It’s been a long journey and exciting for the Finnish quintet since first forming back in 1991. Led by charismatic lead singer Ville Valo, the band first achieved success in their mainland before breaking through on a large scale in Europe and especially the UK where the band have been the darlings of the UK press and often gracing the covers of many music magazines. Their work ethic of constant touring has paid big dividends for the band. This interview was noteworthy for this writer in particular as his Laney VH100 head was being borrowed by the band’s guitarist Mikko Lindstrom for use at the band’s Melbourne show. So after exchanging small talk about the Laney head, Mikko spoke with Joe Matera via phone while the band were in Sydney – unfortunately the band’s very hectic touring schedule prevented any face-face interviews from happening - to discuss the band’s career thus far.

Ultimate-Guitar: Venus Doom the band’s most recent album has been the most heaviest sounding album to date, was that because it was a reaction against the more radio friendly predecessor Dark Light? Or was it due to a natural musical progression?

Mikko Lindstrom: I think it was a bit of both. Our very first album, Greatest Love Songs Vol. 666 was a pretty heavy album and so we felt that we somehow needed to move back in that area again. And Dark Light was more of a poppy album and because of that it just felt the right thing to do, the direction to go in, with Venus Doom. And a lot of the songs came out from a lot of my guitar riffs. And because of that they only can be heavy.

While Dark Light was recorded in L.A with producer Tim Palmer, when it came to record Venus Doom you stayed in Finland and got Tim to come out to Finland. Why did you decide to go with the change?

We always like to do something a bit different each time we make an album. For the last record we spent two months in L.A and so we were missing our families and homes. We felt it would be a better idea this time to go and do it back home.

Tim also produced Love Metal (2003), so what does Tim bring to the recording process that allows you to continue working with him?

Tim always comes up with great ideas but one of the most important factors is he always allows us to be ourselves. And he makes the atmosphere really nice in the studio for us in order to get the best performance out of us each time. So because of that he is great to work with and why we have stayed with him.

Does the songwriting process differ much for each album you make?

No it remains pretty much the same. Ville usually comes up with the skeleton of the songs and then we go to the rehearsal room and just jam on them and from that the songs take form.

"It was really funny with the solos on this album."

How do you approach your guitar parts and what is needed in each song during the songwriting process?

We all work together as a band and we’ll try out different ideas and see whats the best for the song. When it comes to playing solos, I always never plan it before hand, it is all improvised. It was really funny with the solos on this album as I played like maybe five solos each time and then we all took a vote for what we considered was the best take and kept that on the recording.

What guitars did you use for recording Venus Doom?

My main guitars for the album were my Gibson SGs. I have about five different ones. And for a couple songs I had some of my guitars tuned to down to a C. I also had a ESP Baritone and a Danelectro Baritone guitar. There was also a Chet Atkins semi-acoustic type guitar used on some of the tracks.

Was that a Gretsch Country Gentleman?

Yes.

Are you much of a guitar collector?

I’m not much of a guitar collector. I have the five Gibson SGs which I travel with all the time and a Gibson acoustic, a Sheryl Crow model which I really love.

Aside from the SGs, do you have any Les Pauls?

I don’t have any Les Paul’s as I have never have liked the guitars.

Live when it comes to amplifiers you’re strictly a Laney man?

Yes, I have two Laney VH100 heads and Laney cabs and they are split, but they’re both on all the time. One has a fuzz pedal on it which gives it more of a punchy tone and because of the contrast in tones, it sounds like there are two guitar players onstage because each has a different kind of attack. The other head is just a Laney going straight.

What about when it comes to effect pedals and the like?

I have TC Electronics for delays and stuff like that and a Wah pedal and an Octaver. And everything is MIDI driven. I use the Skrydstrup R&D system which makes it easy for me as I don’t have to push two pedals at the same time. Before I started using this system, I used to have a lot of problems at shows where the sound would go off and stuff like. But now I don’t have any problems whatsoever. And we don’t use any samplers. Everything is just us guys playing live.

Why do you use Laney and what does it bring to your guitar sound?

I use Laney - and Gidson SGs - mainly because of Tony Iommi. Both the guitars and amps have grown on me ever since. And I can’t imagine playing anything else. And I’ve been really happy with them. The Laneys in particular give me the type of sound I’ve always been looking for. And now, I have it.

April sees the release of the band’s very first live album and DVD called Digital Versatile Doom?

Yeah, we did two shows at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles back in November of last year which was part of our US tour and the shows were really great. And so we’ve decided to release a live album from those shows.

HIM now has the honor of being the first ever Finnish rock band to achieve Gold status in the US. How does that feel?

It feels really great. We’ve had some Gold records before [from other countries] but I usually gave them to our parents. But this time, it will be the first one I will actually get to keep for myself.

The band has toured heavily since its inception and built a large fan base around the world because of it. How do you find audiences compare in the US to those in Europe?

