Ville Valo about songs, albums and song writing
Ville Valo: "Well, I write most of the melodies and most of the music... and the lyrics; I've been writing songs ever since I was about 9 years old and I dont know why. It's very simple; I've never been thinking of it as therapeutic, it's just fun. And suddenly it was necessary for us to be writing our own music, to be able to be here for example." ...
[interview for bigwideworld.com]
Ville Valo:"Our lyrics are quite real, some kind of diary divorced from its context. It's like a movie, where the story is true, but they've changed the places and the names. From my lyrics you find out as much about my feelings as you find out about Mige when you listen to his bass parts... ... [Rennbahnexpress 5/2000]
Ville Valo:(...) to me song writing has an almost therapeutic effect. We try to avoid the biggest bustle and completely concentrate on our music instead. If we have a few days off in Helsinki, I always bring a little dictating machine to immediately record all ideas. I can relax best writing songs, rummage through my record collection or listen to new CDs. (Rockhard 02/01)
Ville Valo:"I don't care whether journalists like the album or not, it depends on the consumer. I don't consider our album good or brilliant, I'm content, yes. It's good as long as people buy it, come to our concerts and just really like it. That's what makes a good album. It's not a good album if nobody's interested in it. In my opinion it's not only about the music, but also about the cover, the lyrics, the gigs, the promotion, just all the things that go with it." (taken from interview with Jrg Staude)
"Deep Shadows & Brilliant Highlights"
German, original version from Orkus
Salt in our wounds
"This song was taken as the first song because of the weird intro. We wanted to scare people a bit and irritate them, when they listen to the CD. There are Indian influences in this song, for which Mig has a big faible." [Orkus 11/01]
Heartache every moment
"The piano is a tribute to John Carpenters Halloween. There the most work in this song, and Kevin Shirley added a lot to it. In the lyrics you kan find parallels to our last album Razorblade Romance". [Orkus 11/01]
Lose you tonight
"We stole the drum rhythm of Cathedrals Voodoo. The guitar solo is a tribute to John Fruciante." [Orkus 11/01]
In joy and sorrow
"This is the last song Ive written for the album (in December 2000). The song has beautiful strings-arrangements which were done by John Fryer (I guess he stole them from Massive Attack). The idea of the lyrics arose from an Indian wedding oath." [Orkus 11/01]
Pretending
"This was our first single, but it was not our first choice. We rather saw the song as an albumtrack. The record company sent us to an amusement park to shoot the video, which was very funny. It is our sentimental version of Iggy Pops Mask." [Orkus 11/01]
Close to the flame
"The song has a beauiful christmas-melody and in some way it's the sequel of Gone with the sin. We wanted to create a great sound with minimal instrumental usage." [Orkus 11/01]
Please dont let it go
"This title originally was planned to be a tribute to the Stooges, but when we recorded the acoustic version with Kevin Shirley, we all liked it so much that we decided to use this version. The track is the light at the end of the tunnel." [Orkus 11/01]
Beautiful
"This song caused the most problems with the record companies because they didn't like it. Its obviously too sentimental for the cold business hearts. I never buy flowers on Valentines day, so I dedicated this song to a very special person." [Orkus 11/01]
Dont close your heart
"This song is sung by someone who tries to save the one who sung Join me (grin). Its the most organic song of the record."
Love you like I do
"Its the first song that I mixed myself, and I tried to imitate the sound of Elvis Presley. When I recorded the demo for this, I was completely drunk and wanted to finish it as fast as possible, to get drunk even more. The outro is a tribute to Black Sabbath." [Orkus 11/01]
"Razorblade Romance"
in German, from Orkus
I Love You
We thought about this one a lot while we were doing the first album, and we did a million versions of it. We had to record this one just because of the title, because those three words are the beginning of every tragedy. A good intro to the record: short, tight, and hits you in the face. And if anyone who hears Join Me in Death thinks that we are just doing that posing-with-bulges-in-our-too-tight-pants glam thing, this proves that we have some vitality.
