Alexi Fan Club

Alexi "Wildchild" Laiho (born Markku Uula Aleksi Laiho) was born Espoo, Finland on April 8, 1979. As a child, he began to play violin at age five, and later became familiar with piano. However, as he began to listen to Steve Vai and W.A.S.P. as his older sister before him, he was spellbound with the riffs and solos and soon dropped his classical training and picked up a guitar. His first guitar was a tokai Stratocaster. In 1993, Alexi formed the black/neo-classical metal band Inearthed with his best friend and drummer, Jaska Raatikainen. They recorded Inearthed's first three demos and Alexi dropped out of high school at age 16 to dedicate himself to his band. At age 18, Alexi joined Thy Serpent, but soon he left to fully concentrate on Inearthed, which happened to now be called Children Of Bodom, which derived from the murder case at Lake Bodom where on the night of June 4, 1960, four teenagers were camping on the shores of Lake Bodom when – allegedly – an insane person murdered three of them cold-bloodedly with a knife and wounded the fourth. CoB releases Something Wild on February 16, 1997. After the Something Wild European tour, A night of drinking resulted in Allu joining Impaled Nazarene as lead guitar player. Alexi then told the band that Children of Bodom is his main priority, and he could not join Impaled Nazarene on all their gigs. One year after the release of Something Wild, at the age of nineteen, Alexi suffered a nervous breakdown. In his despair, he resorted to suicide and took thirty tranquilizers and a few shots of whisky, slipping into unconsciousness. A friend found him soon after and took him to the hospital. He recovered and decided to skip regular treatment and instead embraced his love of music. He increased his already dedicated practice schedule and made the guitar playing on subsequent albums more skillful than their debut. One of Alexi's biggest side projects ever Is Sinergy, he knew their frontwoman Kimberly Goss from the first Children Of Bodom gig ever in Tavastia (Children Of Bodom were supporting Dimmu Borgir and Kim played keyboards for them). Kimberly also played the keyboards for Children of Bodom in the SW tour back in 1998 since Janne was busy with school.
He also began to front punk band Kylähullut in 2004 along with ex-To/Die/For member Tonmi Lillman, and Vesku Jokinen from punk band Klamydia, which was created merely for the entertainment of the musicians.
In October-November 1998, Alexi went to Studio Fredman with Sinergy to record their debut album "Beware the Heavens". In addition to lead guitar, Alexi also played some keyboards on this album. He wrote the following songs by himself: "Venomous Vixens", "Beware the Heavens" and the instrumental song called "Pulsation". He also co-wrote "Swarmed" and "Virtual Future". Wildchild also did backing vocals for "Beware the Heavens" and "The Fourth World" with Kimberly and Fredrik. Somehow, Alexi found time to write for all three bands even though he was touring all the time. Later in 2001, Alexi left Impaled Nazarene since he got too busy with Sinergy and Children of Bodom. Impaled Nazarene was never very important to him. Before the recordings of Sinergy's "To Hell And Back", Alexi's dream came true when Roope Latvala joined Sinergy. The album had solo duels between Alexi And Roope in almost every song. In 2001 & 2002, Alexi did some backing vocals for Norther with Alexander and Jaska. His voice can be heard on the Skid Row cover "Youth Gone Wild" (came with the Released -single) and in three songs of their second album "Mirror of Madness" ("Everything Is An End", "Dead" & "Mirror of Madness"). Sinergy went to record their third album back to Studio Fredman in August 2001. Despite the fact that 2001 was a very busy year for Children Of Bodom, Alexi found time to write the title track of this album, "Suicide By My Side". This was also the video track of the album, but it was done on a very low budget. He also co-wrote "I Spit On Your Grave" (he also did a spitting intro for this one :)), "The Sin Trade", "Violated" & "Passage to the Fourth World" and did some vocals on the track "Shadow Island".