It’s a lot harder touring the US. It’s like it always has long drives or lots of flying involved. And because we usually do four or five shows back to back, when we do have one day off, that one day off is usually spent flying somewhere. So it’s not really a day for us for us. In Europe though the drives are a lot shorter and so touring is a little easier.

"We don't use any samplers. Everything is just us guys playing live."

What is the status of your side-project Daniel Lioneye?

I’m actually about to do a second version of that band. It is going to be a black metal album this time round. I don’t know yet whether I’ll be doing the screaming or the growling but I’m definitely making it. We already have four songs ready to go now and once we get back home in early April, I’ll start work on it. So hopefully it’ll be out sometime later this year.

Will there be any possibility of live shows from Daniel Lioneye?

I don’t know about it, as this time it is going to be a lot more technically demanding. The first album we recorded it in like five days. And Ville won’t be doing the drums this time either. It is going to be one of my friends, a double bass black metal drummer. So it will depend on whether we’re able to reproduce it live as to whether any shows happen.

Recently an American school teacher played some songs about suicide and death including HIM’s “Join Me In Death” to her students in class. This sparked an outcry and attention on the band’s lyrics…

People will always make whatever they want out of something. It’s only art and shouldn’t be taken so seriously. It’s about expressing your feelings through music and lyrics and it is not about actually doing something. It is a very healthy way of getting rid of your negative feelings. People who take things out of context and are like this are usually narrow minded and unrealistic.

Around the time of Razorblade Romance the band had to change its name to HER for the US. It must have been a very confusing time for the band?

Yes it was. Actually there were, and I’m sure, singles or maybe albums that came out with the name HER on it. It is so funny now looking back on it. This all happened because of some band in the US that had registered the name already. They thought we were some sort Satan worshippers so didn’t want us to use the name too. Eventually we had to buy the name off them. I don’t how much it cost but we now own it.

Are you happy with where you are today in your guitar playing career?

I remember when I was 16, I went to Berklee College of Music for a couple of months and now many years later, I’m walking those same streets of Boston when we are tour. And I am remembering how I used to dream of being on tour with a band and stuff like that. And now I’m actually doing it. So it’s an absolute dream come true for me and I’m very happy with where I’m at today.

Interview by Joe Matera
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2008

I'm pretty good, thanks for asking. Just got home from a little "tour" in Thessaloniki, Athens, London and Berlin where we had some great shows indeed. Now we are having a nice 3 week break. Well at least some of us are...

The release of the new album, “Venus Doom,” is still a few weeks away. As it approaches, how are you feeling about the album?

I'm very happy with how the album turned out and I believe the whole band feels pretty much the same way.

Aside from the track of the same name, what made you decide to title the album “Venus Doom?”

I'm not the lyricist but I guess it’s the same theme that has been repeated throughout all the Him album titles so far and the heartagram symbol as well. It’s about the bipolarity of things, you know, the jin and jang [sic] stuff. And this album has a lot of those lovely doomy middle parts too.

It has been rumored that the album will be the band’s heaviest sounding album to date. But the first single, “The Kiss Of Dawn,” has a rather light chorus when compared the song’s earlier guitar riffs. How do you account for the contrast and how would you describe the sound?

I guess that is the reason it’s the first single. The radio stations, at least in Europe, are scared of heavy guitars, so if you want to get any airplay at all -- which is one of the reasons of even releasing singles in the first place -- you might want to pick a track that would have even theoretical chances of being aired. I think it’s a beautiful song and that it is presented in a way that suits the particular song best. What is the point in trying to sound heavy just for the sake of it? You should always respect the song and find a way to make the song sound the best it can. I have personally never been interested in singles or speculating on which one would be the best track to "do the job." I leave that for the record company. But anyway, you are right, the chorus of "The Kiss of Dawn" is probably not the heaviest part of the album.

You’ve been playing Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour with Placebo, My Chemical Romance and others. How has that tour been so far?

Well the tour is over now and we had a great time. We got to play to a bunch of people that hadn't seen us before and got to spread our good news. But we only got to play for about 40 minutes and always in sunlight, so we are really looking forward to doing our own proper tour in America (starting the 18th of October in New Jersey) with a longer set, our own production and lights and so on.

How did you feel about being included on the “Transformers” soundtrack? Have you seen the film?

This is one of those record company things again. I just got informed that our song is on the soundtrack and I thought, “OK, great. They're spreading the disease, which is always good.” [I] haven't seen the movie, not really my type of thing. I'm more into French relationship dramas.

With “Venus Doom” being your sixth as a band, what do you think when you look back at your debut?

It has been a beautiful journey, both musical and emotional. Crashing and collapsing, sometimes easy, sometimes hard. Sometimes lying down with your intestines hanging out on the field, as we say in Finland. I wouldn't change a thing ;-)

Who are some underrated bands that you think deserve more attention?

