KWICK! Interview: The Rasmus [Germany]

Although the band The Rasmus wasn’t heard of for 3 years, everyone talks about the Finns around the charismatic frontman Lauri. That’s because we all have their megahit “In the shadows” (year 2003) in our ears. Now they are back in the winning ways, their new single “Livin’ in a world without you” is already in the top 20. That is always a reason to concern with The Rasmus again.

Eero, the bassist of the band, agrees kindly and did also his best to be understandable. However this wasn’t easy because it was quite loud backstage of “The Dome” because of the forthcoming beginning of the show. But the music business ain’t easy, so the interviewer and artist had to shout at each other…

The shady side of success

What’s easier? To get or to stay successful?
Eero: That’s a difficult question. When we got successful we were really young. The competition isn’t so big in Finland so that it’s comparatively easy there to get popular. Then our first song came in the radio and with that it got going.

Did you still think of “In the shadows” when you worked on the songs for “Black Roses”?
Eero: “In the shadows” was the biggest hit in our carreer so far and we thought about why it got so big very much. Of course we will play this song during our tour too but apart from that we didn’t think about it anymore. The new album is very different, very electronic. The sound is quite new for The Rasmus. “Livin in a world without you” is e. g. full of synthesizer.

After your last tour you were shortly before the burnout. How could it come so far?
Eero: As a result of the big success of “In the shadows” we were under pressure. After the last tour we really needed a long break and now the release of our last album is three years ago. We had the time to find out who we really are and what we want to do. Also was important to have time for our families.

Do you think that your change to electronic and pop has also something to do with your new producer Desmond Child?
Eero: Could be. He likes good popsongs and by all means that’s a point to start with. Like us Desmond likes catchy songs to sing along.

And why did you choose him?
Eero: Well, he came towards us. We were interested immediately as well because we heard very much about him and thought that he could help us to realize our ideas.

The Rasmus create their own style

You call your new sound “death pop”. What does that mean exactly?
Eero: That was kind of working title for the new album. This expression describes our music well. Namely it’s pop but not really bright. There’s also something about death.

Other bands try to avoid to be put in a direction. Why do you put yourself there?
Eero: I don’t care if others do or not. This expression describes our music quite well and that’s why I don’t think it’s wrong.

There’s a special finnish phenomenon, that’s to say that many finnish bands connect their music with more or less dark sides of life. That doesn’t only include you but also HIM or Nightwish, only to name the most popular ones. Why is it like that?
Eero: I don’t really know. But it seems to be kind of a tradition when it comes to the finnish bands who are known international.

Do you think that it has something to do with the country itself?
Eero: I don’t really know too but I think it has something to do with the attitude towards life of the people there. Anyhow it seems that they like sad and melancholy melodies.

“Black Roses” – an album with the style of Hollywood
Every title on “Black Roses” is connected through a very clear concept. Why did you choose such a concept instead of just writing some songs?
Eero: Desmond brought up this idea of the concept of script writing. This concept with the four charactaristic archetypes of movies is the clue of our album. There is the ophan, the wanderer, the warrior and the martyr. So you have a storyline and decide which songs fit with which character of the story. The main character of this story is a boy who loves a girl. And as symbol of their love they send each other these black roses.

Are all songs strictly in that concept or did the songs influence this concept?
Eero: Our starting point was that we first composed the melodies and harmonies and then we thought about the lyrics. These lyrics were written to fit in the categories. For example we thought that now we wanted to write the lyrics for the wanderer.

Also very special about your new album is the mystic symbol on the cover. What does it mean?
Eero: Actually it’s a black rose which anyhow seems to be a compass but with five directions. I like it very much because it’s something mystic. That underlines our concept very good.

Is “Black Roses” their best album so far?

Please finally describe shortly why “Black Roses” is your best album so far.
Eero: (he thinks about it long). Well, it’s at least the most exciting one so far because with it we come back after a long time. I don’t really want to say that it’s our best album so far but it’s by all means the most interresting one.

Then I want to thank you for devoting time to an interview shortly before the gig. I hope that you’ll have success with your new album.
Eero: Of course I hope that too. Thank you very much as well.

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