HIM magazine

HIM magazine

HIM magazine ******************************* regularly edited with the best by Grapes

25/06/2006

i ve just arrived in my hometown after a very long journey from the Santander summer festival (but you obviously are not supposed to care :p)

ok, quit the unnecessary and here we have a review of the latest him concert seen from my quite personal perspective (front row-wasted-11th him gig-in love with leadsinger):

it s been like floating on a cloud, no pushing (i love spanish fans, nobody fainted or overscreamt/except fo us italians present of course) .

A gentle breeze coming from the cantabrian see caressed our beloved ones and the notes coming from their instruments making the whole atmosphere smooth and sweet (effective scenography and lighting/maybe too much, and the chandeliers in summer are just out of place.but.anyway.)

So they ve been playing well (well-what a word saying nothing), Ville was kind and sensitive with the lyrics (no laughing at "join me in death this time") his voice was sexy deep and meaningful, killing loneliness is now officially dedicated to a friend who died recently because of smack :(

us as a public are improving when it comes to the black sabbath thing (it s turning into something in between a public pagan sabbath - but not black - with witchy voices (me and my friends "sang" the words "black" and "sabbath" with our guts like proper pretty animals teared apart and totally spontaneously-and instinctively-lol-) and some kind of an ironic parody (i.e when ville asked "do your parents like black sabbath?" "and do you like black sabbath?" and to somebody not liking the devils sign he s been kind of cheecky or maybe i got the words wrongly. Behind the crimson door had been dedicated to "those who know what the song means" (and maybe is able to explain the meaning to him) . again a karaoke chorus at the funeral of hearts (the guys have been on tour for far too long i can imagine they re kind of exhausted with playing the same songs and finding the pure spirit of them each time over and over - although hims songs are really beautiful).

once again i ve met new and old cool people (hugs irene, roberta, vicky, melanie) and had some proper considerations about how "being a him fan" can affect a fan's way of thinking and living a life based on a beautiful dream rather than on raw reality. also we had discussions regarding the "him world" which is bigger and more complex than just another band, and it conveys energies - think of the phisical energy spent travelling and the money invested in those many gigs a year but nobody regrets it and it always seems to be worthed and comforting -- The commandments are of consolation and warmth -- just because at the end it s also about a love message which feels honest and it feels go to see such a good band with a slightly excessively "religious" fandom. it s beautiful and it kind of scares at the same time.

not even this time i was able to speak to ville :( but i ve had a great time (if you don't count the silly hours spent after the gig waiting for the dawn and listening to horrible electronic music which was even worse than techno and had hundreds people happily moving like robots to it with extacy faces (but without the "joyful expression" ... because after the 5h pill it all feels the same and nothing matters, not even that you re (not) dancing to a (non)music consuming your body in supreme boredom.

posted by grapes | 12:34 | commenti

19/06/2006

so lovely

Around depression and death
“I HAVE CRIED ALOT”

VILLE VALO'S YEAR OF SADNESS

Ville Valo, who has returned to Finland, has finally time to think about the changes is his private life.

Provinssirocks Saturdays main performance HIM flew straight to Seinäjoki with a private plane from Sweden, where the band performed in Hultsfred festival. The band has lately pushed in America in an awful speed, and the return to the homeland was a relief to Ville Valo.
The impetuous pace has vaccinated thing in the homeland and finally Ville has time to think about big subjects
-This has been pretty interesting. Four pretty close friends have fallen deep into depression, and a few acquaintances have died. During this year so many bad things have happened, even though the band is doing very good, Ville says
-It's a very schizophrenic life, when everyday you hear sadder phone calls and you yourself have to shake your ass every night for one and a half hours 10000 km away.
Friends give Ville strength. Also HIMs sentimental music is a moderate way to escape.
-It helps that work has gone well and I have cried on Kaasu's shoulder. Luckily I have good friends in the band and I have also met new good people. Good happenings, Ville smiles
Also Ville Valo's ex-fiancé Jonna Nygren was in a good mood in Seinäjoki. Seeing Jonna, who has recovered from her drug addiction, made Ville especially happy. The couple who broke up in spring were in the same company in Provinssirock.
-We are close, but we haven't had time to hang out, Ville tells
-Let's say, that my life isn't just a relationship
-I'm not lifting my hands, but I just haven't had a day off in moths to think about my own stuff. If the stars are in the right position, then why not
Compared to office work rock life is a very unregular world, and love relationships are always on trial.
-Though this is a general confusion, on the other hand it's great if you have an anchor you can let down somewhere. Grass is never greener on the other side of the fence, although you always want what you can't get.
-No one in this is innocent. Everybody makes mistakes and learn from them. I don't think knowledge increases pain, but the other way around. Knowledge brings the opportunity to think differently.
Ville has never tried how it would feel to stay in one place. Changing the lifestyle isn't even an option.
-You have to keep moving, so you can stay put.

