I'm not sure that HIM need much of an introduction; it seems that whatever gig you go to these days you'll find huge groups of people dressed in black sporting the ever popular 'heartagram' symbol on their clothes, bags and bodies. There's no doubt that over HIM's 10 year career they have become incredibly popular to the point of teenage hysteria and worshipping of front man Ville Valo. With the release of their latest album 'And Love Said No' gaining them even more fans, we thought it was about time that we asked the band some questions. We got the chance to speak to lead singer Ville and bassist Mige before their gig in Wolverhampton, and in true Rock Pulse style, bombarded them with strange and random questions. So read on to find out about Arnold Schwarzenegger, ripping off Celine Dion, the importance of wearing clean underwear and kicking over Turkish hot dog stands!

Suzi: How are you and how's the tour going?

Ville: I'm sort of thinking I'm going to get the flu...some of the crew have been pretty ill, like having terrible fevers and stuff like that, but it's all been going really good. All the gigs have been...good. Well, most of them.
Mige: Yeah, I think all of them have been good.
Ville: Same old same old!

Jess: How did you choose the support for this tour? Is that decision up to you?

Mige: We wanted them, yeah.
Ville: We wanted Cathedral because we are influenced by them and we like them for what they do. They're huge fans of Black Sabbath too, so that's one of the reasons. They're cool, we've been touring for a couple of weeks and it's nice to have friends around.

Suzi: What do you think of the UK?

Ville: I think it's lovely, it really suits my character. You have these traditions, you know? I love them. I love places like Oxford and Cambridge, we went there for the first time and I just love the Universities and the old churches, just walking around the city. It's great because we don't have anything like that in Scandinavia.
Mige: And everything's so clinical where we come from. It's like every house in Scandinavia is decorated like a hospital.

Jess: How do you deal with touring for so long?

Ville: Well, we don't tour for so long, the tours are pretty quick usually, for us. We do the touring in the Led Zeppelin sort of way, so we tour for about 3 weeks max, the most we've ever done was about 4 or 5 weeks. We'll have a week or a week and a half off and then continue. That's better because touring can be so boring, 5 weeks is just too long.
Mige: Yeah, we've had bad experiences when you get sick on a tour, I think that's put us off.
Ville: It's horrible, especially when people get really bad flu's that go around the whole bus, like stomach flu's, and you've just got to keep on going, it's not easy.
Mige: It's just not necessary to make such tight schedules for ourselves.
Ville: Touring's supposed to be fun, we like to have time to meet people and walk around the cities and just hang out.

Suzi: Have you got any funny tour stories?

Ville: What kind of stories? We've got loads of drunken ones, but they're a bit boring to other people.
Mige: They're funny to us and they were funny at the time but they don't work when you tell them.
Ville: I'm trying to think of one.
Mige: The hot dog stand.
Ville: Oh yeah, the one where they kicked over the hot dog stand in Turkey, that was pretty funny, I don't think it would be to anyone else though!

You've been a band for 10 years now. What would you say have been the high points and the low points?

Mige: There aren't really any high points or low points, I mean you have good days and bad days, but there wasn't any particular time that has been particularly good or particularly bad. That's what I think.
Ville: I think there have been some bad times in the past but hopefully they'll just be good times from now on.

Did you enjoy the Kerrang awards? Can you remember any of it?

Ville: We didn't really stay for the party much; we just went for the official thing. Then we all went back to the pub and got shit faced, same old same old!

Jess: What's the best advice you've ever been given?

Ville: Whatever you're doing, always remember to take a shower before and wear clean underwear, just incase.

Suzi: Have you got any heroes?

Ville: I've got loads of heroes. Parents, a couple of action heroes from movies...
Mige: Arnold Schwarzenegger is a hero.
Ville: Cartoon characters...
Mige: Arnold's going to be the governor of the whole world.
Ville: Yeah?
Mige: I'm pretty sure.

Jess: If you weren't in a band, what do you think you'd be doing right now?

Ville: Trying to form a band, probably. I don't think I could be a plumber or an electrician or anything. I'd be trying to be in a band, or I'd be working in my dad's sex shop.
Mige: I'd probably be playing with myself. Wait! I mean by myself.

Suzi: What are some of your current favourite bands?

Ville: I've been trying not to listen to bands like The Strokes, The White Stripes, the Kings of Leon or anything like that. They're all garagey, they sound like shit, and I like music that doesn't sound like shit. What about you, don't you like Nightwish?
Mige: Not really, no. It's kind of a shame you know, I'd really like to like that band. A really disturbing thing to discover was that one of their ballads was really an arrogant rip off of the theme from Titanic.
Ville: It never pays to rip off Celine Dion, for Christ's sake.

Jess: What's your favourite film and can you do a quote from it?

Ville: Favourite film....maybe Ichi the Killer, and my quote would be like "Ching chong" or something. (Laughs) Actually, we just watched Van Helsing, now let's say that Van Helsing is my favourite movie of all time. There's this Friar, who is like the accomplice to Van Helsing, and then there's Frankenstein's monster hanging onto a rope, almost falling down into this pit or ravine or something. And he shouts at the Friar (in convincing accent) "help me!" and the Friar says "No! You should be killed." Then Frankenstein's monster says "But I want to live!" and the Friar says "...alright." (laughs)
Mige: (laughs) Yeah, that's how they figured out DNA and shit, with conversations like that! Simplify, simplify, that's always the way to go.

Jess: If you were a girl for the day, what would you do?

Mige: I'd shag our chef. Seriously, I would.
Ville: I'd probably do the same.
Mige: To see if all the stories are true.
Ville: Oh, yeah.

Suzi: If you were a chair, who would you like to sit on you?

Mige: (straight away) Oh god, Michael Jackson!
Ville: I'd say Michael Jackson too, but the whiskey and beer connoisseur Michael Jackson.
Mige: (Laughs) Oh yeah! Do you know the guy? I'd have him sit on me too.

Jess: What have you got planned after this tour?

Ville: We have a week and a half off and then we're ready for the States. I think we get back on the 6th or 7th of December, have a little rest, celebrate Christmas. Then we have a News Years Eve gig in Helsinki. After that...who knows, things could change so we don't have too much of a set schedule.

Thanks a lot to Ville and Mige for taking the time out to ask our questions. You can find out more about the band by going to www.himonline.tv.