Ville Valo on solo album ‘Neon Noir’: “I’m going straight for the jugular”

If you were anywhere near goth culture in the late nineties, HIM frontman Ville Valo was an omnipresent, unavoidable icon. Cigarette in hand, distinctive heartagram tattoos on show, the rocker charmed a generation of rock fans with his distinctive vocals and on-stage charisma. Decades later, he hasn’t changed a bit.

Valo meets NME at a studio in Kings Cross to discuss his first ever solo album ‘Neon Noir’, a project fully written, recorded and produced by the artist, and set to be released under the moniker VV. “It’s actually a relief in a way that it’s all my fault…it makes it way more simple,” he explains of its solitary nature. “It’s the unadulterated, no compromise whatsoever in [it that’s a relief]”.

Self-described as a “teary mascara marathon between Robert Smith and Ozzy”, ‘Neon Noir’ is a bold collection of songs that regularly nod back to his time with Finnish gothic-rockers HIM, that also develops into a deeper, more vulnerable offering.

Discussing ‘Neon Noir’ for the latest in NME’s In Conversation series, Valo goes deep on the creation of the record, the lyrics that go “straight for the jugular”, and the sage advice that Ozzy Osbourne gave him. Here’s what we learned.

The record embraces darker moments

The debut VV solo record ‘Neon Noir’ was written during the pandemic, a period of time Valo explains: “hit me pretty hard emotionally speaking.”

Discussing his headspace when creating the record, Valo says: “I wouldn’t call it clinical depression. I come from a country that has a peculiar history with people being rather morose.” It’s something Valo thinks the nature and climate of his homeland, Finland, plays a part in: “It’s probably due to the winters being very dark. The sun doesn’t come up at all during the middle of a winter and they are very long.

“[Finnish people] have this innate sort of manic depressive behaviour”, Ville Valo reflects. Additionally, in contrast to the long winters: “the sun doesn’t go down at all in the middle of the summer and people go wavy bonkers.”

Bringing it back to the music and how this has shaped the new album, which he recently describe in a press release as a “step-by-step guide on how to stay alive”, Ville explains: “That’s the kind of stuff I like. I like the darker aspects. Happy music makes me sad and sad music makes me happy. It’s always worked that way. Don’t ask me why, but I’m not the only one.”

Lyrically speaking he’s going “straight for the jugular”

Ville Valo has always been a cryptic lyricist. During his time with HIM, he drew on Charles Bukowski, Charles Baudelaire and Edgar Allen Poe in his songwriting; but the new record veers away from his previously nuanced approach to lyrics.

“I’m going straight for the jugular,” Valo says, describing the direction for his new solo music. “It’s very, very direct.”

“But obviously there’ll be a lot of weird combinations…Hopefully they evoke memories or ideas. There’s this weird juxtaposition of things that seemingly don’t go together and I’m trying to forcefully marry them. And hopefully, via that, make a concoction that has never been heard before.”

He got some sage advice from Ozzy Osbourne

Influences for the new album range from Robert Smith of The Cure on the swooning epic ballad ‘Saturnine Saturnalia’ through to Black Sabbath on the rip-roaring title track ‘Neon Noir’; but has Ville ever met the idols that inspired the record?

“I got to meet Ozzy once, it was pretty cool. The only thing I remember is he told me that if you can’t get the first row going show them your tits, he said the moves really works”.

But when NME asked if he’d ever tried it, he attested: “every time I go to test it on stage, I just get super nervous…But I should, that’s a good idea. On the next tour on the set-list I’ll write ‘remember Ozzy’s wisdom'”.

It’s all about the bass

He may have hung out with rock icons like Ozzy, but there’s still some idols he’d love to meet. “Back to Black Sabbath, I’ve never had the chance to meet Geezer Butler, the bass player. And bass was my first instrument.”

Riffing on some of his favourite four string legends, Valo says: “I’ve never had the chance to meet Steve Harris from Iron Maiden, [who’s] one of the reasons I started playing bass. Never met Gene Simmons who is also a bass player. So ‘it’s all about the bass’ as Ozzy used to say”. There’s still time, Ville.

‘Neon Noir’ is dedicated to his partner

Nesting down in Finland with his partner during the Covid-19 lockdowns to make ‘Neon Noir’, Valo explains: ”I do have a girlfriend…I was testing her patience during the pandemic.”

Having to juggle the writing, recording and production of the album with the emotional period of the pandemic, he explains: “The album is dedicated [to] her” for helping him through that period, before laughing, “that’s not enough, but it’s a start”.

VV’s new album, ‘Neon Noir’, is out January 13th 2023 via Heartagram Records

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