| McCoy vs. Valo (Vantaan Sanomat) |
[Sep. 25th, 2007|10:48 pm] |
..."The rockstar living in southern Helsinki is without a doubt one of the biggest rockstars in the land. The relationships with other colleagues are not always as good as possible, for only a limited amount of star sparkle fits into the rock sky. Hanoi Rocks would have wanted to perform at Tavastia's legendary Helldone festival.
According to McCoy the band was already asked to play, but the case got an unnexpected turn.
-For some reason Ville Valo refused to perform, if Hanoi Rocks performs, McCoy grimaces.
-Maybe they understood that they are not that tough (~good), because HIM got booed out when warming up for Metallica. That would have never happened to us.
-We'll play with anyone, wherever. If you're afraid of some band, change your profession, the guitarist emeritus sends greeting to the youngsters." |
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[Aug. 30th, 2007|04:20 pm] |
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BURNT OUT?
Depression, alcoholism, panic-disorders….Ville Valo’s dream became a nightmare
LIGHT IN THE DARK
How is Ville Valo really doing? On one scale weights 4,4 million sold records and gigs from here to eternity, but the other cup has been knocked over by depression, alcoholism, and panic-disorders. Samuli Knuuti met Valo, who is as before but at the same time a changed man.
The map is big, the size of the whole wall – a wall or a movie theatre’s silver screen. It has been divided into three parts, and on the surface of it is a spotted rash of small red pins. Exactly these kinds of maps you could imagine to be in the head offices of firms radiating dignity and stable income, grand banks or old day’s cinema companies. But this is not that sort of a place, this is a war chamber.
“It is badly out-of-date, especially on America’s part”, manager Seppo Vesterinen says and swipes dismissingly to the maps direction. The pins mark the places where the band HIM he managers has done gigs in. Europe is red with pins, but other continents are more deserted, in part because the pins haven’t been updated. One unconquered land is France, which only has two pins, for some reason.
There is a clear reason why the map hasn’t been updated. In this apartment, Vesterinen’s office located in Helsinki’s Uudenmaankatu, the charm of novelty in HIM’s success has already faded, it has become a dominating state, a stable climate in the manager’s office. Nobody anymore has the need or the time to stick pins anywhere.
If this is a war chamber, then Vesterinen is the general.
Then in walks a one mans army, Ville Valo, 30, radiating with health. Away is the facial hair that has thriven on his face for the last three years, which makes him look younger than he has looked in a long time. The apple red glow on his skin that has become familiar in the last years magazine pictures has disappeared. He is wearing a faded comical T-shirt, which in the area of his stomachless stomach says “I don’t have a drinking problem. I drink, I get drunk, I fall down – no problem” - the likes of which even only a few gas station-humorists had the nerve to wear without making a wry face. Underneath his sleeves wriggle out his tattooed arms.
It is the beginning of July, Valo has given interviews two days in a row and the next morning he has to wake up at five to go to Germany to recite the same rumba. Our discussion will be finalised later in August by phone.
“Take some beer” Valo points to the beer cans on the table that are put in a row like tin soldiers. “I won’t bother to take any on promo days”. Consequently, there is also an other reason for declining to take beer.
One of Ville Valo’s idols has always been Ozzy Osbourne, and for what other reasons are idols there for other than to offer footsteps, where you can try to put in your own feet, and follow behind. In the middle of May those footsteps lead Valo to the Californian Promises- rehab. When he entered the five star hotel disguised as a rehab, a place where celebrities and the rich came to dry out, he started to laugh. Ten years Valo had carried out the rock-dream, which during the spring finally turned into a nightmare – a nightmare that Promises promised an opportunity to wake up from with the price of 1200 euros per night.
The laughter was helped by six quickly consumed pints, taken just before signing in. Before those six pints was a week of round-the-clock drinking, whereas that week was prepared by two years of continuous and determined drinking. And there is nothing to laugh about anymore in that.
“I woke up in the morning and opened my first bottle of beer”, Valo describes his daily rhythm in the recent years. “About after eight bottles I’d achieve a hangover, and then I had to drink eight more to get drunk. A normal feeling didn’t get to surprise me at any point. When our new record got finished in spring, postnatal depression hit me, which forced me to understand, that something had to be done about the situation. First I went to a doctor in Beverley Hills, who would have taken me straight in to the hospital, because of alcohol my organism was due to dehydration in a state of emergency. I was a walking heart attack.”
Initially HIM’s new record should have come out already in the summer. The delay was Ville Valo’s fortune. When the record company decided, unaware of the artist’s problems, to delay the records publication to autumn, a month long window opened up in the tight schedule, to which’s spending Valo had exactly two choices: either to party himself to decay, literally, or to go rehab.
“There were 25 patients, and besides me only one had come there voluntarily”, Valo says. “Everyone else had come there forced by a family members, employer or court. According to what I’ve heard only eight percent are sober after three months. And I’m in that group, in spite of that I refused to take part in the AA-meetings or the whole 12 step programme. I shun the idea of giving my destiny into the possession of some higher being.”
The first rehab week Valo tried to sleep with the help of tranquillizers that kept away the muscle cramps. Then he started to enjoy himself. Gourmet food, therapy sessions with a beautiful female psychiatric, life with out cell phones and responsibilities – what is there not to like in such a life? Like interviews, gigs, the whole glorious craziness of being a rockstar, rehab was anthropology for him: a new educational experience.
When Ozzy has left rehab, he has usually been found in a bar soon. Valo left to a pub as well – but for a different occasion. “Immediately when I got out of there I went to see a friend’s bands gig in House of Blues”, he says. “What I was specifically forbidden to do, they said that I had to keep away from places, where alcohol is served. But I wanted to get back to my former life, just without booze. And it wasn’t hard. The chats were just as low class (v. liberal translation), even though I didn’t have ten pints under my belt.”
The record that will be published in the middle of September is HIM’s sixth record. In rock culture there is a myth about record’s consecutive numbers. The first record is always the big opportunity. The second one doesn’t have to be as good, because behind it the first born is still pushing the speed. And then there is the difficult third record, which has to already be a step forward: if it’s not an escalator going upward, it’s an oiled slide to the depths.
But nobody can say anything general about the sixth record – so few bands get there: only the really big names and the round wrecks; those, who don’t have to, and those, who don’t understand to stop.
The depression followed by making the record didn’t come as a surprise to Valo. He has been diagnosed to have manic-depression, although according to him it is not deep depression, “the kind that you can’t get out of bed, you just piss yourself, because nothing matters.”
“Making a record is pretty emotionally hard. Every record is harder to make than the one before it, because you have to prove to yourself over and over again that you are worth it. And then when you add bad relationships to it, the soup is ready. (a saying in Finnish…didn’t know how to translate)
The panic attacks from a few years back got Valo to try mood stabilizers. He describes the affect of the medicine pretty minor: just the hangovers were a little less bad. But the happy pills were not good for his creativity. Because Valo is a full-blooded advocate for the romantic artist-ideal, he believes, that any truly touching expression has to be searched from dark places: and if it happens that there is no fitting inferno in the surroundings, a similar has to be set on fire inside the artist itself, and then search there for the music.
“With those medicines I didn’t get to the dark atmospheres”, he complains. “Those feelings, that the world is a shit place even though the sun is shining. My job is to find my way to the extremes of my mental health, and if there are no valleys there are no peaks either. I don’t feel like playing with my own creativity anymore.”
Will HIM still find new listeners? The last album Dark Light (2005) has sold world widely a little over one million copies, in USA over half a million, which is over the local gold record. In Europe the success has faded a little from the era of the hit Join Me, faded first but stabled then. America is however a different continent, a different world.
“USA is a big land, full with opportunities”, Ville says and leans back on the chair of his manager’s conference room and opens up an energy drink.
“You have to remember, that the record sales have come down so much, that you can’t compare them to some 80’s figures. Dark Light is however the first record people actually worked for there. I think only when you have three properly released records in America behind you, you can say where things are going and is the peak already behind us. As yet new listeners have always been found.”
“After the last record we were asked to do even a third American tour, but we decided rather to do a new record instead of playing the old songs to bursting point. 50-60 gigs were enough. And we after all had a bus under us: we had many warm up bands, which had gone around America in a small pick-up van. When you have to go hundreds of miles every night, I myself cried for mom and prayed for the devil, so I could keep going on the next day. In some van the faith for rock’n’roll would have been truly tested.”
Foretaste for touring USA HIM gets already before Venus Doom, because when this magazine comes out they are already ending their 30 gigs in Projekt Revolution tour.
The engine of the tour is Linkin Park. Also My Chemical Romance, that has cut past HIM’s success. Only two years ago they opened up for HIM, but their Yankee hit Helena changed the power relations. My Chemical Romance still has the dew, the charm of novelty; they only have three records on their kilometre counter, and the rock consumers often have the same attitude to bands as for used cars.
And just on the interview day My Chemical Romance happens to play in Helsinki’s Jäähalli.
“What!?” Valo leaves the room to go to shout at Vesterinen and the press officer in a pointedly theatrical, periodically irritated way of a star treated badly. “Why didn’t anybody tell me?”
“Would you want to go see them?” the press officer asks him.
No, but he would have wanted to go and say hi to the band to their hotel. Well he is Finland’s only person, who could if he wanted go on stage with both My Chemical Romance and Kari Tapio.
