Passion

Raven616 — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:03:05 CDT

Ville Valo

AKA Ville Hermanni Valo
Born: 22-Nov-1976
Birthplace: Helsinki, Finland
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Private
Occupation: SingerNationality: Finnish
Executive summary: Frontman for Finnish band HIMThe son of a Finnish taxi driver and his Hungarian wife, Ville Valo was born in a small, wood-house suburb of Helsinki called Vallila. Soon after his birth his family moved to the riverside community of Oulunkylä, where his father eventually opened a porn shop; during his late teens Ville spent a period working in the shop before launching his career in music. As a child he was influenced by his music-loving parents, who exposed him to the songs of popular Finnish performers such as Tapio Rautavaara and Rauli Badding Somerjoki, while an older cousin introduced him to the heavier sounds of bands like Kiss, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. His interests gradually expanded to include reggae, early blues and country-oriented material such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Neil Young. From a young age, Valo's enthusiasm for music also took a more active form of expression, and he participated in a large number of different Helsinki-based bands: B.L.O.O.D. (1986-89), Eloveena Boys (1987-88), Kemoterapia (1989-97) and numerous other, more obscure projects. In 1995 Valo enlisted old schoolmates Mikko ("Lilly Lazer") Lindstrom and Mikko ("Migé Amour") Heinrik -- augmented by drummer Juhana Rantala and keyboardist Antto Melasniemi -- to form His Infernal Majesty, a band that blended a goth-drag presentation with heavy metal, ambiguous mysticism and dark, fatalistic romanticism (a combination that would ultimately earn the media tag of "love metal"). The name was later shortened to HIM when it became apparent that the rather Satanic implications of the full title were attracting the wrong crowd. With the release of their debut EP 666 Ways To Love: Prologue in 1996, the band began to cultivate an dedicated audience in Finland -- largely as a result of an interpretation of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game that was featured on the record. This audience expanded to include the other Scandinavian countries the following year, after their first full-length Greatest Love Songs Volume 666 hit the shelves; once again, the album included their popular version of Wicked Game, as well as a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's Don't Fear The Reaper. Enlisting the services of British producer John Fryer (known in the 80s for his work for the 4AD label, and later for work with goth-leaning bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Cradle of Filth), HIM released their second album Razorblade Romance in 2000, the track Join Me In Death in particular breaking the band across Europe. The album also gave them their first proper US release, but with a slight hiccup: due to the pre-existence of an American project called "HIM", the record was initially given a limited release under the modified name "HER". The name problem was subsequently settled through the movement of currency, and the album re-issued in its proper form. By their third effort, Deep Shadows And Brilliant Highlights (2001), the band's line-up had settled down to the original trio of Valo, Linde (Lilly), Migé with drummer Mika ("Gas Lipstick") Karppinen and keyboardist Jani ("Emerson Burton") Purttinen; that same year, the original three also shuffled their musical roles and created the side-project Daniel Lioneye, in which Linde assumed the role of frontman. A fourth album Love Metal arrived in 2003, expanding the popularity of HIM even further and providing music journalists with a convenient tag for their approach. For it's 2005 follow-up Dark Light, production duties were assumed by veteran Andy Wallace, but after unsatisfactory results the band turned to U2, Robert Plant, Tears for Fears, (etc.) producer Tim Palmer.

Father: Kari (taxi driver/shop owner)
Mother: Anita
Brother: Jesse (boxer, b. 1984)
HIM Vocalist 1995-present
Daniel Lioneye Drummer 2001-present
Finnish Ancestry Paternal
Hungarian Ancestry Maternal
Risk Factors: Smoking, Asthma
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
CKY 3 (2001) Himself

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Early life

Valo was born to a Finnish father named Kari and a mother of Hungarian descent named Anita in a small suburb of Helsinki called Vallila. As a child, Ville was influenced by his music-loving parents, who exposed him to the songs of popular Finnish performers such as Tapio Rautavaara and Rauli Badding Somerjoki, while an older cousin introduced him to the heavier sounds of bands like KISS, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. Valo's first musical step was as a three year old bongo drummer. At age nine, Valo attended the Pop and Jazz Conservatory in Helsinki, where he studied several different musical genres. His father eventually opened a sex shop where Valo often worked before launching his career in music. Valo's father's sex shop is still in buisness today and doing well, according to interviews with Valo. His interests gradually expanded to include reggae, early blues and country-oriented material such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Neil Young. From a young age, Valo's enthusiasm for music also took a more active form of expression, and he participated in a large number of different Helsinki-based bands: B.L.O.O.D. (1986-89), Eloveena Boys (1987-88), Kemoterapia (1989-97) and numerous other, more obscure projects.

