The secret of the Children of Bodom: Janne, Henkka and Jaska reveal what really happened
-
Loading... - Chiara Accardi
- 22 Jul 2022
- 126 Views
- 0 Like
- 0 Comment
Children of Bodom, a band whose albums sold by the millions, did not break up in the way that Alexi Laiho described or as some fans deduced. Janne Wirman, Henkka Seppälä and Jaska Raatikainen showed Helsingin Sanomat the e-mail conversations at the centre of it all and told us what really happened.
“I almost fell down on the spot when I heard.”
“When you said sit down, I knew right away.”
“I’d been afraid [it would happen], and when the phone call came, I just prayed don’t say it.”
Janne Wirman, Henkka ‘Blacksmith’ Seppälä and Jaska Raatikainen were the keyboard player, bass player and drummer, respectively, of Children of Bodom, a band whose albums have sold nearly 2,5 million copies. Their quotes above are in reference to the death of their friend, fellow band member and erstwhile antagonist Alexi Laiho (1979–2020) in December 2020.
This is the first time that the three have given a joint interview on this topic, for obvious reasons.
“Alexi was the only one to do interviews about the band breaking up, and his versions diverged from the truth.”
Alexi’s death was followed by a long period of mourning, and only now have they stepped up to put the record straight.
“The fans have a right to know what happened.”
The reason for the breakup was not that the three surviving members wanted to stop touring for family reasons, which is how Laiho explained it to Helsingin Sanomat in November 2019.
“We felt bad about that, also for our spouses. They’d always supported our international careers.”
The ultimate reason for the end was Laiho’s substance abuse, which is what eventually killed him a year after the band broke up. The death certificate mentions liver fatty degeneration and adipose tissue formation in the pancreas. There were also opioids in his system.
“Addiction is an illness, and he destroyed our trust in him with his actions in our business venture. But he apologised for a lot of things, and we did work together even after the band broke up.”
There are many details that Laiho and the rest of the band have reported identically: the core quartet came together as teenagers, and after the band’s début album only the backup guitarist changed: first there was Alexander Kuoppala, then Roope Latvala and finally Daniel Freyberg.
Laiho made a substantial income in royalties as songwriter and lyricist, but with the establishment of a limited liability company for the band in 2003 – AA & Sewira Consulting Oy, referred to below as the LLC – all other income, from gigs to merchandise, was split equally.
“Alexi was all about the band,” says Raatikainen. Major tours or manager replacements were decided democratically, by majority vote. Read More…
