Flappy
Fetch me a carrot.
- Aug 29, 2007
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Would be coolChildren of bodom are in the new terrorizer mag, they're on the cover.I don't have time to type it up right now but i can tomorrow sometime.
COB Interviews
- Thread starter COBHC Webmaster
- Start date
children of COB
Deadnight Drinker
Interview!
STILL DRUNK!
With knuckles-bloodies and bottles emptied Children Of Bodom owned 2008. After a critically acclaimed new album, 'Blooddrunk', festival crowds laid to waste and a relentless road campaign the band start the new year on top of their game, where Terrorizer always knew they'd end up. But are our recent heroes still hungry for blood? Oliver 'Zoltar' Badin cornered the precocious pairing of Laiho and Warman to find out.
BLOODY SUCCESS.
When we creep into Children Of Bodom's tour bus, distant wise equally parked from Le Zenith- where the roars of Slipknots fans can be heard- but also from the Trabendo where, incidentall, old friends Soilwork are playing, we are at least sure of one thing. That we wre right; that we knew upon witnessing their first proper Europeon tour in 1999, hot on the release of their second album 'Hatebreeder', ripping it all out as opening act for the Swedish melodeth aristocracy (Dark Tranquility, Arch Enemy and In Flames) that those precocious brats were destined for greatness. And as aptly suggested by their headlining sell-out London Astoria show last March, a whole nine years later, 2008 was to be the year it finally became a common assumption. Hot on the success of Blooddrunk (both their sixth full length AND its first single went straight to the top of the Finnish national charts) they've finally made it. They've crossed the frontier- that invisible line seperating the underground from the mainstream. Hell, they even has Testament opening for them in New York last October.
So with this in mind we enter their lair, getting ready to juggle with big egos and the now established rock stars bathing in champagne while buying their third Ferrari of the year online. And that's when we were stumped, as nothing has changed on the shores of Lake Bodom. Just like during all the interview we've done over the last decadem, a chain smoking Alexi Laiho looks and sounds exhausted. The exact opposite of the 'wild child' character of his onstage persona, and despite the many 'Americanisms' he's adopted, the 'F-word' being a particularly popular one, he remains very Finnish, as does his fellow Bodom buddy and keeper of the keys Janne Warman.
So to both, 'Blooddrunk' ain't no 'Black Album' but just the honest new album of an honest, hard-working metal band.
"For us it's just one step. As long as it's forward, I don't really care about the rest. Plus lets face it: we're here tonight at Le Zenith in Paris and i'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to fill that 6,000 seat arena all by ourselves so theres still alot of things to be done" offers the self-deprecating frontman. Janne gets more specific:
"I never thought about who's underground and who's not. Did we used to be underground? Do you stop being underground the day you sign your first recording contract and your records are widely available? Of course, it was a whole different deal when we released our first album. From that perspective, yeah, we're not underground anymore sure. But it's not like everybody listens to us. Fuck it, we're just happy about the ways things are now anyway."
YOUTH GONE WILD.
The misunderstanding of the bands place in the grand scheme of things is the latest in a long line for Children Of Bodom. Remember, they briefly got labelled as 'black metal' when they first appeared. The band themselves laugh now when we're mentioning those very first blood-drenched promo photos from 1997 where Alexi, cloaked in sinister shadows held out a knife as if he was ready to gut the voyeur. Though he already confessed his love of classic hair metal by then, most notably WASP, whose classic title 'Wild Child' would soon become his trademark, it seems they were lumped into that corner out of despair. Sure they had harsh vocals, Finnish passports and, though both experiences would prove to be pretty brief, on the side Alexi had been involved with the early incarnation of Thy Serpent (with whom he never recorded anything) and then with Finnish BM overlords Impaled Nazarene. Even at the embryonic stage, Bodom already had as much to do with Dimmu Bogir and Emperor as they did with Britney Spears. Then came the 'guitar hero' phase: a shredder in the classic sense of the term, Alexi was any guitar magazines wet dream. He was young, good looking, had a thing for Flying V guitars, gladly cited Yngwie Malmsteem, Randy Rhoads and Jake E Lee as influences and could run down the fretboard like Wile E Coyote after Road Runner. But it doesn't matter how many covers he graced next to Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde, or that he's practising "at least two hours each day before the show," or even that released two instructional videos last spring. Truth is, Alexi Laiho and Children Of Bodom are just a fun band to tour with. Whoever lucky, or unhinged, or liver hardy enough to join them on the road will most likely return home with a books with of anecdotes about whatever daring/dim-witted stunt they pulled while drunk, ofter resulting in broken bones on the part of their accident-prone singer. And like all those hair metal bands he worships, Alexi is a true hedonist.
A mature Janne admits that, "things went a bit out of control at some point so we've slowed things down now- its fun again. On the other hand, look at a tour like the one we're on now: we're the first band on stage, we're done by 8pm and we usually leave the venue by 3am at the earliest! A lot of people don't realise how boring touring can be and how much spare time your have on your hands. Alexi sleeps as much as possible. Me, i'm watching some movies, playing videogames and well, drinking. Just to kill time really."
Their most famous drinking buddy is Kerry King and one of the few, if not the only who has managed to 'out drink' them all. But Slayer's six-stringer has a trick: "You can't beat Kerry! His secret is that he never drinks casually, he only does shots. He is as good with Jagermeister as with a guitar in hands: you just can't beat him."
OPENING THE WOUNDS.
Though it seems at this point in the tour Children of Bodom haven't had the chance yet to really display their party skills with Slipknot, well apart from drummer Joey Jordison, they know this jaunt is a huge oppurtunity for them "to reach a whole new type of crowd." Especially with most of the shows, like both nights at Le Zenith in Paris and most of the UK run, being sold-out before the bands even boarded the bus. Still, it must feel pretty strange at this point of their career to be back at the opening slow and having to limit their set list to seven songs in just 35 minutes.
"It doesn't feel that different from, for example, the Unholy Alliance tour we did with Slayer," reflects Alexi casually. "Even though we were not the first band, we were still kind of the opening act you know. It doesn't make a difference in Europe but in the States, that's a whole different story asst of the time, the opening band hits the stage right after they've opened the doors and theres often nobody in the hall yet when we play. That tough....I was a bit afraid at first that the same thing would happen on this tour, since the Slipknot crowd ain't exactly the same as ours, but i'm glad to say it hasn't been the case. We actually get to see quite a few Bodom shirts in the pit and it feels good."
Janne admits, "The majority fo the crowd coming to these shows are here for Slipknot obviously. And thats the whole point of why we agreed to be on the bill. And honestly, I think we've done a pretty good job so far and more than once, I've seen some of Knot's diehard fans- you know the ones who are usually dressed up like their heroes with the suit, the mask and all the gear- nodding their heads and throwing the horns at the end of our set."
TOUR-TURE TACTICS.
Their forthcoming Terrorizer-sponsored UK headlining tour in February will be their first since 2006, they've been steadfastly focusing on the US. And "touring there is a whole different story," confesses Janne. "You have to be there all the time, its such a big country. But you've got to face it: if you've 'made it' in the US, its going to affect the other markets."
Luckily, their first US gig didn't discourage them. Huge in Finland, then Japan, then Europe and now in the States...
"That was Milwaukee Metal Fest in July 2000 and that was fucked up!" Alexi remembers his show with a smile. "The crowd were great and we a had a great time, despite the fact we came all the way from Finland to do only two shows, one in Montreal and this one, but the way it was set up was crazy: they had 250 bands playing at the same time, with just a curtain between two stages sometimes. Of course, it meant you had to do a pretty short set with no soundcheck. Pretty punk rock actually."
