Jussi 69 – The 69 Eyes – Interview Exclusive 

Written by Mark Taylor
Sunday, 29 May 2011 05:00

Helsinki Vampires are ready to take over the world with a sleazy blend of post- apocalyptic Rock’n’Roll … and they’re out for YOUR blood, baby. 

So speaks The 69 Eyes official profile on their record label’s website, and if we’re completely honest we couldn’t have put it better ourselves, as that sentence pretty much sums up what the band are about.  So for once we’re not going to try and elaborate on this but simply set the scene for the following interview.  

Picture this. Its April Fools Day and Uber Rock has asked Mark Taylor to step into the uncharted waters of Camden’s Electric Ballroom backstage area to interview Jussi 69 drummer with The 69 Eyes.  This is a band renowned for their vampiric nature, and seldom seen in the light of day. However due to a venue’s early curfew for that nights gig, twilight is still lapping at the windows when the formidable drummer steps out of the shadows and into our reviewer’s presence.

With only his garlic breath and an awesomely loud shirt for protection what follows is an interview Mark will never forget.

Okay we’re here at Camden Electric Ballroom with Jussi 69 drummer with the fantastic 69 Eyes, and I’d just like to start by saying thanks for taking the time to talk with us at Uber Rock. How are you sir? 

I’m totally excited and it fantastic to be here on top of Camden, and it really is amazing that you can look out of the backstage window and see all the classic streets surrounding this great venue.

And of course Camden is quite a Gothic area.

“Oh yeah”, and you know I went to this store and the store owner came up to me and said “its just like the good old days when you guys play here” coz there are so many people with spiky hair and really cool clothes hanging out all around the place you know.  I love this place!!!!

So lets talk about The 69 Eyes, and you are the newest member of the band aren’t you? But you’ve still been in the band for like 20 years.

Oh yeah I’m junior (laughs) its like I’m the new guy like Ronnie Wood is the new guy in the Stones you know (laughing loudly).

So is the stable line up the secret to what makes The 69 Eyes such a successful band?

To be honest with you I cannot name another band, at least from Finland anyway, that has had a line up as long as ours. Outside of that I just name checked the Rolling Stones but after that I can maybe think of U2.  Can you think of any? But to us we’ve never thought of it like that.  We’ve never had fights, and I think the secret is that everybody is hungry for the adventure of being in this band. And we are always very excited about what we are doing, so that’s it really.

So why the name The 69 Eyes?

Umm, true story. Jyrki was hanging out in New York even before The 69 Eyes with his friend tattoo artist and glam rock fanzine guy Gia Jupiter, who came up with the name 69 Eyes and she just thought it would be an amazing name for a rock band.  Mainly because it sounded like a 50’s horror movie and so would look cool on a poster you know, and Jyrki would pick up girls around New York City and tell them he was the singer in The 69 Eyes even before the band existed.  So umm its hats off to Gia Jupiter I guess.

I know you guys have a big Goth following now but you really started off a sleazy glam band sort of like Hanoi Rock.  So were they a big influence on you guys?

Well, I’m the biggest Hanoi Rocks fan in this band, and I’ve told my friends Michael Monroe and Andy McCoy that a million times over, but with The 69 Eyes I think if you look at our picture from any era of our career what you will see is actually some of The Lords Of The New Church, and I would think that they were doing what Hanoi did but with a certain Gothic darkness.  I mean when we go to Germany to do some Goth festivals you get all these hardcore Goths pissed off with us because we are rocking way too hard for them. Too Glam, but we never wanted to be that depressive super Gothic or miserable, we liked the way The Lords Of The New Church captured that vibe you know.  I mean look at The Misfits that was all about the dark skulls and the logo and everything but musically its still simple Punk Rock like (sings “Die, Die, Die, My Darling!”) I mean of course we have a touch of Andrew Eldritch in our music but it is still more of The Misfits in the way that its like Party Punk Rock still.

So was the crossover success of your friend Ville Vallo a part of the reason you think you crossed over?

Ville, the first time we met Ville he was this shy guy in Helsinki who wanted to do backing vocals for us, he was just this really shy guy, and the first time we did it with him our Producer was like “Who the fuck is this guy?” he had such and amazing voice you know.  He was so full of harmony and such a musically talented guy and he kept doing backing vocals for us for something like 5 albums in a row, so it was fun to watch his band getting started, and watch him write a song like ‘Join Me’ that went on to sell something like 2.5 million copies in Germany alone.  So yeah I guess you could say they opened up the way for us, especially in mid Europe, but I wouldn’t really compare us to Ville and H.I.M you know.  I mean I can see why you might ask this question with the bands us coming from Finland but after all we are quite different.  I mean I like H.I.M a lot and I look up to Ville as a person as a singer and a songwriter, but we are very different bands.

