The Rasmus' Dead Letters was one of my favourite albums back in my teen years, and I actually thought that Lauri Ylönen was going to be my futures husband. With a new album out and a UK tour on the cards, I caught up with the lovely Lauri to set my plan in motion. Oh, and to ask him some musical questions too.
The Rasmus
Hello there pretties, how are things going in your lovely world?
It’s good to be back in England!
Are you loving it? It’s a bit cold though!
Yes, it is cold but it’s about time we were back!
So you obviously have a lovely new single out at the moment, tell us about that!
It has just been released here and it was already released half a year ago in the rest of Europe but we wanted to do it like this so we didn’t have to rush and try to be in the all the different places all across the world and it meant we have more time with the release.
How have other countries reacted to the single?
Very good actually, I was a little curious to hear what they said because the first single, Living In A World Without You was kind of had a poppy edge to it and it was sort of machine like and we used a lot more electronic instruments and I was wondering what the fans would think to it, but I’m really happy with it because we find it a very interesting sound!
Tell us a bit about the inspiration behind your foxy new record…Black Roses
Okay, this album is special in the way that it was made backwards. Usually we write the music first and then do the lyrics later, but this way we wrote a complete story called Black Roses and every song title was one chapter inside the story and most of the lyrics were written before the music so we had an idea what we were doing and this way was really interesting to start writing melodies and guitar riffs on top of the story because we knew already the more intense part of the stories.
It made a big difference and we found it very inspiring and spontaneous, because we have written six albums already before this and in some ways we feel that we are repeating ourselves a little too much and this idea opened a lot of new doors for us.
If you were going to give us just one song of yours, from your complete back catalogue, to listen to so that you would become our new favourite singer, what would it be?
Ooh, that’s hard! There are old songs that we play today at concerts, and one song is called Liquid and that song - I don’t want to say is the best song - but in some ways that song changed to course of our band and it was the first song I actually wrote with just an acoustic guitar, so I wasn’t trying to hide anything, I was just making one very simple song, because usually we had some jams on the songs before that and this was a music more traditionally made song.
And if you could cover another band’s song, what would it be?
Well we have played a lot of covers, even on this tour, we covered Lou Reed’s A Perfect Day, and I think that’s probably the most beautiful song I know. Even though the lyrics are kind of positive, there is nothing bad about the song, but you feel so sad because you feel that this is the last day and it doesn’t matter who you are singing the song to - your girl or your dog - and it’s still beautiful.
In the past we have done some songs by Bjork, and whatever we do, we usually try to look for a song that is far away from our own music so we can make it sound like The Rasmus.
And can you sum up The Rasmus in just five words?
Scandinavian, Death-Pop, Tied Looking Child. That’s five words!
You know we’re having a bit of an economic crisis here at the moment, if people wanted to spend their last £10 on one of your CD’s or a ticket to one of your shows?
That’s a good question, but I think that every time we have a crisis like this, people still buy music, and go to concerts, people still buy flowers too, that’s something that people don’t want to give up.
Maybe now that the records are not selling that much anymore as the music industry is changing, it seems like a ll the bands are touring, so essentially there will be too many bands touring at the same time and people might say; “Hum, well I’ve seen The Rasmus twice already, so this time I will go to see Nightwish next time!”
Argh! Nightwish are my favourite band in the world!
Really? Wow! But it’s like that, I mean this concert sold out six weeks ago already so it looks like people want to come, or maybe the price was right? It feels like we have lots of fans here and it will be good. We’re even coming back in April too.
Can you come to Manchester please?
I think we are, we are playing with a Swedish band called Backyard Babies.
Woo! I’m getting involved, so what three bands would you have to headline your dream festival?
Weezer - I love Weezer. Muse and Bjork.
What has been your favourite musical memory to date?
Let me think a little bit… well I think the first time we played together with some other guys I was 10 years old and I was playing drums and I had my first band with Eero Heinonen who plays bass in The Rasmus. We have known each other for 20 years and we had our first band at the age of 10 and we played Status Quo and a song called Sweet Carolina and it was my first experience of rock music.
Playing the drums I felt the power of the noise I was making. I still actually love to play drums because it’s so physical and it’s like a little bit violent and I can let off some steam!
Good answer! So, if you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
What a tough question! One of my favourites is actually a soundtrack from the TV series Twin Peaks. I love the very dark, moody songs and it’s something I listen to on the tour bus a lot when we’re driving to the next city. There are very few lyrics and most of it is instrumental.
As a singer I try sometimes to avoid listening to vocals because I get really stuck on the lyrics but if I listen to just instruments I have space for my own thoughts and it’s far more relaxing.
Okay, now we want to ask you some random questions; If you only had nine minutes to live, what would you do in those nine minutes?
Right now? [FF: Yep] I would say goodbye to you and then I would go and eat Fish And Chips. I need to do that because I’m in London for gods sake! [FF: Yes you do!] Which is the best? [FF: I don’t live in London, I cant help!]
Make sure when you’ve eaten them you don’t jump around too much or you might be sick!
I know!
Okay, so if you were on an aeroplane and talking to someone of pleasant appearance who then offered you £10, 000 for one night of sex, would you take the money?
Pounds or Euros? [FF: Pounds] Hum, well the pound is a bit weak at the moment! So maybe I would say yes!
Wow, I’m coming on your aeroplane! What was one thing you always wanted as a child but never got?
Well there was lots of things because I was from a poor family so we didn’t have a VCR or anything. Now when I think about it, it seems ridiculous because they are stupid things. I had the same bicycle for my whole childhood where my friends got shiny new bikes every year.
At least now you appreciate things more than you might have before. Okay, so we ask everyone we interview to come up with a question for the next person we interview and Lemar wants to know which member of The Rasmus is the least talented?
Ooh, that’s a really awful question! Who is this awful singer we’re dealing with? [FF: He came from one of those reality TV shows, Google him!] Well, I think we’re very different in personalities, and we all have our own places in the band doing certain things for the band. Actually, I don’t want to answer!
In your face Lemar! Haha, can you come up with a question for the next person I interview please?
Ask them what they know about Finland!
Okay, that should be interesting! Thank you so much for your time!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison