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Interview with Automatic Eye, by Margarita Khartanovich.
We talked to Pete and Heikki from Automatic Eye about how it feels to be a positive pop-rock band in the country of heavy metal and depressed people.
I learnt about Automatic Eye when I was searching for gigs in Tampere. I checked them out on MySpace and was so much pleased with their cheerful and energetic music that I went to see them live in Klubi. The show turned out to be quite interesting, and so I visited another gig in Helsinki and met with the guys backstage at the Virgin Oil club.
Your music is so cheerful. How does it feel to be an optimistic band in such a depressing country like Finland?
Pete: You are right, our music is very positive. You know, we are not melancholic or depressed guys. We want to do something that would inspire people. We are trying to change the opinion that Finland is a country of dark heavy metal – there is also place for pop-rock as well.
Do you mean to say that your songs are not about dying? What about the one called “Die, honey, die”?
Pete: Well, we do have some songs about dying but we use it as a metaphor.
How successful is that to play something positive in Finland?
Pete: The fact is that you are responsible for creating your own success. We play a lot of gigs and we like interacting with our audience – we are really very easy to reach. But the main thing is still good songs and hard work, of course. When we started, we promoted our songs on the Internet like hell, on MySpace and Irc-Galleria where a great number of people got interested in our band.
What is Irc-Galleria?
Heikki: It’s is like a poor version of Facebook where you can upload only pictures but lots of young people use it, and we love this audience. It is a bit difficult to play for them as all Finnish clubs have age limits. Anyway people under 18 are the best audience to perform for – they know the songs and are very responsive.
Pete: So, you see that the Internet is a very useful stuff if you want to promote your music. Nevertheless you should treat it as a starting point and move on to another level which is radio and TV. For example, our single from the second album has been on the radio for eight months already.
Heikki: We hope in summer there will be more radio playtime, we don’t know yet.
Pete: More happy songs for depressed people.
How else can you characterize your music style?
Heikki: I would call it energetic pop-rock. And as for the live shows, we also add some punk-rock elements.
Pete: We want our songs to evoke emotions, feelings, influence moods. Imagine that you wake up after a hard night of heavy drinking and you just feel that you need to listen to this or that song, it is your salvation. Or when you go to the party, you listen to some certain songs to tune yourself to the right mood.
Heikki: And when you come to our gig, and you are sitting in the audience…
Pete: (Laughing) We prefer to see our audience sitting…
Heikki: Haha, yeah, of course. The thing is that people see that we enjoy what we are doing on the stage. And this pleasure is most important!
Do you know if your music is popular anywhere else outside Finland?
Pete: We have a very good fan support in Germany, UK, Russia, Holland, Sweden, Japan.
In Japan even? Well, you do look a bit anime-ish I should say…
Pete: When we went on tour to Japan, I had blond hair actually. This partly explains why they liked us so much there. Now we have planned a tour to Baltic countries, Russia and maybe Belarus.
Not bad for a young band. By the way how did you end up being Automatic Eye?
Pete: I met Heikki in Tampere in 2005. Before that I didn’t write a single song.
Heikki: And after 6 months we recorded our first songs among which there was “Away from Sunshine” that I think to be a great song and our first real big hit.
Are you both writing songs?
Heikki: No, no, Pete is doing that. As for me, I’m just messing around.
Pete: Yeah, messing with the girls and stuff like that (laughing). To be serious, Heikki works a lot at our music, sound and everything.
Heikki: So, when we recorded our demo, we sent it to one magazine called “Soundi”. And that’s how it all started. It was, of course, easy, maybe too easy. But that’s all because of the songs.
And luck!
Heikki: yeah, sure it was luck. Then we signed a contract with a record company that is now sold to Universal Music.
Pete: Our next album will be released by Universal. In this life situation there is nothing to complain. Certainly, there were some difficulties but what happened in the past must stay in the past.
Do you see your future as professional musicians or do you a 'plan B'?
Pete: In the last two years I have been mostly writing songs and playing gigs. Of course, sometimes you need to do something else. I’m also studying at the University. And Heikki is a computer whiz.
Heikki: We hope that our band will turn into something big… but still we remain realistic. And just enjoy things. Music is number one but you must be able to do something else. I’m studying some Computer science.
Pete: What if your band is 30 years old and you are 50? And your drummer, for example, dies and you don’t want to change the band and get another drummer. What are you going to do? That is true that music is of utter importance in our life but one always has to be realistic. We love what we are doing now and we just try to enjoy it. Life is short, so, why worry?
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