Side Projects

Apart from working with HIM, and side-project Daniel Lioneye, Valo has kept busy in the music world, collaborating with many artists over the years. He contributed guest vocals for The 69 Eyes, on Apocalyptica's album Apocalyptica for the song "Bittersweet" (with The Rasmus' singer Lauri Ylönen), on The Bloodhound Gang's Hefty Fine for the song "Something Diabolical", and on Cradle of Filth's Thornography for the song "The Byronic Man". In 2007 he duetted with Polish German actress Natalia Avelon for a cover of Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's song "Summer Wine", part of the Das Wilde Leben soundtrack. A video featuring both was recorded as well.
Below is a list of Valo's side projects and collaborations.

Skreppers & Ville Valo (1995)
Apocalyptica & Ville Valo (1996)
The 69 Eyes & Ville Valo (1997)
Tehosekoitin & Ville Valo (1999)
The 69 Eyes & Ville Valo (1999)
Neljä Ruusua & HIM (1999)
Agents& Ville Valo - Paratiisi, Jykevää On Rakkaus, Ikkunaprinsessa(1999)
Tributti Tuomari Nurmio: Ville Valo & Others (2000)
The 69 Eyes & Ville Valo (2000)
Musta Paraati, Ville Valo, Gas Lipstick & Others (2001)
Daniel Lioneye And The Rollers/Daniel Lioneye And The Blues Explosion (2001)
The 69 Eyes & Thulsa Doom (2001)
Five Fifteen & Ville Valo - The Prostitue & Season Of The Witch (2001)
The 69 Eyes & Ville Valo (2002)
The Skreppers, Ville Valo, Migé Amour & Lily Lazer (2002)
The Mission & Ville Valo (2002)
Lowemotor Corporation & Ville Valo - Love Me (2003/2004)
The Skreppers & Ville Valo (2004)
The 69 Eyes & Ville Valo - Beneath the Blue (2004)
Apocalyptica feat. Ville Valo & Lauri Ylönen - Bittersweet (2004)
Two Witches & Ville Valo - Dracula Rising (2005)
Bloodhound Gang feat. Ville Valo - Something Diabolical (2005)
Isabelle´s Gift feat. Ville Valo - If I Die Tonight (2006)
Cradle of Filth feat. Ville Valo - The Byronic Man (2006)
Ville Valo & Tommi Viksten - Kun Minä Kotoani Läksin (2006)
Kari Tapio & Ville Valo - Tällä Pohjantähden Alla (2006)
Ville Valo & Natalia Avelon - Summer Wine (2007)
Ville Valo & Manna - Just for Tonight (2007)

HIM

Main article: HIM (band)

Main article: HIM discography

Current Life

After a bleak 2005, during which friends became ill or died, he purchased a historic tower in 2006 in Helsinki's Munkkiniemi district. After purchasing the four-story tower, he reportedly enlisted local friends to move his belongings there while he was on tour, and finally returned to spend some time in his new home in late 2006 before retreating to a cabin in Lapland. His sojourn into the northern part of Finland served as his first vacation in a decade, and he also spent some time working on material for a new HIM album. After experiencing the local bars in Lapland (and writing a few songs), he returned for the annual Helldone Festival at Helsinki's Tavastia club. Early 2007 found Ville focusing on his songwriting both at home and abroad visiting friends, preparing for the impending HIM album, due out July 10, 2007. A few tour dates for the band were also made public including the Give It a Name festival (April 27-29), Miljoona Rock (July 13), Ilosaarirock (July 14), Linkin Park's Projekt Revolution (May - Sept). To date, no public listing has been made for HIM's participation in Turku's annual Ruisrock festival in July.

Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into the body of the article or removed.

Ville Valo on the cover on Kerrang! magazine.

