You Know What I Mean?

Question and Answer Session with Buzznet:
Done by Kyle Driscoll (singer/guitarist) of The Frantic.

Name your top 5 video games of all time.
Halo 2, All of the Tony Hawk games, Need For Speed Underground, Blitz for N64, James Bond Golden Eye.

Name the 5 songs you most-recently uploaded to your MP3 player.
All Time Low - So Right It's Wrong
Motion City Soundtrack - Even If It Kills Me
The Higher - On Fire
Chiodos - Bone Palace Ballet
Sum 41 - Underclass Hero

What's at the top of your DVD pile (name 5 movies)?
Mallrats, BASEketball, Life Aquatic, Sin City, Saw

What's your scariest Halloween story? Have a funny Halloween story?
I'd say my story fits under both categories, like a double whammy.
When I was 2, my hair had a tint of red, so my mom dressed me up as Chucky.

Name your top 5 Halloween costumes for this year.
There is only one.  A Spacesuit, Dog!  Or you could dress up as The Frantic.

What's your fav Thanksgiving dish?
I love all of it.

Share your most dysfunctional-family holiday story... Or most heartwarming one.
When I was born, my family took me home from the hospital on Easter.
I was so small that they thought it would be cute to bring me home in an Easter basket.

What do you usually snack on when you're on the road?
We have a big rubbermaid tub full of Pringles, Pop Tarts, Rice Krispies, things like that.
We'll also have boxes of cereal and sandwiches with lunch meat.

Have you ever cooked for a date? What did you serve?
Probably not. Frozen pizza, if anything.

What's your favorite under-21 drink?
Surge!

Name your top 5 albums of 2007.
The Used - Lies for the Liars ( It's Untouchable )
The Academy Is.. - Santi
Chiodos - Bone Pallace Ballet
The Almost - Southern Weather
The Higher - On fire.

Question & Answer session with Rachel Minton in Zolof the Rock and Roll Destroyer:
www.zoloftherockandrolldestroyer.com
 
Name your top 5 video games of all time.
super mario 64
castlevania: dawn of sorrow
legend of zelda
animal crossing
metal gear solid

Name the 5 songs you most-recently uploaded to your MP3 player.
all of the songs off of motion city soundtrack's new album, 'even if it kills me'.

What’s at the top of your DVD pile (name 5 movies)?
wedding singer
clue
goonies
pretty in pink
the royal tenenbaums
 
What’s your scariest Halloween story? Have a funny Halloween story?
we have a halloween tradition that we do every year. we carve pumpkins while watching every halloween special that we have on dvd: garfields halloween adventure, the great pumpkin - charlie brown, all of the simpsons treehouse of horror episodes, etc.

Name your top 5 Halloween costumes for this year.
michael jackson (thriller)+ zombies
amy winehouse
tatu
bacon
satanic sexy nurse from outer space

What’s your fav Thanksgiving dish?
tofurkey!

Share your most dysfunctional-family holiday story... Or most heartwarming one.
i wouldn't say that i have either type of story. we definitely have the best untraditional holiday meals. basically, everyone picks a dish that they want & we make ALL of them. our xmas dinner always ends up being a mix of lobster, steak, lasagna & even a taco bar.

What do you usually snack on when you’re on the road?
candy!

Have you ever cooked for a date? What did you serve?
i did. i cooked spaghetti squash & sauce with garlic bread.

What’s your favorite under-21 drink?
sparkling water

Question and Answer session with singer Danny Casler from National Product:

Name your top 5 video games of all time.
Gears of War, Call of Duty 2, Mario Kart, Duck Hunt & Tetris

Name the 5 songs you most-recently uploaded to your MP3 player.
Anberlin – Godspeed
Jimmy Eat World – Your New Aesthetic
All Time Low – Dear Maria
Mika – Take It Easy
Get Up Kids – Ten Minutes

(some of these were erased, I put them back on)

What’s at the top of your DVD pile (name 5 movies)?
Shooter
Alpha Dog
Never Ending Story
Love Me If You Dare
Bourne Identity

What’s your scariest Halloween story? Have a funny Halloween story?
Yeah...i got a funny one. We were all going to dress up as chicks for Halloween and my friend Rob (not robby in the band) dressed up and as he was walking out, his dad told him he wasn’t allowed to go out looking like a chick. He got pissed and punched a wall and he had to go the hospital as a chick because he shattered his hand. Pretty funny.

Name your top 5 Halloween costumes for this year.
I personally like new creative ones. I like to see people come up with something that hasn’t been done before.

What’s your fav Thanksgiving dish?
I like chicken more than turkey so just lots of that with tons of carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy and candy yams. Yum!

