Interviews : The 69 Eyes (Jyrki 69) – 5/6/2009

It’s only a mere 3 weeks away until  Finnish glam/goth rock outfit, 69 Eyes land in Australia, to rock out their legion of adoring Aussie fans. Metal Obsession recently  had the pleasure to speak with main frontman, Jyrki 69 about the band’s upcoming tour, their new album and all things in between.

“After a massive petition by the band’s adoring Aussie fan club, demand was so high that it made it impossible to stop one of Europe’s hottest Goth Rock bands from spreading their wings and flying to Australia! Playing hits from their stellar six-album career and tracks from their up-coming new album, The 69 Eyes are set to scorch the stage and possess the souls of Australia’s ghouls and goblins!”

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Jyrki 69: Greetings, it’s Jyrki from the 69 Eyes, your favourite Helsinki Vampire.

Metal Obsession: Greetings, how are you?

Jyrki 69: I’m great, I’m sorry I’m a little bit late, I’ve been doing all these interviews online at the moment. I couldn’t finish the last one on time. But here we are, what’s going on with your Metal Obsession? How obsessed are you with metal?

Metal Obsession: I love my metal.

Jyrki 69: Are you obsessed with the Vampires as well?

Metal Obsession: Sort of. It depends on what type of vampires. Are you looking forward to the Australian tour?

Jyrki 69: Yeah, absolutely. The 69 Eyes has existed two decades and I think that ever since the early days, we have received fan mail from Australia and in those days, it was like snail mail. I remember there was like some small glam rock scene there that supported us. There was a band called Voodoo Love Cats, which I remember from some fanzine from the early 90’s, and since then every once in a while we’d receive some message from Down Under, there are some people into The 69 Eyes. But in the last few years because of MySpace, it’s been more visible. We have our own Australian fan pages and our own Australian street teams.

People have been demanding all the time, pretty loudly actually, “why don’t you come Down Under?” but unfortunately it’s not that simple. Sometimes there are schedules to do some other things and of course, there has to be more than just the demand of the fans to go to some countries. I guess they were loud enough and these guys who are organising the tour realised that it would be worth doing. The vampire would not come to your home unless you invite him, so as we are now invited I’m sorry to also say that you’re most likely won’t get rid of us either. We’re happy to enter your country.

Metal Obsession: That’s okay, we don’t want you to leave.

Jyrki 69: Okay, cheers!

Metal Obsession: Speaking of the strong underground following The 69 Eyes has had in Australia, and you’re also one of many bands that are touring our shores in the next few months. There are probably many people out there who have only just heard of The 69 Eyes, can you give a brief background on how the band started?

Jyrki 69: Like I already mentioned, The 69 Eyes have been playing for 20 years this year. It seems like a long time, but it doesn’t feel like it. We started in the early 90’s in Helsinki. We were mainly influenced by Glam rock and Gothic rock. I think it took ten years for us to develop the actual 69 Eyes sound as you know it now. How to make it obvious that the band is influenced by these extremes, like New York Dolls and The Sisters of Mercy at the same time but if you listen to all our records these days it’s obvious but it took some ten years for us to come up with our own sound. As we started back then, we wanted to be the loudest band and the coolest band in Helsinki, then later on we wanted to the coolest and loudest band in Finland, and now two decades later we’ve just recorded our new album in Hollywood, Los Angeles, and it comes out in September. We want it to be the loudest and coolest band in the world.

Metal Obsession: Do you think you’ll be louder than Manowar?

Jyrki 69: It’s not that kind of loudness. It’s more like body language.

Metal Obsession: Who came up with the band name The 69 Eyes?

Jyrki 69: In the early days of the band, it was based on the theme that five guys would just hang out in the same rock clubs, the same bars, and it would eventually turn out that these guys could play instruments and form a band. It was based on friendship, and when we formed the band of course there had to be a name. I was the guy who made the flyers and I thought “The 69 Eyes” would look pretty cool and exciting on flyers and posters up on the streets of Helsinki.

It’s the same story with every band, you have to come up with a name fast. You think it was just a temporary name, on the other hand, it’s like a perfect name. It depends on how dirty your mind is, you can come up with a different conclusion as to what the name means. It can be like a sleazy porno movie or it can be like a science fiction movie with a strange 69-eyed monster, it can have different connotations. It sounds good and it has been a symbol for Vampire rock’n’roll for the last 20 years.

Metal Obsession: As you mentioned before, you have an album due to be released in September this year. How is the progress with it?

Jyrki 69: We’re putting the finishing touches on it. It’s still being mixed and mastered, I think it was exactly a month ago when I sang the last note for the record. We finished recording it less than a month ago. We did the record in Los Angeles, produced by Matt Hyde. For the last ten years, we have been working with the same producer, called Johnny Lee Michaels, here in Helsinki.