Ville Valo searched for inspiration for Venus Doom from an unexpected place. Where HIM’s international rival The Rasmus’ Lauri Ylönen went to America to write a new record after exhausting the hits produced in Sweden, Valo, who actually has pushed himself into America’s markets, left to compose to Sirkankylä. According to him only hicks call the place Levi.
“The locals are really explicit about the name”, he emphasised like he is pointing out a really important thing.
“It is a really peculiar place, because about 500 locals live there, and in tourist season there are 50000 people there. I was there off-season, sat around in a bar with people from all ages. There I laid under Siltakylä’s bar with vomit-medals on my chest.”
That was time before rehab.
“The people in the north are wonderfully direct; with them you can just sit down and talk about anything. Like for example reindeer management. Not once did I get into a fight, or had to sign autographs.
But a rockstar is a rockstar also in Lapland. Valo tells he rented the same cottage where “Madonna or David Beckham or both” have formerly stayed. And once he got a elicopter and left with his local drinking buddies to the classic bar in Poka’s village for a beer. In Valo’s speech is a nostalgically bittersweet flavour: this is remembering the former life, shots from a photo album that doesn’t fit any more photographs.
Lapland can also be seen in Ville Valo’s arm. He has tattooed the Lappish writer Timo K. Mukka, who died under thirty from poverty, on his arm right next to Baudelaire and Bukowski. But now Ville, say honestly, how many Mukka’s books have you actually read?
“I haven’t read them all”, he admits and lights another cigarette, “They are pretty heavy books in a lot of different ways, and they demand their own unique atmosphere. All the time I intend to dig them up again, but haven’t achieved to do that. Tabu is maybe the best book I have read so far. But I don’t know, if reading everything and digging everything is so essential. I don’t like every piece from Melleri, but that doesn’t lighten his importance for me. The lives of Mukka, Melleri and Karvo Palsa all have the kind of Finnish persistence and independency, which you can’t find so easily in the lives of foreign artists. Some certain barrenness and despair.”
But Palsa, Mukka and Melleri were all in their own way very tragic stories, died young or with chosen lifestyles made themselves old; two of the above-mentioned were neglected and misunderstood during their time, even held in contempt. The gates of an Californian rehab wouldn’t have opened for any of them.
And none of them ran a firm, they barely filled tax forms. Valo has three firms: Voskon, Himsalabim and Heartagram, which each in it’s way takes care of gigs and record sale incomes.
Already at the start of his career Valo said that he reads rock star biographies to avoid doing the same mistakes as the legends. With alcohol he didn’t entirely succeed, but in many other things he has.
In all what happened there is a surprise, that HIM’s record is nothing surprising: it is branded HIM, its basic sound is as tightly accordant with the trade mark as the band’s logo, the heartagram. Or all right, it is heavier and less of a pop album than the previous one; it is like HIM with Dark Light by way of trial wanted to see, how many listeners they could make to hop on board, and now they try, how many will stay on board when they push the pedal down.
“The record company didn’t try to lead us in any way. Our idea has always been that we, the orchestra and Seppo, could keep one step ahead from the record company. In every record company every employee takes care of many bands, but we have the freedom just to concentrate on ourselves. If we would let other people do our decisions for us, we would all of a sudden have a record ten times more expensive, and recorded in Singapore and a duet with Elton John. And still it would sound like shit. And the a&r-person who controlled the project wouldn’t get the blame, we would.”
Venus Doom wasn’t recorded in Singapore and it doesn’t sound like shit; it was made in Finland and it sounds like HIM, as you can see from the song titles: “Aamunkoiton Suudelma” (Kiss of dawn in Finnish), “Intohimon Teurastamo” (Passion’s Killing Floor), “Kylmäveristä Rakkautta” (Love in cold blood), “Kuolleiden rakastavaisten katu” (Dead Lovers Lane), “Unissakävely toivon ohi” (Sleepwalking past hope). In Finnish songs like these wouldn’t go trough. Valo knows that and grins.
“I’m not going to change into anything”, he laughs. “I won’t evolve as a songwriter. Love and death – what else is there after all? If that was enough for romantic poets, then they’ll good enough for me. If I did songs for example from cell phones, they wouldn’t have any lasting value.”
But indeed eternal things can be materialized also. For the new song Passion’s Killing Floor is in Transformers movie, which is not so much about love and death, but about big toys attacking smaller ones.
“You don’t loose anything”, Valo says. “In a good case you expose tens of millions of people to your music. If the movie flops, so what. Transformers has been fantastically marketed: it hits the family dads who lived their youth in the 80’s, and now they road their kids to the theatre with them. It is a different thing to give music to advertisements, but who would want us for that. I at least wouldn’t like to chew on a chocolate bar, that has been advertised with our lyrical offerings.
In the end of August Ville Valo has three months of sobriety behind him. What is ahead – a whole life? To that Ville doesn’t want to say anything. He hasn’t said absolute goodbyes to alcohol yet, but on the other hand on his horizon doesn’t glitter the mythical day, from which many with alcohol problems, despite having gotten treatment, dream of – the day when you can drink again.
“Never say never”, he says on the phone from a Virginian hotel room, which’s minibar hasn’t been cleared out.
“Right now even the thought of grabbing a beer bottle makes me sick. I made myself so sick with alcohol, that I’m not interested at all to get back to those atmospheres. And I haven’t found any other drug interesting since I was a teenager. Alcohol is legal and easy to get, you don’t need any extra drama or adjustments to get it. I have always been more of a basket of beer a day- kind of guy.”
When Depeche Mode’s singer Dave Gahan after five years of drugs and alcohol returned to stages sober in autumn 1998, he was for a long time only a shadow of himself. The acclaimed showman had become a careful performer, who was spinning the microphone like he was afraid that somebody would say something against it.
When HIM opened up Metallica in the Olympiastadioni in July Valo’s stage performance seemed more cautious that in what we have been used to. Indeed in the former gigs Metallica fans had greeted HIM with outstretched middle fingers and refreshments thrown to the stages direction. But even though Helsinki’s home audience was benevolent, Valo didn’t search any contact to it. He just sang, better than before, but still timidly, like he was trying to hide in the spotlight, that didn’t exist in the sun shine.
“Well I have hardly ever been on stage horribly drunk; and I don’t think I have been a different persona now that I’m sober. I only have to find my feet again, and when I do, I don’t doubt for a second that they won’t carry.”
There’s a knock on the Virginian hotel room, is Mr. Valo coming? He is going on stage, to practise his profession.
“The most important thing after all is that you don’t screw everything up that you have achieved with doing hard work. In the end of the day, I don’t want anything else but my mom and dad to be proud of me.” |
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[Apr. 6th, 2007|11:57 am] |
Femme Fatale
Manna would like to adopt her every fan
In what did you wake up today?
-To an explosion at sharp seven o’clock. My heart jumped to my throat. The center tunnel goes straight under my house
In the Bible manna is like coriander seeds and tastes like honey. Does that match?
-Heh, that you have to ask from people who taste me. I have read theories about what the manna that rained from the sky was. Some who prefer hallucinogens say magic mushrooms. I have been called Manna since I was one and a half years old because I couldn’t pronounce Mariam.
The single is called Sing For You. Who are you singing for?
-I was thinking about my daughter when I sang that in the studio. The words and the frame of the song are Joel Malasniemi’s. When Joel performed it for the first time I started crying because it sounded so beautiful.
Will we hear acoustic sensitiveness on the album too?
- Sing For You is pretty traditional folk and represents the calmer side of the record. In the other songs you can hear the Soundtrack of our Lives –collaboration which means the arrangements have more psychedelic and variations. And more instruments.
Your father comes from Algeria. Can that be heard in your music?
- At least not on this record. Even though I admire the Algerian way to sing. When I see Algerian women in photos I recognize how they sit and are. Then I start to miss my relatives there.
Do you have musical influences?
- I have always taken care of myself with Joni Mitchell and Dave Lindholm. It’s the same thing with old friends as with music, sometimes you get enchanted with new ones and then return back to the old ones again.
Manna, Janna, Sansa, Jippu, Elviira….Where do you singer-songwriter women bust from now?
-Maybe there’s an order for organic singer songwriter –style to balance the overproduced heavy sounding pop, whether it was made by female or male.
Every interview has wondered why you are doing an album not until the age of 30.
-It is pretty interesting, especially since the interviewees have been women. If a woman’s self esteem is in a state where it feels scary to start new things at this age, you have to think how you got into such a situation.
Why have you not recorded before? Because you have done music for a long time.
-I have a horrible threshold to doing a record. Failing for me is a terribly scary thing, and by that I don’t mean failing commercially or in the eyes of others. I don’t want to do against myself. Before I couldn’t have made a record, where you could hear a life lived the same way.
Club gigs or big arenas?
-At this moment everything feels interesting. I am unbelievably taken already by having three girls in the front row singing along. I’m still at the stage where I feel like crying when someone comes to praise me after a gig. I would like to invite that human to my house and adopt it.
What gives you inspiration?
-For doing music I get even more inspiration from movies than from music. My passion is to go alone to day viewings, the world of a movie can stay with you for many days. And you can write further from that.
You were born in Paris. Does an une femme parisienne live in you?
-I might be a little vain. In Finland vanity is sin and is associated with shallowness, although those are two completely different things. At a movies test shooting a female director said to me, that I’m a French movie woman. But that probably referred to hysteria. Or no! Being hysteric is an ugly word for being sensitive.