Share your most dysfunctional-family holiday story... Or most heartwarming one.
I remember shortly after my parents got a divorce it was really hard on me and my brother. My dad drove us to our uncles house to spend Christmas in the mountains. We got there a few days before and had a really good time hiking and fishing. I remember it hadnt snowed at all and I hadnt really ever experienced a “white christmas” I went to bed kinda bummed there was snow on the ground. When I woke up, the entire ground was covered with snow and it was falling hard. The deer were in the yard and I just remember feeling a lot better about the situation and it really took my mind of things. I was like 7 or 8 so I didn’t have to many worries but that was heavy for a little kid at the time.

What do you usually snack on when you’re on the road?
I like to eat trail mix and sour patch kids. Nathan and I grub down on those and sour worms.

Have you ever cooked for a date? What did you serve?
Yeah of course. I love to cook. If she's special ill make a pasta dish. The ingredients are bow tie pasta, broccoli, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, garlic, butter, pesto, chicken or tofu. Its pretty bomb, makes your mouth explode. If she’s lame. She gets a microwave meal and spinach.

What’s your favorite under-21 drink?
Water, water and more....water.

Name your top 5 albums of 2007
Anberlin – Cities
Maroon 5 – It Wont Be Soon Before Long
Paramore – Riot
The Starting Line – Direction
Kanye West – Graduation
* bonus – Chiodos – Bone Palace & Saosin - Saosin

Name your top 5 viral (Internet) videos of 2007
Tay Zonday
Jake Byrd
Drunks Russian Ninja
Cops Arrest Funny Tranny
Landlord

 

Answered by Corey Warning in The Graduate (www.wearethegraduate.com).

Name your top 5 video games of all time.
Punch Out
Star Fox 64
Shadow of the Colossus
Wario Ware
Tetris

Name the 5 songs you most-recently uploaded to your MP3 player.
Silverchair's Young Modern

What’s at the top of your DVD pile (name 5 movies)?
Pulp Fiction
The Warriors
The Big Lebowski
ATHFCMFT
Wizard of Oz (with Dark Side of the Moon)

What’s your scariest Halloween story? Have a funny Halloween story?
One year I worked at KMart right before Halloween.  Ever had to clean up a
department after a bunch of kids roll in to tear everything off the racks
for 8 hours? Terrifying.

Name your top 5 Halloween costumes for this year.
Samurai Lincoln that one takes up all 5 of my spots.

What’s your fav Thanksgiving dish?
Duck

Share your most dysfunctional-family holiday story... Or most
heartwarming one.
Pass

What do you usually snack on when you’re on the road?
Chocolate Twizzlers.  They're extremely hard to find.

Have you ever cooked for a date? What did you serve?
Homemade pizza from scratch.  Its more romantic than it sounds.

What’s your favorite under-21 drink?
Vitamin Water

Hurricane Chris, Polo Grounds Music/J Records' most recent hip-hop phenomenon, has been selected to perform his hit single "A Bay Bay" from his upcoming debut album 51/50 Ratchet, on the 2nd Annual BET Hip Hop Award.

Storming his way into the hip-hop scene with his hit "A Bay Bay," Hurricane Chris received four BET Hip-Hop Awards including Track of the Year, Ringtone of the Year, Rookie Artist of the Year and the Alltel People's Choice (Viewer's Choice). "A Bay Bay" most certainly wins the award for the most addictive rap song of the year. I personally think that "Umbrella ela ela ela" and "Ay Bay Bay" definatley out did Lil Jon's "WHAT" in over said lyrics.

 The four nominations make Hurricane Chris the most voted amongst the other "rookie" nominees (Plies, Rich Boy, Lil' Boosie and MIMS)! The BET Hip-Hop Awards will air on the network on October 17 at 9:00PM ET/PT.

Be sure to watch the awards and come back and tell Buzznet which performances and awards you like the best!

Kron: You on a press tour right now?
Ville Valo: Bits and pieces of one, yeah. Thank God its nearly over .I have about two weeks off  for the first time since we started “Venus Doom” which was a year ago. It’s good fun now just to be back home and seeing all your books spread all over. I moved in about a year and half ago but we’ve been on tour and haven’t had time to unpack stuff. So, my place is a fucking mess.

Kron: What are you reading right now?
Ville Valo: I am reading a book called “Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail.” You know that punk band from the ‘70s called The Damned. Rats Scabies was their drummer. It’s like a punk rock treatment of  “The Da Vinci Code” and its pretty funny. Some English dudes went on this crazy search for the Holy Grail in France and it’s about them drinking a lot of red wine and searching for treasure. It is fairly entertaining and fits the airlines well.

