The Rasmus, say hello to Europe’s fastest rising band… [UK]

Lauri Ylönen, frontman with Finland’s The Rasmus, sits in the bar of an expensive West London hotel room, smoking Marlboro lights and drinking European lager, talking as a story unfolds around him. Sitting thin and quietly charismatic, the singer tells his tale of how he got here and why it is he’s talking to you. His band (the name of which has no English translation, rather it just “sounds good”) have recently released their 5th album, Dead Letters, a record that has taken the European continent by force, making the top 10 in the UK, in Germany, in France and in Spain, as well as, less surprisingly, the frozen Scandanavias. In some of these countries, the band were entirely unheard of just 3 months ago, before the release of the hit single In Th Shadows. It’s a story thats quite remarkable-for one thing, The Rasmus have been playing since each member was 16 years old( the average age is now just 24).
In terms of precocity, Lauri Ylönen makes Daniel Johns look like Tony Iommi.
“Am I surprised by the success?” wonders Ylönen. “No, surprised would be the wrong word. We have been working towards this from the moment we formed as a band. We kept at this when things werent going so good, we worked hard. Obviously to see it happening in front of us is very different to how we imagined it happening, but surprise is not the word I would use.”
With a sound that echoes the Gothic soar of Evanescence and, sometimes, the parp of Euro Pop (“I wouldnt say that”, says the singer, “I would say we sound more like Muse.”), The Rasmus came to be as schoolfriends, forming when Ylönen joined forces with fellow “oddballs” Eero Heinonen (bass), and Pauli Rantasalmi (guitars: their original drummer Janni was sacked some years later, Aki Hakala now sits on the stool) to play Status Quo and Metallica covers in Rantasalmi’s parents’ garage. This led to a début album, Peep, in 1996 and subsequent albems such as Playboys and HellOfATester.
With an ambition that borders on the naked- the band chose to sing in English from the very beginning, and Ylönen will personally vet each magazine he speaks with and will not sit for a second interview with any publication he feels has misrepresented him- The Rasmus have slowly and surely spread their charms. Their record deals are signed outside of Finland(“where,” according to the singer, “people have limited ambitions”) so that people outside of Finland are able to hear the band. And they are. Aside from record sales that tally into the hundreds of thousands, The Rasmus are currently midway through a tour of European venues- large clubs and small theatres- that have been upgraded to meet the current demand. Only The Rasmus themselves appear unsurprised. “We are a good band,” says Lauri. “We have been a good band for a long time. Now people are hearing that.
It doesnt matter where we come from, it doesnt matter what we look like, all that matters is what we are. We play what we want to play and we dont care that we dont fit into people’s little pigeonholes. If people cant make sense of us then that is not our problem. To us, this makes perfect sense.”

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