Moving into the house
Ville Valo bought a tower building from Munkkiniemi. Now it's getting renovated, but he hopes he can move in during the summer.
-It's nice to have a place, where there is peace to work. I travel so much that in my two previous apartments everything was half done, you couldn't do music there, he says.
Extremely good feels getting to do everyday things.
-After all this touring it's nice to go and buy toilet brushes and vacuum cleaners. It's nice to sweat in the apartment and put paintings on the walls.
On the walls of the towers will be hanged at least 12 pictures of Tapio Rautavaara and a few old summer landscapes.
-I have so many paintings, 12 pictures of Tapsa Rautavaara and a few old summer landscapes, few gold records.
Ville won't participate in the renovation
-It's better that every branches professional does things in their branch. If I then do the music.

Gold record coming from America
HIMs latest album Dark Light has sold now already over 450000 copies in America. For a gold record 500000 have to be sold. HIMs first gold record in the USA seems almost certain.
-The tour went extremely well and now we're planning on getting back there on October. The land is so new to us, so it's good to go and remind people of us, Ville Valo smiles
Valo has played with the thought of in the future having a second home in Los Angeles. Helsinki is still forever number one.
-Of course an apartment there would make things easier, but I don't have money for that. If the things roll from here on it would be nice to have a small base.
HIM is gonna have a sabbath in early next year and breath out for the new record. No shedule is yet certain, though.

Ville Valo in Ilta Sanomat [Jun. 19th, 2006|03:38 pm]

“The heart is put in the closet”
VILLE VALO TALKS ABOUT HIS BREAK UP

“Love is madness”
Broken up with Jonna Nygren, Ville Valos year has been dark and tough

HIMs figure-head Ville Valo sits cross legged on the floor in the dressing room of Provinssirock. The rest of the band lays on sofas, behind them a successful gig for 25000 listeners. Just a few hours earlier Ville Valo gave Ilta Sanomat an interview from the tobacco room of his hotel.
Valo must me the most routined Finnish rockstar. Even now he answered the questions openly and in a good mood. He didn't complain about tiredness from the time difference, although just a few days ago he came back after a long American tour.
How do you cope, the same rotation has gone on after the new record for almost two years?
-Pretty good, mostly because I know the summer will be a little more easy, Valo answers
The near week HIM does festival gigs around Europe. The weeks are free, but Valo has things to do
-I have to write songs, say hi to mom and dad, do festivals and take care of myself with reading and bathing, Valo lists
Also, moving takes time. Valo recently bought a historical tower house from Helsinki's Munkkiniemi.
-There at least are no neighbours to do injustice to, he laughs refering to last winters hullabaloo-news. Valo had a fight with his neighbours in Eira, and the police put him in jail. The thing has been agreed on, and the singer blames no one but himself.
-I haven't talked about this a lot, because it was just me being a jerk. I was tired, stressed out, and then I did a stupid thing. It was completely my fault. I asked for forgiveness and we agreed about it together.
A year ago Ville Valo got engaged to Jonna Nygren in Ruisrock. The couple who had been together for a long time tattooed eachothers initials to their fingers and Valo insisted to Ilta Sanoma's to know “where his heart belongs”.
In the spring came the surprising break up news.
-I don't know what the situation is at the moment. It's hard to take care of your relationship if in two years you are away for one and a half. I last saw the lovely dame the day before this. I've been working so hard, Valo tells.
-Lately, the heart has been put in the closet, and work has been done. Soon it'll be taken out of the closet and we'll see how it beats. Love is madness, you can't put it in doses. It either surges over or under.
Valo says the year has been dark and tough. Misfortunes have happened enough in his near circle.
His friends have died and gotten very sick, and many couples have broken up.
-This is a challenge: some super astrologer should look in what position the stars have been. Negative things have happened more than ever. Not necessarily to me, but it has pulled my own wings to the ground for a while.
HIM will start working on the new album next year. Gigs they have to at least November. In America the band does a Halloween tour warming up for example Papa Roach and Lost Prophets. Valo gets to concentrate in the new songs after that.
-There really hasn't been time yet to work them. But I have read a fucking lot and gotten a lot of good ideas.
It seems the new record will be in the stores in next years November, when Valo himself turns 31.
So this year Ville Hermanni Valo will face the full thirty. It doesn't cause a crisis – at least not more than usually.
-Life as a musician doesn't run in weekly cycles. And I have had a crisis every year

credit and much thanks @ http://faithfullll.livejournal.com/ for translating

posted by grapes | 19:25 | commenti (2)

17/06/2006

Fab Five are back in Europe. As you can notice Gas has a sleeve tattoe now (or it s just me seeing it only now?), american diet got a kind influence on the roundness of cheeks and chins of our heroes in general, Mige's clothing on courtesy of Sandokan's Ltd (see further pic for reference), Ville proudly wears heavy hat&t-shirt (well the t shirt is cool at least) in late june and some new drunk men faces permanently needled on his skin *pukes* i won't report the image of a redfaced Charles Bukowsky (neewest---i mean...until a new newer one will be done presumably within the next few hours considering what s going on..- maybe if Ville and the sweet tattooist stopped platonizing their phisical attraction with the excuse of getting faces on Ville s body the fans who are in love with the singer's own devastatedless beauty (=Villenaturalself) will be grateful) because to me it s just too much but you can see it on here at your own risk http://www.himclub.com/board/index.php?showtopic=25461&st=0

enjoy