Latvia, we fell in love with you!

Yo!

The album is almost done. Feels like we've been doing it for ages. And I think it's true as I look back at the previous entries. Anyway, the album is being mixed at the moment and sounds more than brilliant!

Last weekend we did a promotional gig in Riga, Latvia. We pla

yed an acoustic show with Heikki in Crystal Club and it was one hell of a nice club. Fancy. Haven't seen many (any) of that class in Finland.. Never actually been on a press conference

before with lots of cameras and reporters there. Weird. Felt like an F1-driver after the race. We just kept smiling. Nodding our heads. Didn't understand the language. We had an interpreter. Which was really nice. That's how we roll.

There were other performers as well during the night. We saw some real diva behavior during the soundcheck and the whole evening. The thing is that, if you're doing a singback-show, why on earth do you have to do your "soundcheck" like five times and waste other artists time? We were the only ones who were actually playing live during th

e night, so we high-fived ourselves big time for that!

The following day after the show we did some sightseeing in the city of Riga. Just a little, cause we woke up so late. Bummer. Anyway, during our stay people there took really good care of us. We had such a brilliant time during the whole trip! There were some communication problems along the way because our chauffeur didn't talk any english, only russian. And as I recall, spasiba is all we can do..

Some great news: Right now our video for "Away From Sunshine" got in rotation on 1st Baltic Music TV. For the finnish people the song and the video might be so last summer, but this is how the cookie crumbles folks! The nice thing is that the channel is being viewed in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Germany and Poland.

Here is a link for all of you who can understand the site:

http://www.1music.tv/base.php?m2=Automatic+Eye

Spasiba!

We're planning to be back in the Baltic area big time next spring, see ya!

pete

Calling on Angels lyrics

Yo party people!

Due to the extremely high demand, here you go:

Calling on Angels

Give me a sign tonight

I am receiving

When all hope is gone

And the world deceiving

I wanna hold your hand

You’re gonna need it

Can you feel me now?

It’s not gonna end up like this

She wants to dive into the ocean

To feel like she’s leaving all behind

To step outside of emotion

To hide all that’s killing her inside

Planning her revenge

For who she believed in

Too blind to see

Another way of healing

I wanna be the one

Who will stop the bleeding

Can you feel me now?

It’s not gonna end up like this

She wants to dive into the ocean

To feel like she’s leaving all behind

To step outside of emotion

To hide all that’s killing her inside

She believes that she will never find the reason

She’s call call calling on

Calling on angels again

She wants to dive into the ocean

To feel like she’s leaving all behind

To step outside of emotion

To hide all that’s killing her inside

She believes that she will never find the reason

She’s call call calling on

Calling on angels again

Born again into another place another life

Call call calling on

Calling on angels again

ZEN

Back from the cruise ship and everybody feeling.. well.. ok.. Big thanks to everyone who came to see us there, we promise not to forget the merchandise next time!

The latest info is that our new album "ZEN" will be released February 17th 2010. It will contain the following songs:

No Zen For Me Today

Calling On Angels

Last Summer

Wonderboy

Die, Honey, Die!

Farewell My Love

Sleep With The Enemy

Death Was Here

Alive

Johnny & Maria

Corporate Clones vs. Celebrating Clowns

Yesterday I Quit Drinking Today I Made My Comeback

Gotta remember that things are due to change. Like life, this info is not meant to be taken too seriously. But this wednesday the new single is gonna be available on our MySpace!

pete

The final week?

Hey ho, how do you do?

I'm doing great. It's been a long run. Couple more days left and then (almost) all of the recording is done. Singing and backing vocals etc. stuff you know. Then it's mixing and all the rest of the after-production taking place in this scene. But anyway, there's been a lot of recording done during the past few weeks. Some cool horns and strings and basically everything you can imagine. This album is going to contain some real explosions as well. How amazing is that? Seems like we're starting to lose reality with Jonas here. Just cannot wait you all to hear the songs. Really proud of this album already before it's even finished. The songs are kick-ass!

During the last week we had a short session in Helsinki and one more visitor who was singing some nice vocals for our album. Ladies and gentlemen, Tumppi from Collarbone/15MinutesBeforeTheDive. He's a nice man. Respect.

Oh yeah, the new single is coming out soon. Extremely excited about that.

Greetings from Kokkola,

pete

Tony Hawk-syndrome

Imitation- the road to ruin.

Yeah. I've been pretty sick but still singing the new tracks during the whole week. I've been capable of doing that because of the following shit below in the picture. This is what you need to get your voice to make it work for you if your throat is in a bad shape; water, propolis, water, jägermeister, coffee. Maybe we'll be doing some vocals again later on in August if we need to. But now it sounds cool enough to move on!


