Interview with Alexi at Musikmesse
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/en/interviews/view/id/5448
Children Of Bodom
At Frankfurt Musikmesse we proposed ESP Guitars the option to interview an artist from their roster. Since both we and Alexi Laiho were in Frankfurt, that was their candidate and we grabbed the opportunity with both hands. Laiho is among the very best of its genre and has grown out to become a true celebrity in the last years. That also implies you cant pop a fart in public without people knowing it. This also means I am in turn forced to ask about on-going topics I would have otherwise left to rest, but what do you know, some pretty interesting facts arose during the interview. Later this year we will dig into his gear, now we are going to talk about Messe, his internet war with Robby Flynn, his guitar, his party-hard-mentality and of course the progress of the album. And did you know he lives in LA part time? So what cars come with that? Read it and know it.
Welcome to Lords of Metal. We are her because you are doing signing sessions for ESP tomorrow. Is this your first time at Messe?
No, I think it is my third time. I did a lot of the NAMM shows. I did, I think six times in a row. But I havent done neither of these in a couple of years. But this is my first time in ten years. Usually when they happen I am out on the road. Now I am in the studio, but I got a day off.
Well get to that later, I promise. What is your experience of events like Messe and doing the signing, being so very close to the fans?
Its cool. The thing is, these sort of things are very chaotic and stressful. But it is usually fun though. NAMM, when I did it, like I said, I was there six years in a row
not to complain, because I love it, but it is good to take a year off every now and then, or else people start taking you for granted, or get fed up with you at some point.
Are you afraid of that?
I am not afraid of it, its just a fact.
No, it isnt
Well, in my book it is (laughs)
You are promoting your own signature model ESP guitar here. Since we are here, could you specify what makes it different?
Well, in a nutshell, it has a V-shape. its got 24 frets, Floyd Rose arm, one pickup which is the EMG passive, with the gain boast built inside the guitar
That is indeed distinguishing
Yeah, it was built to my specific demands. Thats all I can think of right now.
We got the chance to hold it a little while today, your guitar, from what I can tell, if felt great, did you design it yourself, after you left Jackson Guitars?
Ah cool, glad you liked it. Officially I was never really with Jackson. I kind of was hooked up to Jackson Finland. But anyway, I wanted to have a very similar guitar to what I had with Jackson (Alexis custom Jacksons were stolen on tour, R.-LoM). The Randy Rhoads shape and everything, so yeah, I was very much involved in the design. So I gave them the specs basically and they built it for me in Japan. And in Japan they had no problem with the design, but in the US, they cant have the exact same shape as the Randy Rhoads model, and they are always afraid of lawsuits and all. So the US models are a little different from the Japanese models.
Another thing about it, it felt remarkably solid, like it could take a little beating.
Fuck yeah, it does. It beats the shit out of me, actually. Oh dude, I am always bruised up after a tour, like, Jesus fucking Christ. But I mean, when you think about it, all these guitars I have, they are so durable, they really are. I throw them across the stage so many fucking times, but apart from minor repairs, we had to put together a few of them a couple of times, but they stayed great and stayed sounding fucking great.
Is it a shelf model, by the way?
The ones that I play are the custom shop ones, so they are Japanese, but they have a shelf model of that too.
Do you do a lot of demonstrations, like clinics?
Yeah, I just did. I did a couple of those in California. That was when last years tour was cancelled, I was like fuck, I have to do SOMETHING and I did a couple of clinics.
(ESP Artist relations director Chris come in between)
That was a HUGE success by the way, those clinics. We were blown away by the success.
Well, lets not go into the cancellation of the tour then, shall we?
Its up to you, dude, it is your interview.
Ok, I saw some posts of Robb Flynn (Machine Head, also on the bill of that tour, seemingly blaming Children Of Bodom for the cancellation) who insulted you
I had nothing to do with that
No, thats fine with me, I just want your point of view..
I dont have a point of view, the tour got cancelled, end of the fucking story, you know? And if somebody wants to talk shit about me on the internet, I just laugh at it. The whole thing just feels so bizarre. I thought it was funny. The whole internet thing, like having an internet war, I am like come on man, it is just ridiculous. I just ignore the whole thing.
So next time you run into him, no harsh feelings, no reasons to talk it out?
I will go after him in real life and be like what the hell man, what was that?. I just wont do it over the internet, to me its just fucking retarded.
Dont you think it is some kind of marketing strategy from his side, to create a stir?
From THEIR side?
Yeah, a stir is always good publicity.
That was a pretty fucking BAD marketing strategy thing. But thats just me.
Ok, lets burry this. You have some interesting gear, but you are currently in the studio, arent you? How far are you?
