COB Interviews

SINERGY​
Interview realized by Jean Paul Coillbard, December 14th 2001.
Translated by me (GuitariSteve)​

INTERVIEWER: Your new album "Suicide by My Side" will be released soon but before talking about it, some questions about the past: first of all, how did you join Dimmu Borgir?
KIMBERLY: Their first keyboardist just left them without warning. They were looking for a new session keyboardist immediately because they had a bunch of gigs schedulded and they couldn't cancel them. So they contacted me and I said "yes" and that's it!

INTERVIEWER: In '97, you leave Dimmu Borgir. Why? Did you ever have regrets?
KIMBERLY: No, I have no regrets. They are very nice and they were true friends when we were together but I wasn't totally satisfied in the band. I didn't write any lyrics and I didn't play on any album. I just toured and had fun with them. I wanted to be more involved in something but what I wanted the most was singing. That's why I created Sinergy. I wanted by own band in which I'd have sung and written my lyrics but also some musical parts, business and all those things.

INTERVIEWER: So you started Sinergy with Alexi and Jesper Strömbald from In Flames. Weren't you not tired of being the girl behind a men-fronted band?
KIMBERLY: As I said, I wasn't really tired of it but what I did didn't bring me anything. At my level, being with Dimmu is just a big party: I was having a lot of fun but that was all and I needed to express myself through music and lyrics and even more through my voice and that's why I wanted to create my own band.

INTERVIEWER: That was like being in Nine Inch Nails without being yourself!
KIMBERLY: Exactly!

INTERVIEWER: How did you meet Alexi Laiho?
KIMBERLY: I met him when I played with Dimmu Borgir in '97. We played at Helsinki and Children Of Bodom was the first part of the show but the funny thing is that it actually was the first gig of Children Of Bodom. They didn't ever have released a single disc, that was just before the first one and we knowed nothing of them but we were on backstage and we really enjoyed what we saw. I marvelled at the guitar player who was Alexi! After the gig, we met and we fell in love! We are together in the band but we also live together since nearly two years.

INTERVIEWER: How does he do to be in two bands at the same time?
KIMBERLY: At the beginning it was problematic but not anymore because he plans his activities with Sinergy and Bodom at opposite times and he always makes sure that the recordings of the two bands, the disc releases, and the tour are very far for the two bands. Nowadays, we can clearly see how the things happen and there is no problem to plan both Sinergy and Bodom. He even find some time to relax between both!

INTERVIEWER: Didn't you ever wanted to do as him in Bodom or somewhere else?
KIMBERLY: No, I've never thought about that. But it depends of the band, of course. If Iron Maiden ask me to join them, maybe! But no, Sinergy is enough. I can do guests on other bands' discs but Sinergy is definetely my only one band.

INTERVIEWER: Sinergy has a new drummer (Mats Karlsson) who comes from Sweden. Can you talk a bit about him?
KIMBERLY: So he's Swedish and perfect for the band. But not only a great drummer. The best is that he doesn't play in an other band at the same time. That's a freedom! And he'd like to live in Finland. That proves his determination. I don't know him very well yet but naturally, when we will have toured together and if it goes well, you may hope to find him back on the next album!

INTERVIEWER: Let's talk about "Suicide by My Side". Is that title a kind of a love declaration?
KIMBERLY: A love declaration? No, actually that's very depressive if you read the lyrics which are depressive or full of anger. That's a very negative album lyrics-talking, almost the diary of my two last years. I went through a bunch of difficult patches, some of my relatives died and also some others which I don't want to talk about. I think that when people read those lyrics, they realize by themself how I felt, the things and the experiences I went through during these two last years. Actually, making this album was a therapy and all those terrible things I had in myself, I have kind of cleared them for good: I'm free!
INTERVIEWER: (actually, my question was about Alexi. Kimberly will never be Céline Dion but whatever...)

INTERVIEWER: What are the main differences between "To Hell and Back" for example?
KIMBERLY: Mainly my voice which is more powerful and aggressive on this album and at the same time, used in different moods, more varied. Of course, the guitars are more perfected on this album and they sound better and better on every album. This one is more heavy and sometimes more melodic while keeping his aggressiveness. All those things differentiate of "To Hell and Back".

INTERVIEWER: How do you share the work inside the band?
KIMBERLY: I write all the lyrics and then Alexi, me and the band write the music together. That's how it works.