And what do you think the future of Gothic Rock has to bring us?

The future of Goth Rock is a Sisters Of Mercy T Shirt or a Misfits T Shirt, I mean there can be something new like a techno or dance vibe but it is really the basic stuff that you play with, and that means a Joy Division T Shirt too. And that the future, I mean its there in the early Eighties and that’s where its supposed to be, and that’s the thing, because if you are into that you don’t try or want to be trendy you just need something that is a bit different that people can smell is a bit different and this is the thing because then you have something more about you than just another wannabe jumping on the bandwagon.

I’m interested to know more about The 69 Eyes approach to making music videos, as you guys tend to treat each one like a mini movie so to speak, and of course you’ve made friends with Bam Margera as result.  Tell us the story behind this.

Well he’s a big fan and the funny thing is back home in Finland there were articles about how stupid the video for ‘Lost Boys’ is, because no one knew what it was all about, they didn’t even realise there was a movie by the same name, and they just didn’t get it at all. But that video was so much fun to make, just getting the chance to remake all these old scenes from the movie was so much fun. I got to meet Bam for the first time at a backstage party with H.I.M and he was telling me how big a fan he was but I didn’t have a clue who he was (laughs) but he has my face tattooed on his arm so I guess that tells you a lot about how big a fan he is.  Andy McCoy was joking with me saying “I wonder if its your face or mine that he looks at when he’s having a piss and who watches him jerking off…so you go figure?” (much laughter)

Speaking of films Jussi what is your favourite film of all time?

Well I have to say ‘Lost Boys’ its such a great film and when I was like 15 years old I tried to make a jacket like one of the characters in the movie, and I happened to wear that jacket the first time I met Jyrki and the first thing he told me later he was thinking was “wow that guy has one cool jacket”.  So full circle after al these years we are still talking about ‘Lost Boys’, the scenes in the movie and the clothes they wear.

And what about when you let fans make videos for you like you did with ‘Kiss Me Undead’?

You know there were loads of entries to that and we couldn’t believe the quality and high standard of them all, but we always get great things back from our fans.

I can’t believe you don’t have any crazy fans though with an image like yours.  You must have had some stalkers in your time Jussi?

Well we did have a 69 Eyes tattoo competition and Kat Von D was the judge to pick out the best one, and man you won’t believe how many tattoos there are.  I mean it’s a great complement for someone to tattoo my face or the band’s logo onto their body.  Yeah you know what?  I wouldn’t do that (laughing)

 

‘Back in Blood’ your latest album got some fantastic reviews, how’s it all been going with the tour in support of it?

 

I love it; the feedback from the people and the fans is that they love it, and these days it doesn’t really matter to look at records sales because no matter how successful you are (scratches his head), I mean I bet even Mick Jagger is wondering “what is going on these day?” But we’re lucky enough to get invited to tour in the U/K and all over the place and we did 26 countries last year and 100 something shows so….

 

And how’s this U.K tour been with Hardcore Superstar and Crashdiet out with you?

 

This package is unbelievable, I’m a huge fan of all the bands on this bill and I couldn’t come up with a cooler package if I wanted to.  If you are into Hard Rock this is the best you can get or

 

But you didn’t manage to make Bristol or Folkestone though why was that?

 

Yeah we didn’t do those shows, and to be honest I still don’t know the full story but you know no one cancels a show for nothing and it was something important Jyrki had to get done back home and he just flew back.  That of course was a bummer but what do you do?

 

What happens after this tour Jussi?  Are you ready for another album?

 

We have so many ideas but we’re going to have to sort out with who we want to record next and where.  And when those two things come together and the team is ready you know then it starts happening really fast.  If you ask our manager he wants us to have a new record out by Christmas but I’ll bet you £200 right now that is not going to happen (laughing), but its going to be fast and Summertime we will know more.

 

Jussi it’s been fantastic talking with you and I’m really looking forward to tonight’s show.  Thanks for talking with Uber Rock.

 

Thank you Mark I’m also really super excited about tonight its going to be a fantastic night I can just sense it. (laughing)

 

You can read the review from that night’s show (courtesy of Mark Taylor who did make it out alive after all) right here and you can also check out the band’s website by clicking the banner below.

 

All that is left for us to do is thank Jaap Waagemaker and Markus Jakob at Nuclear Blast for making this interview happen for us, and lets not forget the tanks to Jussi 69 for scaring the living daylights out of our man Mark Taylor…Thanks guys.