Actually, I don't know if you really need anything. I would like to know that does this medicating yourself-shit flow like that in the end everything turns out to be... placebo?

I discovered some Finnish rock n’ roll history today as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQdylf2ObAA

vs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arwFT_dlJ14

Fuck you.

Table hockey

It's been a relaxing week. We took a week off from studio and I went to visit Copenhagen, Denmark. Nice city but I caught cold which is always a little turn off. Anyway, last week in studio was fantastic. We got lots of things done, all the bass tracks and lots of guitar as well. The first single is done thoroughly, it's gonna be mixed and mastered during next week. Awesome! Cannot wait it to be released.


Played some good old table hockey in studio

On Friday we had a show in Helsinki. There was this thing called "Night of the arts" where we had a gig in the magnificent Molly Malone's during the night. Think we performed bad ass as usual.

At the moment I'm trying to get rid of being sick. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. You know. We have a show in Pohja on Saturday and on Sunday I'm heading back to studio to continue with singing and some guitar tracks. Gonna be fun!

pete

Rantarock-98

After a night at home we headed to Hanko to play an acoustic show with Heikki. It was a nice night, Hanko is a beautiful city during the summer so you cannot complain. We played one new song there as well, just tried out a bit you know. Or maybe you don't. We had our accommodation in a huge apartment which was a cool place. In the yard there was this own club-building as you can see below.


The club of all the clubs, Kärppä-klubi

Had to wake up pretty early in the morning so we couldn't hang out at the club but hopefully during the next time! We drove over 7 hours to get to Kokkola where we are at the moment. Jonas (our producer) has a nice new studio here. Me likes. Heikki is now continuing bass playing what he started yesterday evening and things look really promising. I'm trying to figure out all the lyrics to get back in the mood where I was during the writing process.

We have a feeling going on that this album sounds like Rantarock-98. Party music or something. It just gives vibes. Good vibes.

Yesterday evening after we quit the recordings for the day we played a tournament together as a 2-member squad in PES. Pro Evolution Soccer as you all surely know. International Cup, 5-star level with Finland and we went to the Semi-Finals. France was too tough, we lost 2-1. Tonight the goal is to go to the finals and during this week we are going for the gold. Lovin' the game!

pete

Visiting home

Just got back from the show we had in Porvoo tonight. Actually it was during the day and I think it was awesomeness! Smak was there as well, hopefully we'll be doing some shows together later on. And as I recall, we are.

During the morning I got the basic guitar tracks done. It went fluently. Here's the setup we used with a lot of songs. Some vintage stuff as well. Cannot even remember all of the amps we tried. But it sounded good, that's the main point!

Rectifier-THE shit

During the afternoon a dude called Puke stopped by to play some Rhodes and Hammond. He is one of the studio dudes so it was easy to get him to play on some tunes!

Rhodes


Puke

Now it's time to go to bed. We have an acoustic show with Heikki tomorrow in Hanko. After that we are heading to Kokkola to another studio. Must get the first single done during next week.

Later,

pete

Visitor's day

Today we had our record company people visiting us and listening to where we are spending their money at. Of course we asked them to sing a part in one song we have. Nick and Pekka are both amazing musicians so it took like five minutes to get the part done. Four of us singing at the same time, Nick, Pekka, Jonas & me. Heikki recording. Pure greatness!


Nick, Pekka & Jonas

Clarkkent visited here as well. The band you all should know. They listened to one song and the first comment was that it sounded like a game. Pure madness. Heikki was practising his new instrument. That's classy, isn't it?


Heikki


Anyway today has been a good one as well. I've been playing some basic guitar tracks and it's going smoothly for now. I have been practicing a bit before the sessions started. That's it. Now off to see a DVD and sleep.

pete

This morning started well. I needed to kickstart my heart to get back on shape. Actually not but I thought it would be a great way to start off every morning. With good old electricity.

It's some sort of recording equipment but looks fancy

Yesterday evening something unexpectable happened when Heikki dropped a computer table on his toe. We are sure that it's broken. From two different places. Man it looks ugly now.


The toe right after the accident

Yeah, today has been really good because Anton is still on the wheel. We got "Sleep With The Enemy" recorded right in the morning. After that songs called "Ocean", "No Zen For Me Today", "Johnny & Maria", "Die, Honey, Die!", "Last Summer" & "Corporate Clones vs. Celebrating Clowns". Now there's only one more song left that needs drumming. It's called "Yesterday I Quit Drinking, Today I Made My Comeback". The whole song is pure insanity. Cannot really predict the outcome..

Bob Rock

Ladies and gents, here we go again!

It's time to start talk talk talking about the recordings of our second album. As you might know, this blog is probably going to consist more about various other subjects than actual recordings. But anyway, nice to keep you updated where we're heading this time.