INTERVIEWER: I went on Sinergy's website (www.sinergy.org). Very nice ...and brand new!
KIMBERLY: Yes, it's been online since December 1st. That website is of course very important for the band because we can interact with the fans and answer personally through the message board. I'm very happy to answer at everyone ...when I'm at home of course! All the ideas contained on the website are mine's because I wanted a website as complete as possible. I'm not the webmistress but every single link and every single page comes from me. I created them by myseld, like a big girl!

INTERVIEWER: Sinergy has appeared on several tribute LP's (Scorpions and ABBA). Are you fan of those bands or is that ironic?
KIMBERLY: I love ABBA but I hate Scorpions but the others in the band like them. That's why we've recorded those two covers. I don't like them, I find them very bad! For the ABBA one the music was good but I hate my voice on that song. I find it stupid!

INTERVIEWER: How do you see the future of the band? Do you have any particular ambitions?
KIMBERLY: I'd love releasing a lot of albums and tour all over the world! I'd like to last as long as possible and I'd love my name to stay in the metal history!

INTERVIEWER: Are you interested by new music formats as the DVD?
KIMBERLY: An enorm amount! I have a very interesting idea for a DVD but I can't talk of that in interviews because I don't want some other band to take my idea off. I first have to talk about it with Nuclear Blast and see if the y accept. But it will not be the usual live or video thing. Something more interesting for sure!

INTERVIEWER: When will we see Sinergy back on stage in France?
KIMBERLY: Well, we will probably tour in Europe for this album so in France of course but before that we will have to play in the USA and in Japan so not before summer I'm afraid. I was delighted of our last tour with Nightwish because the crowd was awesome and as I said myself on the website: France is the best country I prefer to play in!

INTERVIEWER: Thank you very much Kimberly and comme back soon. Stop playing with our nerves, there is too much synergy in that thing!
 
IMPALED NAZARENE
Interview realized by Jean Paul Coillbard​
INTERVIEWER: You have this new Lp out, "All that you fear" : how would you describe it ?
MIKA: Compared to the old albums of Impaled, it’s a mixture of old and new Impaled Nazarene, but the new one has much more lead guitar solos : on ‘Nihil’ we had of course Alexi Laiho, but he didn’t play that many solos compared to the ones of this album, and that was really a decision : when Tuomo joined the band, we listened to him playing some leads at the rehearsal and, ok, I said to him that we had a guy who can play leads, and let’s pull him on the album because it fits. That what we did, we gave him completely free hands as I said, to do whatever he wanted, and all the solos on the album had been recorded in four hours, because we were behind schedule, so he said like ok, I will do it. So he did his solos, we were listening behind the door and we were like : wow !

____________________________________________


Interview realized in Paris by Jean Paul Coillbard, October 18th 2001​
INTERVIEWER: And do you think that, apart from your both commitments, you’ll work again in the future ?
MIKA: I think that it’s not going to happen. He is too busy, and we’re happy with our new guitar player, so. It’s a good player, even if he’s not Alexi Laiho, but he’s getting better every day. He’s still kind of like afraid to try the solos, we have to kick him in the ass like : « Come on, don’t be a homo, play a solo ! »

INTERVIEWER: This lp was produced by Anssi Kippo ( Bodom, Entwine... ) How did you choose him ?
MIKA: Actually what happen was that when we did « Nihil », we were supposed to record at Tico Tico but it was full, so when Alexi Laiho ( from Children of Bodom, ndlr) was still in the band with us, he said that we could go to Astia where the Children of Bodom had recorded. So, we tried it and it turned out to be so good that we went back for this album. Anssi Kippo is a genius when it comes recording vocals : he wanted a copy of my lyrics, and when I was singing stuff, he just stopped and said like : « If you start singing this part five seconds before, and this riff goes like this, that you should sing it this way ». We tried, and he was fucking alright, it was far much better than what I was doing. This guy has been helping me out like nobody before. And no matter where we will record, it must be that we go abroad for the next album, who knows, I’m going to take Anssi Kippo with me when we’ll be doing my vocals because I don’t trust anybody but him !