Those harsh conditions combined with their fast growing popularity in Japan (where they first toured in 1999) and in Europe meant it'd take them another three years to tour the US again and another three to really nail it:
"Now, when i'm looking back, I realised how lucky we'd been to achieve that. Thanks to our popularity in Europe, the first time we properly toured the states in 2003, we could afford a decent tour bus, meaning that we didn't have to suffer from bad conditions like most of the underground Europeon bands whenever they're touring the States for the first time. We didn't have to drive fifteen hours in between gigs by ourselves and rely on other people to find a place to sleep every time and believe me, it made a big difference. Still, we had barely enough to buy food the first time we toured America. Plus, we had to pay for our own booze and in our case that means a lot!"
Though the pair promise "many summer festivals appearences next year, they've remained quite elusive about whats going to happen during their 90 minutes headlining set apart from "digging out some old tunes we haven't played for a long time." But theres one thing these already seasoned, yet still frighteningly young (Warman and Laiho are only 29) musicians know, its that two years from now, they'll probulary bein the same tour bus, in from of some crowd in some country, doing the same thing.
"We love playing music and we'll probulary do it for the rest of our life," as Janne puts it. "And even if we wanted to go back to 'normal life and get a 'normal' job', it'd be impossible as you need an education for that. And while my school friends were having one, I was too busy doing gigs with Children Of Bodom do there no turning back now."
STILL DRUNK!
With knuckles-bloodies and bottles emptied Children Of Bodom owned 2008. After a critically acclaimed new album, 'Blooddrunk', festival crowds laid to waste and a relentless road campaign the band start the new year on top of their game, where Terrorizer always knew they'd end up. But are our recent heroes still hungry for blood? Oliver 'Zoltar' Badin cornered the precocious pairing of Laiho and Warman to find out.
BLOODY SUCCESS.
When we creep into Children Of Bodom's tour bus, distant wise equally parked from Le Zenith- where the roars of Slipknots fans can be heard- but also from the Trabendo where, incidentall, old friends Soilwork are playing, we are at least sure of one thing. That we wre right; that we knew upon witnessing their first proper Europeon tour in 1999, hot on the release of their second album 'Hatebreeder', ripping it all out as opening act for the Swedish melodeth aristocracy (Dark Tranquility, Arch Enemy and In Flames) that those precocious brats were destined for greatness. And as aptly suggested by their headlining sell-out London Astoria show last March, a whole nine years later, 2008 was to be the year it finally became a common assumption. Hot on the success of Blooddrunk (both their sixth full length AND its first single went straight to the top of the Finnish national charts) they've finally made it. They've crossed the frontier- that invisible line seperating the underground from the mainstream. Hell, they even has Testament opening for them in New York last October.
So with this in mind we enter their lair, getting ready to juggle with big egos and the now established rock stars bathing in champagne while buying their third Ferrari of the year online. And that's when we were stumped, as nothing has changed on the shores of Lake Bodom. Just like during all the interview we've done over the last decadem, a chain smoking Alexi Laiho looks and sounds exhausted. The exact opposite of the 'wild child' character of his onstage persona, and despite the many 'Americanisms' he's adopted, the 'F-word' being a particularly popular one, he remains very Finnish, as does his fellow Bodom buddy and keeper of the keys Janne Warman.
So to both, 'Blooddrunk' ain't no 'Black Album' but just the honest new album of an honest, hard-working metal band.
"For us it's just one step. As long as it's forward, I don't really care about the rest. Plus lets face it: we're here tonight at Le Zenith in Paris and i'm pretty sure we wouldn't be able to fill that 6,000 seat arena all by ourselves so theres still alot of things to be done" offers the self-deprecating frontman. Janne gets more specific:
"I never thought about who's underground and who's not. Did we used to be underground? Do you stop being underground the day you sign your first recording contract and your records are widely available? Of course, it was a whole different deal when we released our first album. From that perspective, yeah, we're not underground anymore sure. But it's not like everybody listens to us. Fuck it, we're just happy about the ways things are now anyway."
YOUTH GONE WILD.
