INTERVIEW WITH JUSSI69
FOR CROATIAN THE 69 EYES HOMEPAGE

Croatia, Zagreb, Boogaloo, 24.01.2010

Interview: Ivy
Photo: Vedran Levi

24th January 2010, Croatia, Zagreb, Boogaloo Club. The first ever non-festival The 69 Eyes show in Croatia.  And first ever interview Jussi did for Croatian The 69 Eyes batcave. Check it below what we were talking about!

IVY:  I'd like to begin this interview, since this is the first time in almost eight years we talk for the Croatian The 69 Eyes fan page, with reference to the past. So, in your early years, what attracted you to music in a first place? And then, what attracted you to drums?
JUSSI:  There is nothing more exisitng then the rock’n’roll adventure. I mean, not even being a pirate. It tasted, it smelled and felt dangerous and exciting and it was everything I was expecting it would be, the whole rock’n’roll adventure. That’s the answer in short. I never had to think about what I wanna do when I grow up or if I’m into sports or I’m into what so ever. It was always super clear to me that I would end up playing the drums in the rock’n’roll band and it’s weird. I mean, it was such clear in such early age and I never hesitated and I felt natural. And why drums? I think because you can make biggest noise with the drums and I’m that kind of a character, I’m kinda physical with everything I do so it’s… I mean, it is supernatural that I always knew that I wanna bang my drums super loud.  That’s it.

IVY: How old you were when you discovered the drums and got interested for the instrument?
JUSSI: I think I was at the third grade when I was begging our teachers to let me into the music classroom to play the drums in our school and I ended up playing there between every hour, you know, during 15 minutes breaks. I was banging the drums in there and from then on all the music I was listening to or watching on TV I was always checking the drummer or listening what is drummer doing and, like I said, it was supernatural to me… I always thought that Tommy Lee is the coolest guy in the band and that’s what I wanted to do. It’s weird. I mean, so many people try out with the guitars, bass, the drums or singing, whatever but I never wanted to try out. I do play guitar at home and I handle my AC/DC riffs pretty well but I never wanted to be a guitar player.

IVY:  Ok, that’s cool and interesting.  But tell me, did you have any formal education or you are completely self-taught?
JUSSI: No. I actually light my way into the first school band. I told to the band that I’m actually better then their drummer. I didn’t have the drum kit. And all of sudden they said: ‘Ok, let’s try out with you’. And I was like a bit nervous: ‘Oh, shit, now I really should know what to do’. For some reason I managed to get that drummer kicked out of the band and I got the job. And that was the school band when I was pretty fucking young.

IVY: I need to ask you to tell us a bit about you joining The 69 Eyes as you were the last one who joined the band. What was the reason to join the band at time when the guy who supposed to be the drummer has left the band?
JUSSI: I actually saw the band couple of times; I played with my previous band with them. I thought that was the most exciting, the most dangerous band I’ve seen like ever. I mean, they were all dressed in black and they had really big fat leathers on dangerous and exciting. I mean, none of the rock bands, especially in Finland, were that exciting as they were. And they had that big “Fuck you!” attitude on the stage what is all about. And, I guess, first drummer wasn’t that dedicated to the whole band thing so that’s why they needed to change the drummer and… the band I was in that time, the guys were so much older then I was and that wasn’t really my thing so I felt like at home right on that spot.

IVY: When you spend so much time with somebody (and we’re now taking about two decades) on, sometimes it seems endless tours, what compromises are necessary to make for the successful co-existence and how you all manage to deal with each other’s advantages and disadvantages (because it is more than obvious you’re all totally different but in the same time you seem like an inseparable entitles)?
JUSSI: Compromises are I think about missing friends, birthdays and….We share so many things through this time. Girlfriends come and go and the only thing that is always there is the band. So, I mean, we had family members dying and a big sad things and big happy things but that’s what everybody has in life and we… it’s always been us five who shared all those moments and been there for each other. So… it’s pretty hard to explain… Some people compare being in the band with being in the marriage but fuck that! In this case you have four wives and in this case, I mean, you say good morning to your wife and go to your day job and see her when you come home and go to sleep. We do our job, we sleep, we do everything together, 24/7 for 20 years and it’s five of us so I think this comparison is lame. But it’s been one amazing ride.

IVY: As a drummer, what can you tell about the process of making your albums? How it looks like when The 69 Eyes are in the studio?
JUSSI:  With the last album we actually concentrated more then I guess ever before on the drum tracks and we really pointing out different parts, tiny little things like, let’s say Dead Girls Are Easy, we were following like every word Jyrki is singing and to point it out that the song work and it’s not just like: ‘Ok, I’m gonna do the drum track here’. Now, this time it was really composed carefully way before we event went to the studio. We had our producer Matt Hyde in Finland to do the preproduction months before we were in the US to record this album. So it was really carefully composed and what I’m really happy of it’s more diverse on the new album. I mean, we had some albums with drum tracks that are pretty close to each other song after song and now this time there is like lot of stuff is going on and that makes every song a bit different from the other.

