★☆★ The Rasmus ★☆★

Peroxide blond and smirking, Lauri Ylönen wobbles on his chair: “I will tell you how our friends reacted, they thought: ‘Heavens, you can’t do that!’ An excellent compliment, I think.”

What is meant is the seventh studio album of success-spoiled Finnish band The Rasmus, which on September 29, under the title “Black Roses,” will be released to eagerly waiting fans. Since releasing their last album three years ago, the four school friends have toured in almost 40 countries, played 250 concerts and gotten a bit out of breath doing so. As singer and songwriter Lauri recalls: “It was a great time. We chased penguins in Cape Town and played an acoustic radio set in front of 98,000 people in Mexico City. There are some great stories and impressions which I never would have wanted to forego, but we paid dearly for it and got seriously burnt out.”

With a new album ahead of them, the pressure to succeed was enormous: 8 Emmas alone, the Finnish equivalent of the Grammy, the 2004 Echo as best newcomer in Germany, as well as the 2004 World Music Award as best-selling Scandinavian band, two-time 2003 and 2005 winner of the MTV European Music Awards as best northern and Finnish act, are only some of the many trophies The Rasmus reaped in their 14-year career.

To date, the teen rock band that debuted in the school hall has sold 2.5 million albums worldwide. At home, with their first album “Peep” (1996) they already shot into the charts – at the time still without “The,” simply as Rasmus. Lauri who at the time was only 17 stopped school early, because overnight success doesn’t leave any time for cramming. In the ensuing years, the national young stars release hit after hit. 1997 saw the release of “Playboys,” in 1998 “Hell Of A Tester” and in 2001 “Into,” now under the band name “The Rasmus” to avoid confusion with Swedish DJ Rasmus. They are taken under the wing of manager Seppo Vesterinen who had already proven himself with fellow countrymen HIM, and replace drummer Janne Heiskanen, who goes to Thailand to find himself, with band merchandiser Aki Hakala. On the side, together with the bands Kwan and Killer, they ambitiously found Dynasty, an amalgamation of Finnish bands. The garage where everything once took its stylish start meanwhile serves as a stronghold for the mountains of gold and platinum awards, which since the 2003 hit album “Dead Letters” and the international top single “In The Shadows,” have been pouring in from other countries as well. This album alone sells 1.5 million copies, entered the Top Ten in ten countries (e.g. England), and also tops the charts in Germany, Finland, Switzerland and Austria.

Lauri: “Suddenly we were associated with a specific scene and we had the feeling that something specific, categorized was expected from us. That was hard for us to deal with. We urgently needed to take a break to think about this new situation and first did so now, after the 2005 album ‘Hide From The Sun.’ It was great to start completely from the beginning again, to simply wipe the slate clean of the whole past, to try out all kinds of new directions and to explore the regained, creative freedom.” Freedom, which was so important to the boyish man, that he gladly marked it symbolically and stylistically with a few crow feathers in his hair, earning him the nickname “Lintu,” Finnish for bird. The result of the retreat they planned for purposes of liberation is now presented on “Black Roses” in eleven carefully thought out, detail-loving songs: bold, professional, riddled with potential hits and very poppy, the quartet rings in its “new era.” “We call the sound ‘death pop.’ We didn’t think long about the new approach. Correcting our direction came about very naturally and corresponded to all of our ideas.”

Despite a seemingly dark title, The Rasmus venture out of their own shadow, showing what is to date their brightest and friendliest side. They found inspiration spending time under the southern sun on the small Cycladic island of Folegandros – a balcony over a cliff steeply dropping to the sea and Greek wine are the material from which “Black Roses” emerges. Lauri: “There is generally nothing wrong with a bit of pressure, but it is a negative, destructive feeling to think you have to beat your own song. In Folegandros we were far from everything, very relaxed and the songs just came to us. Of course, I love having a hit, but that involves luck and the right moment, that can’t be forced.” But one can help fortune along or let luck in if it knocks on the door, for example in the person of songwriter and producer legend Desmond Child. “Desmond contacted us and thought he would like to do some mixing with The Rasmus, since he likes our sound a lot. His ancestry is a mixture of Hungarian, Cuban and American, and he is a big fan of European and especially of Scandinavian bands. His avowed goal was to keep our unmistakable Finnish sound, perhaps to even make it more original and to not produce a type of American hit.”