taken from
A song that we first played in the Soundgarden of Dortmund, it was two days after I wrote it. It worked at once and it opens the album. You can laugh, but for me it sounds like a mix of D:A:D and the Sisters of Mercy. The lyrics are about love, just as the most of mine. But it has an unusual point of view, just as if David Lynch would do a romantic movie. [Break Out 02/00]
Poison Girl
This song is about a certain girl and how you can destroy something beautiful. This isn't a song about hate; it's about asking for forgiveness. All of my songs are about real relationships: there's nothing fake about them. I've never liked building fantasy worlds. The texts are personal therapy, so I'm saving a little money here. Actually I'm making a little.....taken from
"Really no hate-song, even if some people said so. I specially like the lyrics, theyre about a girl whom I like and whom Ive treated in not such a nice way. I have posioned her in a figurative way."[Break Out 02/00]
"Some people misunderstood the lyrics of that song as a "hate-song". Actually its the real opposite: a desperate cry for forgiveness. Musically this song is an example for what we are going to in our new material."[Break Out 02/00]
Join Me in Death
I think this is one of the weaker tracks on the album. The piano is nice, but maybe the song doesn't mean anything to me because it's not about real life. This is an old song-the first demo was done in January '98-and I've already gotten sick of it, because it's just the same simple thing over and over......taken from
"A quite old and in a pessimistic way optimistic song. The main melody was done in a some hours, but it too about half a year to do the whole arrangement. The lyrics are a modern adaption of the story of "Romeo and Juliet". Two people in love who feel misunderstood by their family and all the world. Many mistook the song and said, it would be about suicide. But thats just wrong. Its more a melancholic hymn, like "When love and death embrace" of the first album. And I really didnt think of vampires, though you had that interpretation when we last met. The lyrics arent that gothic at all."[Break Out 02/00]
"I hope the listeners are intelligent enough to know, that this is just about a nice story like Romeo and Juliet's. If I took my own lyrics too serious, I wouldn't sit here, but would be lying in my own grave instead."[from the interview with Jrg Staude]
"Join me wasn't specially written for the movie. This song which tells a story in the line of Romeo and Juliet, existed months before it was picked for The 13th Floor" [Elegy 2000]
"Original the song was written in the early year 1997 and because of this its a song we already played to death before we recorded it. Its a song about trust and its loss." [?]
Right Here in My Arms
An old song, a back-to-the-eighties Billy Idol ripoff. The video could have babes with big tits hanging around backstage. I wanted to get that feeling that you had when the last song was playing at the school dance and you wanted to dance and get close to that girl that you really liked. I didn't get too close very often. So this is my revenge. I have a really fucking bad emotional fixation......taken from
"Somehow reminds of Billy Idol and even of Bon Jovi. The song was done after finishing the first album. That was in the year 1997. The eighties-feeling is very obviously. Something like a gothic-party-hymn."-==HIMpage==-
2) "Our hommage to the eighties. An easy, Billy Idol-esque lovesong about being feeling sad for such a long time, so that you are afraid to experience happiness ever again."-==HIMpage==-
Gone with the Sin
This is one of my favorite tracks-probably for the other guys also. It's not very HIM. It's light and you can find a little country twang in it if you look hard enough. It's a really simple love song, but the cliches have been turned around. It's like a negative version of everything........taken from
"The song was finished very fast, so were the lyrics. They are about a pretty strange lovestory. A definite statement to the person I loved in that time. A basic, nice pop-ballad with gothic influences."
"My favourite song, so warm, minimalistic and fragile. Its the most sincere and real song Ive ever written. Im proud of it"
"Razorblade Kiss"
This is a tribute to Kiss and rock and roll. The only track without a real melody. Some German critics said that my voice sounds like early Ozzy on this one. I hadn't thought about it that way myself, and I really got a lump in my throat when I heard all of the positive reactions. Maybe Ozzy's spirit descended on me while I was singing this one in the booth.....taken from
"A good live song which exists for some years. We arranged it many times again until the last version was done. The guitars remind me of the newer albums of the Swedish band Entombed. The lyrics are quite dark."
