69 EYES
"So I saw Cradle Of Filth about 32 times live"
(Interview mit Jyrki, 2007)
Hi
Jyrki. Do you always get the same questions in interviews? Is that boring?
It's not boring. The questions
vary. Every person or every nation has a different way to approach things. So
that's also really interesting for me to see why the peple concentrate on this
or that. The details are different.
Ok,
then let's start. From DEVILS to ANGELS - are you more decent people now? Or why
did you entitle the new album ANGELS?
No way - even worse! I thought it would be cool to have some continuance in record after record. When I had the idea of DEVILS I simultaneously thought - Hey, the next work should be called ANGELS. And we can do whatever we want, so why not? Both albums have similar themes and start with the title track. We have our die-hard fans in mind when we create songs. We want to keep them happy and keep their interest on. On the other hand we're doing this for ourselves. Somebody said "Angels are slutty little sisters of devils". It was a funny description and it's kind of funny to work like that! There's another thing: ANGELS is much more darker in many ways and more Rock'n'Roll - it just happened that way. You can think of a million things when you start a new record. At the end the result is not exactly what you were dreaming of or trying to approach. We wanted to have faster songs and moody, dark romantic stuff. I think, DEVILS and ANGELS form a pair and they are really cool records.
What's
the feeling to go on tour with a new album?
It's still exciting because ANGELS is so new and it's the third time today we'll play the new songs live. Last week we played them in Russia for the first time ever. I still have to concentrate even a bit. But the most interesting thing is to see how the people react. Normally we've released a record and waited a month, then we've done a Finnish tour. After that we've come to central Europe. At this time the album has been two or three months old or even older. Now ANGELS is only two weeks old. So it's not guaranteed that the people even had heard the songs. So it's exciting to see what happens. An interesting thing as we played last week in Russia was that the album should be releaed there two weeks after - but everybody had heard all the songs already (Jyrki laughs) and they were singing along! Maybe some people who expected dark romantic and poetic songs were a little bit shocked that this new record is more like slapping your face with Rock'n'Roll. But it's on purpose! And I trust those persons that they will get the idea. I'm a fan of CRADLE OF FILTH and I listened to Pornography maybe two or three time before we went on North America tour together. So I saw Cradle Of Filth about 32 times live. After that I listend to the record again and now it sounds so different to me. What I mean is that the songs started to live their own lives.
Do
you like people with a perfekt skin? What's behind that song?
I don't know what kind of man I would be if I'd say no! I would be like a scary person. Perfect skin: this expresses the symptoms of the times we're living in. There's so much American reality TV, half reality TV and programs of how to get perfect skin. Every time you turn on the TV there is something about it. There are so many entertaiment shows and you always know what Hollywood celebrities are doing. That has truely gone out of hand. These persons are no longer doing movies, they're more know from their late night activities or whom are they going out with or dating. And those are the perfect people in a certain way. But the world is happy that they are way from perfect in normal life. So why is it such an important factor, how to get perfect skin? I like people with a perfect skin but I try to scare out people like Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson, get them out from their hiding places. Perfect Skin - It's just one of the songs which is supposed to be played on the radio and become a big summer hit. Like a pop-rock song with a little bit evil twist or at least a devils grin.
Why
did you put that blonde woman onto the cover of the Single Perfect Skin?
It's the same woman on the single than on the album cover. I have always been fascinated about the idea what happend to the apocalypse and things after war - the Mad Max kind of thing, which was one of the most influential themes in the 80ies. So where did it go? It's like "Hey, let's resurrect that a little bit". I was thinking about the most apocalyptic image I can come up with. These are not flames and snakes and all that stuff, no way! Much more interesting are the faces of apocalypse. Hollywood has always been like Babylon or a Babylonian place. And the face of Hollywood or the symbol of Hollywood has alway been a platinum blond woman with that big figure, you know what I mean. This is also a symbol of the decadence of Hollywood. So we thought it would be funny to have her on the cover. And what has always been a big question? Who killed Marilyn? Hollywood loves their blondes dead. It's a cracy thing, isn't it? When we were touring in North America, Miss Anne Nicole Smith died. Once again another dead blond Hollywood woman. Then Britney Spears shaved her head bald and wrote 666 on her forehead. And she was running around and shouting "I'm the antichrist". These are strange things which happen quite often, I think. So these blond people are the angels from the ANGELS CD. They may have black wings and are badly burned and are falling down. It's all like endless Rock'n'Roll.
On the other hand we did that because we had that song GOTHIC GIRL and we had always been flirting with the Gothic image. So we have to pay our respect to the Gothic people but they also have to be punished a little bit. They sometimes try to ruin the Gothic culture for me to enjoy. That went to the point that some kids came to us and asked "Do you mind if I talk to you even I don't have black hair and don't wear black clothes?". And what can you answer? Of course I don't mind that, really. They may have read an interview where I told that I like girls with black hair, lace-up shoes and skirts and so on. So what? Sometimes I get nerved a little bit by that and I wanted to irritate people and make them see someting else by putting a blonde woman onto that cover. Just to see all their angry internet comments like "OH MY GOD, I don't like this band anymore" (HA HA HA). And tell me how boring it would have been to put a flower and a black velvet and a stuffed crow onto the cover?
One
of your former album is called PARIS KILLS, and now you're singing about Los
Angeles. Are you getting inspired by cities?
Yeah, and on one of the previous albums there was the song FEEL BERLIN. Surprisingly there are similar things going on all the time. It's me who writes the songs and of course I get ideas from everywhere but I don't know exactly where they come from. But I don't think I should write about puking Pratteln for the next album (HA HA)! When you look at the Ramones, The Cramps or AC/DC, to name a few, there are the same things over and over again and repeating themes. I love The Stooges and The Doors also. It's more a mantra kind of thing how they and The Ramones are writing their lyrics. I'm annoyed if someone thinks "Oh, he ran out of ideas" when I think it's clever to reach a minimalistic way of expression. The Song A ROCKER is one of the funniest things I've ever done and I like that kind of things. It's not a KATATONIA album, it's a different way to approach things.
If
you were asked to write a song for a movie, which stage Director would you
prefer and which actors should have the leading roles?
I really love what Cameron Crow is doing and I like all his movies. Actors... well the actors are not doing movies any more. They are adopting children, travel around the world and have secret dates. So it should be a movie with Cameron Crowe but the actors should be some hardblood guys like Kiefer Sutherland and Mel Gibson. And maybe Jessica Biel.
There
are so many good Finnish Rock/Gothic/Metal bands who push their way to the
international market. How do you judge this development?
Our country is in a way divided from the rest of the world. Finland is on the verge of Europe in many ways. That also means that not so many foreign bands came there. Only the biggest rock bands or rock artists came to play there all the years. That my be a reason why we developed such a strong musical taste and understanding for hardrock and melodic rock. The rest of the world has left us alone for such a long time so we had all this time to develop our own special sound and our way of approaching music. The trends never reached Finland that much. They passed. What's left is one of the things that never change: the way of creating music.
That's
an interesting answer because I had asked this question other Finnish musicians
and they all said...
...it's because of the dark and long winters, and alcohol and suicidal thoughts, and boring stuff like that? Well, I also said those things 1998 but 10 years later I can see more trees in the forest. But Finland is one of the few countries where a new AC/DC album goes number one, or where the Helsinki Olympic Stadion was sold out within ten minutes via internet for Metallica tíckets. You couldn't get the tickets otherwise, only via internet. And that doesn't happen in so many places!
(Interview by Kassandra)