The 69 Eyes knows more about American Rock history than you.
Alright, imagine this garbage: you’re walking around at Downtown Disney, a mall-like business district between the California Adventure park and Disneyland itself, and in the midst of the pastels and twins in matching outfits, this 6’4” man in black leather pants and a Billy Idol shirt, complete with an aging leather jacket is walking amongst the crowd, his black hair sticking above the crowd by nearly half a foot. He walks up to me and switches his Disneyland souvenir bag from his right hand to his left and introduces himself as Jyrki, the lead singe of The 69 Eyes. It just continues to be interesting from there.
Racket Jonathan: Why do you play such fast music?
69 Eyes Jyrki: Well, it’s all because of our influences from very old-school rock and roll from the very beginning of rock n roll to the early 80’s rock n roll. All these bands that we like, they have been recycling or creating the same thing over and over again since the days of Elvis, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly and Little Richard from the early days of Rock N Roll. When you’re a youth, there’s a lot of energy, so someone plays ball, someone does something else, someone robs a bank, some kill the energy by smoking crack, someone plays rock and roll, you play the energy out and send it out to the audience, and they send it back to you by their reactions and that creates excitement and that feeling that you probably remember from your first show. You had a funny feeling in your stomach and you couldn’t believe that these people you’ve seen in magazines or in music videos are really there in front of you. Trying to create the magic, combined with the original rock n roll energy that the 69 Eyes has been trying to create for the last eighteen years. We’ve also always been fan boys, I don’t have huge collections in my home, I have my Danzig album signed and my Motorhead album signed, so we have been fans and have been using the band as an excuse to get to play festivals to see our favorite bands or play a show with them.
RJ: Do you think it’s funny to be playing a metal show at the Happiest Place on Earth?
69: I think it’s the right place for the 69 Eyes, for Cradle Of Filth, I mean, I saw some of the guys walking around and was like “Who let the evil in?” But, on the contrary, I think what the 69 Eyes represents is closer to The Nightmare Before Christmas, which is part of the Disney Family. The 69 eyes has never been ultimate evil. Rock n roll itself is evil. It was said to be the devil’s music, the big change happened in American music culture happened when Robert Johnson was selling his soul at the crossroads to a certain devil and then blues started to happen, and after that, Rock N Roll. Rock N Roll should definitely should be the devil’s music and the music that your parents warn you about, but on the other hand, our darkness is more of a 24/7 Halloween party going on.
RJ: Rock music should be the music your parents warn you about, eh?
69: It should be! The ultimate goal of the 69 Eyes is to create the feeling that the people who see us will still get that excitement and funny feeling in their stomach, when we come on the stage, even when there’s no special effects, just five guys playing Rock N Roll with their leather jackets on and on the other hand, the music should have elements of what your parents warn you about. That’s what we learned rock music should be about, especially back in the day. Raw elements of sexuality and dark twists.
RJ: I hear you’re big into science.
69: Yea, actually I am an academic rocker, I have a Masters of Science degree in Analytic Chemistry.
RJ: Huh. Now I feel dumb, so, isn’t it fucking cold in Finland?
69: Yea, well, it’s a freezing country, but as we’ve been doing this tour, we’ve played Edmonton, and Milwaukee, which was soooo freezing. I’ve never felt that kind of cold breeze in Finland.
RJ: The cold sucks.
69: Finland has four seasons, and one of them is winter, but I never felt a cold like the one in Milwaukee. If the winter was like that, I wouldn’t hand around in leather pants and sneakers. It’s European country between East and West and we have a particular cultural background and nowadays, if you are really looking forward to really cool, dark flavored metal music, the best bands today come from Helsinki in Finland. There’s a great scene, a really creative scene and I think the last couple years it’s been a capitol. Hollywood was the ultimate Rock N Roll city n the late 80’s, then there was Seattle, and now Helsinki.
RJ: Speaking of ultimate Rock N Roll, what’s the biggest drug binge you’ve ever seen?
69: We were just in Vancouver and drove to the center of the city, where the venue was, through this long skid row, which was full of crack addicts. I’ve never seen such a miserable sight in my life. I’ve been all over the world, but that’s really like driving through hell. For me, I get drunk once in a while and party, but I don’t understand how human nature drives people to slowly kill themselves in such a way. Such a fucking waste of life. Those people probably have relatives worrying about them and they’re going straight to hell, that’s shocking. I’m no one to talk to about becoming straight edge, but sometimes it’s weird to find people who are so weak that they don’t find their creative sides and they spend all their energy destroying themselves. That’s entirely un-Rock N Roll.
