CHILDREN OF BODOM's ALEXI LAIHO: 'I Need Chaos Around Me To Feel Comfortable'

Metal-Exposure recently conducted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Alexi Laiho of Finnish metallers CHILDREN OF BODOM. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metal-Exposure: You've said about the lyrics [on the new CHILDREN OF BODOM album "I Worship Chaos"] that they are "old school" in the sense that they are very aggressive'. Is it easier for you to write song when you get in an angry state of mind?

Alexi: Yes it is. It is definitely my main inspiration: negative, dark feelings in general. I do have that sort of dark side in me that I try to channel through the music as opposed to doing something stupid. I know how I am. I am a pretty impulsive person and I might react very violently to bad things. What I am trying to do, and I'm trying to get better at it, is when something bad happens, I try to savour it and then put that right there in the music. Turn the negative shit into something positive.

Metal-Exposure: How do you get back into that state of mind when writing a song?

Alexi: It comes out naturally. Of course, there is a writer's block sometimes. You just stare at your guitar, noodling out forever and nothing happens. So there is really nothing you can do about it. It is not hard for me to get into that state of mind. Like I said, I keep those band things in my head, so to speak, for the sake of using them in the music. The music itself and writing, it's really my form of therapy. It sounds like bullshit — everybody probably says that — but in my case, it is actually fucking true.

Metal-Exposure: How did you [come up with] the album title, "I Worship Chaos"?

Alexi: Originally it was a song which turned into an album title. I am a sort of dude who is very restless. I don't do well with silence. Dead silence is something that freaks the shit out of me. I just have to much things going on in my head. Things that I sometimes don't want to deal with, so that's why I need something in the background. So to speak, I need chaos around me to feel comfortable.

Read the entire interview at Metal-Exposure.