HIM's Ville Valo the Box Of Chocolate's that's the Best Of Both Worlds

Finnish icons HIM has been around for over 20 years since then they have toured relentlessly, recorded various albums and still to this day have not stepped down from doing what they love. Going onto what is there eighth album to date, "Tears On Tape" is straight to point being more noisy, grungy, just heavier than what they have covered before making it even spooky at times. With that, frontman vocalist ad acoustic guitarist Ville Valo himself took some time to discuss this album's expectations and further plans for HIM.

1. You're on album number eight did you ever see this day to arrive?

Ville: No obviously not. It's always stuff that keeps us on our toes and if we were to speculate at any album even like our 13th it's not how we do it, for us it works one day at a time as AA says.

2. What were you trying to achieve with Tears on Tape?

Ville: Keep ourselves entertained. It's such a big part of our lives when we formed over 20 years ago so we try to spice things up a bit.

3. What was on your mind when you were writing the album?

Ville: Probably the lack of sleep I didn't get, everything else was just a blur but afterwards we just went with the flow. Me I just get the ideas down then show it to the guys while at rehearsal. So from there we just bang our heads having a good time so that's the best way we do it. We don't have a strict plan on doing things, I think it's just great to have that magic and excitement not knowing what you're going to get, it's just like opening a box of chocolates.

4. Can you tell us how this album differs from the previous ones? What can we expect and what is the message behind it?

Ville: I think there is no message. It's more of the process that evolves. We're not political or religious so there is no statement behind our music. So with this one it's more noisy, grungy, and straight to the point, much heavier than our last one and spooky at times. It has everything we are known for we tried experimenting a bit but I never write the same song twice so it's left to the ear of the beholder to decide on whether or not if it's something new or not.

5. What are your expectations for the CD?

Ville: I think the basics would be to be surprised, touring, meeting some new people, just wanting to be successful in this industry taking a lot of timing and luck. We don't know what's really going to happen with it but we are happy with it, the style and sound of it so by that we have fulfilled our expectations of it already. So now we just have to wait on what the people think of it whenever they get it.

6. How did the deal with Razor and Tie come about?

Ville: It was an odd situation, we were signed to Warner Brothers and everything changed. So we wanted to see if there would be alternatives out there so we went with Razor and Tie, due to them giving us a decent deal, so it's important to have a situation when calling a record label and having all of this assistance available. So we will see what happens next.

7. Will we ever see Ville Valo flying solo doing a solo career?

Ville: Not me, our bass player did a solo project and our guitarist worked on a side project, since I am the main song writer for HIM that's enough for me. If I did go and write something it would probably sound just like HIM if not sound worse so I am happy with the band the way it is.

8. Why did you want to do this mini tour in support of this album?

Ville: Since the album is coming out late in the Spring time, all of the summer festivals coming up, we had wanted to do this tour to let everyone know that there is a record coming out and we are around, after that tour we will be doing another in the fall but not sure of where it will start. We just wanted to do more intimate shows for the loyal fanatics out there.

9. You have done work in the past with the guys of The 69 Eyes, would you ever consider touring with them in the U.S.?

Ville:  We've known each other for years like 90 something, singing backing vocals on the albums, but there busy so whenever we're in the studio they're touring or if they're in the studio we're touring so our paths never cross. But yeah it would be nice to do so I gota ask them next time I see them what they want to do.

10. What are your favorite things about touring in the U.S.?

Ville: The scenery, big skies, like touring in the U.K. the cities are like 100 miles from one another where in the U.S. it's constant traveling and makes it great. Seeing these shady motels, gas stations, it's nothing like a tourist you get to see the different sides of things. All of the states have different things it's the best of both worlds when it comes to touring.

11. You guys have toured a lot over the years but where hasn't HIM set foot in?

Ville: We've never played Africa, India, Alaska, Latin America, only played Japan once, there are a lot of places we would love to go to, to see what it's like but the problem with touring is that if you wanted to see all of those countries and cities you'd be on tour for years. By doing that touring can be tiring being away from home, so we're still trying to find a balance between being in the studio and being out touring it's a fine line, so hopefully we'll get to see some new places soon.

12. What can the fans expect to see from you for this year?

Ville: Hoping that there will be fans because without them we wouldn't get to do what we love to do. We'll just be touring as much as possible, just shot 3 new videos which should be out soon, next week we will be working on the live set list bringing back my acoustic guitar for some songs, and playing songs we haven't played in a long time. So just switching things around just a tiny bit to get people's interest up.

13. Anything else you want to add for your fans?

Ville: I think we covered all of the basics and I think that's the toughest question in the world.