Band History
Ville Hermanni Valo formed HIM in the summer of 1995, gathering around him some old friends who shared his vision of a brand of rock Ville himself calls 'love metal'. Depeche Mode meets Dimmu Borgir in a David Lynch movie... Their first EP was 666 Ways to Love, released in 1996. Since then, the band's members have changed a couple of times but Ville, Migé and Linde have been with the band from the beginning, and are accompanied with Gas and Burton.
"You could say that we are the Scandinavian, dark version of any boyband. Except that we write our own music. And our choreagraphy is not that polished. Plus, we don't look as good as the Backstreet Boys."
HIM's debut album Greatest Lovesongs, Vol. 666 was released in the autumn of 1997, introducing their sound, a vibrant mix of metal and bittersweet pop melodies. This remarkable debut paved way for Razorblade Romance, a 21st century foray into the crimson coloured landscape of love and death. Enter Valo , HIM lead singer and songwriter and leader of the "Love Metal" movement.
"Why we covered Wicked Game? I've always liked David Lynch' s movies, and the dark, moody music has always been an important element in his films; Wicked Game is perfect example of that kind of song. Plus, it's extremely easy to play since it has only three tones."
Razorblade Romance, which was released on January 24th 2000, was recorded at Rockfield Studios, the birthplace of such classics as Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Oasis' (What's The Story) Morning Glory and, as the band was keen to point out, the debut album of Black Sabbath. Razorblade Romance was produced by John Fryer who has previously worked with White Zombie, Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode, and includes songs such as Join Me, Poison Girl, Right Here in My Arms and Gone with the Sin.
"The only way to make music is relate to it deeply on emotional level. How do I get my ideas? I just sit down to the middle of a pentagram, and they start flowing. Love and death - life and death - those two things are the extreme opposites of each other, and include the entire scale of essential feelings and events. It's not only love and death, I'd say it's about love, hate, dying, living, feelings... and those are pretty important things - at least to most people. Love and death can mean lots of things, maybe there's some kind of symbolism there. And yes, Poison Girl is based on a true story - many think that it's somewhat a misogynist song, but it's not. It's a sweet apology."
Valo half sneering hard rock front man, half suffering poet. Half heart-throb, half enigma. When we go back a few years we will find Valo working behind the counter of his father's sex shop, dreaming of the music he was going to make someday. The reality of the dream is music full of soul and imagination. Songs that could move you, bring you to the verge of tears and leave their mark on you forever.
"When I was six years old, I wanted to be a cowboy - but then again, just a few years later I wanted to be a musician. I knew what I wanted when I got my first Kiss-record. It was Animalize, and at first I thought that it was some kind of etno music. It had this cover with fur pattern, and thought it looked neat. But then I turned the record over, and there's Gene and Paul, the band looking like something I'd never seen before. I ran to the counter because I knew this was it - the thing I wanted to do."
In August 2001, HIM releases their third full-length album, "Deep Shadows and Brilliant Highlights". "What next? You just wait", Ville says with a sly smile. "It could be anything I just may have a plan B, you know. I might go full time into the family business."
In 2003, HIM released the fourth album "Love Metal" with such songs like "Buried Alive by Love" and "Funeral of Hearts". Ville also plays drums in the group "Daniel Lioneye".
In 2005, Him released the fifth album "Dark Light" which included such songs as "Wings of a Butterfly" and "Killing Loneliness". They have made a music video for both of these songs and remade the video for "Killing Loneliness" in April 2006 because they did not believe they were getting enough positive feedback for the United States for the first "Killing Loneliness" video.
2007
HIM frontman Ville Valo seems totally at home sitting poolside at his hotel in L.A. Sipping tea between cigarettes, the lead singer of the first Finnish band ever to go gold in the U.S. is happy to be back in L.A. after spending months at home recording the band’s follow up to 2005’s Dark Light, the aforementioned gold record. Then again, if the quintet hadn’t been at home during the dark, cold winter months they might not have recorded the aptly named Venus Doom, an album that Valo describes as being “Like a trip into my personal hell" to a certain extent.