Bam Margera's character in the 2003 movie Haggard is named after Ville Valo.[1]
He makes a very small appearance in Jackass: Number Two.[1]
He can also be seen in clips of episodes from Viva La Bam while they were in Finland.
He has a number of tattoos, including a pair of Edgar Allan Poe's eyes on his shoulder blades.[2]
He learned to walk with the help of the family dog Sami, and when the dog died, not only was he extremely upset, he also apparently developed his allergies to animals and asthma at the same time.[3]
He smokes about 60 cigarettes a day (around 21,900 a year) to give his voice a gruff, husky edge.[4]
Valo is an avid reader and has indicated that he draws a large influence for his music from the books that he has read. Among his favorite authors he includes Finnish writer, Timo K. Mukka, and American writers Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Bukowski.
Ville appears in the music video "Wasting the Dawn" by The 69 Eyes as Jim Morrison of The Doors.

External links

Ville Valo at Notable Names Database
Ville Valo at Internet Movie Database
Official website of HIM
Ukrainian HIM website of HIM
UK HIM website of HIM

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Links, Link me.

ykou — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:49:18 CST

Links:

Best Ken fan arts I've ever seen go check her out please.

One of my idols.

Link me:

URL: http://spammerdee.wetpaint.com

Information

ykou — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:35:52 CST

HELLO, I AM YOUR WORSE NIGHTMARE.

I love Rainbows, Dinosaurs, Roses, Macabre and Valo.

:}

CONTACT~~
in_10so@hotmail.com

in_10so@yahoo.com

My oekaki site :D

http://oekakiart.com/breakstuff

Art

ykou — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 17:33:55 CST

GO JUMP TO MY DEVIANT ART?

gonna add, no worries.

Top

ykou — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 17:07:56 CST

12/24

I feel like I am such a loser, I DIDN'T UPDATE FOR OMG.

anywho, ummmm. I wanna imrove at school.

I mean like, really...I am uch a loser. does ART will really be my future? or love?

Life don't worth living sometimes.

Worthless.

]:

LIVING FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

9/12
Someones birthday is comming :DDDDDDD !!!!!! *Is after 4 days*

9/2~~

i thought the PC ate this one ....o'well D:

9/1~~
Young muchlove pics ....

8/23~~

Axel <3 "yeah...SPAM BG!!!"

Man ....i have alot of stuff to do D:

8/21~~
go check the pict page ...i added there some stuff :D

nash,,,, :O

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8/20~~

To all emo kids that draw....dont cut your self or your not going to be able to draw again D:

LEO IS BACK~~BTW !! so i drew this for him :D

and this is killua...for a friend D:

cute~~~bah... :3

going to add somma stuff later~~~
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UPDATES~~ 8/19

teh page is for the links =D

omg it's clodd~~ :D

meh...i started Much love's work sheet...i hope it come out good T_T;;

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Site open!! yay!!! Birth date ---> 8/18
I'm gonna put most of my Art works here :D
btw~~ click on the links in the navigation top left to see more links...I'M EVIL isn't i ? XD i'll update later ~~

done on the aku-tenshi oekaki BBS :D , I LOVE MIYAN!! he is so cute ^3^

yeah cut cut~~
Some of my lastest art work ~ lol Done on pchat oekaki BBS with KH

OMG no eye brows !!!! T_T;
The red hair guy is not my character o.o;; it's for someone whoever~~ The blue one is mine...Maylee !! :P

Profile

ykou — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 12:19:36 CDT

ALL ABOUT YKOU ~~ =.=b

NAME
ykou is a combination of Yaoi-Korabeka-Orenge-Uke The four stuff i realy love :D
so i combined it ...and it came out like that...YKOU!! lol
REAL NAME
call me M.G
BURFDAY
21/1/1994 DO ZA MATH D<
LIKES
pizza-pepsi-bothering Cookie-Face-RAMEN-Ville Valo-Music-Downlaoding songs-Have Friends-Korabeka<3-PS2-games-WoW-yaoi-uke-orenge
HATES
School!!-Thinking-Hentai-preps-PINK
CONTACT
Hotmail: in_10so@hotmail.com
Yahoo: in_10so@yahoo.com

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