Two weeks behind us, four more weeks to go. I just recorded my rhythm parts, drums are laid down in three or four days. So when I am done I listen to the song and I am doing doublings on the guitars. Basically we are going back to back, we lay down the basics for three songs and then they do their parts and I do three more and you know, that is the way we always did it. Its a pretty good routine, you dont have to do everything in a row, so you get some room to breathe a little bit And it is less boring for the other guys who otherwise would just have to sit and wait for their turn, for one guy to finish his parts. We always have the songs ready when we go in the studio, it saves a lot of time and a lot of money. We are not Def Leppard (laughs). But even if that was the case, if we had all the time, we want to be ready to roll and we like that pressure. We still come up with a lot of ideas an there is still room for that to slip in.
The kind of music you play, in my country there is absolutely NO possibility that would ever gain air time on the radio. Thats different in Finland, isnt it?
Yeah, it is a little different when it comes to metal. They wouldnt play Children of Bodom at daytime
Actually, they did when we covered the Britney Spears song, hahaha. There was a high rotation.
Can you tell us something about you gear?
You mean guitar gearwise?
Unless you want to discuss cars. In fact, that might be interesting, tell us about it, if you want!
Oh, I got a lot of those. I love all the American cars that I have. I have five cars, actually
FIVE?!
Yeah, cars are my passion too. They are pretty interesting ones. I got a 74 Dodge Monaco, which is the Blues mobile, from the Blues Brothers. Ive got an 78 Chevy Monte Carlo. I dont have the Firebirds anymore, eeeerrrrn, I have a 57 Plymouth Belvedere in Los Angeles and I have a Dodge Ram pickup truck in Helsinki and an Audi A8, its my only German car.
Thats a specific taste
I love the V8, thats it. You just got to have a fucking V8, man.
(Well discuss guitar gear in a few months)
Who inspired you to move to guitar?
Well, I was four years old when my dad had a record of Dire Straits, Money For Nothing, which I thought sounded amazing.
That is pretty heavy when you are four
Fuck yeah, dude, it still sounds heavy when I hear it.
Shouldnt you do a cover version of the Dire Straits, then?
Noooooo, I cant even touch Dire Straits.
You didnt mind touching Britney Spears.
I kinda loved toucnhing Britney Spear, Mark Knopfler on the other hand... Now you see what the main difference is (laughs with the biggest smile of today). Seriously though, Mark Knopfler is fucking badass, hes fucking awesome, nothing but respect for him. I suppose I could cover them, but I wont. At least not for the sake of doing something funny.
Do you keep on doing that, the funnier cover songs, for the coming record?
Maybe we do covers, we love doing covers, but we are not going to do anything like Britney Spears again, we did it once and it was fucking hilarious, but we just leave it alone and do something else now. Cause right now, it wouldnt make sense to try and top that. But we had fun with it.
About having fun, the live DVD showed of last year, you guys having lots of fun. There was QUITE some partying going on on there
That was in the good old days (laughs).
You do not do that anymore
We do, but its just, we are not 25 anymore. The thing is, things change, we still have a lot of fun, but it was pretty insane back in the day, man. But
Wait, you mellowed down? Why is that?
Its just
when you get older, your body cant take as much as it did like when you were a twenty-something, you know. Hangovers get so (laughs) violently brutal, I just cant fucking deal with it anymore, man. I started to feel, in the middle of the tour, I didnt wanna go out on the stage anymore. I ALWAYS did my fucking job, but I just didnt enjoy it as much as I should. So when something like that happens, I just feel so fucking bad about myself that I just had to take it easier and take better care of myself and make sure I feel 110 percent when I am out on the stage, because that is what I do, thats my job, thats my life. So I cant let anything or anybody get in the way with that, especially not drinking, or anything like that. So I dont really drink when I am out on the road anymore.
Not at all?
Hardly, I might have a couple of beers, but thats it.
And you can keep it down, there is no urge for you to keep going?
No no no, not at all. It was kind of weird at first, the first tour I did after I decided to do it sober and it was really weird. I always was the craziest tour on the tour. And all of the sudden I am not a part of it and to me it was quite of getting settled in just let them do their thing and not be a part of it. But once you had done a couple of tours sober, you kind of get used to it and before you know it
I am actually enjoying it. Being out on the stage is just SO much more fun. Right before you are hitting the stage, you are not puking your brains out (laughs), or have to do a couple of whiskey shots to get an even kill. It kind of got to that point. I never got drunk before the show, I just needed to level. It works for me, everybody does what he does. I have always been a road dog and I always will be. Whether I drink or not has nothing to do with it.
Now we only have to see if all of this benefits your song writing. That remains to be seen, hahaha
Well, the album is out in September and we are going to tour for almost three years for it, so well see.
Thanks for your time, we are looking out for the album
My pleasure, thank you, take care.
