Interview with Hennka of Children of Bodom
March 18, 2006
Interviewed by Steffen Vitale

 

Steffen: How many times have you toured in the US?
Hennka: Um…4?
Steffen: I know you’ve toured with Shadows Fall and whatnot.
Hennka: Shadows Fall we toured with in Europe a few years ago.
Steffen: Who else? Lamb of God.
Hennka: Lamb of God was one year ago in the states. It’s a good band…good guys.
Steffen: Absolutely. What are your dislikes about being on the road?
Hennka: Yeah, I mean you get bored.
Steffen: You get bored?
Hennka: There’s a lot of free time. Too much sometimes. You just hang out in the band room back stage and it gets boring. Well, I guess that’s the only bad thing about it.
Steffen: Yeah, I guess you run out of things to do real quick.
Hennka: Yeah.

Steffen: Personally, what is your favourite song to play live?
Hennka: At the moment I think it’s “Are You Dead Yet?” It’s new and quite easy as well. It changes all the time though.

Steffen: When you’re creating new material do you just write the bass lines or do you have any other part in the process?
Hennka: We write the bass lines together with Alexi, he is composing the songs. Of course all the band is involved in the arrangement of the songs. We write the riffs and then we just build up the song as a band – together.

Steffen: You drink, right?
Hennka: ::nods::
Steffen: What’s your booze of choice?
Hennka: I like all kinds of booze. Beer…I like wine…vodka…I like whisky…there’s no real favourite. Wine is good though.
Steffen: Haha. I stick to Jack Daniels myself.
Hennka: Jack? I like Jack…but I like more scotch.

Steffen: What are your other interests outside of music?
Hennka: I’m a huge soccer fan. I play soccer myself. I try to go to the university whenever I have time.
Steffen: Yeah, I read that if you weren’t doing this you’d be teaching?
Hennka: Probably, one day; yeah.
Steffen: Well you can’t say anyone wouldn’t know who you were. You’d be a very popular teacher. Do you play the same set list for every show on a tour or do you change it constantly?
Hennka: We change it every tour so almost every show we have the same set list. Of course, sometimes if we feel like it we can add some songs in, take one out…but basically it’s the same throughout the tour.

Steffen: I’ve noticed on a lot of the albums and just random searching around you guys do a lot of covers…very random covers too. Is there any particular cover you enjoy playing most?
Hennka: One of my favourites is the Ramones.

Steffen: What is in your CD player right now?
Hennka: Well, I try to always search for new metal bands. There’s this new album from a Finnish band called Down My Throat…it’s really good. Also, I’ve been listening to the new In Flames album.

Steffen: What do you think of the scene that’s coming out right now like Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage? Do you think that’s the new form of heavy metal?
Hennka: When those bands, Shadows Fall and Killswitch came out it was really refreshing and really good stuff. I still think those bands are one of the best of that genre of metal. Killswitch is really good; I’m looking forward to their new stuff. I think they started something that is still really big in the metal scene. There are so many bands that want to do the same kind of stuff they are doing.

Steffen: Are there any new bands you’ve heard of recently that you want to tell people about?
Hennka: I’m always trying to find something really good but I haven’t found anything…in awhile. Down My Throat is one of those fresh bands but they are on their second album now so it’s not really new, but that’s a band I’m always trying to promote.

Steffen: What kind of gear do you use?
Hennka: I use ESP basses and I have Ampeg amplifier and cabinet.

Steffen: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Hennka: We’ve been looking forward to this tour. We just did a tour in the fall and we’re a little afraid because not many people showed up for the show. I just want to tell everybody to show up to the shows and support the band. There are a lot of cities we haven’t played before so it is really exciting for us.
Steffen: This is your second time in New Haven, right?
Hennka: The first US tour we played here [Toad's Place] as a supporting band.

Steffen: Well, alright man. Thanks for your time. Nice meeting you.
Hennka: You too.
Steffen: I hope you have a good set.
Hennka: Thanks.

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