The band that Iggy Pop used to work with just before reuniting with The Stooges; a band called "The Trolls" with Mighty Whitey on guitar, his brother, Alex?, on drums and a bass player whose name I can't remember either. They might not be the tightest or the most technical band on the planet but who cares about that anyway? You can hear and feel that they play from their hearts and they just rock!

What have you been listening to recently?

The Stooges' latest "The Weirdness." Totally awesome! And then I just got into Bad Brains big time. They've been around for a while, but better late than never, right? I only have the albums "Rock For Light," "The Quickness" and "Build A Nation," but it seems like I have to get their entire catalog. I'm hooked!

If you could have written any song, what song do you wish you had written and why?

Songwriting to me isn't about getting personal recognition. If you're writing songs just to be "the great songwriter" or something as silly, you're missing the whole point.

Anything you would like to add?

Hope to see ya'll on our fall tour! It'll be awesome!

Thanks for your time!

No, thank you!

credit to: pluginmusic.com

Ville Valo: Speaking about the problem with alcohol, it wasn´t only the media who said that, but first of all, I. It´s true. But the year wasn´t so bad. It was an intensive year with the release and the promotion of our new album and I´m still doing it. The time during tours and promotion seems endless sometimes. Every year can be shitty, especially when one is on tour and misses the everyday life. One always meets new, different people and some of them are pretty strange. But the year was not so bad, apart from the drinking. But I´m happy that this time is behind me. There are always turbulent years. 2002, for example, was a hard and bad part of my life. Luckily, there have been more good than bad years. So I can´t complain really.

hitparade.ch: What do you expect from 2008?

Ville Valo: It feels like the year is over again. I do not really relate to years, but more to cycles between and during our albums. It´s been almost 12 months, since we have begun with the promotion and touring for the album  "Venus Doom".  We´re going to play today in Zürich and two more concerts in Europe. Then we have a week break, fly to Australia for few shows and then we have free in April and May. Few gigs on festivals in Summer in Europe and that´s it. Depending on the mood of the band, we will come together and write new songs, if everything fits and new ideas come. Luckily, there isn´t any pressure on us regarding this, so we don´t  have to run to the studio just to record new songs. We will record new songs, when the time is right.  "Venus Doom" took a lot of power from us and I don´t want to get through this again. All these musical influences and how the time passed us by was bad for the band. I see HIM in a more "punk" way. Not in the musical sense, but more when speaking about the work in the band and the attitude to music in general.  Just honest, simple and good music.  The whole thing starts with a song, which is seen as the birth of a new album. When this song comes, the rest happens easily. Then one or two years follow and a new albums is produced. Let´s see when this time comes. This tour has been good so far, but I´m happy when it ends.

hirparade.ch: HIM have mainly female fans and I don´t  have to mention, that most of them are fascinated by you. There are even critics, who claim, that the band HIM would be never so popular, if there wouldn´t be Ville Valo. What do you think about it?

Ville Valo: The fact that I write the music and lyrics is important.  And I´m also the frontman and singer. Of course, the band would sound different, if I wouldn´t be a part of it. To be honest, I also think, that HIM would be less popular without me. I know that I´m a good song writer. But HIM is and stays a band. A band consisting of five guys, who´s been knowing each other for ages. Especially because of this long friendship, we are what we are and I am what I am. I also depend on them and I wouldn´t  be able to do many things without them. The band is the best bond a man could have. We depend on each other, but in a very positive way. I know very well, that many things in this business depend on looks. But it should be mentioned, that our guitar player Linde or our bassist Mige also have many fans.  Of course, I do have many male and female fans, but this pushes the whole band ahead and that´s what counts. In many countries, our fans community consist of 50:50 males and females. Of course, it´s the most fun, and we are all heterosexuals, when we play in front of our female fans, here I have to be honest.  But from the musical point of view, we do not limit only to one sex.  

hitparade.ch: Last year you had a big hit together with Natalia Avelon and the song "Summer Wine". Have similar projects been  planned?

Ville Valo: It wasn´t a solo project really. I was told about the movie "Das wilde Leben" („The wild life“) and I got a list with possible soundtracks. I have always been a fan of Lee Hazlewood. He was great, especially as a song writer. I have always liked "Summer Wine" and the song fit good with my voice. And when I heard that the song should have been recorded in Hamburg, it was clear for me. I had the opportunity to fly to Hamburg for free, live for free and party. You have to know, that a few of my friends live in Hamburg.  The recording of the song lasted 3 hours, the shooting of the video 5. I spent the remaining 4 or 5 days with my friends in bars. So there was no reason to complain. I had nothing to do with the original song, the movie and could spend the time this way.  It´s really surprising, that it became such a hit. Even in countries like Greece, where the movie hasn´t been shown, the song was in charts for weeks. Unfortunatelly, I didn´t  write the song and didn´t have any rights, otherwise I could have made a lot of money with it. Who knows, maybe it happens next Summer. 

hitparade.ch: For years, the lyrics have been about love, death, pain, sin, etc. Do you still have many ideas when speaking about such topics?