RJ: Is Jack and Coke your favorite drink?
69: Well, it helps maintain my voice, Jagermeister’s good, too. I don’t like cold drinks, and it’s an American custom to put mountains of ice into the drinks, so Jagemeister’s plain, you don’t put anything into it, it’s good. Let’s say Jack and Diet Coke. I don’t drink beer.
RJ: Why sing in English?
69: When we are educated in school, out of 9 years, for 6 years you read and write English and you learn English by watching American TV and listen to rock music. Our county’s pretty much Americanized, in good ways and bad. When I was a teenager, I was a comic freak and a comic nerd, so I was subscribing to Marvel stuff from the States. I was really absorbing everything I could from American pop culture, and that’s what I’m using in creating the 69 Eyes, that’s pretty much the same for how we see things. Also, there’s bands in Finland who do metal, or even rock and pop in Finnish, but I think people have a goal that someone might think they’re interesting outside of our country as well. Finnish bands are doing really well right now and the whole world is watching Helsinki and Finland. There are some bands with some Finnish in their lyrics and titles. During tour, I occasionally throw out thank you in Finnish because a lot of people who want to learn Finnish, which is amazing for me. It’s just one of the hardest languages in the world, it’s not like German or English or French.
RJ: What other languages do you speak?
69: Besides Finnish, Swedish, English, Italian, French and Japanese. I can come along with the European languages OK. Japanese was just a hobby; also, I’ve taken one course in Latin. I’m just hyper and energetic, I want to know everything and I want to be involved in everything. I’m just stupid or brave enough to try everything out.
RJ: Is the hyper-activity the reason you’re not pursuing a career in chemistry?
69: Oh, yea, I think so, well, and being in a rock band has to do with not settling down, having a house, a wife, a dog and a couple of kids. They all go hand in hand. I mean there’s still something in this world I have to find and figure out why I am still looking for something. I want to leave this world as full as possible, and I respect the choices that other people make, but I’m just bound to go. It’s a sad thing, and not a cool thing.
RJ: Do you think that the metal subculture has taken to wearing all black because the gay culture has taken over the rest of the color spectrum?
69: That’s a cool observation, but why do you think one of the coolest Rock N Roll clubs in the world is called the Rainbow Room in Hollywood? That sort of makes a balance.
RJ: Well, I think it’s rude. It used to be a purple triangle represented the homosexual population, well, at least here in California, but now it’s been expanded into rainbows, it’s greedy.
69: That’s a funny observation, but Judas Priest and Queen. The all-black thing goes back to the blues artists who always wore black. And then Johnny Cash, and then the first one to wear all black leather was Gene Vincent from the fifties and then Elvis started wearing all black leather in 1968 in his comeback special. At the same time Jim Morrison was wearing black, then some psychedelic punk rock bands were wearing black. Well, it took a while, but when punk came, everyone was wearing black and it was fashionable to wear black. It was fashion and that stuck and now black is black.
RJ: Do you ever give each other the brain during tour?
69: What’s that?
RJ: Shit, it’s when you grab hold of your sack and stretch it around to make just your nuts are showing and resemble a brain. You then grab your friend’s attention and when you see them look at your balls, you call them on it.
69: Well, sometimes we are pulling each other’s nerves, but that sounds too gay for us. We’ve known each other for 18 years so we have no interest in how we look naked, or it’s probably more interesting to see who gets the attention of interesting-looking people.
RJ: Who would that be?
69: Well, it differs from night to night.
RJ: Hmm, what’s your best cure for a hangover?
69: Well, I know something about pharmacy, I would suggest to eat, or try to remember to put in your pocket or on you pillow, before you go to sleep, eat maybe 400mg, a pill of ibuprofen. Eat that before you go to sleep, you will feel better when you wake up. Then you have a couple Gatorades, take another pill, take a hot bath, watch Back to the Future. Try to eat yogurt and nothing too greasy. On the other hand, when you wake up, grab your favorite Rock N Roll record, call your friends and go out again.
RJ: Perfect.
By Jonathan Yost