Alexi's main interest has always been music. He has two bands, and there is almost no time for any other activities. However, Alexi is fine with this - he does not even want to do anything else. He enjoys playing Playstation (especially the Grand Theft Auto -series), and also enjoys cars; he was taught how to drive by his father at the age of 10. he owns a Pontiac Firebird, a 1974 Dodge Monaco and a Buick. He used to work as a roadie to build huge tents and stages for special events (concerts, conventions...) and he also did some telemarketing. On this job, He remarks, "I had to sell a fucking dictionary via the phone and that really sucked. Unfortunately I did not have the patience to be friendly to those suckers. That's why I quit the whole thing after two weeks.” He considers his band-mates as "probably the only real friends I ever had". He has the letters "COBHC" (Children of Bodom Hate Crew) tattooed on his hand as an homage to Ozzy Osbourne, who has a similar tattoo. One of Alexi's special Abilities is that he never forgets a riff. He has written nearly every Children Of Bodom song by himself, except for Bed Of Razors and Lil' Bloodred Riding Hood, Which he wrote with Alexander. "I do a song, and then another one and if the first doesn’t sound as good as the other one I just dump the whole song and take all the cool riffs and melodies and put it in some new songs. It’s like recycling the good material, and so our songs are full of good riffs and melodies.” He says. Alexi has never really concentrated much on his lyrics. The ideas for his lyrics and inspirations just come from his head; his own thoughts and personal feelings like hate, anger and depression - not from religion or anything like that. He basically just wants to write lyrics about reality and real life. Alexi has written all the Children Of Bodom lyrics except Silent Night, Bodom Night, which was written by Kimberly Goss, and Chokehold, which he co-wrote with Alexander and Henkka.
The biggest hero for Alexi, an idol, is definitely Ozzy Osbourne. He is a huge fan of their guitar players and has been listening to them for a long time. In 1999 he said that his dream would be to play in Ozzys band. Alexi also has a big collection of various Ozzy stuff. So far he has not managed to see Ozzy live, as he has cancelled his gig in Helsinki already three times. In July 2004 during the Tuska Metal Festival after party in Tavastia, Helsinki, Alexi joined the Finnish Ozzy cover band Crazy Train on stage to jam some legendary Ozzy hits. Back in 2000 the Finnish TV show Jyrki did a short documentary about Alexi. It was practically a series featuring all the best guitarists in Finland. In addition to Alexi, it had Timo Tolkki from Stratovarius, etc. Alexi's goal as a guitarist is to improve technique and to keep everything as clean as possible. He knows his own speed limit and never tries to play anything he's not capable of playing. "After three years of playing I tried to play everything as fast as possible and that sounded... would I say... like crap and I didn't realize that if I'd play a bit slower things that I was capable to play back then, I would've sound a lot better.. but after all that's a phase everyone goes through." Alexi has a huge desire to play live. He wants to offer the fans exactly what they came to see for and that is why he refuses to drink much before a gig. In 1999 Bodom and Impaled Nazarene had a show together in Mexico. Alexi was very ill, but refused to cancel the gig. He had a high fever and was puking between the first set and encore. Alexi also played a Sinergy gig with a broken leg. In September 2003 the Children had to cancel their first gig ever. Alexi's old rib injury started hurting, and after the soundcheck in Nagoya he was carried to the doctor's. "We have never cancelled a gig, and I don't want to do it especially in Japan. I wouldn't care if we were in Eastern-Germany, but does this have to happen in Japan? I can do a suicide in front of these people if that's why they came to see us for, but singing is impossible right now."
Alexi has a very close relationship with his guitars. He thinks that if you play your guitar enough, a special bond will form between the player and the guitar. "Sometimes I feel that if everything has gone wrong, at least I can seek comfort from my guitar, which will always be there for me. I've slept many times with my guitar." Alexi took his nickname "Wildchild" from a W.A.S.P. song with the same name. It describes the wild nature of his. You could see his nickname in a sticker on his guitar. In September 2002, Children Of Bodom played a gig in Spinefeast. After the gig, They had a party at their rehearsal place. Alexi had set down his Custom Jackson RR's behind something in the back of the room. The next morning, Alexi Woke and went to get his guitars, and discovered that they were gone. He took this really hard because the guitars were so unique and important to him. When the year turned into 2003 and COB was getting ready for their forthcoming European & Finland tour, Alexi desperately needed to get new guitars. Jackson was sold to Fender, and they told Alexi that it would take a whole year to get him the guitars he wanted to have. ESP could do the same in 3-4 months, which meant that Alexi could have them just before the European tour. This is why Alexi changed his endorsement to ESP and therefore also Alexander and Henkka had to play ESPs. Wildchild has achieved a lot in spite of his young age by making his way high on various "Best guitarists of the world" -lists, and the huge influence he has given to many guitarists & bands can be seen everywhere. Since he still has many years left, one can only guess what the energetic shredder from Espoo will eventually become.
Alexi is currently single.
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