The misunderstanding of the bands place in the grand scheme of things is the latest in a long line for Children Of Bodom. Remember, they briefly got labelled as 'black metal' when they first appeared. The band themselves laugh now when we're mentioning those very first blood-drenched promo photos from 1997 where Alexi, cloaked in sinister shadows held out a knife as if he was ready to gut the voyeur. Though he already confessed his love of classic hair metal by then, most notably WASP, whose classic title 'Wild Child' would soon become his trademark, it seems they were lumped into that corner out of despair. Sure they had harsh vocals, Finnish passports and, though both experiences would prove to be pretty brief, on the side Alexi had been involved with the early incarnation of Thy Serpent (with whom he never recorded anything) and then with Finnish BM overlords Impaled Nazarene. Even at the embryonic stage, Bodom already had as much to do with Dimmu Bogir and Emperor as they did with Britney Spears. Then came the 'guitar hero' phase: a shredder in the classic sense of the term, Alexi was any guitar magazines wet dream. He was young, good looking, had a thing for Flying V guitars, gladly cited Yngwie Malmsteem, Randy Rhoads and Jake E Lee as influences and could run down the fretboard like Wile E Coyote after Road Runner. But it doesn't matter how many covers he graced next to Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde, or that he's practising "at least two hours each day before the show," or even that released two instructional videos last spring. Truth is, Alexi Laiho and Children Of Bodom are just a fun band to tour with. Whoever lucky, or unhinged, or liver hardy enough to join them on the road will most likely return home with a books with of anecdotes about whatever daring/dim-witted stunt they pulled while drunk, ofter resulting in broken bones on the part of their accident-prone singer. And like all those hair metal bands he worships, Alexi is a true hedonist.
A mature Janne admits that, "things went a bit out of control at some point so we've slowed things down now- its fun again. On the other hand, look at a tour like the one we're on now: we're the first band on stage, we're done by 8pm and we usually leave the venue by 3am at the earliest! A lot of people don't realise how boring touring can be and how much spare time your have on your hands. Alexi sleeps as much as possible. Me, i'm watching some movies, playing videogames and well, drinking. Just to kill time really."
Their most famous drinking buddy is Kerry King and one of the few, if not the only who has managed to 'out drink' them all. But Slayer's six-stringer has a trick: "You can't beat Kerry! His secret is that he never drinks casually, he only does shots. He is as good with Jagermeister as with a guitar in hands: you just can't beat him."
OPENING THE WOUNDS.
Though it seems at this point in the tour Children of Bodom haven't had the chance yet to really display their party skills with Slipknot, well apart from drummer Joey Jordison, they know this jaunt is a huge oppurtunity for them "to reach a whole new type of crowd." Especially with most of the shows, like both nights at Le Zenith in Paris and most of the UK run, being sold-out before the bands even boarded the bus. Still, it must feel pretty strange at this point of their career to be back at the opening slow and having to limit their set list to seven songs in just 35 minutes.
"It doesn't feel that different from, for example, the Unholy Alliance tour we did with Slayer," reflects Alexi casually. "Even though we were not the first band, we were still kind of the opening act you know. It doesn't make a difference in Europe but in the States, that's a whole different story asst of the time, the opening band hits the stage right after they've opened the doors and theres often nobody in the hall yet when we play. That tough....I was a bit afraid at first that the same thing would happen on this tour, since the Slipknot crowd ain't exactly the same as ours, but i'm glad to say it hasn't been the case. We actually get to see quite a few Bodom shirts in the pit and it feels good."
Janne admits, "The majority fo the crowd coming to these shows are here for Slipknot obviously. And thats the whole point of why we agreed to be on the bill. And honestly, I think we've done a pretty good job so far and more than once, I've seen some of Knot's diehard fans- you know the ones who are usually dressed up like their heroes with the suit, the mask and all the gear- nodding their heads and throwing the horns at the end of our set."
TOUR-TURE TACTICS.
Their forthcoming Terrorizer-sponsored UK headlining tour in February will be their first since 2006, they've been steadfastly focusing on the US. And "touring there is a whole different story," confesses Janne. "You have to be there all the time, its such a big country. But you've got to face it: if you've 'made it' in the US, its going to affect the other markets."
