About Ville Hermanni Valo

So.... There he was, working behind the counter of his father's sex shop. It was all right for the time being, but the boy with an angel's face and a devilish smile had a dream. Disillusioned with the music he heard around him, he wanted something more. The music was lacking in soul and imagination. He wanted something that could move you, bring you to the verge of tears, and leave a mark on you. And he fulfilled his dream...

There are three fellows who want to spit out their ideas in the musical way. The guys are very good friends since their childhood. They are Ville Hermanni Valo, Mikko Lindström (also known as Linde, Lintti and Lily Lazer) and Mikko Paananen (known as Migé Amour). At the beginning Ville plays bassguitar, but because Mige also plays it Ville starts to sing. Before HIM starts Ville plays the bass in the progressive band called Donits-Osmo. There are experiments with some persons that lately played in Ultra Bra. Ville makes some demos and plays it to Mige who rapidly enchanted on it. They need a guitarist for their new band and because they know Linde already, they only need a drummer. Ville's good friend Suho (the singer of Jimsonweed) gave Ville the phonenumber of Pätkä (real name:Mikko Rantala) and the band is ready. Pätkä had played in the Grungeband called Slumgudgeon from Lappeenranta. [The rest of the band jokes about Pätkä's origin. Lappenranta is smaller town in the eastern Finland.]

The band is named: His Infernal Majesty.

"It stands entirely for my reputation of being a truly infernal ladies' man, totally hopeless. I get burned time after time again. His Infernal Majesty has nothing whatsoever to do with ANY kind religious beliefs or ideologies - just as in our context 666 has nothing to do with the number of the beast. When I read about those people that burned historical Finnish churches and who names us along with Black Sabbath and Dimmu Borgir as being their main source of inspiration, I was deeply offended!"

Ville Hermanni Valo forms HIM finally 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... Ville about love metal "You're so close! Love metal is music that includes elements of pop, metal, goth, glam... It's music inspired by the feelings you have before the first touch, before the first kiss. Love metal is like the movie poster of Gone with the Wind, you know, Clark Gable embracing Vivien Leigh in the sunset."

Now they start public performances which are actually coverversionshows, because they've got not enough own material to play. They play Rauli Badding Somerjoki, Dingo, WASP, KISS, Depeche Mode, Type O' Negative and everything in between them. Ville imagines that the music he wants to play should sound like Dimmu Borgir meets Depeche Mode in a David Lynch movie. They (actually it is Ville) start to make own material.

The first EP is released in autumn 1996. It is called "666 Ways To Love" - Prologue and on the cover of the record is the picture of Ville's mother when she was young. The EP contains their breakthrough song which is the coverversion of the Chris Isaak hit "Wicked Game". It was played with fuzzed guitars and mood from the TV-serie "Twin Peaks".

At the end of 1996 Ville sings the background vocals of the 69 Eyes' album "Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams". After the EP-release they get a new member keyboarder Antto Melasniemi which is an old friend of Ville.

At the same time the band's name gets shorter. Now it's simply called HIM.

"Wicked Game" is the 'maintheme' of their first album which is released in autumn 1997. The HIM version has layers ofhard-edged guitars on it but the soul-searching inner qualities of that song are left intact.

"I could relate to the mood in that song, it contains that same kind of melancholy feeling that you can find in our music. After all, we have much more in common with a guy like Chris Isaak than any testosterone-heavy metal band. I hate joyful music! For You is my 'headbanging anthem', if you know what I mean? When Love and Death Embrace on the other hand is my version of all those cheesy 80's pop ballads."

HIM's debut album Greatest Love songs, Vol. 666 has a track on it called Your Sweet Six Six Six.

For Ville and HIM, 666 is all about contradictions, the Good and the Evil in love. Love that's larger than life and yet very close to death, the never ending duel between the carnal and the pure, spiritual sides.

"666 is something you're possessed with, something you just have to get although you know it will destroy you in the end. It's something sweet but it has a bitter aftertaste, like Belgian beer or something, ha-ha..."

.... says Ville Valo the androgynous figure on the cover of Greatest Love songs, Vol. 666, burning in the fires of hell and staring into nowhere. A guy who started his musical career learning the bass entirely because of Gene Simmons' pyrotechnics and for whom performing is a kind of mental masturbation. The sex shop boy who with had band HIM has just delivered one of the most impressive debut albums of the 90's.

This album contains another cover version, a stunning, slowed down reading of "(Don't Fear) The Reaper”. The song was originally recorded by Blue Öyster Cult in 1970's.