We came up to the idea it’s time to update our sound. Johnny Lee Michaels being our producer for that long updated our sound a lot. He was the guy who came up with us to develop the modern 69 Eyes sound. It was time to move forward again so we came up to the idea to update our sound once again and we got Matt Hyde, that he could be the perfect guy for it. Matt Hyde has been producing for bands like Slayer and Monster Magnet and his background is based on the classic rock sound, like AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Steppenwolf and bands like that.  On the other hand, he also really loves and understands Gothic rock.

He was perfect and wanted us to ROCK more than ever, and he wanted us to make our sound more aggressive and more in-your-face. The new record is going to be really tight, less elements like keyboards and orchestrations or backing vocal choirs like we had before. It’s a more in-your-face, dirty, goth’n’roll album. It’s really powerful. I’m super stoked for the record. I can’t wait for the fans to hear it. The most important thing for me is the feedback from the die-hard 69 Eyes fans. We’re doing this for them, and they woke us up as well. We did this record Blessed Be, which is considered the classic 69 Eyes album by fans, and we even released a box set called Goth’n’Roll, which was based on the recordings on Blessed Be. During the last five years, the die-hard fans have been writing or mentioning now and then that Blessed Be is the classic 69 Eyes record, and that is something that Matt Hyde came up with. He said, “That’s your best album and that’s the one the fans love, we have to have that kind of vibe. Bring those shadows back, have that excitement and have those vibes in your music.” Thanks to the fans to wake us up to remind us of that, I think that our upcoming record is definitely the best record we’ve ever done.

The coolest factor of it is that this year, this September the band is 20 years old. You won’t care about that when you hear the record. When the record is released, it won’t be advertised like “Hey, 20 years and still going strong”. That’s fucking lame. We’re not like Def Leppard or something like that.  We are The 69 Eyes, every day is the same day. With this new album, it’s going to be an amazing record.

Metal Obsession: Does it have a title yet?

Jyrki 69: Yes. Thanks for asking. I haven’t actually been revealing it anywhere yet, but I said that to some other person when I was doing a couple of interviews for Australia, so I think it would be pretty interesting to drop out here, so the album will be called “Back In Blood”.

Metal Obsession: Nice. Very vampire-ish.

Jyrki 69: The whole record is, I don’t know how to explain it, but we’ve been writing the songs for the last year, but all of a sudden like I sang the lyrics and sang demos for all over five songs, then I realized, half these songs are somehow about vampire mythology or flirting with these undead things, and vampire things. I thought, “Hmm… what should I do here? Should these be vampire songs just hauntings or should then suddenly all these songs were circling the vampire realm.

The whole album ended up being all about vampires. I don’t know where it came from, I’m not such a big vampire fan in that way, I was surprised where this idea came from but I realized that I have whole records full of vampire stuff. I think it’s good, I think nobody does it like that any more, or ever done it like that. It’s pure vampire rock, but come on, we are the Helsinki Vampires, so who else?

Metal Obsession: I have heard that you will be doing a music video with Bam Margera for the first single of the new album?

Jyrki 69: Wow, where did you hear that? That’s true. You are right. I just got the treatment for the video a few hours ago to my e-mail and I’m so excited about it. We’ve done our last three videos in Hollywood and we did the video for Lost Boys, which was inspired by the movie. I was pissed off because the actual Lost Boys movie didn’t have a theme song.

It had great music, but it didn’t have a theme song. If you remember the days when the Lost Boys came out, it was around 1987 when it was released and that was the time when Guns’N’Roses came out, and Mötley Crüe was at their best and Billy Idol was like the fucking King, and then out comes a movie about rock’n’roll vampires. The movie doesn’t have that music! Where was this exciting rock’n’roll? So, we just rolled out this imaginary title track for the movie The Lost Boys. We did a video for that with Bam, and it was like a re-make of the movie, like a mini-movie in itself. We really paid tribute to the original Lost Boys movie.

If you have seen the video, we’re doing exactly the same things, like hanging from the bridge, and eating rice or worms or something like that and riding motorbikes on a California pier. It was great, and probably one of the best videos we’ve ever done and it was the most fun to do. Bam is a dear friend of ours too. After all these years, we always talk, “let’s do another video”, “Hey, when are we going to do the next video with you?” It was a nice break but now it’s time to do another video with Bam, it’s been about five years since we did The Lost Boys with him. I love these things when I got the treatment for the video and it starts like this: we rented a castle from upstate New York.

How cool is that? It’s not like, we have the old factory building and you’re going to play there. We rented a castle and you can play there. Once again, it’s going to be like a mini-movie, it’s going to be great and if you think that you’re going to rent a castle and a band is going to be there, it has to be a vampire rock video, so there’s going to be a lot of vampires. We will film it just before we come to Australia.