Our first album was kinda rock/pop-album with indie-touch on it. This time it's gonna be a bit different. Maybe more like pop/rock. Or Bob/Rock would be also a good way to describe this music. But yeah, not that much of the fat guitar on it, something new. Something that we are on to now. Not forgetting the melodic good mood-stuff with killer choruses. That's the way the dinner should be served!

Because we needed "the big sound" on drums we decided to go to a studio which has a pretty spacious place to play as you can see below. Record company money talks this way:

Anton beating shit out of those drums


Our "drum machine" on this album is a dude called Anton Laurila. Lot of you might know him from various other projects but man, he can play drums! Besides that, he's a really nice guy as we've known him for a while now. Anton is our session drummer and might be playing some piano as well. We'll see when the recordings will move on.


Anton and our producer Jonas having a break

Today we got four drum tracks recorded and now we're done for today. Songs that go with titles "Death Was Here", "Farewell My Love", "Inside Out" & "Wonderboy" are now done. We also started to record a track called "Sleep With The Enemy" but it's not finished yet. Tomorrow it is.

pete

This one calls for a toast!

So this is it now folks, pre-production is finally done. It's 2 weeks heavy practicing ahead and then we're heading to studio to record the album number two! It's kinda crazy when I think about this process we're doing now. At first I make a demo of a song at my home studio, then we go to another studio to make another demo and finally we record the album version. Makes sense right?

We have made awesome songs for the album. All the songs have been written in 6 months and that's a pretty short period of time. There's no "oldies" on it that people been asking. Sorry, no bonus. Luckily I've been able to focus on songwriting as my "day job" and have put myself into it. Truly. Madly. Deeply. You might think that the songs are similar to each other because of the short period of songwriting, but there will be surprises for everyone. Especially a song that goes with a name "Yesterday I Quit Drinking, Today I Made My Comeback" is probably the coolest song that's ever been written on planet earth. You need to fuck things up pretty badly to be able to write a song like that. Been there, done that! When you hear the song you'll definitely know my words are true. If there's nothing going on in your life it's impossible to write lyrics that have actually layered meaning on them. At least for me cause I love to write about my life. That sounds like I love myself. Well, I do!

As I look back now, the songwriting process has been tough but it's been pulled through. I needed some shocking enlightenment on the way. Thanks goes to god. My own god. So thank you Me.

Otherwise this summer has been great. We've played fantastic shows around the country and met new friends along the way. Touring continues until the end of November and then it's time for a short break. The plan is to return to the stages during the spring with the new shit!

"Waking up as monkey every morning needs to stop. Take a look in the mirror and follow your heart"
That's "the black book" what contains a lot of words. You'll hear those words on the album. Sometimes I just like to write with my own hands not to forget that skill..

Follow me on Twitter, I'm starting to flip out there: twitter.com/automaticeye

Yours,

pete


Oh, btw. I love Katy Perry.

Probably the happiest band in the world

Hi!

As the rumors tell, we have started working for our second album. The songwriting process is almost completed, new songs are kick ass-material for sure! It's been a long winter writing the new stuff. At first it looked like this is gonna be our "death album" but after some tough shit that's been pulled through the bright side of life is visible again. You're gonna hear it on the album..

We've been doing some pre-production for the album already. Making some cool arrangements for the songs that might end up on the album. There are titles like "Wonderboy", "Corporate Clones vs. Celebrating Clowns", "Die, Honey, Die!", "Ant In Afterbirth" etc. battling their way to be part of the album among many others. I have a lot of favorite ones, can't really wait for you to hear the final result. Actually even I can't really wait to hear it.. Too anxious to get everything published, but for now some patience is needed.

During the summer we're playing shows as usual, do some more pre-production, write a couple of songs more and then start recording in the end of the summer. The first single might be released already during the last quarter of this year and the album in the beginning of next year. That's how we roll right now.

I'll be updating this dear diary every now and then to keep you guys updated!

Yours Truly,

pete

Identity check

Yo. Had a lot of shows and funny moments during the past few weeks. Been touring around the country again so intensively that we had to change our names. We just had to. No reasons, no excuses. Ok?


Btw, you can follow our Twitter on the right side of this page now as well. Or just add us there!

-pete

AE-merchandise is here!

This is how some of the stuff looks like:


Prices are following:

Beanie 10 euros
T-shirt 15 euros
Lady fit t-shirt 20 euros
Hoodie with zip 40 euros

Suomeksi:

Pipo 10 euroa
T-paita 15 euroa
Naisten t-paita 20 euroa
Vetoketjuhuppari 40 euroa

Tennis, anyone?

My name is Claus, Santa Claus.