Ville Valo: I´m not a big fan of happy music. People in Scandinavia, and especially in Finland, do not like listening of such songs. One can´t just write a song about pancakes. I mean, we eat them, but we don´t write songs about them. What´s this shit? I personally, still see relationships as the most monumental thing in the world.  You know, when you´re overwhelmed by a person and a new microcosmos of ideas emerges in a person. It´s like a fairy tale and no one knows how the end is. That´s fascinating for me, each and every time.  Of course, there are also the negative aspects, but it´s better to put the melancholy into songs, rather than to have it in everyday life. At least I am happy with it.

hitparade.ch: Which HIM song is one of the most important for you and what do you connect with this song? 

Ville Valo: There are many reasons that make them important for me. On the other hand, there are also songs, which I have almost forgotten, because they are of no further importance for me. With the song "The Funeral Of Hearts"  for example, I connect the shoot in Lapland and the director of the video Stefan Lindfors. I have met such a good friend. We are so similar in a crazy way and every time  when I hear the song, I think about this friendship, which emerged from this shoot. Many songs remind me of certain situations. It often doesn´t have anything to do with the moment, in which I wrote the lyrics, but more with what happened around.  On the new album the song "Song Or Suicide" is one of my favourites. I wrote it in Hotel Chateau Marmont in Hollywood.  It was shortly before we finished "Venus Doom"  and me entering the rehab. At that time I was at my lowest point and completely broken. For me it´s very important to have such a song on an album. I´m remembering the time, when I was back in Lapland to continue the rehab. I was in a room, or rather, in a cabin and saw the first snow falling in the morning. I also remember such things. Thoughts, circumstances and impressions, which were leading at that time.

hitparade.ch: There are accustic or unplugged versions of your songs on the singles and special editions. Have you ever been thinking about recording a whole album acoustically or to give an unplugged concert?

Ville Valo: In the late ´90s we played sometimes small unplugged concerts. Mostly for the radio and such. I simply don´t like this kind of unplugged concerts, when one just takes the electric current from the instruments. One has to make the song newer and change it. For example the way how we arranged Chris Isaak´s "Wicked Game" in a new way. To organize existing songs in a new way takes a lot of time, and unfortunately, we´re not a good acoustic band. Gas Lipstick, our drummer, for example,  is not able to play more sensitively or acoustically. He´s just this type of „slam it – guy“ :/ And that leads back to this bond within the band. Who knows? An acoustic album would be surely something great and I would like it. Let´s see.

hitparade.ch: On our website, the members can vote for songs, which were released as singles or were on an album. What do you think, which HIM-song has achieved the highest rating?

Ville Valo: I don´t know your members, but I suppose it´s "Join Me" or " Gone With The Sin". Also "Poison Girl"… I think it´s something from the album "Razorblade Romance".

hitparade.ch: So you estimate our members as very shallow people.... I´ll show you the Top 20. 

1.  The Path
2. Our Diabolical Rapture
3. Your Sweet 666
4. It's All Tears (Drown In This Love)
5. Beautiful
6. Love You Like I Do
7. Vampire Heart
8. Close To The Flame
9. Cyanide Sun
10. Under The Rose
11. Sleepwalking Past Hope
11. Bleed Well
11. Please Don't Let It Go
14. When Love And Death Embrace
15. Passion's Killing Floor
16. In Joy And Sorrow
17. Gone With The Sin
18. Join Me
19. And Love Said No
20. Dark Light

Ville Valo: Wow, I didn´t think about such a result. It looks like there was one or another HIM-expert voting. That´s really interesting. There are many cool songs included, which have never been popular that much or played on radios.  I´m especially happy for "And Love Said No" (19)! I think it´s one of our strongest songs, which has never caught so much attention, as it should have. It was only on our  Best Of album and has never been a part of an album, about which I´m still very disappointed. I love the song and I love the lyrics. Yes, I can say, that your members have taste! But for the disillusionment I have to mention, that we won´t play many of these songs tonight in X-Tra.  

hitparade.ch: Do you still smoke so much?

Ville Valo: It´s been a little less. I had to cut down on it, because I was obliged to do so. It´s because it´s forbidden to smoke in most of the bars and clubs in Finland. I seldom hang around in bars, since I quit drinking and I do not smoke the whole evening one cigarette after another. Nowadays I smoke from 1,5 to 2 packs of cigarettes. It used to be 4 or more in the past. Of course, it´s not the smartest thing and besides when someone has got asthma, like I do. I have been thinking a couple of times to quit it totally. But it´s hard for me as a singer. If one quits, the lungs throw out everything that has been gathered up for years and that´s bad for the voice. I once tried to quit it during a tour. Various musicians told me not to do it. One needs at least two or three months to recover from it, but can neither tour nor record songs. Maybe it´s also the reason, why our holidays are so short or why we are just lazy. We always want an excuse for the smoking. 

CREDIT: hitparade.ch

Question: Given that this is your first big scale action movie what was your initial reaction to the scale of this?

J. Rhys-Meyers: You know the scale of the movie is… it is enormous, but you do not really know how enormous it is until you see the movie. When you are making it you do not think, “Oh my God, this is the hugest film”. It is just another film that you are working on because it is a really intimate process making the film regardless of how many millions of dollars you have to make the film the process is still the same at its core, but when you see the movie you realize that you are in a big, big action movie.

Question: What would you say was your favorite stunt or scene to do in the movie?

J. Rhys-Meyers: You know I really like doing the scene with Tom when we are in Rome, and we are screaming at each other in Italian, and arguing. We changed the dialog slightly so it would be more tolerable for a younger audience, but I said some things to Tom that people do not say to Tom even in Italian so it was good fun. It was good fun, and it was our first scene where our first dialog scene with each other so it was kind of strange. It was like an… it was so intense, but really broke the ice between the two of us, and it was great.

Question: How many languages do you speak?

J. Rhys-Meyers: I speak a little Italian. I speak a little French, English that is it.

Question: So you actually knew what you were saying in Italian?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes, I use to live in Rome. I made a film called Titus Andronicus with Anthony Hopkins seven years ago.

Question: Could you tell us a little bit about the actual training regiment that you have to go through for this film, and I understand you have gone from playing one king to another. Can you tell us a little bit about your future role as Henry the VIII, and the Tutoress* because you seem kind of skinny for Henry the VIII, but I am sure you can nail that one just right.

J. Rhys-Meyers: Okay, the first… I will answer the second question first. Playing Henry the VIII is the (inaudible) conception of why Henry is, is he is rather… he is this chubby red-haired guy who eats lamb legs, and he is (inaudible/coughing) paintings of Henry. Nobody actually painted Henry while he lived. So nobody really knows what he looks like, and anybody who spends that much time hunting, and bedding women is not going to be round, rotund, chubby looking guy. The modern… our perception of him is actually an artist impersonation of what they thought Henry was going to be like, but I am playing Henry from a very, very young age, and he was a very physical athletic guy. He was the ultimate tutor alpha-male. So this is how we are going with Henry. He was a very, very aggressive, very competitive guy, and the first part of the question was again?

Question: Can you tell us a little bit about your actual training regiment for MI3.

J. Rhys-Meyers: MI3. It is physically quite demanding, so I had a lot of working out. We had to train… we had to go to the gym everyday because even if you do not have to do these stunts you have to look like you can do anything at any moment, but I did have to learn how to fly a helicopter. That was about it.

Question: With all these exotic, and wonderful locations that you go… shot this movie, I hope you had time to explore, and if you did what was your favorite memory?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Well, you know it was nice to go back to Rome because it is almost like a second home for me. I use to live in Rome. So it was nice. I had some friends there, and I was able to catch up with them. Shanghai I spent very little time in, but I managed to go to the circus with Tom, and it was a lot of good fun, and LA I know, so that is it.

Question: And I noticed you are working with Keri Russell again.

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes, we just completed a film called August Rush, which is a beautiful, beautiful love story with Keri, and Robin Williams, and Terrence Howard, and Freddie Highmore. It is beautiful.

Question: You said you actually learned how to fly a helicopter.

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes, I did,

Question: Boy, like how well? Like could you actually go flying, and do you put that to use now?

J. Rhys-Meyers: No I do not. I think my flying expertise is very, very limited. I am not sure that anybody would trust me to go up in a helicopter by myself, but I learned the basics of it. Once you get the chopper off the ground it is pretty much simple from there on. The hardest thing about flying a helicopter is just get over the fact that you are flying a helicopter, and that you are up in the air, and it is just… things look different from up there, but it was good fun, but I have not flown a helicopter since.

Question: Are you actually doing any of the flying in the movie

J. Rhys-Meyers: A little, but it is very, very limited. I always had a pilot there with me, but for those scenes where I fly through the windmills there is absolutely no way that they would let an actor do that. It is too dangerous.

Question: I see that one of your upcoming films is a horror film.

J. Rhys-Meyers: I am not doing an upcoming horror film. Adeena is not a horror film. It is a ghost story, but it is not a horror film at all, and I spoke to Nicholas Roeg about doing it, but the film has not generated, and it is on IMDB, but IMDB are very rarely right.

Question: How was it to work with the team because you have to bond before you started shooting?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes. It was easy to bond with everybody. Tom, myself, Maggie, and Ving Rhames spent the first day of shooting in a speed boat, so it was really, really easy to do that, and Tom Cruise is a really, really easy guy to work with.

Question: With Mission Impossible coming in, with Match Point having done so well earlier have you noticed a big change in things for you at least recognition wise certainly when you come to the states?