Manna’s album comes out 9.5.
Facts:
Whole name: Manna Mariam Jäntti
Age: 30
Home: Helsinki, Punavuori
Place of birth: Paris
Profession: Musician, student
Extras:
Song playing in head: own
Most annoying characteristic: manic
Always has in fridge: milk for morning coffee
Climate change promise: to avoid private cars till the end
Movie director: Woody Allen |
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| Soundi |
[Apr. 5th, 2007|01:54 pm] |
MANNA among friends
Many jaws have dropped when hearing Manna's debut single Sing For You. The fragile atmospheric, rooting country influenced beauty promises much of the debut album, that will be released early May, from the 29-year old lady from Helsinki.
Nobody's real name could really be Manna. That would be far too perfect, especially since her singing voice really is manna for ears.
-My real name is Mariam, but Manna has been my name since I was 3 years old. Then we were still living in France and I couldn't pronounce my real name, Manna clarifies.
Even over the telephone it is easy to hear how excited Manna is at this moment. The first spiritual product in her own name is almost ready and the reception already at this point has been enthusiastic.
Manna snickers like a little girl when she remembers the recent fully packed Semifinal gig.
-There were people who were singing along! That is amazing, they had went to MySpace to learn the songs. That kind of reception feels wonderful. It is unbelievable, that this thing is only at this point and already there are people who are waiting for my record. This is fantastic. Everything that comes onwards is just bonus.
Responsible for the record to come out well are, in addition to the artist, a strong support group.
Kalle Gustafsson from the Soundtrack Of Our Lives has produced the album and his band members are on the album both as songwriters and players. In Finland's end most importantly are Manna's husband Mikko Lindström, known as HIM's Linde, and Skandinavian Music Group's Joel Malasniemi. The helping team that for outsiders seems impressive was a natural choice for Manna.
-For me it's funny when you talk about big backup teams, because I see them as my friends and close ones, who I feel good working with. Kalle has been my very good friend for seven years already and for a long time we have talked about doing something together. I myself have fought against it, because I have wanted to do it in a way, that it really is something of my own. I decided to do this when I have the guts to do it exactly, not almost.
Manna makes it clear, that despite her experienced friends it is before anything her own view, which she has stubbornly held tight. She was the only one present at every session traveling back and forth Finland and Göteborg's Svenska Grammofon -studio. Manna praises the studio, that relays on vintage technology, to heavens and admires the commune-like atmosphere.
-At first I was terribly nervous when someone like Jose Gonzalez came to visit the studio. Then this kind man just struts in and asks: “Manna, vill du ha någon godis?”
-It has been tough as well doing this in different places with different people, but I have experienced it to be very fruitful. Anyhow when you are doing your first record you define who with and how you feel good to work. That is why I have been doing this in peace and for a long time.
Based on the six preview songs Manna's debut will be many sided, but a classy unity, where peaceful country ballads reminding of the Cardigan's new style take turns with course retro go-pieces that have clearly been influenced by The Soundtrack of Our Lives crew. The record is pierced with warm, organic and oldish production.
The songs have been born as collaborations between Manna and her friends.
-I have been the lyricist in almost every one, and in every the arranger and producer. This first single is exceptionally Joel Malasiemi's composing and lyrics. In the point of departure it has been important to me, that everything comes from me and is for me personal and true. That is why I have written the lyrics. But when Joel played Sing For You for me I burst into tears. If I has started to meddle with it just so it would have my words would have been unnecessary.
Even though Manna is as a solo artist a new acquaintance she has been around music all her life.
-I have always sung and studied it, but I have never before experienced the time to be right for doing my own record. This was born of me at home doing raw beginnings of songs and doing crappy home demos. Mostly because of my friends pressure I am releasing this now.
-Of course I am really satisfied with this record. I wouldn't let anything out of my hands, that I wouldn't stand behind of, but I have a problem of never really being satisfied with anything. Somehow I always hear the mistakes, and I can't listen to my own music a lot. I listen to them for the amount of time, that I know, what I want to do, and what works and what doesn't. After that I want go to do something completely different. |
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| JONNA OUT OF TV(SCREEN)! |
[Feb. 17th, 2007|02:41 pm] |
Jonna Nygren, who has hosted MTV Finland's HBB stops her work. Jonna steps aside from Timo Kotipelto, known from Stratovarius, way.
-We wanted to give a musician more time on screen and Timo represents the show well, MTV's channel manager Erja Morottaja explains the decision
Also known as Ville Valo's girlfriend, Jonna had to stay for a long sick leave last spring, and she returned to host the show in autumn. For everyones surprise she wasn't seen next to Ville in the Independency Ball, even though both were invited.
However Morottaja denys that last springs getting sick would be the reason for changing hosts.
-Anyone of us can get tired, and we have been pleased with Jonna's work contribution
The channelmanager also doesn't rule out that Jonna would be seen on screen again. Kotipelto starts the 25th of February and as far that is known now Jonna will be gone atleast for the spring.
-Cooperation won't stop, and Jonna will be kept in mind when planning future projects. She is so busy/doing many things (hard to translate!) now.
MTV's shows are filmes in Stockholm at the moment, but in the future there's an intention to move the production to Finland. Also a new VJ alongside Axl Rose is being planned. |
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| Iltasanomat |
[Oct. 25th, 2006|05:39 pm] |
Ville withdrew to Lapland, Levi for two weeks, where he wrote new material for HIM's next record.
-There was snow and nothernlights, helicopter rides and local brewery beer, Valo grinned.
Valo fell in love with the beauty of the North a few years ago when Stefan Lindfors took Valo from Kittilä to Kilpisjärvi to shoot the video for Funeral of hearts.
And according to Ville, the people from Lapland had no attitude problems towards one of the most internationally known finn. Valo thinks he even got a few new friends from the reindeer men.
-People there are a lot more direct, hearty and upright than in the South. It's a whole different world, the reindeer-goings on and all the nice stories. I saw wonderful landscapes. It was minus 7 degrees, snow and a completely clear day.
In Lapland something new was born, too. The songs are in an early state, so Valo characterizes them carefully.
-I think, that in the next record the extremes will be even more emphasized than before.
Valo hasn't been able to only concentrate on the new songs. Yesterday he gave interviews from Helsinki for the 'Uneasy listening Vol1', which will be released in November. The most sensitive rarities from HIM have been collected to that album.
-The record company suggested a collection, I spat on that idea, 'And love said no' came just two years ago. It's nicer this way, it has songs and versions that people haven't gotten from anywhere before, Valo says.
Valo has also been in two very different recordings. He did a duet with Kari Tapio ('Täällä pohjantähden alla') for a record of Finlands most gloomiest songs, which will be released in November.Ville also
sings on Cradle of Filth's newest record.
HIM-BURTON GOT A DAUGHTER
Janne Puurtinen aka Emerson Burton is a proud father of a little girl. Ville Valo says the baby, mother and father are doing great. Her name hasn't been told yet - at least not to Ville Valo. |
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| Manna in IMAGE |
[Oct. 9th, 2006|05:48 pm] |
BORN IN THE INSIDE CIRCLES
“I’m making my own dream come true now” says singer Manna, 29, while leaning her elbow on the coffee table. “Music is important to me.”
Undoubtedly. But so it is for the hundreds of other singer beginners in Finland. What separates Manna from the rest?
Maybe the story, that is based on the singer’s childhood. The daughter of an Algerian father and a Finnish mother informed of her arrival when her mother was baking tarte tatin in Paris, where Manna lived for the first five years of her life.
When the family moved to Finland, her big brother became a musician and played guitar in the legendary rock band Smack. With her big brother, known as Rane Raitsikka, Manna went to Tavastia’s backstage for the first time. “There were sweaty men. That didn’t fascinate me at all”
she tells.
Her big brother wasn’t her only contact to the rock world. Often Seppo Vesterinen, who is best known as Hanoi Rocks’ and HIM’s manager, babysat her. When Hanoi Rocks got stuffed animals in the fan mail, they went straight to Manna. Now the toys sent for HIM’s guitarist Mikko “Linde” Lindström go to Manna’s 3-year old daughter. The guitarist in question is Manna’s husband.
Manna’s debut album, which will be released in spring, has for example Joel Salasniemi and The Soundtrack of our lives’ Kalle Gustafsson on it. Why hasn’t the woman with this background and
these contacts tried a musicians career before?
“The thought of singing in front of others has terrified me” Manna explains. She claims, that there are two kinds of people. Those, who walk into a room and believe they are loved. And then there are those, who walk into the same room and believe, that they have to earn the love. Manna has belonged to the 2nd group.
“It’s a self-esteem thing. But I have gotten a little perspective in life and the focus has moved away from myself.”
Only now the time is nigh for her own career. A singer can’t hide, because Manna believes, that our voices reveal us in both good and bad,
“When I was a child I told mom I was sick and got to skip the school day. After a while I started to sing happily, and mom realized that I had lied.”
www.myspace.com/mannamariam |
|
|
| Jonna Nygren: Im happy with my life now |
[Sep. 28th, 2006|12:03 pm] |
On Tuesday Viihdeuutiset met HIM's singer Ville Valo's girlfriend Jonna Nygren, who recently returned to her job to host MTV's Headbanger's ball.
Nygren, who moved away from home already at the age of 16, tells that life has been hard sometimes, but now everything is going fine, and to her dreams belongs starting a family.