Kron: Would you be able to describe the album in 3-5 words?
Ville Valo: Love, Metal, Again. We have been calling our music “love metal” since we started. We have a soft spot for like Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Chris Issac and all those people. But, then again, we grew up listening to Kiss. We tried to bring both extremes together and that is why we call it “love metal”. And again, it’s just a fucking return to what we’ve always been.

Kron: Do you have a particular song off of Venus Doom that you are most proud of?
Ville Valo: I am really happy with the whole thing. It’s probably the first time that everybody in the band believes the album as a whole was what we wanted to achieve. “Sleepwalking Past Hope” is probably everyone’s favorite since it is new and stretching the limits of what we are able to do. Vocally it’s something new and interesting. So, that’s probably our favorite song on the album.
Lyrically it takes ages for me to listen to that stuff again because usually good music comes from a personal place and I was having a shit time when writing this album. So I don’t want to go back to that mood, not yet, because we are going to be playing those songs for ages and for the rest of our lives. So, I am going to have to get myself into those bad moods so many times that I would rather now be in a place mentally where I could do things like my dishes and laundry.

Kron: Your music is like your personal diary, correct?
Ville Valo: More or less yes. Good music should be like that so in that sense it makes it impossible to say for example what is our best album or whatever. I guess every album is a stepping stone from the previous one . Our previous album “Dark Light” had a lot of  production, was polished, layered and that was what we wanted to do with that one. But, we didn’t want to go the same route again and wanted to do some things different. Hence, “Venus Doom” is a little more in your face, gloomier and doomier.


Kron: What is the difference between the American fans and the European fans at your shows?
Ville Valo: I guess, for example, in Europe every country is different. When we play at home in Finland and Scandinavia a lot of people come to the gigs and don’t really party. They do clap their hands. But lets say an American crowd is really wild and so is the crowd in lets say Greece as well. I guess we’ve been fairly successful in getting peoples asses shaking and getting their vocal cords ripped out before the gig is over. It’s a new thing for us as well to tour in the states. This second album is being promoted more over there and I don’t know what to expect myself. Hopefully it will be better than the tours before, and this will be the first one I am doing sober.

Question: Does anyone in the band or yourself in particular have any pre-show rituals?
Ville Valo: Try and smoke as many cigarettes as I can. No, basically some of the guys they sit down and play chess. The most ridiculous thing on our tour now is we want the local chess master from the chess club to come backstage so the guys can play a couple rounds of chess before the gig. It’s pretty nerdy, but we are kooky when it comes to that.
Personally, I don’t do shit before a gig except sit down and smoke some cigarettes and have a laugh with the guys, and then just hop on stage. We don’t sacrifice any babies or do like a circle jerk or anything like that. We are good boys when it comes to pre-show rituals.

Kron: When you come through Los Angeles on your tour do you plan on stopping by High Voltage and getting a tattoo from your friend Kat Von D?
Ville Valo: Yeah, we are going to be in LA for a few days. So if Kat is around yeah, sure. I haven’t seen her in ages -since the last summer time. She has been so busy with the T.V. show it would be nice to get her away from the T.V. studio and go out and buy her dinner. She is a friend who I have known for years. Whenever she is up for [giving me a tattoo] I will get one. I still have some untattooed skin on my body so there is work to be done. But I don’t want to maker her work too hard.

Kron: How long have you known each other and how did you meet?
Ville Valo: I’ve known her for maybe the last four years and we met while we were recording “Dark Light” in LA. It’s a long story but originally we were supposed to have a tattoo thing on the cover of our album and one friend mentioned Kat’s name. This was before the T.V. thing started out. I met her at the Rainbow Bar and Grill and got wasted together and had a blast. So we started hanging out and she got to meet the rest of the band and started tattooing everyone in the band. Every time we are in LA we are hanging out and she has been to Finland twice. She is a friend of Bam Margera’s also. It’s a small world and everyone seems to know one another.

Kron: You guys have an extremely recognizable icon in the heartagram and whenever someone sees it they automatically think of HIM, so is there any bands artwork or logo that have had as strong of an affect on you?
Ville Valo: Well, you know there is not a lot actually existing bands with symbols. I used to think the lips and tongues from the Rolling Stone’s was a good one. You know the mask that Kiss wore, but as far as symbols I am thinking about things like the Nike swoosh. No, there isn’t a lot of great symbols but there are good logos from bands like Iron Maiden, Wasp, Twisted Sister, Kiss, a lot or great rock bands from the ‘80s but not a lot of bands have symbols that mean a lot.

