CHILDREN OF BODOM Bassist Wishes The Music Business Was 'More Honest'

Dave Borgioli-Jones of NZRock.com recently conducted an interview with CHILDREN OF BODOM bassist Henkka Seppl (a.k.a. Henkka T. Blacksmith). A couple of excerpts from the chat follows.

NZRock: What have you been up to? Have you had a good chance to relax after Gigantour?

Henkka: Yeah, we came home last Saturday and the tour was great. Great bands, great tour and a great atmosphere, a lot of people, of course, and a lot of shows. And in the springtime America is getting nice and warm. But yeah we just got back on Saturday and now I've just been doing my personal stuff here in Helsinki and it's getting really like summer here as well. Actually, just two minutes ago I got out from the swimming pool, HAHA! I'm just enjoying the summer here, it's beautiful! Usually the hot summer is in July or August but now it's June and it's already 25.

NZRock: Did you have a big party after your last show on Gigantour?

Henkka: Actually, I was very sick for the last three days which kinda sucks because usually the last shows are some fun. Also the last show was in Arizona and our flight was from Los Angeles so after the last show we had to pretty much pack stuff and drive back to L.A. But we had lots of parties during the tour. The show before the last one was in L.A. and then we had the flight to Arizona so we didn't do very much.

NZRock: Did you have any good chances to catch up with MEGADETH's Dave Mustaine on the tour?

Henkka: Personally. I didn't that much. Of course I met him but I didn't really hang out. you know. But some of our guys. Yeah. really had lots of fun with him and he was a really cool guy. I'd heard a lot of rumours and a lot of bad stuff about him but he was really cool.

NZRock: This year CHILDREN OF BODOM was nominated for best band and best album at the Finnish music awards but you didnt win either category. Do you think you should have?

Henkka: I dont know. I think we did a great album but actually I don't know who won the awards. Awards are always very I dont know I think if people win something. of course. it is great but it's not the thing that we are in for. We tend to do the music that we can be proud of and this album we definitely managed to do it.

NZRock: You've said before that'd you're not really that interested in doing any side projects because you want to focus on CHILDREN OF BODOM but do you think that one day you might?

Henkka: Well. I don't know. I mean I'm not saying that I'll never do it, but at the moment I'm 100% satisfied with CHILDREN OF BODOM when it comes to music and when I have musical ideas they always fit in BODOM songs so I don't really feel it necessary to do something else and of course I don't have much time. That's the reason.

NZRock: "Blooddrunk" also made it to #22 on the U.S. charts which is huge! What did you do to celebrate that?

Henkka: That was a big deal! We were on tour in the States when we heard it so we really couldn't realise it until a couple of days later and then we started to get congratulations from everybody. In Finland the media made a really big deal out of it. But yeah, that was a great thing also.

NZRock: There was a three year gap between "Blooddrunk" and "Are You Dead Yet?" What was the reason for that?

Henkka: We were touring with "Are You Dead Yet?" for almost two years and we're not able to write songs on tour. We usually just tour as much as we can and then we go home and have a couple of months off and then we start writing again. Actually it was a pretty deliberate choice because this time we wanted to have enough time for composing and we would've been in a rush. So this time we had a lot of time to compose, maybe that's one of the reasons why we had a little bit more gap. Of course the labels and everybody want us to make albums as fast as possible, like every year but it just doesn't work like that. If you have do it really fast its crap.

NZRock: What's the most incorrect thing that the media has ever published about CHILDREN OF BODOM.

Henkka: You know the band called LORDI, the one that won the Eurovision contest? They have these masks and nobody knows what they really look like in real life, it's kinda like a secret. Well anyway, when they won the Eurovision Song Contest some tabloid in the UK published a band photo of LORDI without their masks and makeup and it was a picture of CHILDREN OF BODOM from like 10 years ago HAHA! I think it was some little paper in the UK so that's probably the most incorrect thing I've ever seen HAHA! Even though it was about LORDI it was our faces in the picture.

NZRock: In a past interview you said that you wished the music industry was more honest. What particular experiences have made you think that?

Henkka: I think now that I've been involved in different kinds of business stuff as well I think when it comes to business, there is not so much honesty and I wish it was a bit more honest. Ususally it's everywhere where people try to make as much money as possible there's always this side of it people ripping people off and trying to take advantage and pretending that somebody is your friend when actually they don't really care at all. But I mean it's not just in music, it's in all kinds of business. It's a bit of a shame but it's money, money, money.

Read the entire interview at NZRock.com.