Viihdeuutiset: How does it feel to return to host MTV’s Headbangers ball after the media hullabaloo and troubles?
Jonna: Absolutely great. I was waiting to get to work the whole summer. We had meetings about a month ago, and after that I couldn’t wait to get to the studio.
Viihdeuutiset: How do you cope with the intense work rhythm, where do you scoop the energy from?
Jonna: I don’t really know. Sometimes work doesn’t even feel like work, because I have always been extremely interested in music and a music digger. Now I even get salary for it.
Viihdeuutiset: What does having peace at home mean to you (?) ?
Jonna: I’m actually the kind of a person who doesn’t often invite guests home, because I meet so many people at work. At home it is nice to be surrounded by four walls, even from morning to evening, and read, watch movies, bathe and relax.
Viihdeuutiset: You came from Jyväskylä to the world, what kind of a path has it been?
Jonna: Severe. I left home when I was 16 and many cries have been cried, when missing mom and dad. From everything, however, I have survived.
Viihdeuutiset: What big dreams do you have at this moment?
Jonna: I’m happy with my life now. Maybe sometime in the future I wish for addition to the family.
Viihdeuutiset: Is your and Ville’s relationship an on- or off-relationship?
Jonna: An on-relationship. |
|
|
| Joonas talk show |
[Sep. 23rd, 2006|01:07 pm] |
JOONAS: Now the evenings last guest, Jonna Nygren, welcome!
[she walks in, they hug]
JOONAS: Yes, great that you could come here to spend your Thursday evening
JONNA: Thanks for having me
JOONAS: Let’s get straight to the downright confusing news. This week the papers told, apparently a result of a really long in depth interview…
JONNA:[laughs] yeah
JOONAS: that you were sick with, I wanna use the phrase sick with, baby fever. How are the physical symptoms?
JONNA: [joking] They’re really bad, really bad. I feel like vomiting in the mornings, you know, Have to eat all the time, a little like being pregnant..
JOONAS: I often have the same on Sunday mornings..
JONNA: That’s what I was getting at, you see the interview was done on Monday..
JOONAS: [laughs] And I always think it’s my biological clock that is ticking, but it’s the alarm clock.
JONNA: ..It is that alarm clock..
JOONAS: What of an in depth interview resulted to those headlines. It seemed like you were just walking in when somebody shouted “do you have baby fever?”
JONNA: Yeah, “And when will there be a wedding?” [lifts arms] Uhhh. Actually, I was late, as always[rolls eyes], for I was looking after my friend’s child. I said that, and it lead to a continuation question, do you have a baby fever? Well, always. I love children. I don’t officially know what baby fever is…..just like kids.
JOONAS: But it’s wonderful that they really opened your soul.
JONNA: Yes [laughs]
JOONAS: The party in question was MTV Finland’s 1-year old celebration. And the channel is extremely important now that we live after Jyrki and Moon TV, in a world where music videos are not really shown
JONNA:[nods] Yes.
JOONAS: What do you think this channel means to Finnish music?
JONNA: Metal, harder rock, Finnish music sung in Finnish, you can hardly see it anywhere. And that is something that you can find a lot in this country. I think it’s great that we got the International, sorry I mean the Nordic MTV, to divide in different sections (?). In Sweden it’s more rap, in Finland more rock and metal and in Norway, shall we say, more Satan worshipping. We get to show more songs sung in our own language.
JOONAS: Your show, Headbanger’s Ball will start on Sunday. For what I understand there will be more interviews and other specials, is there something you are particularly waiting for? Will you see something spectacle like?
JONNA: We have now shot the first two episodes, and in the first one we have Mokoma with us. And I think it’s lovely…to get to do interviews. We will also start doing it from Finland, that always when some pantyhose band gets to town…
JOONAS: Like HIM, for example?
JONNA: [shrugs] like HIM for example…yeah. That can be considered
JOONAS: Well, they’re boys who wear make up. Anyway, we will be waiting for that show. But now, for a while I will dress up as a gossip journalist. I have to ask, because I myself am thinking about moving. I read from a magazine that both of you, or Ville, are moving to a weird tower in Munkkiniemi? Have you already moved, are you living in a tower?
JONNA: Lets say we are trapped between two apartments. Well, not really trapped but we have two addresses, but we sleep in the same bed.
JOONAS: Ville lives in a tower and you in a potato cellar?
JONNA:[laughs] No actually, its our former apartment…and my current one.
JOONAS: It is kinda interesting that some people want to live unnoticeable... and some in a TOWER.
JONNA:[laughs]
JOONAS: But anyway, I still got to ask you a little about your relationship, as everyone knows you are dating HIM’s Ville Valo. One would think that to be a heavy task (?), in the sense, that in the world there probably are multiple girls who want you to brake up, who downright pray for it every evening, and even hope you wouldn’t exist.
JONNA:[laughs]
JOONAS: Isn’t that just an absolutely scary thought?
JONNA: When we started dating, it was. People, the fans, were thinking: oh look what a whore he has there, yeah yeah, it will be over soon. But now we have been together for near 3,5 years…and in the summer in festivals, people, foreign fans too, came up to me to me to say it was wonderful we were back together and all the best for us.
JOONAS: So you have been approved?
JONNA: I guess so..
JOONAS: Good luck with MTV, thank you for coming
JONNA: Thank you |
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| Iltalehti & Iltasanomat, not full translations. |
[Sep. 20th, 2006|03:55 pm] |
ILTA LEHTI: A TOUGH SPRING FOR VILLE AND JONNA
In MTV Finland’s party in Helsinki Jonna told, that in addition to her work fronts her
Personal life is doing well also.
-This spring has brought us together, Jonna said about the problems the couple had had in the spring.
-Relationships are rollercoasters like that, Ville stated.
About her living in Ville’s Munkkiniemi tower:
-Let’s still keep that as a question mark, I don’t want to comment, Jonna replied laughing at the information that she had moved into the tower.
-Right now it’s enough that you like the other and enjoy spending time together. Maybe sometime in the future, Jonna shrugged to the questions of wedding
-I have eagerly waited to get back to work, Jonna says.
-American tour is in the fall and on New Years is the traditional gig in Tavastia, says Ville.
For HIM fans disappointment that will be the only gig in the home country for a while. Next spring the band will head to studio.
-Now we have enjoyed Finland’s summer and relaxed. I have greeted old friends that I haven’t seen for a long time, tells Ville.
ILTA SANOMAT: VILLE & JONNA: BABY FEVER!
Ville Valo’s girlfriend suffers from baby fever
MTV’s host Jonna Nygren is in the best of strengths after her sick leave. Also her relationship is blooming.
-We sleep together in two different apartments, because we’re sailing between two homes, says Jonna.
She took care of her friend’s child before she came to the party
-Well, I always have baby fever. I love children more that anything. I don’t like the thought that a baby should be over planned (?). A child comes when it comes. And if one is not coming you just need long nerves (?).We both have so much work at the moment, that we’ll just go one day at a time, says Jonna.
-We’re engaged, we have these tattoos on our fingers. According to Ville’s words we never even broke up. Getting married isn’t such a big deal in these days anymore. But we have always talked that it would be nice to have a winter wedding, but it’s no use in waiting for that to happen this winter, says Jonna.
-Everything that happened really brought us together. It strengthened our relationship to notice, that we were able to get over the troubles. I was able to keep going, when I remembered that living hasn’t been so easy before, either.
The beauty will turn 27 next Wednesday,
-I will be shooting in Stockholm then. We have been talking a little, if Ville would come with too. I have never wanted to celebrate birthdays in a big way. We’ll have it nice with just the two of us.
Jonna will be seen on TV on Sunday, for the first time after her sick leave.
Despite having the flu Ville posed in good spirits next to Jonna. He straightened out publicly presented claims of building a studio into his house.
-I’m not building a studio. We will start doing a new record next year, but I don’t know yet, in which country it will be recorded in, says Ville. |
|
|
| TV Magazine |
[Sep. 18th, 2006|04:19 pm] |
Ville Valo’s fiancé Jonna Nygren recovers to come on screen
FROM A HEAVY HOST TO A THERAPIST?
MUNKKINIEMI’S BEAUTIFUL HOST
>who: Jonna Nygren
>born: 27.9.1979
>lives: Helsinki
>education: life
>tv-jobs: Nousu (MoonTv), Sessions (SubTv), Headbanger’s ball (MTV)
>prizes: When 6 years old won a ski competition
>favorite tv shows: Salatut elämät, Arto Nyberg
>never watches: Seinfield
Jonna runs to the interview almost three hours late. Five minutes more and the record made by Tapani Kansa would have been broken.
-I am so sorry. This is really embarrassing. I was working late yesterday and overslept, she explains.
She would probably rather still be in bed.
For Jonna’s fiancé, HIM-bands singer Ville Valo, is in Finland.
But there she is, sitting in Taidehalli’s restaurant, examines the menu and orders a cup of tea.
-I’ve had a little fever, she coughs
Jonna is also slightly pale and astonishingly thin.
-Think, last spring I was even eight kilos lighter.
Jonna wonders (?) herself and orders beet stakes.
Last spring Jonna slimmed down to almost not existing. She worked as a waitress, posed as a model
and hosted MTV’s Headbangers Ball. In the end she wore out.
-It was my life’s toughest experience, absolutely. Hell would be a pretty good word to describe it,
Jonna says and looks away.
Typical for people exhausted by work, it took a long time to recognize the symptoms.
