If you have trouble reading it, I've transcripted it as follows:

Its not uncommon for even the most staunch teetotalers to fall off the wagon during the Christams period, but HIM
frontman Ville Valo, who will have remained booze-free for two yrs.in May, didn't even flinch.

He's come a long way since the days when a bottle was his immutable accessory. But this dealing with life
with a crystal clear perspective lark is taking some getting used to.

"How can sobriety go well?" he asks dryly down a phone line from his home in Finland. "When somebody
has to be sober its always a sad existence. A lot of people think that if you're sober everything's good,
but in fact you see all the shit a lot clearer, which makes life actually a lot less tolerable. It's fine.
though, I can deal with it. I do miss ordering triple JD & Cokes, though. Maybe I should just order them &
give them away?"

It might sound like it, but it's actually not all, er, doom & gloom for Valo, who along with his HIM bandmates
is beginning to start work on the follow-up to 2007's Venus Doom. After all, you know what they say about
suffering for your art.

"Hopefully it will help out in the songwriting process," he muses. "I've got ideas for 8 or 9 songs that won't take
much to finish, & when I played them to the rest of the guys they once again proved they were good liars & claimed
that they loved them!"

What should fans expect from the new songs?

"They are a bit of departure for me this time around. This time everything is very direct & straight to the point." Valo says. "It's
still got the melancholy & melody people expect from us, but I feel like doing something different, & maybe it's the sobriety
making me feel that way."

Songwriting aside, the frontman is also enjoying some free time while the band take a break from the promotional duties that usually dominate their diaries. But, rather than spending it in the pub, as he once would have, Valo admits to having become a bit of a hermit
since returning home, holing himself away & reacquainting himself with a passionate dislike for domestic duties.

"In a certain sense it's nice to be home with your stuff that you've gathered over the years, CDs & shit, but then again, I hate using the
dishwasher, hate doing the laundry & I hate the whole thing of tidying the place up," reveals Valo. 'Finland sucks- it's super cold &
super dark. But I'm more or less of a hermit these days, so it's a good place to recharge the batteries."

No luck on the lady front, then?

"I don't do shit anymore & I haven't been searching for a relationship," he answers. "I don't think it happens by going
to a pub or logging into MySpace. Cupid's mysterious ways works best when the arrow hits you at a very unexpected moment, & your
jaw drops & your pants drop & your heart drops, & you can't really control yourself.

"I'm gladly waiting for that insanity to hit me, but it hasn't in a bit," he adds with a laugh. "I'm not getting worried, but
maybe I will soon."

Though we're unlikely to see HIM returning to our shores in the near fututre, Valo is keeping his fingers crossed that he'll be
touring our fair nation in a somewhat different capacity before too long.

"I've been asking Lee Dorrian when he goes on tour with Cathedral if I can be their bass roadie," he explains. "It feels great to
carry big cabinets & be treated badly, after all these years of shaking my butt onstage I'd rather be the guy being spat at for a
while!"