THE
RASMUS started in 1995 and have already had
much success in the Scandinavian countries. Now they’ve
had their international breakthrough. Reason enough to talk to
the Finnish guys...
Nora:
What does music mean to you?
Lauri:
Music is our whole life at the moment. It’s been almost
ten years since we’ve started and before this band we all
played instruments already. I and the bass player have a classical
background – I started playing piano when I was five years
old and Eero was playing violin. Music has been around in our
lives always and it has become a kind of a lifestyle for us. It
was just a hobby at first place and now it’s become our
job and it’s very different from any other job. We are able
to travel around the world and play music – so we’re
very lucky guys and that’s it.
Nora:
On which elements is your music based on?
Lauri: I
think we’re trying to bring out the Finnish nature –
there’s a lot of wood and forests in Finland and it’s
very beautiful. Many people are living in forests, the people
live quite isolated from each other and like to spend a lot of
time in the nature. In our album cover, for example, there is
a picture of the forest...we also sing about northern life and
stuff like that sometimes.
Nora:
Finland has also many famous metal bands, like for example Amorphis
or Sentenced. Do you like their music, or is metal not the kind
of music you listen to?
Lauri: Well,
there are many big bands like the ones you mentioned, and also
Nightwish and Him. Actually we play in the same rehearsal place
with them - Amorphis are just on the other side of the wall –
so we can kind of compete who plays the loudest.
Eero: I think in Finland, the metal scene is
the biggest – every other band is playing metal –
and they’re all very good and we appreciate them. I accidentally
saw Sentenced live a little bit and they are such good musicians,
it’s unbelievable.
Nora:
Your latest album is quite different from the other ones. What
was the cause for that change of style?
Lauri: Yes, the previous albums are quite different from
this one. When we started, the music was more like skate punk
and it also had funk elements and rapping in it. But I don’t
really feel comfortable with doing those things anymore. It’s
become more strong melodies and straight – forward music
now.
Eero:
In our music there have always been melodies and they
are very important for us. As for the album production, the two
latest albums we’ve done with the same producers and they
sound a bit different than they used to. Before these two we produced
the albums by ourselves. It ´s working fine now.
Nora:
Do you believe that your international success has been delayed,
or does it come at the right moment for you?
Eero: Well,
I think that any moment is good, but we also have much more experience
now about writing songs, doing gigs and recording albums, so that
things are quite easy for us now. We don’t have to struggle
as much as a band that is starting with their first album. I think
it’s a positive thing that we have been a band for such
a long time. And I also think that if we would have had our breakthrough
when we were teenagers, it would have been very hard for us to
cope with all the pressure and emotions.
Nora:
Have you already had the time to write songs for the next album?
Lauri:
We don’t play together that much except in the sound checks
because we don’t have the time to rehearse now. But we’ve
all recorded some material by ourselves, you know, doing some
demos and stuff. Next year, if it’s possible, we want to
take a little break to go back to the rehearsal room and start
jamming these ideas.
Eero: Basically, we write music all the time.
Nora:
A lot of people say that you can be compared to HIM. Do you agree
with that opinion?
Eero: Well,
of course there are some similar elements – we almost have
the same arrangements of instruments, we have a guitar, bass,
drums, vocals and we have strong melodies like they have. But
I think that concept is quite normal. Our latest album is quite
sad - the lyrics are sad and moody sometimes, but I think that
we are still different from HIM in many ways.
Nora:
Lauri, where do you take your inspiration for song writing from?
Lauri:
I listen to a lot of music and I’m buying almost one CD
a day. I try to keep my ears opened for nearly every kind of music.
As for the lyrics, on this record I was writing more personal
stuff like about the relationships that I’ve had, and things
that I couldn’t talk about before, or that I couldn’t
tell anyone...so it’s a little bit like I opened up more
on this album.
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