-For a long time I had been over tired. In the morning I couldn’t get out of bed without caffeine tablets and in the evening I couldn’t sleep without sleeping pills and red wine. Then I would, tired, work for hours straight.
In the end Jonna’s body started to give in. She didn’t have strength to get up from bed anymore
-Called mom in the middle of the night and said “Mom, I can’t take this anymore” In the morning she came to take me away.
After hearing about her daughter’s addiction to sleeping pills and caffeine Jonna’s therapist mother sent her to rehab.
-The first week was hard to just stay in place. But when you learned it, it felt wonderful to be taken cared of.
When the stress loosened Jonna got ill. A high fever rose and lung infection (?) troubled, but a human’s healing had begun.
At the same time Ville was touring around the world with his band and the papers wrote that the couple had broken up. In reality it was just about distance, that is unavoidable between a world traveller, and the one, who stays at home.
When Jonna after moths of treatment got better Ville came and took her home. Now the couple lives together, romantically in the five floor tower in Helsinki’s Munkkiniemi.
-The next year is going to be pretty nice for HIM’s wives and girlfriends, Jonna says mysteriously but doesn’t tell precisely why
Are you happy?
-Yeah, I am, Jonna responds smiling shyly
Now she has enjoyed the beet stake and is sipping white wine. Next week the new Headbanger’s ball shootings will start in Stockholm
-I’m waiting with full ten for the shootings to start; Jonna says and gets already a little exited.
-Together with the producer we pick the music videos. Then I dig out information of the bands that hasn’t been written in the papers and write the introductions and interviews.
But she is not going to be on screen for the rest of her life.
-My dream job is that of a therapist. You have a terrible need to help, when you yourself have been in a difficult situation. |
|
|
| CITY 16/2006 |
[Aug. 19th, 2006|07:00 pm] |
THE TOWNS MOST FAMOUS GIRLFRIEND
She is a former model and according to fashion critic Mr. Blackwell Finland's most stylish
woman. She has needed treatment for depression. And yes, she is dating Ville Valo.
Ladies and gentemen, Finland's most well known girlfriend, Jonna Nygren.
Don't envy Jonna Nygren. Jonna is still sweating from yesterdays food poisoning and is
wondering if her stomach can handle Kabuk's small portions. Though you are allowed
to envy Nygren's appearance. The dark 27-year old woman dressed in a romantic denim
blue dress is exactly as Mr. Blackwell described her: individual and über-stylish.
NICE THAT YOU GOT OUT OF BED. TELL WHICH RESTAURANT GET'S THE PUBLIC MUD
-I won't tell because it's our favorite restaurant. I ate snails and was puking through
all yesterday. I was in a pretty weak state. In a X-position and writhering.
ANTHONY BOURDAIN SAYS THAT ONE SHOULD ONLY ORDER CRUSTACEANS ON
TUESDAYS
-Interesting. Manala has better snails. We should have done this interview there.
Gotten re-poisoned.
I SHOULD TORTURE YOU MORE NOW, BUT I CAN'T BULLY A HUMAN WHO'S IN A WEAK
STATE. SORRY.
-Thank you. One has to take being a thorn in the flesh with humour. One night me and
Ville went out. " They were both terribly drunk" we heard afterwards. We had drinken
three, four mugs...
IT HAS GOTTEN DOUBLE STANDARDY. YOU CAN'T DRINK ANYMORE, NOT EVEN
MENTIONING DRUGS. YOU AREN'T REALLY A PROTOTYPE FOR THE GOOD POSTURE
MOVEMENT. YOU'RE CHARACTER IS IN THE SAME WAY 'KHUUL' AS KATE MOSS'.
-Hmm. Her boyfriend messes about. With us, I'm the one who does that.
YOUR WORST SIN MUST BE, THAT YOU'RE VILLE VALO'S WOMAN. MAYBE YOU SHOULD
PICK UP SOMEBODY’S HUSBANDS IN A BAR AND CALL THE MAGAZINES?
-Ha. I'm not a secret sweetheart, but a public one. Sometimes I get the feeling
that, sorry, I didn't on purpose wedge into this.
YESTERDAY I WAS IN THE AKATEEMINEN BOOKSTORE. ON THE COVER OF
KIRJAIN –MAGAZINE WAS ARTO MELLER'S FACE. DOES THAT RING A BELL?
-Yes! Just the other day Ville said I'm just like Meller...I'm a hippie. Super humaneness
doesn't suit me. I burned out when I tried to be one. I could fly in the morning to
Stockholm, return in the evening to Helsinki and work all through the night just to wake
up in the morning to work again. I was possessed with the need to succeed. But did I
get a good feeling from working like an animal? No I didn't. Ville was on tour then,
so I was also killing time.
IT'S GREAT THAT YOU HAVE CONTINUED YOUR OWN JOBS. WORKING AS A WAITRESS
IN TORI IS ESPECIALLY GREAT. IT TELLS ALOT ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER
-Many have asked why I still work as a waitress. Why wouldn't I? It's an honourable
job, I like it.
YEP, SHIT JOBS. I'M SURE VILLE IS PROUD ABOUT THAT
-I have now been on sick leave, but I could never leave that place. There are so many
wonderful people there.
TORI IS A NICE PLACE, BUT THE SMOKE THERE IS ITS OWN CLASS. AND THE ACOUSTICS.
-Ears ring when you get home. Andy and Ville can't sit there. The music hurts some
peoples ears so badly, that...Hey this is good...Do I have any ideological or other
food restrictions? No. I eat a lot of fish. One day I ate reindeer. I have to eat,
so that I get kilos back. At my worst I weighted 8kg less. Stress takes appetite.
YOUR MOTHER HEALED YOU. SHE IS ONLY 43-YEARS OLD. HER PROFESSION IS BEING A
NURSE FOR DRUG YOUNGSTERS.
-Yes. I got myself in shape because of her. I started eating and resting in my mothers
arms. I went to have drinks with her and just rested.
IT'S LUCKY THAT YOU HAVE YOUR MOTHER AS A FRIEND. THAT GIVES STRENGHT.
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
- From Jyväskylä. My mom moved via Tampere to Hyvinkää. My father still lives in
Jyväskylä with his family. Recently it came to a full ten years since I moved to
Helsinki. In between I travelled the world. Lived in New York and spent time in Asia.
They claim that travelling broadens one's mind. Well, it does.
WE'RE SITTING IN YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT KABUK. WHAT MAKES THIS PLACE DEAR?
-I often come here to eat, but there are special memories connected to Kabuk. We
come here every New Year after HIMs Tavastia gig. Kabuk is closed, but all the
people who have worked with the band gather up there.
THERE ARE DELICIOUS SMALL PORTIONS ON THE TABLE. IN THE WEEKEND YOU WERE
VISITED BY AMERICAN FRIENDS. DID YOU BRING THEM HERE OF SOME PLACE ELSE?
-To Ankkarock. We were in Hanoi Rock's gig and on Sunday we went to see the
Norwegian Turbonegro. It's a pretty miscellaneous congregation. All are cool
fellows, but among very different personalities. Really crazy, and great
company when going out. People look, what what, when every fellow is whistling
to different directions.
LAST WEEK I MET HANOI ROCKS ANDY IN MAXILL. YOU'RE GOOD FRIENDS, RIGHT?
-Yeah. I used to live at Andy's and Angela's for a little while
DID THEY TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOU?
-They did. People are like, how is that possible...
THEY DIDN'T BOMB HEROIN STRAIGHT IN THE VEIN, HA?
-No. They are really caring people. For certain reasons many have prejudices against
them. Andy cleaned a room for me in the middle of the night and said, this is a room
for you. They are great.
YEP. YOU HAVE TO LOOK BEHIND THE BULLSHITTING-SHOW. YOU CAN'T BE A USELESSLY
SERIOUS PERSON.
-Exactly. Andy is just testing people. We still call each other daily.
AND ALSO, ANDY IS A REALLY GOOD GUITARIST.
-Yes, mindless. While living in Usa it was great to notice, that when I told people
I was from Finland, they started to 'go smoke' about Hanoi Rocks.
THAT STYLE IS IN AGAIN. THE LEGS ARE ONLY TIGHTER AND THE CONVERSES MORE
POPULAR.
-I use tight jeans also. Ville took one pair away. "Give 'em, pants away. I want
those pants",he said. "Those are so obscene, I want to put them on" "Give me something
in return" Well, I got a pair of tight jeans too.
YOU LOOK ALIKE
-The mothers alway say, that you both could be my children.
KINKY
-Siblings, yeah. Hmm. Wonderful food
IT'S THE BEST TUNAFISH I HAVE EVER TASTED. WHERE DID YOU GET YOUR EXOTIC
LOOKS FROM?
-Theres gypsy blood in the family, but my hair is really white. My fathers hair is
blonde, too.
YOUR FEATURES STAND OUT BETTER WITH THE DARK
-My mother says that too. And I feel a lot more comfortable with dark hair. I
have a dark persons mentality. It, the darkness, is the color of the mood inside.
WERE YOUR AMERICAN FRIENDS IN HELSINKI FOR THE FIRST TIME?
-No. Bam Margera was on a visit again. His brother had a gig. We went to the early
hours. They like Helsinki unbelievably much. Slipknots drummer said that he is
trying to understand finnish humour. 'Its sick, your humour' he said. 'I don't
know when you’re joking'. Had to give him a sign: this is a joke.