"You could say that Romeo and Juliet are the hero and heroine in our music - that's why we chose to cover (Don't Fear) The Reaper. I heard the original for the first time on the soundtrack of Halloween and it has stayed with me ever since."

HIM work hard on stage and start to plan their future.

The second album is first named "Slippery When Dead" in the dedication to Ville's favourite Bon Jovi. Originally it should be released in spring 1999, but they get some problems. Antto leaves the band in autumn 1998 and is replaced by Jussi-Mikko Salminen (known as Zoltan Pluto or Juska). Juska was a hardcorefan of HIM and formerly member of the Glamrockband Mary-Ann from Kouvola. The first gig he ever does together with HIM is their first gig outside of Finland in Germany in November 1998. They have tours in Germany, Austria and Switzerland at the end of 1998.

Towards the end of 1998 Ville again sings the background vocals on the 69 Eyes album 'Wasting the Dawn'. He also helps with the pre-productions of the vocals and gives the redwine guidance for the album.

They record almost the whole year 1999. They do this with Pätkä, however, the band is not satisfied with it. Pätkä's girlfriend becomes pregnant and he doesn't want to give 100% for the band. So Pätkä leaves the band and is replaced by Mika Karppinen (also known as Gas Lipstick or Kaasu). Kaasu was formerly a member of Kyyria. They record the album again in Wales.

In November 1999 they finally release new material. The single is called "Join Me" and it is featured in the Roland Emmerich film "The 13th Floor". It immediately becomes the number one in Finland, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Before their second album the band is a guest of other finnish bands, e.g. in the video of Neljä Ruusua and the song 'Hunningolla'. Ville also sings three songs of Rauli Badding Somerjoki with the Agents in the TV-show called 'Laulava Sydän'. [The songs have been lately released on an album with other Finnish singers.]

In January 2000 they release their second album whose title is changed into "Razorblade Romance". It is also top of the charts in Finland, Germany and Austria. The album is not that darkmooded as their first album. It's rather in the style of the 80's. The cover is pink in contradiction to Goths, because they use black very often.

In spring (in Germany on Valentine's Day) they release their second single 'Right Here In My Arms'. It is number one in Finland. In Germany the position is 21.

On June 17th HIM play their only gig in summer 2000 in their homecountry Finland. That happens in Provinssirock in Seinäjoki. In summer the third single 'Poison Girl' is released. The best chartpositions is number 3 in Finland and number 34 in Germany. When July is turning to August HIM are in Hollola recording demos for their new album. Rumours tell that they have already recorded 11 new songs.

On two evenings in the center of Lahti at a restaurant called Teerenpeli Ville also sings two surprise performances with the material of Rauli Badding Somerjoki. The band's musicians are from Lahti.

HIM also becomes popular in Greece where the records climb into the Top 10.

Ville is backing vocals again with the 69 Eyes. The new 69 Eyes' album is released in Finland in September 2000. In August 2000 HIM is taking shots for 2 forthcoming videos in England. There are also rumours about contributions of Desmond Child. Child is a famous composer of Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper etc.

^v^Recent Events^v^

The Finnish singer Tuomari Nurmio will be fifty in November 2000. There will be released a album for him and Ville is singing a song called "Valo Yössä'. The song is dedication to Nurmio and his father. Ville's father, he was a taxidriver when Ville was a little boy, he always played it and it became an important song to Ville.

In October 2000 HIM release the fourth and last single of "Razorblade Romance". It is 'Gone With The Sin' and contains a version in collaboration with Avanti Orchestra and Radiomafia. There is a section of strings behind Ville. The version is arranged and produced by a respected Finnish music person, Otto Donner. Ville wanted to put something special to the single for the fans. He doesn't like to rip-off the money of them. [Avanti is a Finnish chamber music collective and Radiomafia a Finnish national radio station.]

The Finnish humourband Eläkeläiset made a cover version of 'Join Me' in the autumn 2000. The song is retitled 'Humppasonni' and it's played in humppastyle which is an old-fashioned Finnish music style.

HIM breaks the platinum limit in Germany and the band plays an acoustic concert in Köln.

"Wicked Game" is the next single release in England.

For the next album they already have about 14 songs and they plan to go to studio in December 2000. One choice for the title of the album is 'Ozzymandias Dargunum'. It might be an intermediate of the first two albums. It could be straighter, more melodic, more rockin' and hopefully more live than studio. They like to put more Hurriganes in the music which means that the style might be closer to the 70's than the 80's. Ville is voted most stylish pop-person in Finland by listeners of Radiomafia. He gets more votes than anyone else. At the end of October BMG becomes recordcompany of the year and Seppo Vesterinen is chosen as a manager of the year 2000 in Finland. "Gone With The Sin" climbs the top of the singlecharts in Finland and gets position 19 in Germany in its releaseweek. "Wicked Game" will be heard in a Chilean moviesoundtrack.