Mr. Child did not pass up the opportunity to get actively involved, in person co-writing the first single “Livin’ In A World Without You,” which will be released on September 15. That puts The Rasmus in the excellent company of world stars like Kiss whose mega-hit “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” Child also worked on, Alice Cooper with “Poison”, Bon Jovi “Livin’ On A Prayer” or even Ricky Martin’s “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” to name only a few highlights from the more than 70 top 40 classics the successful producer was involved in and which in stores sold more than 300 million albums. Lauri: “Desmond had very good ideas which suited the texts and was an expert when it came to fine tuning. But our co-producer Harry Sommerdahl also made a valuable contribution. And despite Desmond’s reputation as a hit machine, he is a very sensitive, deep and artistically inclined person.”

Finally, it is thanks to an instruction manual for film script authors that Desmond gives Lauri that a clever concept underlies “Black Roses.” Lauri: “This book featured story examples from well-known films like ‘Star Wars,’ ‘E.T.’ and ‘Titanic.’ Based on a film plot, we created a fictional life story for two people. The structure of big Hollywood movies follows a basic four-part concept: ‘orphan,’ ‘wanderer,’ ‘warrior’ and lastly ‘martyr.’ We wrote our songs and organized them according to the various categories. We often discussed the lyrics for hours before deciding to keep a single line. This was very different from the last album. But of course you can also read a different meaning in each text and the fictional story of ‘Black Roses’ abounds with real memorabilia too.”

In the title song “Ten Black Roses,” the black roses are laden with meaning: “The idea for this originally comes from our fans. They got used to throwing black roses on stage at our gigs, so here there’s a connection to real life. In the song, the black roses are a secret between two lovers: She loves to braid roses in her hair and he sends her these from afar. By the way, the refrain in ‘Ten Black Roses’ already originated ten years ago – some ideas simply take time to mature. On the other hand, other pieces are brand-new like the first single ‘Livin’ In A World Without You,’ which first originated in past months in Berlin. A very electronic song with a rap style, very far removed from the ‘In The Shadows’ sound.“

Despite the powerful presence of success-man Child, The Rasmus didn’t let the musical butter be taken from the bread, but let off steam entirely according to their taste. Next to some 80s glam rock, it is really keyboards, samples, and synthesizer tunes, which provide the point of departure for the new compositions. Lauri: “We changed some of it making it more rocking, while a few songs remained exactly as they were on the first demo versions. I find them dark and full of atmosphere, with a bit of Depeche Mode feeling. While a song like ‘Dangerous Kind’ comes more from our funky early days.” An army of strings and orchestral bombast all the way to borrowing – with a wink – from Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” in “Lost And Lonely” can also be discovered, and a significant amount of irony and humor always resonates, which especially seems to come from the wonderfully lively and independently arranged bass and guitar runs. “I feel very self-confident with the new album just completed,” the bandleader happily says, and so they logically decided against getting involved in cooperative work that would not fit the new band feeling and concept. That is why the track with Nightwish singer Anette Olzon that is already finished has to wait a bit before it is released.

Long before the upcoming tours, “Black Roses” already saw a lot of places in its formative phase. Recording was done in Finland, Sweden, Singapore and Berlin, but most of the time work was meticulously done in Nashville, Tennessee, the Graceland of all country disciples and home of Desmond Child. Lauri laughs cheerfully, pronouncing Nashville with the broadest accent as if he had ridden the long way from Helsinki: “Nothing to worry about, we didn’t let campfire romanticism and western style creep into our sound. We were something like outlaws in the city because we did not wear THE hat… So everyone could always see we didn’t belong. It was already a crazy experience to see 1,000 people singing along to country classics in bars. Everyday we ate huge portions of meat, a lasting souvenir we are still feeling the consequences of,” he grins, slapping his stomach. And with his customary clear, slightly reserved voice, Lauri Ylönen sums up the mood at the 2008 Rasmus camp: “We are inspired again and feel super, insanely energetic and really excited about what you will think of ‘Black Roses.’” The stone rose on the self-designed cover resembles a compass with five directions. One stands for the unknown, which is exactly where The Rasmus are headed in a good mood and with a thirst for action.

Album “Black Roses” Int. release Sep29

Single “Livin’ In A World Without You” Int. release Sep15 (read less)

Peroxide blond and smirking, Lauri Ylönen wobbles on his chair: “I will tell you how our friends reacted, they thought: ‘Heavens, you can’t do that!’ An excellent compliment, I think.”

What is meant is the seventh studio album of success-spoiled Finnish band The Rasmus, which on September 29, under the title “Black Roses,” will be released to eagerly waiting fans. Since releasing their last album three years ago, the four school friends have toured in almost 40 countries, played 250 concerts... (read more)