WOULD IRONY BE A MORE OF A EUROPEAN GENRE?
-Exactly. Self irony is nevertheless an absolute king genre. Truly important to master.
COULD YOU LAUGH AT YOURSELF IN SPRING?
-Laughing is a healthy way to take distance from your own problems. I can’t remember
when I had laughed so much at myself than in the one week in rehab. I laughed so
hysterically that it hurt my abs and cheeks.
YOU WERE ALSO DEEPLY DEPRESSED. THEN HUMOUR ISN’T THE FIRST
THING THAT COMES TO MIND?
-Absolutely not. Then you have to call familiar people. When you hear moms or Ville’s
voice saying ‘love’, you have the courage to breath again.
ARE YOU AN ADDICT? I AM. THE TARGET CHANGES BUT I’M ALWAYS
ADDICTED TO SOMETHING. WHEN THE SHOPPING ADDICT PHASE STRIKES
CREDITCARDS HAVE TO BE CONFISCATED. SOMETIMES I HAVE TO GET THE
SAME FOOD.
-I’m a clear addict. Addiction can be aimed at anything. At one point I only ate goats
Cheese salad. I had to get it every day.
ARE YOU AN ADDICT WHEN IT COMES TO PEOPLE? I ALSO GET STUCK ON
PEOPLE.
-I totally recognize myself in that.
HAVING AN ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY IS USEFUL IN JOURNALISM WORK.
YOU GET EXCITED ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEES AND KIND OF FALL IN LOVE
WITH THEM? YOU’RE A JOURNALIST TOO. IN SEPTEMBER YOU RETURN TO
MTV, TO HOST HEADBANGER’S BALL.
-Yes. A journalist job is inspiring. Music has always been a big passion, and everything
to do with it interests me. For example it’s really cool to get to ask artists about lyrics
that have troubled you. It’s an honour to do interviews.
YEP, THE INTERVIEWEES ARE AS A GENERAL RULE MORE INTELLIGENT THAN
THE INTERVIEWERS. BEFORE YOU USED TO WORK IN MOONTV?
-Yeah. I was doing a show about club music. It was called Nousu.
IN A RISE? [Nousu=Rise. In a rise~Getting drunk]
-A little inside joke, ha. Besides Nousu we did festival reports.
NOW I HAVE HORSERADISH IN MY THROAT. OH THE FIRE. THIS IS REALLY FRESH,
PINK. AT ONE POINT YOU USED TO DO A LOT OF MODELING JOBS.
-I don’t do anymore. I actually never liked that job. And anyway, I’m beginning to be too
old to be a model.
WHEN ANALYZING FINNISH WOMENS STYLE MR. BLACKWELL CHOSE YOU AS
THE MOST STYLISH ONE. HE ALSO TOLD THE TRUTH ABOUT SAIMI NOUSIAINEN’S
“STYLE”
-I saw that. It was pretty interesting. I wouldn’t call Saimi stylish, either. So how
has my style developed? It hasn’t at all. Sometimes a friend finds clothing that
he/she thinks looks like me. I’m unable to say, which clothing is like that. I love
flee markets. You get a good feeling that someone else has had atmospheres in them.
That it has it’s own history.Haa, look. This is Ville’s new girlfriend. A pretty
blonde. I took this photo in Ankkarock. No, its Mike Monroe. Makke is looking really
good.
MAKKE’S EYES WEREN’T LIKE BOILED EGGS ANYMORE?
-They weren’t.
AMAZING TUNAFISH. TASTE IT. THIS IS WORTH GETTING ADDICTED TO. BY THE
WAY, WHAT DID YOU DO IN NEW YORK?
-I lived a normal life. Did shit jobs. One reason for going was that I would learn more about
myself and grow. Everyone can buy a ticket and leave.
YEP. SOMEBODY HAS TO DO ALL THE SHIT JOBS IN THE WORLD. I HAVE BEEN THINKING
OF BECOMING A WAITRESS, IF I RUN OUT OF THE REPORTING JOBS
-I could talk you into Tori! A work friend there had a pulse measure in his/her hand. In the
time of six, seven hours it came to full 2km. And you hardly take brakes.
YOU ARE A LIBRA. BY THE WAY, WHAT IS VILLE’S HOROSCOPE?
-A three time Scorpio. My own scales don’t always stay very balanced. I have gypsy blood,
and when that boils, then whoah.
WHAT IS THE WORST YOU HAVE DONE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF GYPSY BLOOD?
-At a time when I was fighting with my former boyfriend. It irritated me to the point
that without realizing what I was doing I grabbed a pair of scissors and threw them at
him. He was able to shut the door, and the scissors sank into it. I was gasping for
breath. I managed to think that now it went a bit too far.
JONNA NYGREN’S OPINIONS ON SOCIETY ISSUES
[YES/NO/EMPTY]
Adoption rights for homosexuals [YES]
Restaurants open ‘till 6am [NO]
Obligatory paternity leaves [EMPTY]
The age of voting to 16 [NO]
Legalizing Cannabis [NO]
Silicones allowed for Finnish models[YES]
Separating state and church [YES]
Returning death penalty [NO]
Removing obligatory military service [NO]
Forbidding fur farms [EMPTY]
Free restaurant smoking [EMPTY]
Feminine towels tax deductible [YES] |
|
|
| ILTALEHTI |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|06:00 pm] |
Ville Valo & Jonna Nygren TOGETHER AGAIN?
Ville Valo and Jonna Nygren enjoy eachothers company despite the break up.
Ex-engaged Ville Valo, 29, and Jonna Nygren, 27, don't hide their warm relations. The couple who broke up in spring have been seen together multiple times.
Last the couple enjoyed eachothers company at the restaurant Manala in Helsinki in the night between sunday and monday. For a while Ville and Jonna sat together with a group of acquaintances. In the restaurant the couple didn't try to hide being together, and when the closing time was approaching they left the group taking pizzas with them.
Ville and Jonna have been together in the summer not only in restaurants but also in the same festivals. They rocked together for example in Provinssirock and Tuska.
Has the rock-couple gotten through their difficulties and decided to continue dating? It's very possible. When Ville returned to Finland from HIMs American tour in the early summer seeing Jonna made him specially happy.
In June Ville Valo told Iltalehti that he and his ex-girlfriend still were in good relations.
-We are close, but we haven't had time to hang out together, Ville said
In June Jonna Nygren told MeNaiset-magazine that her and Ville Valo's relationship wasn't completely over, but only on a time out. According to Jonna the break in February was a drunken scene gone too far.
But Jonna took the break up very heavily. The earlier feeling bad and intoxication addiction only increased with the break up and in March Jonna went to rehab. Now she has gotten her life better on track. Also her relationship with Ville seems to be in a calmer state than before.
Ville Valo or Jonna Nygren coudn't be reached yesterday to comment on the present state of their relationship. |
|
|
| PLUSSA |
[Jul. 25th, 2006|05:53 pm] |
JONNA NYGREN: A splendid revelation
CERIL CAMPBELL: She's the most stylish one of the group. She is sexy and cool, probably a singer or an actress. She's in the know of fashion and wears this seasons clothes. Even if she's wearing high heels with shorts she doesn't look cheap. She has a natural eye for fashion and probably always looks good. She reminds me of Kate Moss who can combine clothes and hardly ever makes fashion mistakes 5/5
OUTI BROUX: I fully agree with Campbell. Jonna is very beautiful to look at. Hopefully she gets her life in shape, so in the future we can see a little bit more smiling 5/5 |
|
|
| Ville Valo in Iltalehti |
[Jun. 19th, 2006|06:37 pm] |
Around depression and death
“I HAVE CRIED ALOT”
VILLE VALO'S YEAR OF SADNESS
Ville Valo, who has returned to Finland, has finally time to think about the changes is his private life.
Provinssirocks Saturdays main performance HIM flew straight to Seinäjoki with a private plane from Sweden, where the band performed in Hultsfred festival. The band has lately pushed in America in an awful speed, and the return to the homeland was a relief to Ville Valo.
The impetuous pace has vaccinated thing in the homeland and finally Ville has time to think about big subjects
-This has been pretty interesting. Four pretty close friends have fallen deep into depression, and a few acquaintances have died. During this year so many bad things have happened, even though the band is doing very good, Ville says
-It's a very schizophrenic life, when everyday you hear sadder phone calls and you yourself have to shake your ass every night for one and a half hours 10000 km away.
Friends give Ville strength. Also HIMs sentimental music is a moderate way to escape.
-It helps that work has gone well and I have cried on Kaasu's shoulder. Luckily I have good friends in the band and I have also met new good people. Good happenings, Ville smiles
Also Ville Valo's ex-fiancé Jonna Nygren was in a good mood in Seinäjoki. Seeing Jonna, who has recovered from her drug addiction, made Ville especially happy. The couple who broke up in spring were in the same company in Provinssirock.
-We are close, but we haven't had time to hang out, Ville tells
-Let's say, that my life isn't just a relationship
-I'm not lifting my hands, but I just haven't had a day off in moths to think about my own stuff. If the stars are in the right position, then why not
Compared to office work rock life is a very unregular world, and love relationships are always on trial.
-Though this is a general confusion, on the other hand it's great if you have an anchor you can let down somewhere. Grass is never greener on the other side of the fence, although you always want what you can't get.
-No one in this is innocent. Everybody makes mistakes and learn from them. I don't think knowledge increases pain, but the other way around. Knowledge brings the opportunity to think differently.
