The Rasmus, with a bunch of hits in the hand [Argentina]

From Finland, the drummer Aki Hakala tells us the details about the recording of the brilliant album “Black Roses” and he assumes how his band will be behind the successful song. But of course: without losing the music quality.

After a long day for Aki Hakala and his partners from The Rasmus: they were enclosed in a studio of their native Finland, recording material for the B sides of the singles that will come with the release of Black Roses. The seventh album of the band, has just been published in all the world, they were still working on it, in the moment when the drummer answered the phone to talk with Soy Rock, with an unusual great mood for a man that had spent all the day (playing his drums).But, after all Aki played again the role he most likes: The Rasmus was starting to work again. Almost all the year 2007 was a kind of rest, after all the exhausting tours that the success of Dead letters or Hide from the sun encouraged, the CD’s which put them into their fame in a big part of the world.
“Our lives changed enough, and also is good to have some moments alone so we can put the band and the next album in a good perspective” explains the drummer. “In this way, you can get ready for a new beginning of The Rasmus, when you have rested a bit. We almost hadn’t stopped in the last two albums, it had been too stressful and tiring for us. We learned with the experience and now we know that it’s positive to take short holidays.”

What did you do in your holidays?
We all went to places on holidays and we enjoyed the Finnish summer. Of course, we can’t be without making music, so we talked or we sent e-mails almost every day with new songs or ideas. In fact, they weren’t real holidays (laughs), because we were all the time thinking in the band and trying new ideas all the time. Finally, the record is ready and we can go on tour.

One of the differences is that, now you are a father. Will this have an effect in the way you do the tours?
I guess I’ll manage this, as all the first-time parents, which are part of a band do. Of course, all is gonna to have to be planned more carefully, but I think this will make me stronger and it will make me wish to come back. Anyways, we have talked about this and each of us is very anxious to go on tour and to visit many countries. Basically, it won’t change the band too much, although it does change me.

How did you make this album? Because it’s known that the rest of the band when to a Greek island without tourists to workd on the songs.
That was idea of Desmond Child, the producer of the album. Lauri (Ylönen, the singer) and Pauli (Rantasalmi, the guitarist) went with him to a beautiful island to write the songs and to find ideas. Also, we recorded in Finland, Sweden, Germany and Singapore, and all had to be with the fact that we stayed in different countries, in different moments. We recorded in Nashville too, because Desmond lives there and there was a nice studio to record the drums and the voices.

You said that you had started to think about the album long time before. What specific goals did you have in mind?
What we did was thinking about the good things in this band, which are the best sides of The Rasmus, and which are our best songs and also which are our bad sides. We felt that we wanted to make a “popper” album, a rock pop album. We listened the old songs to think in what we are and what we really want to do in the future. It was a way to clear up our minds and delete (the old ideas we had there), before starting to record. A kind of new beginning for the band.

And what’s the “not so good” part of The Rasmus you discovered?
I know one and it’s that we never say NO (laughs). That’s why, in a way we did so much work: we are not able to stop, we want to do all, go on tour, go to different countries. But sometimes we have to know how to say no to some kind of promotion work or to some gigs. That’s something that we have to learn.

I thought you were talking about music, I mean things you didn’t like about the previous albums.
Well, when you create something new it’s natural that you get away from the previous stuff. Hide from the sun was a depressive album, in some way, meanwhile this is more pop, happier, more positive.

Maybe you felt bad with the stress of the tours, but it wasn’t a bad moment about the success.
Yes, the CD sold a lot of copies and the songs were on the radio, all that stuff was really good. But that’s not the only thing. Each one has their own feelings, it’s not so simple. Each one has low times in their career, and maybe we passed that bad time, but now we enjoyed being in the studio, it was great.

Did you feel the pressure to get the same success again?
This time we didn’t feel that pressure so much, which we had felt with Hide from the sun. It’s just that Dead letters had sold so many copies… and at the end you start thinking of doing similar songs. But this time we felt so free about that, because we had very clear ideas about what we wanted to do. We had the propose to have fun and try different things. In all our albums we want to get free from genres and create new sounds. In this album there very pop things and also very heavy riffs: we like to mix stuff and take it further. Because of this, it was interesting to work with Desmond Child. We had had the same producer in the last three albums and it was necessary a change, with a guy who produced KISS, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi and many others.

When you search someone like him, it’s because you’re searching for hits, because he recorded loads, from”Crazy” by Aerosmith, to “Livin’ la vida loca” by Ricky Martin. Did you want hits?
In fact, we grew up during the 80′s and the 90′s, so we listened a lot of material produced by Desmond, like “I was made for loving you” by KISS, which is one of the best songs in history. It was a normal thing that we thought: “This guy is who we need, let’s do the next album with him”. We had a show in Dominican Republic and we invited him to come to meet us. The first thing he said was that he was a fan of The Rasmus’ sound, and it was a good relieve for us, because we didn’t want to sound like North American, we wanted to sound Scandinavian. Some fans maybe were worried about the album, cause it may sound North American, but in my opinion it’s clearly Scandinavian.

Let’s talk about your visits to Buenos Aires. Did you imagine that you had so much success here?
The first time we didn’t know what to expect, but there were already fans waiting for us at the airport, and when we arrived at the hotel there were like more hundred people. The show was amazing and I think we fell in love with Buenos Aires. People we met respect the band so much, and are very active at the gigs, they want to show how much they enjoy it, even if it gets a bit physical: they jump and get crazy. We felt very welcome.

In Europe is different, isn’t it?
Yes, Scandinavian people is more closed, they don’t talk so much and they don’t go out so much. If we go to a show, we prefer staying in the backstage of the place, only listening the music. It’s different, there (in Argentina) they show their feelings and here (in Finland) we show them more.

What do you remember about the visits?
I think I went buying in a street full of shops, I hang around there. I remember there were people shouting and changing money, I thought it was a joke, but it wasn’t. And near the hotel it was Evita’s balcony in the Pink House.

Do you have plans to come back?
Absolutely! By now we are going to have tours in Europe, but in the beginning of next year we want to come back to Argentina, although still there’s nothing defined. Fans always ask in Myspace when we’re coming back. But they have to be calm, we’re going with no doubt, we loved their country.

Is it habitual for you to be related with the fans?
Yes, even though sometimes we are too busy and we can’t dedicate all the time we’d like to that. But when we are at home or around here, I try to log in Myspace every night and answer some messages. It’s a good way to keep in touch and to receive some kind of feedback, specially when we have new material, to know what they think. I do a kind of spy work (laughs).

Share this article:

Tweet

Current&next releases

Latest news

© 2005-2008 The Rasmus Hellofasite | the Italian portal about The Rasmus | All rights reserved
This website is published under a Creative Commons Licence. It's strictly forbidden any unauthorized
reproduction partial or total of the layout and/or the contents.