LINKS:
cobhc.com

Children of Bodom have made a name for themselves in extreme metal scene in the past few years, advancing from a practically unknown Finnish metal band to one of most sought-after bands in festivals all over the world. The following is the interview with the singer and guitarist, Alexi Laiho, which was done before their New York gig at Roseland. His answers were short and to-the-point, so this interview will make for a quick reading.

STELLA KIM: Hi, I’m Stella Kim from Crusher Magazine. Let’s start with a little introduction.

ALEXI LAIHO: I’m Alexi. I play guitar, and I sing. We’re a band named Children of Bodom. We play metal music. I wouldn’t call it black metal or death metal, it’s kind of a mixture.

AL: Yes, Hate Crew Deathroll came out last year. We’ve been doing a lot of touring since then. We played all over the world, America, Europe, Japan. When this tour’s over, we’re gonna go home, take a little break, and record another album.

SK: How’s the tour going with Lamb of God and Fear Factory?

AL: It’s been good so far. Today’s only the sixth show on the tour, so we’ll see.

SK: This is the third tour in the U.S for Children of Bodom. Has anything changed from when you were touring here for the first time with Dimmu Borgir?

AL: I play when I have to and don’t really think. In a way, everything’s the same. I guess the crowd was different. We usually get mostly extreme metal fans, but when we toured with Iced Earth earlier this year, we got different type of crowd.

SK: Give me a little historical background on your band.

AL: We went to the same school, me and the drummer. We played a lot of Metallica, stuff like that, and had a bunch of other people playing with us. Then we met our bass player, then the old guitar player who quit the band about a year ago. Then we met the keyboardist. Nothing dramatic.

SK: Who are your influences as an individual and as a band?

AL: As for me, a lot of guitar players, like Steve Vai. And a bunch of eighties metal bands, like Motley Crue. I used to listen to a lot of that, then I moved onto Metallica and Anthrax, then black metal. But I still listen to all of them, I don’t listen to one type of music.

SK: Who writes the music in the band?

AL: I do. I write lyrics too.

SK: A lot of songs are rather aggressive and angry. Does it come from your actual feelings? If so, how do they inspire you?

AL: For me, that’s the only way I can get inspired. Being angry is, I know it sounds fucked up, but it’s the strongest feeling and really makes you feel alive.

SK: You guys are going to write the next album soon. Do you expect any changes as for the direction of the band?

AL: We actually have an EP coming out soon as well. As for the direction, it’s hard to say what it’ll be like at this point. We don’t plan on doing anything different. We’ll see.

SK: I read that you’ve covered Billy Idol and the Ramones. It’s quite different from your usual style. How did you come to cover those songs?

AL: In the new EP, we covered an Alice Cooper song. That’s the whole point, that people don’t expect us to do play that kind of songs. We wanted to see the reaction. What the hell, we thought, you know, it’d be fun.

SK: How important is visual image to the band?

AL: It’s very important that we all have long hair.

SK: Are you still playing in Sinergy?

AL: Yes.

SK: How does that work out?

AL: Children of Bodom is still my top priority, but it works out well.

SK: Could you enlighten me about Finnish metal scene? I know there are some big metal bands like Nightwish and Stratovarius, but it is not as known here as Swedish metal scene.

AL: There’s also HIM. They’re not a real metal band, but they’re getting big. They’re probably the biggest Finnish band out here.

SK: Do you think it’s being overshadowed by Swedish metal scene?

AL: No, I think our scene is cooler. We have some really cool bands. I don’t think it’s overshadowed at all.

SK: What do you do when you’re not playing or writing music?

AL: Playstation. The thing is, even on my spare time, I like to play anyway. I don’t know what to do when I’m not playing or writing music.