CHILDREN OF BODOM Bassist Talks About New Album, Upcoming Tour

Australia's PyroMusic.net conducted an interview with CHILDREN OF BODOM bassist Henkka Blacksmith earlier today (Sept. 12). A few excerpts from the chat follow:

PyroMusic.net: How to you feel it compares to more recent albums?

Henkka Blacksmith: "Well, personally, I think we have always done new albums in a different way but this time it was surprising. When we started to do the songs and when the songs were done I was really satisfied with them. I was like, 'Yeah, this is cool stuff.' Even though I found the songs really 'normal' and 'traditional' for CHILDREN OF BODOM songs, but then when I heard the album when it was completely done with vocals, it was really surprising how powerful and how different it sounded compared to previous albums. I'm still listening to the album a lot and I'm really satisfied with it."

PyroMusic.net: How long was spent writing and recording the album?

Henkka Blacksmith: "Uh, we started putting the songs together in January and entered the studio in May, of course I don't know when Alexi [Laiho, guitar/vocals] started to think of songs in his mind, but we started in the studio in January and the album was recorded by the beginning of June, so it took basically half a year."

PyroMusic.net: Have you heard any feedback from fans or press yet about the new album or is it a bit early?

Henkka Blacksmith: "It's quite early but I've read one review from a mainstream magazine and that was very positive but from journalists I only seem to hear good things. There's never the journalist who says something bad, so I don't know if they're lying or what. [Laughter]"

PyroMusic.net: Your cover of [BRITNEY SPEARS'] "Oops I Did It Again"... I heard it a little while back and I think after hearing it my exact words were "What? The? Fuck?!?" What brought on the decision to cover the song?

Henkka Blacksmith: "We just wanted this kind of reaction, just as you said, like people maybe laughing and just being shocked, to make people ask, 'What the fuck is this?' That's why we did it."

PyroMusic.net: Is anyone actually a fan (be honest) of the original?

Henkka Blacksmith: "[Laughter]. Not really, no. Of course, we know the song, and we listen to it sometimes just for a laugh, but we're not serious fans of Britney."

PyroMusic.net: What sort of music workload do you have in any given year? Is there much time off to catch up with friends, family, get pissed, actually go see a gig instead of playing one?

Henkka Blacksmith: "Of course we have to take some time off. Lately has been kind of busy but the summer has been kind of easy for us. We've done maybe 10 festivals, and festivals of course are held on weekends only so we have the whole week off, so we have a show, we fly off, do the show then we're home again for the week. We've had a good chance to enjoy the summer and see our friends and just do normal things but now of course the promotion has started so things are a lot more busy. We have started rehearsing new songs and old songs so it's going to be a little busy this next few weeks before the tour starts. Once we have the headlining set rehearsed, whenever we're home we have more time to spend with friends and family."

Read the entire interview at PyroMusic.net.