Ville has never tried how it would feel to stay in one place. Changing the lifestyle isn't even an option.
-You have to keep moving, so you can stay put.
Moving into the house
Ville Valo bought a tower building from Munkkiniemi. Now it's getting renovated, but he hopes he can move in during the summer.
-It's nice to have a place, where there is peace to work. I travel so much that in my two previous apartments everything was half done, you couldn't do music there, he says.
Extremely good feels getting to do everyday things.
-After all this touring it's nice to go and buy toilet brushes and vacuum cleaners. It's nice to sweat in the apartment and put paintings on the walls.
On the walls of the towers will be hanged at least 12 pictures of Tapio Rautavaara and a few old summer landscapes.
-I have so many paintings, 12 pictures of Tapsa Rautavaara and a few old summer landscapes, few gold records.
Ville won't participate in the renovation
-It's better that every branches professional does things in their branch. If I then do the music.
Gold record coming from America
HIMs latest album Dark Light has sold now already over 450000 copies in America. For a gold record 500000 have to be sold. HIMs first gold record in the USA seems almost certain.
-The tour went extremely well and now we're planning on getting back there on October. The land is so new to us, so it's good to go and remind people of us, Ville Valo smiles
Valo has played with the thought of in the future having a second home in Los Angeles. Helsinki is still forever number one.
-Of course an apartment there would make things easier, but I don't have money for that. If the things roll from here on it would be nice to have a small base.
HIM is gonna have a sabbath in early next year and breath out for the new record. No shedule is yet certain, though. |
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| Ville Valo in Ilta Sanomat |
[Jun. 19th, 2006|03:38 pm] |
“The heart is put in the closet”
VILLE VALO TALKS ABOUT HIS BREAK UP
“Love is madness”
Broken up with Jonna Nygren, Ville Valos year has been dark and tough
HIMs figure-head Ville Valo sits cross legged on the floor in the dressing room of Provinssirock. The rest of the band lays on sofas, behind them a successful gig for 25000 listeners. Just a few hours earlier Ville Valo gave Ilta Sanomat an interview from the tobacco room of his hotel.
Valo must me the most routined Finnish rockstar. Even now he answered the questions openly and in a good mood. He didn't complain about tiredness from the time difference, although just a few days ago he came back after a long American tour.
How do you cope, the same rotation has gone on after the new record for almost two years?
-Pretty good, mostly because I know the summer will be a little more easy, Valo answers
The near week HIM does festival gigs around Europe. The weeks are free, but Valo has things to do
-I have to write songs, say hi to mom and dad, do festivals and take care of myself with reading and bathing, Valo lists
Also, moving takes time. Valo recently bought a historical tower house from Helsinki's Munkkiniemi.
-There at least are no neighbours to do injustice to, he laughs refering to last winters hullabaloo-news. Valo had a fight with his neighbours in Eira, and the police put him in jail. The thing has been agreed on, and the singer blames no one but himself.
-I haven't talked about this a lot, because it was just me being a jerk. I was tired, stressed out, and then I did a stupid thing. It was completely my fault. I asked for forgiveness and we agreed about it together.
A year ago Ville Valo got engaged to Jonna Nygren in Ruisrock. The couple who had been together for a long time tattooed eachothers initials to their fingers and Valo insisted to Ilta Sanoma's to know “where his heart belongs”.
In the spring came the surprising break up news.
-I don't know what the situation is at the moment. It's hard to take care of your relationship if in two years you are away for one and a half. I last saw the lovely dame the day before this. I've been working so hard, Valo tells.
-Lately, the heart has been put in the closet, and work has been done. Soon it'll be taken out of the closet and we'll see how it beats. Love is madness, you can't put it in doses. It either surges over or under.
Valo says the year has been dark and tough. Misfortunes have happened enough in his near circle.
His friends have died and gotten very sick, and many couples have broken up.
-This is a challenge: some super astrologer should look in what position the stars have been. Negative things have happened more than ever. Not necessarily to me, but it has pulled my own wings to the ground for a while.
HIM will start working on the new album next year. Gigs they have to at least November. In America the band does a Halloween tour warming up for example Papa Roach and Lost Prophets. Valo gets to concentrate in the new songs after that.
-There really hasn't been time yet to work them. But I have read a fucking lot and gotten a lot of good ideas.
It seems the new record will be in the stores in next years November, when Valo himself turns 31.
So this year Ville Hermanni Valo will face the full thirty. It doesn't cause a crisis – at least not more than usually.
-Life as a musician doesn't run in weekly cycles. And I have had a crisis every year. |
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| Jonna Nygren in Image |
[Jun. 10th, 2006|03:38 pm] |
Jonna Nygren, 26
host
In summer nights I lay on the bed wearing thin pyjamas. When the few hours of darkness come I light a candle. Occasionally I go under cold water. That helps me to sleep for a while. And then I wake up again. It is most wonderful, I enjoy every second.
In the nights I think a lot of my childhood days at my grandmothers house. I think how relaxed, nice and fun it was: the lake, the greenness, the walk trips with grandmother. It is still as good to be there. Granny cooks, makes pancakes, makes the bed and prepares it for the night, reminds you to go and brush your teeth. And I'm a child again. When I'm a grandmother myself one day, my grandchildren probably run away, because I tell them stories from the past all the time.
I think way too much. I worry about the smallest things. In the night I write my thoughts in a notebook. They are pretty melancholic things. Last I wrote a poem that had a happy ending. That was hard to write. In the poem I'm up to my knees in mud, but then I get away. Not so long ago I was feeling so bad. You should tear up more to feeling bad: so it passes and later you can see it from a different angle.
I'm approaching thirty, I'm growing up and the pressure starts: should have children and do this and do that. I don't want to take pressure, but have a child, if ones coming, and not care, even if I have to be with the child 24 hours a day. I want to take a new person to the adventures of life.
Many summers I have only worked, but this summer I'm gonna enjoy. I'll go to the swimming stadium with my 5 month old godson Kikko. I look when he giggles as he is floating his toes in the water. That guy can laugh. Kids are great, wonderful, innocent. A lollipop makes them happy. Tell them one joke and they're sold.
Jonnas summer recommendations:
-Mornings: make your alarm clock ring early, go wander the streets, go for a morning jog, go get
sun, you don't want to miss the few beautiful days
-Water running: I'm afraid of swimming, but in water running a safe ring keeps you on the surface.
Competing with the grannies in the pool has become an obsession.
-Hietalahti flea market: Go there almost daily. Cheaply you can make all kinds of discoveries.
-Espionage: Its wonderful to spy on people on the terraces of cafés without them noticing.
-Rock festivals: Every summer you have to go to one festival, this summer I'm going to Provinssirock.
-Kiosk ice-cream: At least one every day. Chocolate nougat is my favorite. |
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| Jonna Nygren in Me Naiset |
[Jun. 9th, 2006|02:40 am] |
“Care stopped the medication cycle”
Relationship crisis and burn out drove Jonna Nygren to take care of herself with medication and liquor. People close to her found the lonely rock wife and took her to rehab – 'Then I realized it isn't a shame to ask for help'
JONNA NYGREN, broken up with Ville Valo
“I returned stronger from the rehab”
In the world of society columns Jonna Nygren, 27, should have been a lucky girl. There Jonna lives as a rock wife for the lead singer, Ville Valo, 30, of the most successful Finnish band Him. She spinned around in celebrity-model events and got her own show to host at Moon-tv, Sub-tv and latest, MTV.
The couple got engaged last summer in Provinssirock, and instead of rings they got tattoos on their fingers, and bought a house from Helsinki's most expensive neighborhood. The fans cried for the taken Ville and Jonna got suggestions for an interview with the idea of 'Finland's most hated normal person'. She declined for that story, but in an other revealed that the couple were thinking of names for future children. Ville praised the power of relationship and told that his lady was hoping for a winter wedding.
At the change of the year mud was thrown over the dream headlines. Jonna threw a fit in a bar and screamed holes in her mans ear. Ville, thought to be a gentleman, shook the peace of the high class building, made noise and threatened the neighbor The rocker ended up in jail.
In the beginning of March there were news of the couples shock break up. A few column weeks later Jonna ended up in an hospital. Jonna says she has heard dozens of reasons and versions of why, and in what care she ended up in. Now shes feeling good enough to tell, what was really going on behind the tabloids.
-The most ridiculous comment came from a half acquaintance. According to that, I was partying so wildly after the break up that I ended up in rehab. Right – last months have been absolutely hilarious, my life continuous May day . Things really aren't the way everybody thinks they are, Jonna corrects.
Well how are they then?
Going asleep and waking up with medication
In the beginning of May the tabloids were screaming 'Break up from Ville drove to a vicious circle-
JONNA WENT TO REHAB!”
In reality burn out and its self medication drove Jonna to rehab. Jonna counts that her problems started about half a year ago. When Ville was touring with Him, Jonna lived alone in the couples' apartment and killed time with working. Too much.
Real life really wasn't just living as a rock wife. Jonna has worked in restaurant business her whole working life and in addition to that has done modeling jobs and TV-hosting. The shifts at the favorite restaurants of Helsinki could stretch out to 3 am, and waking up for the days hosting job was at 5am. She started feeling overtired and irritated. Even though the fatigue weighted heavy, sleep didn't come.
-I was always tense, weepy and depressed. Was so damn tired, but just had to go on. I was constantly taking more work, although I wasn't feeling good.
