Probably best known in America from Bam Margera’s show Viva La Bam, Ville Valo is a 6’2 Finnish rocker.  Because Bam Margera, a pro skateboarder, is a rabid fan of Valo’s band H.I.M., Margera featured them frequently on his MTV network show as well as produced one of the band’s videos Buried Alive By Love.  Margera’s show debuted in 2003 with a Ville Valo produced theme song.  Before his fame in America and before his success in internationally, Valo was a kid who had grown up in a musical and unique household.

Living in Vallila, Helsinki with an eight years younger brother, Jesse Valo who is now a Thai Boxer, Valo was exposed to a variety of music. His father, a taxi driver and later adult shop owner, along with his Hungarian mother introduced Valo to mainstream Finnish pop music of like Tapio Rautavaara.  Other relatives turned Valo on to bands like Black Sabbath.  It is ironic that the word “valo” would mean light in Finnish because the music Valo would go on to make would be just the opposite in its melancholy, dark, sometime gothic tone.

Prior to his main success with the band H.I.M., Valo played in several bands with B.L.O.O.D., Aurora, and Unga Kaskelottär to name a few.  He sometimes played various instruments such as the drums or bass in these bands. But once he took the vocal helm of H.I.M. that is when Ville Valo began receiving attention for his musical talents. With H.I.M., Valo has managed to release six albums and become the leader of the first Finnish band to have a gold album in America.  And with the legal conflict around the name H.I.M. caused by a Chicago based band of the same name, H.I.M. has rare albums released only in the United States under the moniker H.E.R.

With their music being deliciously incapable of being categorized, H.I.M. has grown into somewhat of a cult hit.  And they have even achieved mainstream recognition with the Grammy nomination for their 2007 album Venus Doom.  Their first album, Witches and Other Night Fears, was made in 1992 but was never released.  Then fans turned into collectible items the band’s second album, 1996’s 666 Ways to Love: Prologue.  It was an album that had only 1000 copies made and it consisted of 66 tracks spanning 66 minutes and 6 seconds.  But 1999 was when Ville Valo and H.I.M. really garnered any type of big fame and success due to their album Razorblade Romance getting free promotion from Valo’s friend Bam Margera.  That album was number one in Germany and H.I.M.’s 2005 Dark Light sold 500,000 copies in America.

31 year old Ville Valo has released over 4 compilation albums with H.I.M., however he has ventured outside the structure of the band to participate in the side project Daniel Lioneye.  This band would be categorized in the sleaze rock column but it consists of the same members of H.I.M. except that Valo is the drummer and not lead vocalist. Valo also does interesting collaborations such as one he did with Apocalyptica, a band consisting of Finnish cellists.

After releasing Venus Doom in 2007, Valo’s along with H.I.M.’S most recent project included performing in the American based concert Projekt: Revolution.  They shared the stage with acts such as Taking Back Sunday, Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance.