Early Life and Influences
Ville Hermanni Valo was born in the Vallila district of Helsinki. His father, Kari, is Finnish and his mother, Anita, is of Hungarian descent. Soon after his birth, the family moved to the riverside community of Oulunkylä where they lived throughout his teenage years. In 1984 his younger brother and only sibling Jesse was born. In his late teens, he worked at his father's sex shop and later moved out on his own when he was 18.
As a child, Valo was exposed to the songs of popular Finnish performers such as Tapio Rautavaara and Rauli Badding Somerjoki. In various interviews he has cited his favourite artists include King Diamond, Elvis Presley, Neil Young, and Dir En Grey, as well as bands such as Fields of the Nephilim, The Sisters of Mercy, Black Sabbath, Type O Negative, Depeche Mode, Iron Maiden, Kiss, and The Stooges. Valo is frontman of the Finnish rock band HIM, who are currently working on their eighth studio album. They became the first and only Finnish rock band to achieve a gold record (more than 500,000 copies) in the United States. Valo was also the drummer for the Daniel Lioneye project which featured HIM's guitarist Linde Lindström on vocals/lead guitar and Migé Amour on bass. In late 2007, Valo went to a rehab facility called "Promises" in Malibu, to drop his habit of drinking alcohol. He currently resides in Helsinki
Read more about this topic: Ville Valo
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or influences:
“I looked at my daughters, and my boyhood picture, and appreciated the gift of parenthood, at that moment, more than any other gift I have ever been given. For what person, except one’s own children, would want so deeply and sincerely to have shared your childhood? Who else would think your insignificant and petty life so precious in the living, so rich in its expressiveness, that it would be worth partaking of what you were, to understand what you are?”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“... the hey-day of a woman’s life is on the shady side of fifty, when the vital forces heretofore expended in other ways are garnered in the brain, when their thoughts and sentiments flow out in broader channels, when philanthropy takes the place of family selfishness, and when from the depths of poverty and suffering the wail of humanity grows as pathetic to their ears as once was the cry of their own children.”
—Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)
“Whoever influences the child’s life ought to try to give him a positive view of himself and of his world. The child’s future happiness and his ability to cope with life and relate to others will depend on it.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)