J. Rhys-Meyers: Yes. There has been a change. It happens when you make films that are successful, and the people like, things change, but for my own personal life, nothing has changed, but for my own personal life nothing has changed very much. I work as hard as I did before. I live a very, very low key, simple life so I try to keep it that way. I like that… the recognition has come from the work…

Question: What is it that you look for in a director, and two, how… since J.J. Abrams was basically making a leap from television to a major feature film did you have any trepidation about working with somebody who had not worked on a project of this scale before?

J. Rhys-Meyers: No. No trepidation whatsoever. From the moment I met J.J. I was completely confident that he was going to take this movie, and he was going to knock it out of the ballpark. There is not that much of a difference between shooting something for TV, and shooting something for film. The difference is film is in the Cinema, and TV is in your home. J.J. has had an awful lot of success in television. He is probably the most successful guy in television, so it was very easy for him to make that transition from TV to film. It was really natural for him.

Question: What sort of qualities do you normally look for in a director? What makes you feel like this is the guy I want to work with?

J. Rhys-Meyers: It is all about the (inaudible). It is all about their work, and I will choose a great director over… I am the kind of actor that does not go, “Oh well I want to play this role”, It is more like I want to work with this director regardless of what the role is because if you scratch a good director usually you will find a good role underneath it, and a good film, but a mediocre director will always make a mediocre movie.

Question: What sort of qualities do you think make for a good director of actors… is there a certain level of kind of confidence that they have or just the ability to communicate or articulate what it is that they want from an actor or…?

J. Rhys-Meyers: I think it is important to be able to articulate what you want. I could cause problems if there is a lack of communication, but you know I am not an actor that requires much talking to a director, I do not want to sit down, and discuss a scene for hours, and hours. It would bore me. Hence why I enjoyed working with Woody Allen. I never had a conversation more than ten minutes long with Woody. Ever. Ever.

Question: You must have gotten tons of questions about this movie, and I know you all had to keep a lot of the details secret. How hard was it to keep it secret for you? And what did you learn about keeping secrets like this?

J. Rhys-Meyers: For me I found it hard because I felt sorry for the people who were asking the questions because you know their boss sends them out going, “Get me something on Mission Impossible”. And you know they would ask me questions, and it would just be simply, “I am not going to tell you”, and then every so often they try, but can you just tell us a little bit or they would try to work it into another question. I have to say to them, “You know guys I am under contract, and I am not going to tell you anything so you can keep asking the question, but I am just going to keep smiling”, and it is hard because I do not want to seem rude. It is part of my job as it is the same way a part of their job to ask, it is part of my job to keep it secret.

Question: Do you still live in Ireland, is that correct? Have you had any thoughts about moving to the U.S. as far as your career goes?

J. Rhys-Meyers: I do not live in Ireland. I live in London with my girlfriend and it is because of the globalization of our planet it is not necessary for you to live in Los Angeles anymore to be a successful actor. Any country is just an airplane ride away. If there is an interesting director that would like to meet me or if there is something that I got to do, I can always hop on an airplane. The world is small now.

credit to moviejungle.com

Erin Broadley: Hello. How are you ?

Ville Valo: Hello there. I’m doing fairly okay, thanks for asking. I’ve had three Red Bulls and eight cups of coffee. I’m like a Duracell [Energizer] Bunny, just hopping around the house.

EB:

Hopping around, beating your drum.

VV:

Just short of being beamed up by UFOs.

EB:

What was that Michael Jackson movie where he morphs into a bunny?

VV:

Moonwalker. [Laughs] I don’t know what that was.

EB:

[Laughs] Some horrible thing with a claymation bunny.

VV:

Well, Michael Jackson is one of those characters that you hope your brain will be like a hard drive you can just defragment and, like, erase the files you don’t want to have in there.

EB:

Right, right. He’s had some memorable moments.

VV:

Indeed. But you know, R. Kelly is taking care of that now.

EB:

Oh man, have you seen the Trapped in the Closet DVD?

VV:

Not the new one, but the first one. Bits and pieces. To be honest with you, it was so psychologically demanding I wasn’t able to watch the whole thing through.

EB:

It’s pretty intense, [laughs] there’s a lot of hidden meaning in all its layers.

VV:

Yeah, it’s very, very deep, [laughs] very deep soaked in urine. There’s nothing wrong with taking a leak but at times people do, you know, take their leaks in places that are not appropriate.

EB:

Yeah, just don’t pee on the wrong person.

VV:

That’s very well put.

EB:

Alright, well, on that note, how are things going so far with the release of the new record?

VV:

[Laughs] Everything seems to be going well. The band’s happy and we can’t wait to get back on tour. I had a really shitty last year and it’s been kind of tough on me. I went to fucking rehab and shit. I had nearly both of my feet in the grave. You know, I’m not the only one and I’m not so self-centered that I’d be sitting in a corner cursing God, “Why me? Why me?” It’s just that I found myself in a funny position like R. Kelly [laughs] but…

EB:

[Laughs] But you handled it a little differently.