INTERVIEWER: Nihil saw two changes of members of the band, who changes again since, but the arriving of a new blood too : was is a real turning point in the Impaled Nazarene history ?
MIKA: Nihil was a turning point to us because we became more professional, and that has a lot to do with Alexi Laiho, because he was such a good player that we had all to start practising because of him ! What really tells he's a great artist is the fact that he can adapt to any kind of style : I’ve been hearing him playing country music, and it’s probably the best country music guitar player I have ever heard in my life !You don’t have too much skills if you can’t adapt to any kind of styles. Which means I’m a total shit singer because I can only sing one style !
 
to cob fans;
i am making a fan book for our fans and me to children of bodom
if u like to say nething to bodom just replay back to me and ill put u in the book
u can also give me pictures if u met any of the band members..
pass this along!
<3bri
 
GuitariSteve said:
INTERVIEWER: Nihil saw two changes of members of the band, who changes again since, but the arriving of a new blood too : was is a real turning point in the Impaled Nazarene history ?
MIKA: Nihil was a turning point to us because we became more professional, and that has a lot to do with Alexi Laiho, because he was such a good player that we had all to start practising because of him ! What really tells he's a great artist is the fact that he can adapt to any kind of style : I’ve been hearing him playing country music, and it’s probably the best country music guitar player I have ever heard in my life !You don’t have too much skills if you can’t adapt to any kind of styles. Which means I’m a total shit singer because I can only sing one style !
Click to expand...

@Lussi: this is that Impaled interview I was talking about couple of months ago :lol:.
 
Not new (Guitar Player Online Edition 2006) so apologies if already posted ...

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Children of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho and Roope Latvala Share Their Most Sinister Shred Secrets
Black Metal Magic Tricks

By Jude Gold... | September, 2006

The thousands of metalheads lined up in front of the arena for the latest installment of the Unholy Alliance tour loudly chant the name of the tour’s headliner.

“Slayer! Slayer! Slayer!” is the rowdy mantra, and while the concert’s main attraction is indeed the “heaviest band on the planet” (as Zakk Wylde described Slayer in his June GP cover story), there are other influential head-bangers on the bill, including a younger band that has been helping set the course for (and, for that matter, bring killer solos back to) thrash metal in the new millennium: Finland’s most exciting guitar band, Children of Bodom.

Led by 27-year-old lead singer and lead guitarist Alexi “Wildchild” Laiho, Children of Bodom (COB for short) is a black metal fivesome that, with the departure of co-guitarist Alexander Kuoppala three years ago, now also features one of Finland’s most respected and innovative metal players, Roope Latvala—who, born a generation ahead of Laiho, is one of the younger guitarist’s chief inspirations on the guitar. (“It’s always educational playing with him,” says Laiho. “He’s no wuss on the guitar. He’s super musical.”) In the pages that follow, the fleet-fingered Finns take a break from their grueling schedule of gigging and partying to show you some of their favorite licks, tricks, and techniques—many of which you can hear on COB’s crushing new album Are You Dead Yet?

Sparking the Blaze

It’s the crack of 3:00 pm, and Alexi Laiho has peeled himself out of his bunk on the Bodom bus and trudged through the near endless bowels of the arena past racks of guitars being tuned, mobile drum risers in mid-assembly, and doors marked “Slayer” and “Lamb of God,” before finally entering Children of Bodom’s dressing room. He’s wielding his dangerously pointy ESP Alexi Laiho signature model—a sleek, shark-tail-shaped 6-string that takes direct inspiration from the Jackson Randy Rhoads models that were his go-to guitars before being stolen.

“Um, I kind of just woke up,” says Laiho, plugging into a battery-powered Marshall MS2 Mini amp and cranking the tiny half-stack to within a micro-decibel of its battery-powered life. The heavily distorted tone bounces around the reflective cinderblock walls and the little speaker, miraculously, fills the room. “I need to warm up,” says the guitarist. “Here’s one of my favorite warm-ups—a two-string exercise that I got from Paul Gilbert ”

As Laiho plays the descending A Aeolian (natural minor) pattern and branches out into dive-bomb, locking-trem harmonics and warped-sounding, bluesified pentatonic tapped licks, Roope Latvala, his partner in guitardom, swiftly and silently breezes into the room on a tricked-out street bike. Latvala plugs his custom ESP Random Star into his own Marshall Mini, and contributes to the cacophony. “I don’t have any warm-up exercises,” says Latvala. “I just play whatever comes to mind. Actually, sometimes I’ll warm up on little Bach or something. It really gets me focused.”

The opening to Musette in D major (a keyboard piece transcribed for guitar) from Bach’s Notebook II for Anna Magdalena—is a perfect example of the type of piece Latvala typically plays. For one, it engages multiple picking-hand fingers (you can pluck the piece fingerstyle or use a hybrid pick-and-fingers approach to sound the notes). Secondly, it employs the one tuning that is a staple of both classical and metal guitar: dropped-D (spelled D, A, D, G, B, E, low to high). On Are You Dead Yet?, Laiho and Latvala often employ dropped-C tuning (the same as dropped-D, down a whole-step), which makes for intensely brutal power chords through 4x12 cabinets.

