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Interview with Lauri of The Rasmus [Finland]

Our reporter Silvia went to champagne breakfast with Lauri from the Rasmus just a couple of days before the latest European tour. The location was Restaurant Tori in the heart of Helsinki.

Tell us a bit about the upcoming tour?
Lauri: “During the three weeks we’ll go to England, France, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and a couple of gigs in Iceland, Reykjavik. Reykjavik is cool. A bit of Björk feeling and maybe we get to go and swim in some spring.”

What size of places are you going to be playing in? How does the tour look?
Lauri: “It’s quite a small tour. Last year we played to audiences of 4000 people. We’re taking it down a bit. It’s gonna about 300-600 per a gig. Hopefully at least a few hundred will come and see us. I guess we’re gonna get a lot of shite in England. They feel like they know everything about music. There are gonna be a lot of critizising “rock police” in the audience. Or then not… how would I know!? But anyway we’ll play smaller venues.”

Do you have to start again (like playing the smaller venues, doing a lot of interviews) in every country or does your reputation go before you?
Lauri: “Now there’s bits and pieces spreading from a country to another. The ‘net is surprisingly effective. People take all kinds of stuff from there. And the radio stations are playing some songs and MTV is showing our videos. It helps a lot, but of course we have to start from the beginning. Actually we wanted to start from a scratch and not go pursuing something big non-existing thing… In a way it would be better if we had more time to create some stable base in every country. It is quite weird in Finland too if some new band just comes up and plays at Tavastia straight away.”

You’ve given a lot of interviews in different countries. Are there any differences in the press? How do they treat musicians?
Lauri: “We are always treated well in Finland. Nobody cares about the gossip (except the couple of shit mags). It’s nice to give an interview when you talk about what you want to talk about, there’s no need to discuss the girlfriends if you don’t want to. For example in Germany there are papers that refuse to ask anything else. But I’m not interested in talking about my private stuff. If they are interested, they should read the lyrics from the album. That’s exactly how much I am going to open up.”

February 2004
Magazine: www.sessions.fi
Translation by: daisy d
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The Rasmus Hellofasite is the italian portal & fan club entirely dedicated to the finnish rockband of The Rasmus.
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