VV:

[Laughs] Very differently. I had my meltdown, but I kept all the liquids inside of me. But everything is fine, it’s all good.

EB:

So things have kind of balanced out for you?

VV:

Well, everything is kind of new and kind of weird. I had a long-term relationship, we were engaged and we broke up. We were recording the album at the same time and me battling with the booze…a lot of shit hitting the fan in all directions, at the same time. A lot of it was caused by myself, nobody else. I just didn’t have the time to decompress and have quality time with myself [laughs].

EB:

Right, light some candles and have “me time” [laughs].

VV:

Oh my God, I hate that term “me time”. I love the fact that I had somebody say, “I’m really sorry I have to get going because I’m missing myself.” It sounds corny. It sounds like a sailor sitting on his hands just to make them numb just to be able to jerk off. But yeah, things are looking pretty good. It’s kind of cool after a year of traveling to be able to be home for a week and a half and actually buy that toilet paper and do laundry and do the dishes.

EB:

Right. Do the normal, day-to-day things.

VV:

You can do even normal things in a very abnormal way. So it’s always a challenge and it’s always an adventure if you make it one.

EB:

Well, being in bands since you were a teenager, your whole development of what normal life is has definitely been a different challenge than for the average person.

VV:

It’s different, it’s not better, it’s not worse. It’s a lot of traveling. I’m really glad that I’m blessed with the opportunity of traveling and having this way of life, spending all this time with my band mates who I grew up with. That’s a luxury a lot of bands don’t have.

EB:

You’ve said before that writing albums can be really disastrous, emotionally. How do you pull yourself up and stay grounded after making a record? It’s a very intense way to live and it can be very manic. No wonder it destroys so many young artists, both personally and in their relationships with other people.

VV:

Well, you know, I’m not a quitter. So when you wake up and you’re walking out and it’s raining and feels like R. Kelly sitting on top of a cloud and peeing on you…

EB:

[Laughs]

VV:

When you feel miserable and all that, you feel vengeful. I do feel that life is a challenge. It is a pain in the ass and if you’re fucked up it makes it easier. I’m not fucked up anymore so I feel very challenged about everything now.

EB:

Alcohol is an amazing filter.

VV:

Yeah it is. It kind of happened with me not thinking about it. There’s just a tremendous amount of partying available. When you’re touring in a band there’s always a cause for celebrating after a good gig, or if you fucked up a gig there’s always a reason to get shit-faced because you feel bad about it. There’s always a reason, so it was perfect for me to be in a position where I was shitting and vomiting blood. But now I’ve gone through that and now even thinking about a pint of beer makes me feel nauseous. I had to walk that line. I went to the doctors and they said I had to go to the ER. I said, “No I can’t because I’ve got to do a couple of interviews” [laughs]. So I was that, before I got the blood tests and everything back.

EB:

Literally, the press was becoming the death of you, you can’t do that.

VV:

Fuck no, man. I tried.

EB:

If you throw up after this interview I’m going to be really, really upset.

VV:

[Laughs] Fair enough, fair enough. They said I’ve got either I’ve got to stop drinking and calm myself down or it’s going to be heart failure next. You know, it’s a lonely life being sober, missing all my bar friends and everything, here on my own playing acoustic guitar, playing forlorn love songs, trying to pray to the Devil to get myself a new loved one to write some songs for. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to drink or party in moderation. My last bender lasted more than two years, getting fucked up every single day. It’s not healthy but obviously it’s a way of life. You get a different social scene and you care about different things, based on the idea that you’re not happy with yourself or you’re not feeling comfortable with yourself so you just want to numb the pain by using something whether it’s legal or illegal. I just had vengeance in me and was pointing my middle finger up toward the cloud where R. Kelly was pissing on top of me [laughs].

EB:

[Laughs] Take that, R. Kelly!

VV:

That’s the reason why I turned out to be a proper Scandinavian satanist. [Laughs] Yeah, but everybody’s got to find their own way. I’m still getting used to it. It’s the first time in years that I’ve been actually alone in a house.

EB:

With yourself and your “me time”.

VV:

Yeah, with the “me time”. It’s “me and my guitar time”.

EB:

Exactly, which is be a more satisfying relationship than most, probably.

VV:

Well, they never stay in tune and they’re fucking downright bastards.

EB:

Well, at least you don’t have to kick them out of the house the next day.

VV:

Yeah, you don’t have to saw your own arm off when you wake up in the morning.

EB:

One thing we’ve talked about before is that it’s really hard for you to separate fantasy from reality in music, mainly because you live your life in the music that you write. That seems like something that could trigger the emotional fallout that happens when you write a record.

