A Double Dose of Love Metal with Ville Valo

Many years ago, while in the Finnish gothic rock band HIM, Ville Valo coined the term “love metal” to describe the type of music he made. And while that band may have said goodbye in 2017, Valo is still waving the genre’s flag on his first solo full-length, Neon Noir.

Recently he and I sat down over Zoom while he was in his Helsinki studio gearing up for the U.S. tour to support the record, which kicked off over the weekend. The interview was for two publications, the first being Vanyaland where he did a 617 Q&A. I wasn’t sure the format would translate, but it did – brilliantly. Valo talked about the way he went about creating Neon Noir, whether he took cues from other artists who went solo after being associated with a major band for so long and then did a great Seven of Something portion of the interview.

I also spoke to Valo for Metal Edge, where he delved deep into his favorite metal love songs. Get it? The tie in to “love metal?” Anyway, as I expected, his choices weren’t for the faint of heart, with some of the artists he namechecked being Type O Negative, Danzig and W.A.S.P.

Be sure to check out both interviews, as well as this video for the title track on Neon Noir.