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THE 69 EYES
Köln 2005

(Photo by Petteri Laakso)

“Lost Boys”

Suiciderock: For the new album “Devils” you worked together with Johnny Lee Michaels and Hiili Hiilesmaa. Can you tell us a bit about your time in the studio?
Jussi: It was so much fun. We produced with Johnny Lee Michaels and when it comes to keyboards and that kind of stuff, Johnny Lee Michaels is really a genius. We wanted him to concentrate on that only, and have Hiili Hiilesmaa to concentrate on recording and mixing. He really paid his dues with great albums of HIM and all that. It was pretty cool with this two guys.

Suiciderock: Did you have any special influences for the new album?
Jussi: Quite a lot. Like when we were writing the songs, Jyrki was in Africa for a month and he came up with a lot of ideas for the lyrics from there. But musicwhise quite a lot too. You can hear some percussions and stuff like that. Feel Berlin is pretty obvious. We wanted to rock out with this album again, be kind of ..... äh ..... because the album before, Paris Kills, was bit more pop and we wanted to have that album with lots of keyboards and pretty 80s sounding. Sound at the album this time we wanted to have the sweat and the blood on the songs again, and be more noisy and organic.
Bazie: We just wanted the songs sounding more , not that we had a limit at Paris Kills, but we wanted it to rock, so we didn’t think about it as a concept.

Suiciderock: How long did you work on the new album?
Bazie: We started writing songs in 2003 and we started recording last march, so...
Jussi: We recorded in two periods.
Bazie: ... so it was ready in September. We didn’t work on it every day, because we did festivals and stuff. From the first written song to the finished album it took over a year.

Suiciderock: Do you think that your lyrics adapt to changes of Jyrkis character?
Jussi: It’s something like 50/50. Some songs are very personal, so like with this album he has really personal lyrics on couple of songs, and at the same time there are songs like the “Lost Boys” for example, which is like ..... äh ..... well you know what it’s all about. Not that personal.

Suiciderock: You have filmed the clip for your brand new single Lost Boys during the Christmas week in Philadelphia and Hollywood with Bam Margera as director. Is there a special story behind the song and what was the shooting of the clip like for you?
Jussi: Yeah. Have you seen the movie? If you haven’t seen it, you should. I mean you have to see the movie, it’s a classic rock ´n´ roll vampire movie and it happened to be one of Bams favourite movies, too. So we did a couple of scenes which are exactly the same as in the movie, like hanging from a bridge and driving motorcycles and stuff like that, and everything else is nothing but having fun and getting wasted in Hollywood. And of course there is actually a scene where we perform the song in the same kind of cave as the guys in the movie live in. So that’s basically it.

Suiciderock: How did it come that Bam directed the video?
Jussi: We were talking about it with Bam for more than two years now, and the last year and a half we were talking about the song “Lost Boys” and that we really need to do a video with that. And actually it was Bam who wanted to do that video, and of course we were excited about the idea. We are really happy that it finally worked out, and it ended up being a great video. Best he’s done, best video we have done. I think it’s the best rock ´n´ roll video since ´89.

Suiciderock: What was the most beautiful experience regarding your time with the 69eyes?
Jussi: It must have been when I had the first album in my hands like a real thing. Then it was like ... WOW, we recorded a real album. That was miraculous.
Bazie: I think it comes with every period of time about what we have done, when we reached gold, these moments and when it is what we´ve been expecting. So it’s good to have many of them, not just one.
Jussi: Whatever you do, first time is always the coolest. The first gold record you get, the first time you hear your song on the radio. Of course it’s cool that we get radio airplay and gold albums, but first time is always coolest.

Suiciderock: When did you realise that you want to become a musician and what inspired you to become a musician?
Jussi: I was so young, but I kind of knew it since I’ve been a small kid. And why? I don’t know. There’s something really magical about it . As long as I can remember while being a kid when I saw a band on TV playing it was like “man, this is something I’m going to do”. I knew it for sure. And I don’t know why I wanted to be a drummer but I knew that too since I was eight years old.
Bazie: I think I knew it first when I was 14. We had this school band and it was the first gig. It was so magical so I knew this is what I’m going to do, what I want to do.

Suiciderock: What kind of musical background did you have while growing up?
Jussi: HANOI ROCKS!!!
Bazie: Well it was more Punk Rock, Hardcore Punk Rock what I was listening to. That is basically were I started.
Jussi: I have two older brothers and they are quite a lot older than I am, so ever since I can remember I was surrounded by lot of music and they had a huge record collection. So when I was in the age that my friends were buying their first KISS album or whatever, my older brothers had like 1000 of these albums already. They were listening to all the stuff from Ramones and so on and I appreciated that. I am pretty lucky to have those brothers.

Suiciderock: If you could work with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?
Jussi: I don’t know. I would make a solo single with Johnny Lee with two drums on the song.

Suiciderock: What are you doing on the tourbus while driving long distances?
Jussi: Well during the daytime we sleep until dark.
Bazie: Sleep!!!
Jussi: I mean really, it’s sleeping or it’s drinking. Like after the last show I´ll drive back home is around five days so I can’t sleep five days straight and I probably gonna have a beer or two.

Suiciderock: What are your plans for this year?
Jussi: Personally I would be very fucking disappointed if we wouldn’t tour all year straight. And I mean this is our strongest album ever and we wanna go to as many places as possible. I love touring, I love playing gigs. The album is so fresh, it is not even released in some countries yet. So there are many places to go.

Suiciderock: What does success mean to you?
Jussi: For me success means I don’t have to put up my drumset before the gig and I don’t have to carry it to the tourbus after the gig. That’s about it. Nothing else is changing. We get bigger busses and they are not freezing anymore.
Bazie: I think for me it’s like that I can do what I want to do, and don’t have to do any other jobs and I can concentrate on what I like.

Suiciderock: Is rock ´n´ Roll a perfect drug?
Jussi: Yes it is. It is. It fucks you up too, it leads to death.

Suiciderock: Ok, that’s it.
Jussi: Ok, thank you.
Bazie: Thanks.