Kron: If you quit being a musician today is there something you would strive to do tomorrow?
Ville Valo: After taking some time off I would probably join business with my Dad who owns a sex shop in Helsinki. I would sell dildos for a living. That would be pretty fun. I worked in the shop when I was younger to pay rent when things weren’t going as well with him as they are now. The porn industry is a fun industry to be in.

Kron: You have a lot of young teen girls who worship you. A lot of them refer to you as their “rock god”. When you were 14  who was your rock God? 
Ville Valo: Jim Morrison and probably Iggy. Iggy is still in good shape and all that. Black Sabbath and the guys from Kiss were also my Gods. But I had so many favorites. I started growing dreadlocks when I was 14 and was a big fan of reggae. I have a lot of Jamaican idols. And then when we started this band I loved Peter Steele from Type-O. I was also a big fan of Madonna.   

Kron: What is your biggest pet peeve or do you have any fetishes?
Ville Valo: Not really, I guess the whole  thing is I like to be surprised. So when I’ve been hanging out with people, or when I have been living together with my ex girls or whatever they have all been really different from each other. I don’t have one fetish -maybe glasses. I find glasses very sexy but I am not demanding them. I don’t care as long as someone has a sense of humor and a lot of patience.

Kron: So we have a couple of questions from some of your top friends on Buzznet.com?
- Funeralsong.buzznet.com wants to know if you are any good at chess?
Well, I know the moves. The best in our band is Burton, the keyboardist. He is pretty good but nobody is super good. Burton though has played against some national heroes in Germany and actually won a few times. I know the moves, I know the basics, but I don’t have the patience. I am not bad but am not good either. It’s not my cup of tea to be honest. I would rather play a guitar back in the hotel room.
- Stacy8302.buzznet.com wants to know what you miss when you are away from home?
My little brother, but I don’t have a problem missing to much. It’s fine so far. When I am home I want to be on tour but when I am back on tour I want to be back home. People always want what they can’t have.
- Kathy1224.buzzet.com wants to know what is your favorite song to perform live?
It keeps changing but I am hoping its going to be “Sleepwalking Past Home”. We still haven’t played that one. Its kind of challenging, long, and moody and I could do that low Peter Steele type vocals. It is going to be a fun song to play. But, so far, it all depends on the mood of the night. At times the slower and more melancholy ballad thing works beautifully and some times the more rock and roll fast songs make the event exciting. So, it’s different each and every night and depends on the reaction of the audience. It’s the reason why we keep playing music because it’s a surprise.

Kron: Your fans are very creative and do artwork and are always trying to send the band artwork. Has any fan made anything you have held on to and do you have a most memorable thing you received from a fan?
Ville Valo: I shouldn’t say there is just one. Throughout the years I have been getting these little gifts. I save most of that stuff  that I can. There are a few people who have been giving me dirt from the graves of my idols and that’s pretty cool. I have the dirt in class jars from graves of Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft  and Elvis Presley. They have their names with tags in little jars and that’s cool for inspiration.  

Kron: Do you spend a lot of time on the Internet and do you ever Google yourself?
Ville Valo: Back in the day, yes. But I haven’t had an internet connection at home for the past 10 years and I just opened it up to work with the band stuff and to be in touch with my mates in America because of the time difference. I send them e-mail which is better than staying up the whole night to make one phone call. Usually I am googiling somebody else. I am not that vain and at the end of the day I think I know myself pretty well.

Kron: Do you have any words of wisdom for your Buzznet.com fans?
Ville Valo: Somebody old and wise once said: “the ones who are wise keep their mouths shut.” So there is no reason to brag about any knowledge. I am still fairly young so what the fuck do I know and am as stupid or wise as everybody else. Keep on reading your books and treat your parents good that’s the only advice I can give you.

Kron: That’s pretty good advice.
Ville Valo: It’s pretty conservative but it’s a start.

Kron: Especially to the younger fan base.
Ville Valo: But to the older as well. A lot of older people forget about their parents at some point but it’s always good to keep reading as much stuff as you can. A lot of people rely on wikipedia and there is a lot of shit on the internet so I don’t prefer to learn about life in the digital world, but to instead hook up with real people and share experiences that makes life worth living for.

Kron: Your fans are entering a contest to win a signed drumhead from you guys. They are constantly coming up with innovative ways to express their dedication to you, so would you like to say anything to them?
Ville Valo: Dear Earthinlings, its Ville from a band called HIM from Helsinki, Finland and I am reading Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and so should you too. And I will see you on tour soon and get ready to shock yourselves and enjoy Buzznet.com.  


(to listen to the interview click here)