Ellie and Alan caught up with Children Of Bodom back stage at Bloodstock to talk about plans for a new album, playing Bloodstock and much more.

You've been together since 1993, how would you describe your journey so far?
Well it's been long and everything goes too fast nowadays, it feels like we only just did “Are You Dead Yet” but we have done another album since then. I think we have a achieved many great things and I am really happy with that.

What would you say your best achievement so far has been, and is there anything you would change?
I would not change anything, I think our best achievement would be that we are always selling more and more records

When did you start playing music and what made you pick up your first instrument?
When I was four or five years old I started playing the piano, when it comes to drums I started playing when I was twelve. I think why I started to play drums is because I moved from another city to where I live now. I went to the same class as Alexi, in there was a drum kit and we decided to start a band, at the time I did not actually play the drums at all but I just wanted to play them as I thought it was cool.

Last year you released a cover album (Skeletons In The Closet) what gave you the idea to make this record and how did you choose the songs?
Well I think it was all of us, we started to think of all our covers as there are almost twenty of them. Every album we have recorded we have done a couple. So many people know that we have done this many cover songs and we wanted to put them all together to tell people that we did this cover and that cover.

What tracks did you have most fun recording?
Well Britney Spears that was fun.

It has been a while since you last realeased a full studio album, have you started working on a new record yet?
Actually yes. The last weekend I just finished my drum recording for the new album, which went really really well. I really love the new songs and I'm really excited about that.

You are playing Bloodstock today, do you have anything special planned for the set?
I don't think that there is anything special, the fact is that we have not done any albums since 2007 or 08 and this is like the third festival season for us and we don't have anything new, we were thinking to do a mix of everything really.

There has been much debate on your specific genre by fans and critics, where would you say you get your musical influences from?
We can get ideas from any style of music, we don't want to label our selves to any certain musical style. Every album we do is a little different from any others we have done. We just want to make music that is good without thinking can we do this because its not our style.

Out of all the festivals you have ever played which one did you enjoy playing the most?
One year we played Download Festival, at first we thought it would suck but then people got so fucking crazy, we thought it was amazing. Maybe Wacken Open Air as it's huge, if you play there at prime time like nine or ten its looks awesome.

How do you feel about touring with Black label Society on their North American tour?
I feel it's a little bit of a different audience, I think that it's really great for us and it's quite good music. I guess lots of Rednecks and beer bellies but I guess it's going to be good.

Have you any funny tour stories you would like to share with us?
There are many, well on one tour I fell out of my bunk three times in one week and I think that is hilarious.

Where do see Children of Bodom in a few years time?
We have been thinking about that since we were twenty years old, like where do we see ourselves in five years but I don't think about that to much, I just hope we are still touring and doing more albums.

Are you looking forward to headlining Bloodstock?
Yes very much.

Finally, one last random question would you rather be a giraffe or a Zebra?
A zebra

Interview By Ellie Pockley