The Rasmus: the dark half [UK]

Muse meets Bon Jovi? It all makes sense to The Rasmus, and they’re just about to take our shores and airwaves by storm. Rock Sound meets Finland’s number one sons.
Behind The Darkness’ posturing lies a colossal debt to early Bon Jovi and Guns N’ Roses hat no one dares to mention. We’re all still too haunted by images of leather pants and mullets down to your elbows to get teary and nostalgic about Jon and Axl just yet. But now The Rasmus are bashing up the airwaves with thier Scandinavian fusion of Muse bass licks and chestbeating vhoruses lifted straight from “Slippery when Wet”. Yes, the 80′s revival begins here. The Finnish band’s frontman Lauri Ylonen is perfectly aware of his musical inspirations. “I like melodies”, he says “That’s why my favourite band is Muse. They somehow manage to combine classical beauty into violent guitar riffing. We also have some influences from the 80′s, from Guns N’ Roses or even Skid Row, however horrible it sounds!” It does indeed sound potentially horrible, but somehow these Finnish tykes have come up trumps with the new single “In the Shadows”, which jerks and throbs before billowing out into a slick and irritatingly catchy chorus. It’s no wonder Radio one playlisted the track six weeks before release. Lauri has no expectations of huge UK success though. “The UK is a very big music market, and to me it’s kind of frightening. People in the UK really know what they like. We can’t tell them to like anything, they decide for themselves, which I think is great”. But with the majority of Europe already swooning in their wake, The Rasmus can afford to expect our little nation to welcome them warmly too. The band have been together since ’94, and have already release four albums in Europe, “Dead Letters” is thier fifth. So why haven’t they come across our radar before? “I think one of the reasons was we…sucked,” confesses Lauri. “We were just a bunch of kids, you know? I was singing about school. At the moment it felt great, but there was no depth, and I think now there is more”. Maybe he should have a word in Busted’s ears too. The Rasmus have had to deal with being rock stars at school (after success in Finland at the tender age of 15), struggles with money (Lauri dropped out of school to focus on music) and a change of name – they added the “The” after irate London fans wrongly paid £10 to see a sweedish DJ called Rasmus. But now they’re rocking on all cylinders, ready to take on the UK with thier Finnish pomp-rock and bravado-fuelled live shows. “We try to sometimes overdo things”, Lauri says about their gigs. “But not really as much as The Darkness does!”

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