"One of the more straight forward songs of the album. Original titled "Razorbalde Romance", which later became the titel of the album. A good live-song"
Bury Me Deep Inside Your Heart
Depeche Mode meets Roxette. Eighties stadium music, even though it has been done as a rock and roll tune and with the warmth of the nineties. The guitars work well. Goddam, I hate talking about my own songs. Thery're all about women......taken from
"The "melagonamic stadium"-ballad with a change. If youd been buried under a mass of shit for a long time, youll start to like it someday. Well, its like this for me."
Heaven Tonight
My idea of heaven is a little unusual. We're probably in heaven when we're in an airplane. This is a really simple symbolic reference. Heaven is when something happy happens. It could mean getting some pussy or catching a fish or getting a record. Small wishes come true all the time, but in this business there is no heaven there: there's no moment that I can say "I've got it all." That's what makes it interesting......taken from
"Shouldnt be mixed up with the songs of Hole or Yngwie Malmsteen. Again a strong eighties-feeling and in a certain way a simple message to someone I like very much. By the way, the last song Ive written for the album."
"A pure pop-track. A story about love thats so strong that you cant let go, not even, if you wanted."
Death is in Love with Us
The working title of this song was 666 Medley, because we wanted to get evil onto this album too. At first we thought this would be the first cut on the album. It's fast, short, and to the point, but not dark. It says "Baby, it's not our fault if the man with the scythe digs us. If he digs black lips and hair and white skin, it doesn't mean that everything is fucked." This is a goth anthem... taken from
Resurrection
If Bon Jovi had put on goth makeup and done a video, this would have been the result. This is going for the feeling that you get when you've seen a Kiss video for the first time on TV. Sing-along, larger-than-life stadium love-in... taken from
"This song was written in the same time as "Join me". Imagine Bon Jovi in Cradle of Filth-Make-up, singing a song about love that has been dead for a long time."
One Last Time
This is totally different from any of those other songs. The idea was that it would be nice to end the album with something a little cheerier. We'll probably never play this on tour. We broke away from the HIM sound for this one. When you listen through all the different things on the album and you get to this at the end, it leaves the future open. It's like, "What the fuck?" ........taken from
"The last cry for forgiveness. Actually, what happened after this song was written, was no happiness, but deepest despair - thats why there wont be any "shiny happy people" on the next album."
"Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666"
"Wicked Game"
" I watched David Lynch's "Wild at Heart" and this song was the main theme of the film. I bought the soundtrack later; it was then when HIM was formed. So, as we had already three songs ready, there finally turned up a fourth one which we would be able to play".... "Pop&Rock" Greece 2000
"I've always been a great fan of David Lynch's and when I saw 'Wild At Heart, I had a crush on that song whose lyrics are very close to mine. We used to play it only in concerts, then it seemed to us that it could so much have been a song of HIM yhat we recorded it on the first album. Like "Your sweet 666", Wicked Game is an old title which is on the export version of Razorblade Romance" ... [Elegy 2000]
"I chose it because it sounded to me like a hymn, a dark and desperate love song" ... [Hard- Rock 2000]
"Don't Fear The Reaper"
"DFTR is only a demo we had recorded even before we got in studio. That was a small perversion I allowed myself. I grew up listening to that song over and over again. The over members of the band don't like this title" ... [Hard-Rock 2000]
Your Sweet 666
"Its more a tribute to 80s heavy metal,
bands we grew up with." Explains Valo. "Iron
Maidens" Number Of The Beast, stuff like
that. For me, its a sense of rock n roll, not
polished and glam like the pop music now.
Theres an element of danger in there. Its
not a religious thing at all."
[Heartagram.com]
---------------------------------
"No album trucks"
Rendezvous with Anus
I love Turbonegro! (...) When we were asked whether we wanted to chip a song in on their sampler, we immediately agreed and recorded 'Rendezvous with Anus'. Turbonegro has been an unbelievably intensive band which always really impressed me...Rockhard 02/01
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