Luckily, their first US gig didn't discourage them. Huge in Finland, then Japan, then Europe and now in the States...
"That was Milwaukee Metal Fest in July 2000 and that was fucked up!" Alexi remembers his show with a smile. "The crowd were great and we a had a great time, despite the fact we came all the way from Finland to do only two shows, one in Montreal and this one, but the way it was set up was crazy: they had 250 bands playing at the same time, with just a curtain between two stages sometimes. Of course, it meant you had to do a pretty short set with no soundcheck. Pretty punk rock actually."
Those harsh conditions combined with their fast growing popularity in Japan (where they first toured in 1999) and in Europe meant it'd take them another three years to tour the US again and another three to really nail it:
"Now, when i'm looking back, I realised how lucky we'd been to achieve that. Thanks to our popularity in Europe, the first time we properly toured the states in 2003, we could afford a decent tour bus, meaning that we didn't have to suffer from bad conditions like most of the underground Europeon bands whenever they're touring the States for the first time. We didn't have to drive fifteen hours in between gigs by ourselves and rely on other people to find a place to sleep every time and believe me, it made a big difference. Still, we had barely enough to buy food the first time we toured America. Plus, we had to pay for our own booze and in our case that means a lot!"
Though the pair promise "many summer festivals appearences next year, they've remained quite elusive about whats going to happen during their 90 minutes headlining set apart from "digging out some old tunes we haven't played for a long time." But theres one thing these already seasoned, yet still frighteningly young (Warman and Laiho are only 29) musicians know, its that two years from now, they'll probulary bein the same tour bus, in from of some crowd in some country, doing the same thing.
"We love playing music and we'll probulary do it for the rest of our life," as Janne puts it. "And even if we wanted to go back to 'normal life and get a 'normal' job', it'd be impossible as you need an education for that. And while my school friends were having one, I was too busy doing gigs with Children Of Bodom do there no turning back now."
Thanks Hannah! Hedonist Alexi and mature Janne made me laugh 
.
And I kind of liked this "digging out some old tunes we haven't played for a long time." part
.And I kind of liked this "digging out some old tunes we haven't played for a long time." part
Wrath Within
Rebel against the chains
great interview!!! thanks so much.
i loved the end of it. "there is no turning back" lol, they're awesome.
i loved the end of it. "there is no turning back" lol, they're awesome.
kilon
I told you!
Yah, the only reason for the end of CoB will be death of a member. Or maybe if someone is completely paralyzed.
And I too, ofcourse, love the "digging out some old tunes we haven't played for a long time" part, but I guess that's clear by now!
Hope they play some Something Wild tracks. And Children of Bodom.
And I too, ofcourse, love the "digging out some old tunes we haven't played for a long time" part, but I guess that's clear by now!
Hope they play some Something Wild tracks. And Children of Bodom.
sleeper666
MetalMutha
Yah, the only reason for the end of CoB will be death of a member. Or maybe if someone is completely paralyzed.
And I too, ofcourse, love the "digging out some old tunes we haven't played for a long time" part, but I guess that's clear by now!
Hope they play some Something Wild tracks. And Children of Bodom.
Actually, I don't think that would stop the band (unless it were Alexi, and only because he writes pretty much everything).
Before Ale left, they had that belief. But after that, Alexi himself said that he realized that even if horrible things happen, you can't stop for someone else, you have to keep doing what you want to do. There's no point in letting something hold you back from what you're passionate about and love.
Of course, it will hopefully never come to that. Least of all because of something happening to someone, that would be horrible. I don't think there's any need to worry, though.
And it'll be interesting to see which old songs they're talking about.
sleeper666
MetalMutha
children of COB
Deadnight Drinker
dagurgisla
Member
children of COB
Deadnight Drinker
Guys, sleeper wasn't the one who did that, Terrorizer was, so either write to them or chill out, she posted it for the damn picture, so don't go on again about who is better than who. It's already clear from seeing Petri Lindros and Kerry King around that it's a fan-voted poll so don't go nuts over it.
