Why Ville Valo Says HIM Was ‘More than Just a Band’ + Doesn’t Rule Out Reunion
It’s been five years since Finnish goth rock/metal troupe HIM split, and although former frontman Ville Valo is busy getting his debut solo album (Neon Noir) ready for an early 2023 release, he hasn’t forgotten about his former group. In fact, he recently revealed why the band still means so much to him, as well as how HIM could get back together in the future.
Earlier this month, Valo appeared on The James McMahon Music Podcast. During their conversation, the host asked him about possibly reuniting HIM if the right opportunity came along, to which Valo gave an encouraging and humble answer. As transcribed by Blabbermouth:
Never say never, I'd say. . . . If there would be a good reason, good sort of idea or good cause, or if, all of a sudden, everybody would start to gravitate towards each other, I think that would be the best thing. [If] all of a sudden everybody in their own lives just start[ed] to . . . where it would make sense [to get back together] after all this time. 'Cause you need to take breaks. . . . I wouldn't mind, but I don't wanna do it right now. It's not something I will think about constantly, or ever, to be honest with you.
He also shed some light on why HIM disbanded back in 2017, as well as why the project was so special to him:
[Toward the end of HIM], it wasn't necessarily fizzling out, but we had definitely lost the spark regarding creating new music. We tried to work it out, but it didn't sound good. It started to feel like a day job, and when it starts to feel like that, it's definitely time to end it, in the world of rock and roll, I think. Or in our world of rock and roll. So I cannot tell you whether we're gonna feel like that in the future.
HIM was so much more than just a band to me. I met Migé [Mikko Paananen], the bass player, when I was about 12. I met Linde [Mikko Lindström], the guitar player, when I was maybe 13 or 14. So we grew up together and went through so many different phases in our lives anyway together, with HIM providing the soundtrack for it and the focus or being the focal point. And it's so much more than about just monetary things.
Valo also confessed that because he “did write most of the songs” in HIM, “a lot of people [initially] . . . thought it was a solo project.” As a result, he had to “fight for the [other] guys to get some recognition, saying that [he does] write the songs, [he] sing[s] the songs, but [they] are childhood mates and that the sound and the way they play their instruments, it makes a big difference; it cannot be just whomever.”
We’d certainly like to see HIM reunite for another tour, if not a brand-new studio record. How about you?