Children of Bodom - back in Finland for a change

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By Vesa Sirén
     
      “Damn, this is Malminkartano in Helsinki.”
      Alexi Laiho, 29, the songwriter, guitarist and vocalist of the Children of Bodom, is rehearsing briefly between the band’s US and European tours. In the USA they were the main number. In Helsinki, they are the warm-up band for Slipknot and Machine Head.
      “This round will last until Christmas, and being a warmup band is almost like being on vacation. Just 45 minutes an evening”, Laiho comments.
      The Bodoms’ tours have led to sales of 1.2 million records of their “extreme metal” music.
      “Extreme metal is heavy, fast, not radio-friendly stuff, where vocals are not pure - just shouting and noise.”
      Laiho is proud of hitting the number-one spot on the Finnish list, because that brought extreme metal onto the radio.
      “It’s giving the finger to the media. If the listeners decide what they like, then you can’t do anything about it.”
     
Children of Bodom have been in the Top 10 in Japan, Germany, and Canada. In the United States, their Blooddrunk album reached number 22. Among Finnish bands only HIM has done better.
      “In the United States, you have to be there all the time to get visibility. We started as a warmup band in 2003, we did three tours a year, and the first round when we were the headline act in 2005 was 96% sold out.”
      The Bodoms toured from Los Angeles to New York, not forgetting the smaller towns in between.
      “In small places, people who liked us were absolutely amazed when five guys from somewhere around the North Pole showed up to play there.”
      Testament, a pioneer in the field, was a warmup band for them.
     
It all started when Alexi’s father took him to a Dire Straits concert.
      “I still really like Mark Knopfler. I played violin at the age of seven, but he got me to want a guitar."
      At 13, Alexi started to play with the present Bodom drummer Jaska Raatikainen. Tastes changed.
      “I heard Metallica, and right away I was, like, ‘wow, that’s great and fast’. Slayer’s guys seemed crazy and Sepultura was a shock. The chaos was strangely appealing."
      Next came black metal, and only the most primitive underground demo was considered acceptable as the real thing. Talk about Satanism by criminals was also intriguing.
      “It brought mysticism, and I wanted to know what kind of music the guys who were that far out to lunch might make. But it got out of hand, especially in Norway. The music took a back seat when they started burning churches and killing each other.”
      The original phenomenon faded away, which Laiho feels was a good thing.
      “Music is music, and it shouldn’t hurt anybody. Musical talent is also interesting, and in black metal not many knew how to play.”
     
The versatile Laiho studied at the Oulunkylä Pop and Jazz Conservatory. The band's virtuosity was dazzling already on the first Children of Bodom recording.
      “We brought something new: extreme metal and shouting, but there was also some old school guitar playing and influences of classical music”, Laiho explains.
      Laiho still knows how to play Bach, and the Steve Vai arrangement of Paganini’s 5th Violin Caprice. Laiho’s and Roope Latvala’s performance of the guitar arrangement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on YouTube has received over two million hits.
      Next he wants to learn how to play bluegrass on the banjo. “Those people are hardcore guys.”
      His favourite composer is Mozart.
      “The best ever. The final scene of Don Giovanni is such heavy stuff that even I get anxious when I hear it. It leaves bands like Mayhem and Burzum far behind in malevolence!”
     
Mayhem and Burzum were Norwegian black metal bands and the latter allegedly inspired the name of the Espoo-based outfit.
      “There was a Lake Bodom on the map. I remembered a murder story from way back, and Bodom sounded like Burzum.”
      Laiho does not believe that the sole survivor of the killings that took place at Lake Bodom back in 1960 would have heard of the band.
      “There is no intention to hurt the feelings of anyone who was involved in the unfortunate event, and this has been understood. We didn’t get any crap about the name.”
      With the lyrics of the "Bodom" songs, like Children of Bodom or Silent Night, Bodom Night [both from the 1999 album Hatebreeder], do you glorify the murderer?
      “No. They are horror stories, with no basis in fact.”
      According to Laiho, the lyrics of most of the band's songs reflect wrath and aggression.
      “And you can’t write lyrics if you fake it.”
     
Sometimes the agony needs to be produced artificially.
      The three final lyrics for the 2005 album Are You Dead Yet? were not born until Laiho spent three of the five last studio days at home, getting closely acquainted with several whisky bottles.
      “When I was out of it long enough, I was down at the bottom again and I despised myself. Then I wrote the three best lyrics of my life, I sang them better than ever, and got them recorded in two days. The feeling was genuine.”
      Laiho feels that the Are You Dead Yet? sacrifice was small.
      “I would do anything for my music.”
     
On his gigs, Laiho looks for a catharsis - a cleansing, in the manner of the ancient Greek tragedies, where fathers are killed, mothers are wed, and finally one’s own eyes are ripped out.
      “You can scream obscenities till you’re red in the face, which has to be accepted in our format.”
      The audience often does the same.
      “During that 90 minutes, a depressed teenager doesn’t have to go through all the crap in his life. Music doesn’t heal, but it can bring a bit of a vacation from the reality of a person’s own life.”
      What if the cleansing doesn’t work? Can the extreme darkness of the music and the lyrics create a loop, which only recycles and spreads the anguish?
      “I haven’t dared think that far”, he ponders.
      “I am quite sure that I have been caught in a loop of anguish, but I am living damn well, so it isn’t a problem for me.”
     
Bones have been broken at times. And at our first meeting, he kept his sunglasses on, because both of his eyes were black. Laiho had climbed up a high fence when he was drunk, and fell down on his face.
      “Sometimes I do things that might look pretty bad when seen from the outside”, he admits.
      “But then life goes on.”
      The moody Laiho also knows how to have fun.
      “On stage we put on a crazy act, and there’s black humour in the lyrics as well.”
      Laiho is satisfied with the present composition of the band, which includes extreme metal veteran Roope Latvala.
      “A magnificent guitarist. He deserves his own band. it would be a crime if he had to drive a tram for a living.”
     
He praises Finnish bands for their tenacity. “It is great that HIM and Nightwish have been around for a long time.”
      But how long will he still have the strength to do it? Will Laiho be at a clinic like James Hetfield of Metallica when he reaches middle age?
      “We’ll see. I don’t get drunk before a gig, but after a gig, we often go crazy.”
      He feels the relentlessness of working endless night shifts.
      “You need to give 110 per cent, no matter if there’s a panic attack, or a fever, even at a risk to one’s life. The gig would go on even if I died. Then they would haul the zombie on the stage and give it electroshock treatment.”
     
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 7.11.2008


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Children of Bodom top British rock album lists (24.4.2008)

Links:
  Children of Bodom (Wikipedia)
  Children of Bodom website

VESA SIREN / Helsingin Sanomat
vesa.siren@hs.fi