Metal Obsession: You previously mentioned your album Blessed Be, is that a reference to the Wiccan greeting?

Jyrki 69: I don’t think anyone has ever asked about that. In one way or another, I can’t explain where all these things come from, sometimes with some songs, I write about something, and then later on someone comes up like “thank you, this came straight out of my life, this and this happened exactly as in this song”, and I’m like “thank you” and later I on I didn’t even know where it came from when I was writing it. When Blessed Be is like a gothic rock. If you think of some Latin countries, Catholic countries, Gothic culture is pretty much also but only flirting with the vampires and spooky things, it’s close to the religious things.

For instance, Dead Can Dance, that music is close to church music also. Gothic for me is also like First of all Gothic means that you see the world through Gothic sunglasses, you see many things which can be macabre or a little bit disturbing for people who do not understand Gothic culture. You see them through Gothic sunglasses and you can respect them through that. You can also turn your daily miseries into nice Gothic enjoyment. If it’s raining heavily, it’s great wild Gothic weather. Also religious things, religion itself is really related for the aspects, and visuals of the Gothic culture.  Blessed Be is Wiccan but it can also be like a Christian religious thing. It’s somewhere flirting with both, there is no one explanation.

I want to save my ass every time when I’m writing a song about the undead, dead or something like that especially when the new record is going to have a lot of stuff like that. I never sang about anything straight, like a dying person, or a rotting corpse, or something like that, real things. It’s always had this Halloween aspect. More or less goes with horror and Gothic culture. We’re not like these dark rock or gothic metal bands that write about people hanging themselves and killing themselves and things like that. Blessed Be I’m aware of, I’m referring to, I’ve been around, I know many things. I have the black flame burning of course, but I have other colours burning as well.

Metal Obsession: Is it true that you are a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for Finland?

Jyrki 69: Yes, I am goodwill ambassador of Finland for UNICEF, I’ve been there for four years now. It’s a great chance to do something else, and the coolest thing about it is especially in the interviews, like this, with Megan from Metal Obsession,  always the last question has been about UNICEF.

The message about UNICEF and you know maybe raises an eyebrow there among them who are reading this, and they will surf and search out what it is about, and then they can contribute and also like, think of what is going on in this world, I am fortunate enough to have a video treatment from Bam Margera to my e-mail, and read out that we are renting a castle and I am going to do a video, so of course I am fortunate enough to have a chance to try to help other people as well. I am fortunate enough that people listen to me. Somebody is interested in what I am doing, somebody is interested in what my favourite vampire movie is, that same person will be interested in my other activities. If I am involved in UNICEF, if I am the spokesperson to help other people out, our planet, why not have some energy for that as well? It’s not that hard. And to be goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, for me, it’s more like I’m a messenger.

I tell what I have seen, those are simple things, everybody can contribute to UNICEF, for instance, to surf to their webpage, and they will find out what they can do. Also to be involved with humanitarian activities for me, I’ve seen it also like in this my idea is also to help the planet. The truth is so long as the children are educated and healthy, Mother Earth will also feel better. Education and health for kids also makes people more aware of the environment, and maybe through that we will get once again get closer to the solution for the world’s environmental problems, and in the Third World that which are the biggest source of nature and all these things, and when the kids are educated and feeling good, then Mother Earth will feel good as well.

Metal Obsession: How did you become Finland’s goodwill ambassador for UNICEF?

Jyrki 69: I think it was a smart choice from them, they just wanted some edgy character to get more attention of the young people, and I am very happy that they ended up picking me for that.  I’ve always been saying that in that sense, it raises a question, “how come this big guy who entitles himself as a vampire rocker can be representing a humanitarian organisation?” it’s been great, and like I said, every interview from Metal Obsession to Brazilian Satan Rock Magazine, every time the last question is about UNICEF.

That’s how me being a UNICEF ambassador works at its best. There’s always like young girls who are very interested in what I’m doing and then they read and learn about UNICEF and then they can have a school project about it. It makes people aware. The coolest thing is to participate. I’m proud of that and I’m doing my best. Who are the Australian goodwill ambassadors? There’s like Nicole Kidman, Paul Hogan?

[A search on UNICEF’s official website revealed Australia’s goodwill ambassadors for UNICEF include artist Ken Done, actor Geoffrey Rush, TV presenter Tara Moss, comedy duo Greig Pickhaver and John Doyle (aka Roy Slaven & HG Nelson), The Wiggles, Erica Packer (model/singer) and Dr Fiona Stanley, Childhood Development Expert and Academic.]

Jyrki 69: Any rockers?

