Special Ruisrock Interview with Lauri of The Rasmus
7 July 2001, Ruissalo, Turku, Finland
We managed to get a hold
of the lead singer of The Rasmus, Lauri Ylönen. The band is taking their
first steps to the European markets and Lauri was more than willing
to give us a few details about the their future plans.
RockUnited: What is the situation with the European countries?
Lauri: Looking pretty good at the moment. We're gonna spend the next
week in Germany, do some promotion and acoustic sets in different radio
stations. Germany looks the most promising for us at the moment. We'll
tour Central Europe and then head back to Scandinavia.
RockUnited: What about countries other than Europe?
Lauri: Well, we have agreed on European releases. We're negotiating
about Asia and United States but we don't want to just release a record
there and wait for something to happen. We'll rather go there in person
and meet the people before the release. We don't want to hurry things
too much.
RockUnited: You must also agree that "Into" is your best album
so far?
Lauri: Yeah, definitely.
RockUnited: How was the recording process like?
Lauri: Actually it was quite easy. We prepared the songs well before
going to the studio with almost two years of training. We had some twenty
songs to choose from and ten made it on the album. We had really good
producer from Sweden and a good studio. And we had already three records
out prior to this one so every one of us knew what to do in a studio.
RockUnited: Did the producers have any influence on song writing?
Lauri: No, not really. Or they did have some ideas for the arrangements
so maybe a little.
RockUnited: But they we're not credited?
Lauri: No, it's their job in that stage of the recording so it was not
necessary
RockUnited: What about the single releases. Will "F-F-F-Falling"
be the first single to be released also internationally.
Lauri: Yes, we've had such a success story here in Finland so we think
it's the best way to start also abroad.
RockUnited: You think that the recent breakthroughs of some
other Finnish bands have helped you?
Lauri: Yeah, definitely. Still there are not that many Finnish bands
out there so maybe that's just the reason why it is easier to get attention.
But it's been clear to see that the success of HIM and Bomfunk MC's
has helped also us.
RockUnited: When seeing you on stage I can't help but think
that behind all that must be hours and hours of practise?
Lauri: You're right, we train quite a lot. Before the summer we trained
five times a week. Now that we're on tour we don't get to practise that
much. But we don't really need to because one gig is worth several training
sessions.
RockUnited: Have you done a video of your new single?
Lauri: Yeah, we shot the video for "Chill" ourselves when touring Scandinavia
with a small camera. A friend of ours edited it into a short video so
in that sense it's not a "real" video. After summer we're gonna release
a third single and have a bigger budget video for that.
RockUnited: Could the single be "Heartbreaker"?
Lauri: You think so? I don't actually know because it hasn't been decided
yet.
At this point we were interrupted by some fans who wanted to take picture
of Lauri so we had no time to ask him any more questions. He's a very
positive man and seemed really down to earth. It was fun to watch how
he had time for all of the fans, give autographs and have his picture
taken with them. We wish The Rasmus the best of luck for the future.
RockUnited will keep you posted on how their conquest of Europe will
continue.
Petri
Kautto
Check Out other The Rasmus-related material at www.RockUnited.com:
Ruisrock 2003 live review
The Rasmus live review
Reviews of "Into"
and "Dead Letters"