IVY: When we talk about  “Back In Blood” I have to say that the both, fans and critics agree that this is one of your best albums.
JUSSI: Thank you!
IVY: Also, people says that now your music metamorphosed into a very own style. Also, some of them points out that is because of the producer Matt Hyde. How much, actually, Matt Hyde created the sound on this album, and how much The 69 Eyes?
JUSSI: Well the thing is… we’re super happy with “Devils” and “Angels”. I’m super happy with the album, both of them. But in my head they kind of sounded sound wise and song wise like too much as the same kind of stuff and I’m still happy with the way they’re sounding but we didn’t want to make the third one with the same team and same kind of formula just to keep things fresh for ourselves and, of course, everybody who is buying the records or listen to The 69 Eyes. We wanted to keep the things fresh and we decided that way before we went to the studio that we wanna write faster songs, different kind of songs and we want to exam The 69 Eyes like everything what’s being great in our music and band and really cherish those great things. And that decision was way before Matt Hyde was in the picture. But Matt Hyde was also hired because of being part of that process to get the new, fresh ideas out from the band and all that because of what we wanted to change the team. And it turned out that he was the best choice that we could have ever done. He was really into… he was listening all our albums, from the first to the last and really examine to what is in his head are the best parts of The 69 Eyes and he was really concentrated and really encouraging us to concentrate being vampires, being dark hard rock band we are.

IVY: Considering that you are, as a personality, very lively what drove you to start playing this type of music often described as gloomy and the dark scenario in the first place?
JUSSI: In my head, when we talk about dark and Goth music, for me it is a bit different from what it is for so many other Goth people. For me Goth music is The Misfits and Lords Of The New Church which is in the end party time rock’n’roll. You have beers, you sing along, you go to parties but it’s still super dark and they sing about dead zombies walking around and wearing black and skeletons are all over the place but it’s still fun at the same time so it’s not just about telling that your heart is broken and you wanna die. But, I mean, we’ve done that kind of stuff too, in the end we are more into that for rock party stuff.

IVY: What is confirming your lively personality are also activities outside the band so we had the opportunity o see you in the reality show with the collie named Rico which was so cool, you took a part in the action Pirates of the Baltic Sea together with Jyrki and Michael Monroe, you had your own radio show and DJ nights…… how you manage all this?
JUSSI: We did all of that in one year and that was when we ended the touring psycho with the “Angels”. I knew already before that I’m gonna be at home more then I have been in 10 years so… I always wanted to have the radio show and I always wanted to have my club nights and I knew that I could do that now. There’s been that TV reality shows asking me whatever, dancing with the stars every month but I don’t want to do it and I wouldn’t have the time to do that. But two shows you mentioned sounded cool and fun so I did it. And it turned out to do it with Michael so why not? When it comes to DJ nights, I had my DJ night last night in Bratislava at aftershow party and it’s fun. I mean, I go to a party and I know music is not gonna suck because it’s me who is playing the music, I get drunk for free and I hang out with my best friends. So it’s pretty cool.

IVY: As we talk for Croatian fan site I need to ask you one question related to fan support. We both know all around the world, especially in Europe, there are people who support your band for years in many different ways, through the form of a web site or buying your albums and attending the shows. How much is that support important for the band (as it’s not easy for bands to keep the same audience through all sound changes in career) and how hard is for you to stay in touch with that “old” fans in the time when your fan base is growing?
JUSSI: We are super blessed and honored and thankful of loyal, hardcore fans who’s been supportive and, like I said, at the same time we always wanna to keep things fresh and I’m super proud of the fact that we never recorded the same album again. We always did something that, I think, that takes a lot of balls to come with like, for example, with Paris Kills at that time we were kind of putted in the same place with all that Goth metal bands from Finland. All of sudden we were compared to bands like Sentenced, Amorphis and they are great bands but in our head we are like: ‘Fuck that! We don’t wanna be in part of any way; we want to be us’. And at that point we want to turn over all the metal guitars, and we wanna have keyboards and we talk about Duran Duran in interviews and doing something totally opposite then the people in record company want us to do. In the end I think that’s biggest advantage we can have and that keeps us one step forward from anybody else who wants to be a part of whatever Gothic Finalnd metal whatever… there is 67 HIM wanna be bands.
IVY: Talking of that, I would never name you as a Gothic metal…..
JUSSI: But we are into that as we had some like super heavy songs but yeah…
IVY: Anyway, I think it’s stupid to label any music and put it into boxes so…
JUSSI: Yeah, I totally get it but…

IVY: In the end, is there something you wanna say to your Croatian fans?
JUSSI: Thank you for the support, thank you for being one of us. Without you I wouldn’t be anywhere.

IVY: Thank you!

The 69 Eyes Croatia thanks to: Jussi69, Halbe Miete Management, Nuclear Blast