Metal Obsession: I know Angry Anderson from Rose Tattoo has done a lot of charity work here in Australia.

Jyrki 69: Oh yes, he’s working with kids. Okay, even from that example, the coolest rockers also have the biggest hearts.

Metal Obsession: Indeed they do.

Jyrki 69: Every time someone is involved with that, it makes that person more interesting in my books. And especially in the case of Angry Anderson, after reading that, I thought that was super cool. He’s done Mad Max, and he’s done all these great records and he’s doing all this good stuff. That makes him a bigger hero in my books.

Metal Obsession: Lately there has been quite a few good rock and metal bands coming from Finland. Are there any other Finnish bands that you are currently listening to?

Jyrki 69: Of course. You’re probably also talking about HIM, and I always been saying if you know Hanoi Rocks from a historical perspective, the 69 Eyes have always been the missing link between Hanoi Rocks and HIM. We are very inspired by glam rock and gothic rock. Hanoi Rocks is the major influence for The 69 Eyes from the start, and HIM is another super great band.

When HIM started, Ville Valo was also pre-producing our record called Wasting The Dawn, so he brought a lot of fresh ideas for The 69 Eyes like ten years ago, when our goth’n’roll sound was developed. He is involved with the 69 Eyes and I am a fan of HIM as well. From other stuff, Children of Bodom, they are our friends and I really like that band as well. They are one of my favourite Finnish metal bands. There is a lot of good stuff coming out from Finland, Apocalyptica is something, they are doing something special. During the last ten years, there has been a creative environment and there has been a creative spirit for us all.

All these bands that I mentioned, we all rehearse in the same studio. So there’s bands like Amorphis, Children of Bodom, The Rasmus and other bands like that. Let’s say five years ago, Helsinki was the rock and metal capital of the world a little bit the same way like Seattle and Hollywood was like back in their day, there was this really cool creative vibe and all these cool bands came out from here. It just continues and especially now it’s summer here, it can be really seen that there’s more and more rock tourists coming to Helsinki. There are all these black-dressed kids from all over the world walking around the streets and going to the clubs and catch a glimpse of Hanoi Rocks guys or us on the streets, it’s exciting still.

Metal Obsession: Have you had a chance to check out the Australian support acts that will be playing with The 69 Eyes for the tour?

Jyrki 69: There’s going to be supporting bands? I didn’t know that. That is cool. We’ve been getting fan mail from Australia from the very beginning of The 69 Eyes.

Back in those days, there was a band called The Voodoo Love Cats. We were also influenced by Australian rock bands, I think the coolest rock bands came from Australia in the mid-80’s, I’m not talking about AC/DC or Rose Tattoo, but there was all these really cool bands  like The Lime Spiders, The Hoodoo Gurus, Radio Birdman, Screaming Tribesmen, Celibate Rifles, Beasts of Bourbon, all these bands were like the coolest ever and I think their prime time was just before Guns N Roses came out from Hollywood, and then the coolest bands started coming from New York and Hollywood in the late 80’s but in the mid-80’s the all-time coolest bands came from Australia and we played shows with The Hard-Ons in the early days, and we were covering some of their tunes, and The Lime Spiders were a really big influence for us.

If we had some spare time [during the Australian tour], I will be running into some record store and be buying some classic Australian rock as souvenirs. This Australian rock scene, these bands, they really had a big influence on us, of course AC/DC, Rose Tattoo and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds. I don’t know if any of the kids know about these bands any more but they are remembered here in Europe.

Metal Obsession: Is there any last comments you want to say to the Australian fans?

Jyrki 69: Don’t forget to wear your sunglasses and don’t bring any garlic to the show. The 69 Eyes are coming to Australia, and it’s going to be a beautiful kiss of the vampire that we’re going to have.

Metal Obsession: Thank you for taking the time for doing this interview.

Jyrki 69: No problem Megan. Stay obsessed with metal, stay obsessed with the Helsinki Vampires.

Metal Obsession: No problem, I’ll even wear my best vampire outfit, how does that sound?

Jyrki 69: That sounds good. See you soon.

Band: The 69 Eyes
Date: 05/06/2009
Origin: Helsinki, Finland
www.myspace.com/theofficial69eyes

Interviewer: Megan Masters
Interviewee: Jyrki 69 (Vocals)

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Make sure to check 69 Eyes out on their upcoming Australian tour.

THE 69 EYES – Australian Tour, June 2009
Thursday June 18 – The Hi-Fi, Melbourne
Friday June 19 -The Hi-Fi, Brisbane
Saturday June 20 – The Forum, Sydney

Tickets are selling fast! Don’t miss out!

Official website: www.69eyes.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/theofficial69eyes
UNICEF official website: www.unicef.org
UNICEF Australia official website: www.unicef.com.au