Give it up for Finnish rock stars

Oct 03, 2012
By TBT Staff

BACK ON THE ROAD: This Helsinki-based band brings its electro-pop sound to Tallinn.

TALLINN - It’s October 2012 and after four years of inactivity, successful Finnish rockers The Rasmus are finally back on tour. Their recent self-titled album only just came out on April 18, and only 3 weeks later they started their European tour. The countries they have already played in are: Sweden, Germany, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France and the UK. Now Baltic fans are lucky enough to go to Estonia, where The Rasmus will be playing their only concert in the Baltics, on Oct. 17.

A little background for those of you who don’t know who they are. The Rasmus was formed in 1994 in Helsinki, while the band members were still in upper comprehensive school. The original band members were Lauri Ylonen (lead singer/songwriter), Eero Heinonen (bass), Pauli Rantasalmi (guitar) and Jarno Lahti (drums). Back then their name was just Rasmus. A year after Rasmus was formed Jarno left the band and was replaced by Janne Heiskanen, who left the band in 1998 and was then replaced by Aki Hakala till now. In 2000 the band changed their name from Rasmus to The Rasmus.

On March 21, 2003 they released their album “Dead Letters,” which sold 1.7 million copies worldwide and signified the band’s major break-through. “Dead Letters” received eight gold and six platinum awards, while “In the Shadows” received six gold and two platinum awards. “In the Shadows,” which sold over one million copies, reached number one on the list of Finnish compositions earning performance royalties abroad and so overtook the works of Jean Sibelius. They won the Best Nordic Act and Best Song on MTV Music Awards 2003.

Overall, The Rasmus has global record sales in excess of 3.5 million copies. But this generated no extra pressure when writing the latest album. Frontman Lauri Ylonen states that the high sales numbers and international success are excellent motivators. Nonetheless, the band is very thankful for each hit that they have created over the years. The production process of the new album was completely different this time. The name “The Rasmus” illustrates this best – it was a common and cohesive effort by the whole band.

“After cooperating with legendary American producer Desmond Child, we wanted to test our limits once again – we didn’t even have a label for the new album. Last summer we decided to sit down and write music every day for a period of two months. After completing 10 songs we felt confident and rang up good friend and producer Martin Hansen and headed for Sweden for recording sessions,” said Ylonen.

He admitted that the four year period (last album “Black Roses” released in 2008) between the latest albums is a long time for any band, but it was necessary in order to hit the stages once again with more power and energy than ever.
Produced in Finland and released on Warner records, the latest self-titled album shows the influence of Ylonen’s solo work. It has more of an electro-pop feel to it than previous albums from The Rasmus. However, it also shows a continuation in tone from “Black Roses.” It is possible to see an evolution in their sound, from their energetic early albums “Peep” and “Playboys,” to the more ‘rock’ “Dead Letters” through to the present day. The more mature sound still has a rock edge to it, but also returns, a little, to their earlier, more ‘pop’ or ‘electronic’ sound.

“I can’t wait for the tour to get started. Setlist is going to be awesome as we have material from eight of our albums,” said Ylonen before the band started the European tour.
Of course, all that and much more await The Rasmus fans in Tallinn!


Ticket information can be found at: www.piletilevi.ee
 

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