COB Interviews

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/viihde/art-2000001120760.html

Alexi Laiho uutuuskirjassa nuoruuden vainoamisestaan: ”Kurkku yritettiin viiltää puukolla auki”

Alexi Laiho kertoo uutuuskirjassa Error – Mielen häiriöitä rankasta nuoruudestaan ja ahdistuneisuushäiriöstään.
Maailman parhaana pidetty metallikitaristi, Children of Bodomin Alexi Laiho kertoo, että nuoruudessa häntä vainottiin: häntä seurattiin ja hänen kimppuunsa käytiin. 16-vuotiaana hänet yritettiin tappaa.

– Ne oli piripäitä, jotka olivat käsittääkseni tappaneet ennenkin, Alexi Laiho muistelee kirjassa Error – Mielen häiriöitä.

Laiho pääsi pakoon, mutta kerta ei jäänyt viimeiseksi. Hän oli matkalla tyttöystävänsä luokse, kun porukka alkoi seurata häntä.

– Mun kurkku yritettiin viiltää puukolla auki. Pääsin irti ja lähdin juoksemaan.

Tapahtumista seurasi ahdistusta, jota Laiho käsitteli juomalla liikaa alkoholia ja viiltelemällä itseään. Alkoholia 17-vuotia Laiho sai pitämällä seuraa itseään vanhemmille naisille baareissa.

18-vuotiaana Laiho sai tappouhkauksia samalta porukalta edelleen.

– Masennus sai yliotteen ja mulle tuli paljon itsemurha-ajatuksia.

Bändikaveri toimitti Laihon lääkäriin ja katsoi, että tämä kävi psykologilla.

1997 Laiho joutui suljetulle osastolle. Sen jälkeen hän päätti kanavoida ahdistuksensa ja itsemurha-ajatuksensa musiikkiin.

– Siinä kesti vuosia, enkä ole koskaan täysin parantunut: ajoittain on sen kaltaisia fiiliksiä. Mutta opin kanavoimaan synkät fiilikseni musiikkiin ja kirjoittamiseen. Ei ole klisee, että nuo kaksi asiaa pelastivat minut, Laiho kertoo kirjassa.
Damn. Joonas is always rambling about Alexi's dark past but I had no idea it was this bad! :OMG:
 
I can see why he hasn't mentioned that before, the fear has persisted with him... It's quite an interesting bit, you might wanna translate that for the English speakers.

^Yeah, because I had the same issues so it was easy for me to relate to the music... I've had worse things happen to me, believe it or not. It's a very long list of near-death situations and traumatic stuff for me. Good thing Alexi found the genious way to channel his bad energy. I feel like he lacked a certain inner light or stability to control those feelings and went self-destructive... but hey, we never know what kind of stuff a person has faced in early life... It's incredible what kind of difficulties we humans can overcome. Sometimes you find special survival methods from the dark, others unhealthy, others healthy. Those are the traits that separate you from the mass, just be careful which wolf you feed.
 
Last edited:
^^^ Good questions and at least they edited it. It confirms my view that Janne is the problem, he's the one who's really into LOG.
 
^Yeah, with the irony of being a keyboard player.

Someone asked at least some of the interesting questions I wanted to ask, but Alexi's coy sometimes when he's asked interesting stuff, or doesn't want to get deep. He really should be led to new dimensions in melodic death metal, in my opinion. He's given so much, but there's still lots he could invent.

Interesting thing about I Hurt meaning 'hurting you' instead of 'me hurting.' Makes sense thinking about the lyrics now.
 
I'm pretty sure that guy Freyberg won't be staying for long. Immediately I felt he has a very different vibe to the other guys, he seems uptight.

Something about Alexi's writer's block:

"Writing originals. That's the hardest part. It's harder because you start out with nothing and you have to write a whole album. Starting is that worst part. That's when I will just sit and stare at the guitar for hours without knowing what to do."

He tells this every time. I think you shouldn't write anything unless you have something damn amazing in mind. Whether it comes to books or music. I think Alexi should do some more deep thinking and not touch his guitar before he has a musical idea playing in his mind.
 
Antti wouldnt have enough time because of the other band(s).
Seems like the new player originally was supposed to stay in the band but things werent like they thought in the first place.
 
I post an interview with Janne and Alexi from german Rock hard magazine from october which I translate. I'm sorry if there are some mistakes. Here is the first part:


Children of Bodom- Days of chaos


Children of Bodom make every two years a new album on average and every time there is this small but loud community who is complaining an whining about the past which was better in their opinion. As a musician you begin to ignore that after a while. Or you respond with a bombalbum.

“I worship Chaos” heaves the Bodom-formula (precision-trash with a cool roughness and epic melodies) to a new level. The new composings have more breathing space this lets the speedy trash-parts to be more incisive (Horns), the midtempo-passages are really catchy (Hold your tongue) and How could a Keyboard-Solo sound better than in the title track?

Alexi shouts with more volume that prevents him from conquering the badass guitarist/sucking vocalist throne as Dave Mustaine did. Alexi Laiho and janne Wirman sit in the backstage area of Summer-Breeze-Festival. Janne is a cheerfull person as always but despite tons of makeup, Alexi can’t hide his 36 years of age. Not only that but the sacking of Roope Latvala made “I worship Chaos” a difficult process.

“Oh yes”, grumbles Mr. Laiho to his beer “We prepare really intensive for a session but for “I worship Chas” it was the first time that we hit the studio with just one guitarist. I had to really work my ass off because you just can’t sit there and cry if you lose a member two days before the studio date, you have to go through. I even tried to see the positive side of this situation”

Janne: ”I don’t want to talk bad about somebody but I think it’s cool that Alexi played the whole guitar parts on his own. He is the person who writes all the riffs and he has the whole concept in his head how things should sound later on the record. I always thought that the guitars could sound tighter but now it sounds really good.”

Alexi, did you and Roope split the guitar work in the past like fifty-fifty?

Alexi: “Well we had the same relation with the riffs because we play a similar style”

Janne: “But the leads come from Alexi”

Alexi: “Yes, this shit comes the most part from me and it’s also true that we sound tighter. We have no more Rock ‘n’ Roll-factor, this isn’t normally a good things but it fits to us. Besides it makes the new record sounding freshly different.

Anyway, what happened to Roope? Did he drink too much or too little to play with you?

Janne (laughs): “No it hasn’t anything to do with that. It was actually really simple: As we said we put really much effort in the album-preparation. If you have the feeling that one member isn’t quite there with you and doesn’t really pay attention, you have to pull the brake.”

Alexi: “I don’t really want to talk about that topic but as you’re asking so gently: We wanted to produce the best Bodom-record yet. You have to give 110 percent. If somebody isn’t ready to do so he should go.”

What implies the ominous intro on “I worship Chaos”?

Alexi (smiles excited): “I think it’s cool that nobody hasn’t found out yet. I didn’t tell it to anybody. It’s a Morse code to be exact the news that the titanic sent when she sank. If you listen to that you can’t get rid of this oppressive feeling. This is definitely our scariest intro and because we named ourselves after lake Bodom it relates to the band. But I don’t remember the text to those Morse code news… Janne do you have an idea?”

Janne: “They are all dead or something like that, anyway it’s really evil.