The 69 Eyes Just Stripped Down One Of Their Biggest Songs
Why are The 69 Eyes going acoustic now?
According to Jyrki himself, after years of extensive touring, The 69 Eyes are moret than ready for a change of pace. The Finnish goth rockers are preparing an acoustic album for early 2027, with a concert hall tour across Finland planned for February. He also added that the band has reworked familiar songs to explore a different side of their catalogue.
Why Brandon Lee?
Brandon Lee was originally released on Blessed Be album in 2000, and it became one of the band’s signature songs. Its title references the actor who starred in the legendary goth dark fantasy movie The Crow, which made perfect sense for the band’s dark aesthetic. Twenty-six years later, the song gets a whole new arrangement that puts its melody under a different spotlight.
Why Without Electric Guitars?
That’s an interesting question because The 69 Eyes have built their identity around heavy guitars and goth atmosphere, so stripping those elements back gives the song a different challenge. The acoustic version offers a new chance to hear whether the melody can carry the same weight without the original production doing the heavy lifting. So, in our opinion, the end result is more than a success, which you can hear in the renew arrangements of this version of Brandon Lee.
Why is Matt Hyde back?
The new version was mixed by Matt Hyde, who previously worked with the band on 2009’s Back in Blood. Nearly two decades later, the collaboration returns in a completely different setting which makes the whole project even more intriguing. The year 2009 is also particularly interesting in this story, because The 69 Eyes played a lot of acoustic shows around that time.
What comes next?
As Jyrki himself said, the band is ready for this kind of change. As far as us fans are concerned, it feels like the timing couldn’t have been better. The 69 Eyes released their latest album Death of Darkness in 2023, while this year they also treated us to the I Survived EP. That is more than enough new material for a band that already has 13 studio albums behind them.
At the same time, Brandon Lee has shown that there is a huge interest in an acoustic version, and that their musical style generally allows their songs to be interpreted in this way. All things considered, this feels like the right decision, and we expect plenty more surprises and good music from the Helsinki Vampires as the album gets closer and they release more singles.
Brandon Lee (Forma Acustica) video is filmed at Suomenlinna, Helsinki, and directed by Elias Ryynänen feturing paparazzi models Corinna Puleo and Lotte Vainio.
