use the touring money as an excuse to download music illegally. What they don't understand is now bands have to tour constantly and venues are overbooked.""We're not entirely broke yet. We still manage."

HIM has put together a 20 year anniversary album called XX - Two Decades of Love Metal due to be released in October. Among the familiar songs is a new one, a cover version of Ké's Strange World.New album is due in the spring. Making  the album is the same old crew, producer Hiili Hiilesmaa and mixer Tim Palmer. Like many other artist HIM makes the album as a self-production and buys the marketing and distribution from the record company.The record company doesn't have any business in the studio or what songs go onto the album but Valo reminds HIM has always chosen their sound and songs by themselves without the record company. "They had more humor value", says Paananen. "I'm not sure who was trying to dupe who but both sides got their laughs."

-translation from Helsingin Sanomat, 2012-