Musically, the album is the dark, hard rocking soundtrack necessary to accompany Valo’s downward descent. "I felt that we needed a lot less keyboards and there was just going to be more punching to the face type of thing,” Valo says, referring to the differences between Dark Light and Venus Doom. “The whole vibe seems fresh cause the direction we had with the last album we couldn’t go further. So the album sonically is a bit more sparse. That’s the direction we’re heading; heavier, doomier, and gloomier, and it’s great to tour that kind of stuff.”
HIM will get the chance to see how the new material translates to the stage over the summer when they join Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, and more on the main stage of L.P.’s Projekt Revolution tour. “All the bands are kind of crossover in what they do, that’s really interesting,” Valo says. “This is the first kind of traveling festival type of thing we’ve done cause they don’t have anything like that back in Europe, so it’s exciting.” He’s also intrigued by the eclecticism of the tour. “That’s one of the reasons we wanted to be there,” he says of the mix of bands.
When talking about the musical references in the album, Valo rattles off Sabbath and old-school Metallica. That rock authenticity and ferocity are evident from the opening match that kicks off the incendiary title track. The savage intensity is kept up in the machine gun style attack of “Love in Cold Blood,” a track that explodes in a vicious guitar solo. The trademark HIM sense of melody is found both in choruses throughout and in tracks like “Dead Lover’s Lane,” as well as the acoustic “Song or Suicide,” a track recorded at L.A.’s historic Chateau Marmont.
Working with producer Tim Palmer (U2, Hot Hot Heat, Switchfoot), who helmed Dark Light, and Hiili, the man behind the controls of the band’s first album, the quintet has created a journey through many moods and feelings. Often times, as on the title track, the epic 10-minute plus “Sleepwalking Past Hope,” and the Zeppelin-infused closer, “Cyanide Sun,” that journey is an intricate one encompassing a diverse series of sonic landscapes in the span of a single song. “In this one we have a bit longer songs so arrangement-wise there’s more differences within the song,” Valo says. “We wanted that contrast, having really nice beautiful melodies and then having that really crunchy guitar thing in there; so to have the balance between the right and wrong so to speak.”
The multi-layered tone of Venus Doom is something the band was striving for. "The idea to have nine songs was based on Dante’s Inferno, cause hell has nine layers, so it’s like going deeper down into hell and then coming back,” Valo says. “There are so many different vibes and moods in the album that it’s cool once you listen to it again, because you can’t absorb everything with one listen.”
While that complexity hearkens back to great albums, something Valo is very aware of, it’s also a fitting attitude for a band that continues to grow up. In fact, keyboardist Burton had his first kid last year, prompting the group to record Venus Doom back at home in Finland to allow the band members more time to spend with their families.
Valo, who reads a great deal for inspiration, this time turning to Scandinavian poetry, admits recording in Finland had some bearing on the tone of the record. "We recorded the album during the winter so that could be one of the reasons it sounds a bit gloomy and doomy; it’s always dark and super cold.”
Weather and dark poetry aside though, it was Valo’s own evolving life that had the biggest influence on the record. The lead single, “Kiss of Dawn,” was inspired by the death of one of his close friends. "One of my mates from here in L.A. committed suicide two and a half years ago, and that’s a tribute to him,” Valo says of the song. “It’s about how it is on the other side and how we react to it on this side. Just a young guy who had the world, everything is possible, but deep depression and too many drugs cause you to do stupid things. So the subject matter is not light on the album. But it’s good to get this out. It’s cathartic.”
Their last release is
Digital Versatile Doom Live From The Orpheum Theater
XXXVII A.S.
Some random pics with the band
HIM -His Infernal Majesty
Yeti Long Shot: Random Bounce Champion!
Linear Mode