VV:

It is emotionally devastating but that’s how I like it. Let’s say it’s good to be a white boy dancing badly on the razor’s edge, if you know what I’m saying. You know, it’s not necessarily the white boy thing. I’m just a shitty dancer that’s all. Just the fact that I’m not purposefully trying to find myself in tough situations, but the world in itself it is a pretty tough place. Turn on the TV and watch the news. I just can’t do that anymore. It just makes me so sad.

EB:

You said recently in another interview that life as a musician is a very [Salvador] Dali-esque experience.

VV:

Yeah, I don’t know. I’m living my life the best way I can and I don’t know the perception of the band or me as a person outside of myself. It’s not like I’m sitting up in the morning, sitting in a fucking Gothic chair.

EB:

Or having midgets bring you morning tea.

VV:

Yeah, with trays of cocaine on the top of their heads.

EB:

Oh God. Rise and shine.

VV:

Yeah, oh my God, ooh, I don’t even want to think about that.

EB:

Yeah, let’s not. Because we don’t want to throw up, right?

VV:

Why not? They have phone sex, why can’t you have phone vomiting sessions?

EB:

We could, we could throw up in tandem over the phone. It’ll be really romantic [laughs].

VV:

Exactly. Purge on beautifully, my dear [laughs]. But, you know, at the end of the day you are one with your art and everybody’s an artist. Everybody’s a piece of art. Everybody’s got a story to tell. Everybody tells it in different ways, some people tell it the way they walk, some people tell it the way they talk or the way they smile. You’ve just got to have some imagination. [Being a musician] is surreal and it is very surprising that you never know what’s around the corner. It’s weird because phone calls happen, all of a sudden an album is on the charts, and all of a sudden you’ve got to fly tomorrow somewhere to meet somebody, like, let’s say a video director whose videos you watched since you were a teen. Things like that, it’s very surreal so in that sense it is an adventure. It’s like Alice in Wonderland because there are so many unexpected things happening all the time. The surrealism actually exists in your everyday life. So you’re there 'in the looking glass' so to speak. It is a little weird. But that’s life, isn’t it. It can make you feel like, “Whoa, what the hell is going on right now?” But it’s also really beautiful. It’s more of a laugh when you’re sober. There’s a great comedy in me coming out one day. I wish that it would be like The Truman Show, there would be somebody secretly recording.

EB:

All of a sudden you wake up and you find out that the whole thing has been this big experiment. They tap you on the shoulder and say, “And… scene. That’s a wrap, guys” You’re like, “What?”

VV:

I’d fucking love it. It’d be so fun. I’m waiting for that to happen. With the surrealism in everyday life, that’s something that actually could happen.

EB:

Exactly, well, if that ever does happen to you…

VV:

I will call and let you know.

EB:

Let me know. I didn’t sign any release forms.

VV:

[Laughs]

EB:

[Laughs] Well, your music definitely has a wickedly humorous side to it as well. Would you mind telling me how humor plays a factor in your music? A lot of people would consider it really emotional and melancholy.

VV:

There is humor in melancholy as well, you know. It’s like existential humor. It’s funny that single individuals and billions of people are sitting alone in a chair and all sad about the fact that he or she lost a relationship or whatever. It’s a weird thing. We’re like fucking ants, building up our own den and house, to do what? To live there and maybe procreate someday? I am a miserable bastard in the most positive sense of that term. So let’s say the stuff I’m writing about at times is so demanding that humor is the only thing that helps me through the day and night, and the mornings with the ridiculous amounts of coffee I drink. We were talking about the surreal, the Dali-esqueness of life being in a rock band or my life in general. You know it’s just nice that it is like a cluster fuck that you can’t separate the humor from the sadness. And I don’t want to. It’s nice to find yourself laughing at the wrong spot.

EB:

You told me once that the best way to express emotions is through music and not through lyrics. That’s something I find really interesting because a lot of your fans really connect with the particular words you use in your lyrics and the emotions they convey.

VV:

What I’m trying to do, my mission in life is to get thirty different definitions of love into Webster’s Dictionary. That’s my mission in life. [Definitions] that really, really do explain the emotion. To be able to verbally explain how people really do feel. That’s what I do and that’s my new challenge. My first challenge was to be able to express myself through music and now I’ve learned it and I’m really happy with it because it makes me more of a whole person. That would be an interesting thing to do in life, to concentrate on emotion so much and to be able to verbalize it so well that it would make the dictionary.

EB:

That would be nice.

VV:

At the end of the day I just want to be happy.

source: SuicideGirl

Furtado met “Demo” while recording her 2006 multi-platinum album “Loose.” And Timbaland has confirmed that the lovebirds have a wedding ahead of them.

And it sounds like the marriage plans are a sharp contrast to “modern” view of not getting married.  “I’m kind of modern. I don’t really live by society’s standards. Maybe in the next five years I’ll get married, have more kids. One grandmother had eight kids, the other had 10. If I have that many kids, then I would need a hubby.”