We're @ Saariselkä now, it's definitely getting colder.. it's been a day off for playing live today, we've been shooting some classic pics.. Do I need to say more...? Just check out the following shit, Santa said hi to everyone. He's one magnificent dude. Respect.

Ps. click on the pics to make it larger.

Mette Mannonen says it's colder!

Yo!

Yesterday's gig was so grrrrreat! Heikki was a bit handicapped yesterday as you can see, Heikki is a bit handicapped today and tomorrow won't make any difference. Have some fun, we'll definitely do that!

Spring break 2009

Yeah!

Tour started today. We totally packed into our tour bus as you can see. Tonight our first show is @ Seinäjoki, we just did the sound check and now we're hanging out and waiting.. listening to the new single of Papa Roach, called "Lifeline". Kicks ass, check it out! www.paparoach.com


Tommy Gun is our Uncle Sam, he wants YOU!


Later,

pete

Bomb threat

The topic of this post may sound and is a bit scary, but you'll figure it out later on. But let's say that I tend to forget things. And stuff. Everywhere.

Anyway, we went to Netherlands to play a show in Eurosonic last weekend. Our plane took off early in the morning and we had a nice trip ahead of us. First a plane to Amsterdam and then a train to Groningen. Flight was really relaxing, lot of the guys slept there. Some of us tend to talk more than the others. And you just cannot sleep if it's the dude sitting next to you. After we got off from the plane we went to grab our luggage. On the way there I suddenly noticed that I didn't have my guitar with me anymore. I forgot it in the plane. Great. I ran back and had a little discussion with the crew members and finally got my guitar and went to see the rest of the comrades.

After the missing guitar-episode guys told me that they'll remind me of my stuff if I'm not carrying it like all the time. This is an exceptionally important point. I could blame everyone else if I lose something on the way..

We got to Groningen, met our record label dudes, promoter etc. people there. Went to our hotel to relax and got back to Vindicat, where we had our show. The club was kinda cool place, dirty as hell and the smell was inexplicable. Made some interviews for radio and TV, and then we started hanging around, a.k.a. killing time.


We did all kind of intelligent activities, or what can you say about the next picture? Genious..


Before us there performed a band called "You Me At Six" from UK. They were pretty good, young lads with lot of energy. Nice tunes as well. But yeah, when we got in to the stage the place was nicely packed with people and the atmosphere was really good. We did 11 songs in total, I lost my voice during the show a bit but it wont matter. We played a fucking great show!


After our set was finished, we thought it would be time to celebrate. Not a bad idea at all. We did a pretty intense tour in the local bars. It was fun. Definitely.

Woke up early in the morning and it was time to go and chill out in Amsterdam. We were wandering around the city for a while and saw some remarkable monuments:



During the night we got in to the airport all together and then it just happened next to our check-in counters. We had all of our luggage, guitars etc. in there and some of us went to check in and to make some shopping, part of the group went out for a cigarette and I went to the toilet. Sometimes you need to pee, you know.. All of us just left separate ways at the same time. I came out from the toilet and met the guys outside while they were still there. We hanged around there for a bit and then decided to go inside and check-in our belongings. At that point I noticed that shit, where's my luggage? I had my guitar with me but my bag was missing. I remembered instantly that it was right there in the place where we all separated a while ago. Well, I went there to check it out and at the same time saw that the area was secured by security guards and police. Brilliant! The first thing on my mind was that this thing is not gonna end up nicely. They were pushing all the people more far away from my bag while I was trying to come closer to it. I got there near, where all the airline representatives were talking on the radiophones about this incident and started explaining to them that it's my bag. I just forgot it, whoops. Sorry.. Immediately there came two guards and police to interrogate me why on earth did I leave my luggage there in the middle of the airport? I explained them really intensely back that I'm truly sorry about this, a stupid fault that just happened. I asked these really-angry-looking-people that could I take my bag from the middle of the empty area and go with my band mates to check in? Well, they said that it's impossible. They had already called the military police and bomb squad to take care of the bag.

SHIT.

At this point I could have said that this was my friends bad, they forgot to tell me to remember my stuff.. But I thought that it's not a good idea to go with this story now.. I really don't know how much I explained all kinds of stories to this people that I'm definitely not a terrorist and it was just a human error. They went through my passports and everything, I explained with details what's inside the bag and after a while they luckily gave up and believed me, called back the military police and started yelling me that DO NOT EVER DO THIS AGAIN! -No sir, I won't. I'm truly sorry about this what happened. My bad..



After all, we all got back home safely and the trip was amazingly great. We had a lot of fun and our show kicked ass. Let's see what will happen during the next weekend's shows!

Yours,

Pete

Eurosonic 2009

We're on our way. Check out more info here: http://www.eurosonic.nl/en/home/