Sweeping Up the Ante

There’s nothing like a friendly head-cutting guitar duel before the “morning” coffee and Gatorade (and vodka?) have even kicked in. (“How to drink,” Latvala interjects wryly when Laiho is asked if he has learned anything from playing alongside Latvala.) All warmed up, Laiho proceeds to test-fire a few sweep-picked licks, including the brightly major Ex. 4, which is based on the simple fourteenth-position D fingering shown in Ex. 5. To play the complete lick with the right spirit, don’t worry too much about phrasing the note values exactly as written. Just go for an explosive yet flutey sound in which the pitches don’t overlap too much, and add the 22nd-fret tapped notes on the high string as shown. (Laiho generally taps with his middle finger so that he can conveniently maintain his thumb/index grip on the pick.)

As if to up the ante, Latvala sees Laiho’s tap/sweep lick and raises him a dose of legato by playing his own “arpeggios from hell” riff—an evil D minor phrase that sounds “swept” but actually features no use of the plectrum. The secret of Latvala’s approach lies in the fully legato Dm arpeggio. Notice that every note in this repeating exercise is slurred (i.e., hammered or pulled), including the first note (the fifth-string D), which is hammered with the 1st finger—a slur tactic few guitarists explore. The complete lick involves switching to a triplet- sixteenths feel and extending the Dm arpeggio using notes tapped with the middle (m) and ring (a) fingers.

It’s Gonna Blow!

Not to be outdone, Laiho launches into the volcanic series of rising slur/sweep three-string arpeggios - a menacing diminished line similar to a blistering ascent you can hear Laiho play starting at the 3:50 mark of “Living Dead Beat” (from Are You Dead Yet?). The musical cherry on top is the final note—the high-altitude tapped D held at the 19th fret of the pre-bent first string. Gradually release the bend and the tapped note will drift down a minor third to B.

Pent-up Rage

Latvala closes out our session with an interesting take on the pentatonic scale. In the key of D at the fifth position, most rockers would play the minor pentatonic scale using the traditional, two-scale-tones-per-string “box” fingering. But Latvala gets a more mysterious sound by playing the same notes with a three-scale-tones-per-string approach . Ascend and descend this fingering and you’ll hear the sound Latvala loves—notes that are repeated back-to-back, but are sounded on different strings. Apply a simple pattern to the scale and you’ll get a sense of how Latvala includes this approach in his solos. And don’t forget to try expanding the world’s favorite pentatonic box to a three-notes-per-string fingering. “Then,” says Latvala, “you can add tapped notes and do four notes per string.”
Shred ain’t dead!

Sharp and Pointy

They play in the same band, they use similar rigs, they use the same DR strings on their custom ESP axes, and they often double the same licks. But Laiho and Latvala most certainly don’t use the same picks. “I like pointy picks, like this one,” shares Laiho, displaying a thick, weathered, semi-triangular black plectrum (possibly from Dunlop’s Tortex Sharp or Jazz III lines). “The fact that it’s smaller and sharper-tipped makes it good for fast-picked lines. At first, a pick this pointy may make playing super-heavy stuff more difficult, but you soon get used to it and learn how to do everything with it. I can’t use the more round-tipped picks most people use.”
Latvala’s pick is a bit more traditional in shape than Laiho’s, but it allows him a distinctly more metal attack. “I use brass picks,” he says, wielding one such plectrum with its tip and sides shaved knife-edge sharp from playing. “And from filing—I file them to make them even sharper. Sharp edges minimize the hand movement and help you play cleaner and faster. But watch out—this pick will damage the finish on your guitar.”

Double-Duty Death Metaller

Alexi Laiho is a true rarity in mainstream metal—he’s a lead guitarist who plays raging, extended solos and he handles all the lead vocals. “I’m a guitar player first, not a singer, but no one else wanted to sing so I had to do it,” says Laiho. He explains that there’s no single way to master the balancing act of doing both tasks simultaneously. “It’s just something you get used to. But if I’m singing a tricky rhythm while also playing a guitar part that has a different rhythm, that’s something I usually will have to work on and practice a bit. The toughest situation is when you’ve recorded the guitar parts first and written the vocals later. Putting them together afterwards can be difficult. With some parts [on Are You Dead Yet?] I was like, ‘How am I going to pull that shit off?’ But I got it together. You should be able to if you call yourself a musician.”
 
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