In the year 2000 Razorblade Romance-album reaches platinumrecords from Finland and Germany and goldrecords from Austria, Switzerland and Poland. In Portugal and in Greece the album is close to goldrecord selling.

HIM wins two awards [from Viva and ZDF] in Germany in autumn 2000. HIM gets the awards for the best video ["Join Me"] and the band was also the channel's most popular one. HIM puts its videoprize to sell by auction. It is kept in the Internet at the end of the year 2000. The proceeds of the auction go to the children's neurological ward of Helsinki's academic central hospital.

Juska plays his last gig in HIM at New Year's gig in Helsinki. In future he wants to concentrate on his studies and his energy won't be enough for the band.

Ville will play the keyboards for their forthcoming album. They replacement for Juska Salminen is Emerson Burton.

HIM play first gig without Juska in Helsinki on January 12nd in little club called Semifinal. Behind the keyboards there is 'an old friend' of the band. Burton has formerly played in bands like Cosmos Tango, Sub-Urban Tribe and Torpedo. His real name is Jonne Puurtinen.

At the end of January 2001 the total sales of the two albums get over the limit of one million copies internationally.

The first album Greatest Lovesongs Vol.666 has been sold about 223.000 times and it's a platinumrecord in Finland.

Razorblade Romance have a friend in 795.000 homes and it got platinum in Finland and Germany.

The record achieves goldrecordlimits in Austria, Switzerland, Poland and Portugal.

The next goldrecord is probably coming from Greece.

In Germany Razorblade Romance is the second best-selling album of BMG after Supernatural by Santana in 2000.

In February 2001 Razorblade Romance has been in the German album charts for more than a year !

Furthermore in February at the finnish Emma Awards HIM win in two categories:

the band of the year and the album of the year.

Austrian Rennbahn Express readers vote HIM to get three golden penguins.

Ville Valo is the star and the singer of the year and HIM win the category 'band of the year'.

In February the official website Heartagram.com wins the most popular prize in the international advertisement competition. The competition is organized by the union of marketing communication offices. The Jury of the competition says that the site is the best international advertisement in Finland right now and it also does excellent export marketing. According to the sites' designers (Satama Interactive) Heartagram.com collects about 10.000 visitors daily.

Ville is a guest singer in the reunion gig of the Finnish Goth band Musta Paraati at Tavastia Club, Helsinki in March 23rd 2001. The original singer of Musta Paraati died in early 1990's and his name was Jore. There are also talkings about tribute album.

In April 2001 the readers of the Finnish magazine Seepra vote a band 'Finnish Allstars' and Ville is chosen as singer. The other 'members' of this band would be guitarist Albert Järvinen and drummer Remu Aaltonen (both from Hurriganes) and basist Pekka Pohjola (known from Wigwam). Voters choose also an alternative fifth member for the band and it is pianoplayer Lenni-Kalle Taipale. The number of votes is 1067. Ville says about this band: 'Sounds scaring. I'm not sure that I belong to company like that. I'm afraid of that record sessions of the band like that would turn into a fight. Here's so many big egos - some kind of soloartists, so this is arising the hell on earth.'

HIM is going to release their first single ’Pretending’ of the forthcoming album ‘Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights’ on July 2nd 2001 and the album is planned to be released on August 27th.

The single is going to include a few remixes of the song and there will also be a special edition of the single which contains a couple of surprises from the band.

The band had had 14 songs ready for the album in summer 2000 and one choice for the title of the album had been 'Ozzymandias Dargunum'. The record is supposed to be the intermediate of the first two albums. It might be straighter, more melodic, more rockin' and hopefully more live than studio. They put more Hurriganes into the music which means that the record will be closer to the 1970's than the 1980's. That’s what Ville says about the album in autumn 2000 in an interview for the Finnish radiostation Radio Mafia.

Guitarist Linde releases a soloalbum in May 2001 under his pseudonym Daniel Lioneye. He’s doing some gigs in Finland with a group called the Rollers. The Rollers contain members of few Finnish rockbands.

By the way, Ville plays the drums on Daniel Lioneye’s record.....

"What next? You just wait", Ville says with a sly smile. "It could be anything I just may have a plan V, you know. I might go full time into the family business."