Jonna started medicating her insomnia and bad feelings.
-When I got home in the evenings I drank red wine, so I could relax. Sleep, on the other hand, didn't come without tranquilizers or sleeping pills. That lead to that I in the morning had to stuff my face full with caffeine tablets, because the usual coffee wakening didn't help anymore, she tells.
Over-tiredness, stress and pressure of the relationship got deeper and worse. It was a full job for Jonna to get out of her house and take care of the agreed shifts, but still she couldn't recognize the condition she was getting into.
-In that treadwheel I didn't even notice the symptoms of depression. I felt violent anxiety and often felt like crying, but didn't stop to think what was wrong with me.
The final stop came in the middle of March when Jonna withdrew to her home.
-I was drinking by myself and was physically so dead tired, that I couldn't even drag myself to the bathroom or the toilet. Everything felt so overwhelming. My friends came to visit and found me in the apartment in a confused state of mind. I hadn't showered for a week. I didn't have strenght for anything.
The friends stayed for the night to support Jonna and contacted her mother. The psychiatric-mother, who works with youngsters who have drug problems, understood immediately that now care was needed, not scolding.
-Only after the others came for help I realized that this is what I needed. I felt enormously relieved. It felt like a rock had been lifted from me, when I was found and I got to say, that I needed help.
Mother guided to rehab
Although the ultimate reason for Jonnas sickness were depression and over-tiredness, firstly the drug dependence, that had formed in the near months, had to be taken care of. Jonna was guided to the Aurora hospital in Helsinki, but that didn't feel like the right place, not in her or the doctors opinion. With mothers advice she went to Pellas, which is specialized for rehabitation.
-In the connection you talk about drug rehab. Though I wasn't doing drugs, my medication dependency needed the same kind of treatment.
Jonna praises Pellas' 11-person rehabitation center. A home-like atmosphere and an intimate spirit dominated the little unit.
-The other recoveries were amazing personalities. I don't remember laughing so much in ages. We
were able to laugh at ourselves and our restlessness. That helped the recovery. On the other hand you realized it isn't a shame to ask for help. There are others alike.
Only in the rehab Jonna realized in what a bad shape she had been in.
She portrays herself as a performer who tries to please everybody, from friend to employer.
-I like to take care of others. That way you forget your own troubles. A nurse in Pallas reminded me, that now I was resting myself. There I realized that I don't have to be a superwoman and assiduously assure that I can handle everything. Its ok to say, that I'm completely dead tired.
Pallas concentrates on resting, discussing, eating well and exercising. Jonna had lost weight and was in a fragile condition, so rehab and insomnia were tough for the body, too.
-I did handiwork, when I got an allowance for knitting needles. They were forbidden in the house rules, but luckily the nurses saw that knitting is an effective way for me to calm down.
Jonna was in Pellas for a month. During that time she was only in contact with her mother. The rest of the world had to wait.
-When the month came to close, the thought of leaving was frightening. I had gotten used to having support near. My other life had been on pause for the whole treatment and I was nervous on what kind of pressures I would encounter in the outer world.
After the rehab Jonna started therapy. At first she had a threshold with talking to a complete stranger. When the beginning reservedness was gotten over with the care-relationship became encouraging. Therapy concentrates on taking care of the depression and finding out where it all started. A therapist doesn't give you advice, but helps you think and understand.
-I have learned enormously about myself and realized how things are connected to each other and how our experiences affect us. This has been an interesting journey in myself, and it probably would suit everybody, even if they weren't going through a dramatic stop like this.
Ville calls daily
“The relationship was ended over the phone- VILLE DUMPED JONNA” The engaged couples break was in the tabloids in the beginning of March. It was told that Ville left Jonna with a text message. Jonna doesn't talk about Ville and herself as “we” anymore. Instead of a break up she would rather call it a break. She doesn't want to chew over the reasons of the break here.
-We were both drunk then, one in Athens, one in Finland. We were having a war with text messages, racingly sending each other mean, bitchy messages. It was a blunder episode of two drunkards, where one was trying to focus on its job, the other on keeping its head together. Intoxication is the right state when going through these kinds of things, sneers Jonna
The relationship that has laster for three years is on penalty, until Ville gets back to Finland from his American tour, when the couple gets to talk face to face. The rumors of a complete break up are rubbish.
-We talk together on the phone daily. Ville always calls when hes going to sleep and again when he has woken up. We talk about this and that. How are you, eating porridge, what are you doing, watching a movie
Jonna reminds that every relationship has problems that are not supposed to be straightened out over the phone. You have to talk these things through face to face.
-Even though it's hard to believe, things have a habit of straightening out. I have my idea on how things are gonna continue and where I'll in the end settle up in, but thats between us.
For now Jonna lives with her mother in Hyvinkää. The ex-couples home in Kaivopuisto is on sale and Ville has gotten a new house from Munkkiniemi.
Jonna admits that a traveling job caused pressure in the relationship, but that staying apart also had its charm. Both got time for their selves, and the moments shared together are even more appreciated. Jonna toured around with Him in few occasions, for the longest she was with them on the American tour. Jonna was also going to go to Australia and Japan, but her sickness ruined the plans.
-Only on the road I realized what a hard job the guys are doing. In the morning you wake up to do interviews, then you transfer to where the gig is taking place. In the night you move to the next target where the routines are repeated. Glamour is far from it, and everyone who manages tour life deserves respect.
It also takes guts for them who stay at home.
-Maybe even more than for the one who leaves, Jonna remarks.
The one on the road has its traveling routines and can focus tightly on working, but frustration and longing lurks to the one waiting at home.
-But I don't blame the job for what happened between us. When I got into the relationship Ville was already a successful rockstar and I did know where I got myself into.
To the brake up fuss Jonna takes a humorous stand
-Luckily after it came the break up of the Kirvesniemis, Jonna laughs dryly. All respect to their relationship, but from my point of view it was a relief that the public got something else to talk about.
The seething gypsy blood
“Jonna threw a fit, EARDRUM RIPPED” In the end of last year Jonna screamed herself to the tabloids after a night that went too wild. They were playing spin the bottle with a group of friends, until Jonna lost her nerve and screamed so that the eardrum of Ville, who was sitting next to her, ripped. If the hole had been any bigger Ville would have ended up on an operation table and Villes American tour would have been canceled.
-I was told that for a eardrum to rip you need a 140 desibel shout. It seems I have a voice that carries far. Greetings to the boys of Nightwish, here it goes, Jonna smiles tamely.
She believes that one day this will be laughed about, although now its shameful.
-Never in my life have I been so sorry about anything, or to anybody, then I am about that stunt.
Jonna describes herself to be a mood person, who cries as easily as laughs. Emotions are not held back.
-I let everything come out in the moment I feel like it. My friends are used to it and let me rage for a while, because they know I'll get back to normal soon. I guess it's my seething gypsy blood, says Jonna motioning to her gypsy grandfather.
It was probably the gypsy blood in her when she at the age of 8 told her mother she was moving out of Finland when she grows up. Her friends would become hairdressers, nurses and truck drivers, she would be a traveler. At the age of 17 she left to Helsinki for a few days holiday, and forgot herself in her friends house for a month, and later moved there entirely. A few years later she ended up in New York just as spontaniously: a one month holiday expanded to three years.
Jonnas and Ville Valos roads crossed for the first time in 2003, when Jonna was visiting Finland. She was slowly planning on returning to Finland, but when the love flamed the plans speeded up.
Jonna says she wasn't the least bit interested in standing in publicity next to Ville, and didn't let it change her life. She had gotten her own share of publicity with her jobs on Moon-TV, Sub-TV, and now on MTV. To gossiping Jonna has an uncaring attitude.
-Half acquitances call and tell things on our behalf. So what? That doesn't feel like anything. There are always lurkers and I don't view them as my friends. We had a habit of sending SMS on who found the most 'bomb' headline
What doesn't piss you off anymore, strengthens
“THE SICK LEAVE CONINUES STILL” told the tabloids, but Jonna is on the better half of the recovery. Therapy continues regularly and Jonna has slowly returned to restaurant jobs. When MTVs Headbangers ball returns from the summer brake Jonna will continue to host it.
Right after the rehab Jonna felt like the normal life wouldn't work. She wasn't able to sleep and couldn't find a good rhythm.
-The next phase was, what doesn't kill pisses you off. With the support of others I could carry on, even if it was strength taking. Then came the best phase of recovery: What doesn't piss you off anymore, strengthens. I could look back and notice, that, jes- I went through quite a mess, but came through as a much stronger human. I understand myself, others and the society better.
Jonna used to think that exhaustion was a sign of weakness. Close relations and doctors have praised her to be brave, she did confess she needed help and even told the public about her hell.
-Going to rehab was the best opinion for me at that moment. I wasn't the first, definitely not the last, and asking for help is nothing to be ashamed of.
Jonna is thankful for the support her friends gave her. She hadn't realized how many people she had who cared about her.
-Though, then there are those who think I was in rehab because I was crazy
Jonna admits that she couldn't have survived without the help of her mother. Mom knew, that instead of condemnation, understanding was needed. It would have been easy to turn your back on your drunkard and take a condemnated attitude.
-My mother was an absolutely fabulous help, and the tough experience has brought us together. Lets see, when I bear to leave from her. There we lay next to my mom, my little sister and I. Right now it's the safest place on earth. |
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