Cover: The Rasmus Get Serious In The Studio

The Rasmus - Sunshine From The Shadows

From travelling the world to performing ancient rites in a pyramid, the last year's certainly changed Finland's famous foursome. And now their music's taken a dramatic turn too...

"We wanted to do more serious stuff and want people to take it seriously - we want to show people that we're for real," affirms The Rasmus bassist Eero Heinonen.

Rocksound has been flown over to Sweden where the Finnish foursome are holed-up in Stockholm's Nord/Hansen Studios midway through recording their sixth studio album, "Hide From The Sun". We've heard some finished tracks, and The Rasmus are heading in a dramatic new direction - it's clear these boys mean business!! Keeping the distinctive sound that shot them to the fore last year, they've thrown in new textures and arrangements; you could say they've been suffering a little from Stockholm syndrome, as there's even a touch of Muse about the proceedings!!

"These sessions have been so good and everybody feels confident about the songs," enthuses feathered frontman Lauri Ylönen. "We're only halfway through writing and recording - there are going to be at least six more songs, so it's difficult to tell what the album will be like when it's finished, but we know what direction we're heading in. We wanted drama - all the ideas had a dramatic feel to them that makes your hair stand on end."
"The songs are heavier and darker this time," adds Eero. "That's the fundamental change. Part of the reason was we felt we wanted to do something new."

DARK TRANQUILITY
You could say The Rasmus (completed by guitarist Pauli Rantasalmi and drummer Aki Hakala) have changed more than most bands on the block, with early releases (check out Warner-released debut "Peep" and "difficult" second album "Playboys") demonstrating a band trying to find their sound ("We were so funky!!" - Eero).

But the progression from last year's "Dead Letters" to "Hide From The Sun" is more obvious.
"We're sharpening up the edges and there's more depth in the music", explains the singer. "The songs have more things happening; there's more to listen to and they're more complicated, but still very much like The Rasmus."

Perhaps this swerve to a more theatrical sound could have been inspired by Finnish cellometal band Apocalyptica, with whom Lauri and HIM's refined frontman Ville Valo teamed up to record
"Bittersweet" last year.
Lauri also added his vocals to "Life Burns" on their self-titled latest opus, and the singer thinks the four cello-men of the Apocalyptica's contribution to his band's new track "Dead Promises" is a fair trade.
"I think they're one of the most dramatic bands and seeing them live is incredible - they sound huge!!"

Aside from the addition of strings and piano, the album, produced once again by Martin Hansen and one-time Roxette guitarist Mikael Nord ("Why break the winning team?" Lauri), is deeper and darker lyrically, with escaping and hiding both key themes.
"It sounds a bit negative, but it's like searching for your own feelings and emotions," discloses the frontman. "There are a lot of influences from history that I've taken from books I've read. In "Lucifer's Angel" there's an urban witch-hunting theme, I'm singing about a person who has visions. Most of the time those with visions get pushed away because people fear them as it makes them feel uncomfortable. That's something that's happened throughout mankind in history, it goes way back. Lyrically, "Night After Night (Out Of The Shadows)" is a continuance from "In The Shadows". It's a very positive song, I can call for my angel and she or he can come and help me out if I'm in trouble. A load of things happened in my life after "In The Shadows" came out. It was the busiest year we ever had, we went to so many countries and we were very happy at some times and sad and disappointed at others. A lot of things happened to make us feel reassured. We got a lot of new people interested in the band and realised who the most important people in our lives were."

Yes, it's fair comment to say that "Dead Letters" changed the quartet's lives. Already a chart-topper in their homeland, the worldwide release last year took the band to America, Japan and the far reaches of the world.
In the UK opinion was somewhat divided, as their Carling Weekend Reading appearance demonstrated.
"After that night I thought quite a lot about how we should proceed", recalls Eero. "Perhaps we had too much exposure in a short time and maybe that annoyed people. Maybe our style of music annoys people but I'm ready to work on that to regain their respect. We had a similar experience in Finland when we started the band. We were in the music papers and some people were saying, "This is teenage shit!!" After three or four years when we released our third album, people started to say, "This is a good song, they can really play and sing !!" and that was it, now we're really popular in Finland and nobody throws shit at us!!"

But Lauri acknowledges that the band seem destined to divide opinion.
"I think we've always had people who love us and people who hate us", he surmises, sighing.

Despite the Reading bottling, the UK fan base continued to grow, and Eero maintains his surprise at how easily it worked out.
"I used to think English people were particular about their music and fashions and they might think our music isn't the latest hot thing or cool enough. I was quite surprised the album sold so well and people liked it."

But with high sales come demands for an equally good follow-up, and The Rasmus have been feeling the pressure.
"It's good, as it's only kicking our arses to make us work even harder", asserts Lauri. "The only worry is that so many bands die at this point in their career because they've had such a huge success before and they somehow lose grip of the main things, which are the music and gigs. I think we've managed to keep that at least on the same level that it was before. Things are pretty much the same as five years ago. We have the same rehearsal room and all live in Helsinki."
"For me, last year was the best year of my life, even though it was really stressful and hectic", states Pauli. "I've never been in so many countries and met so many people. It changed me a lot. I'm much more open-minded about everything."

PYRAMID POWER
Part of that new insight is down to a life-changing experience when the band hit Mexico City, one of the last dates on the "Dead Letters" tour.
During their week-long stay they went to the pyramids at Teotihuacán, where their native Indian tour guide took a shine to them and offered an unforgettable experience.
"He liked us because we showed a lot of respect to him and his culture, and he asked us if we wanted to join him in a ceremony, like a meditation," says our feather-wearing friend.

The quartet were taken into a sacred underground chamber in the pyramid that was used as an Inca school room, told to make a circle and think one "holy thought."
This experience made a particular impact on Eero, who regularly practices yoga and meditation. "Sometimes you feel some places are deep and that place felt purifying somehow," he nods.

Lauri adds that the guide even invited the boys back to his home, where his family cooked them a meal.
"They were very poor people but they gave us all they had," says the singer.
"They also gave us Indian names!! We are now part of the tribe!!", laughs Aki, who was renamed Rabbit Of The Moon.

Brilliantly, they repaid the favour by having the tribe perform as support for the following night's gig!! "I was wondering how the audience would react to it, but once they got on stage and started dancing and drumming for half an hour, the audience started chanting "Mexico! Mexico!" I've never seen anything like it. My hairs were standing up, it was so patriotic," grins Lauri.

Eero believes the boys learned an important lesson from the experience:
"Like the Native American Indians, they live by respecting one another and nature, and that's something Western people have somehow forgotten. It's more a primitive form of respect: human to human, something holy and sacred, and it's quite easy to lose those essential things in life when you live in a modern world."

Mindful four-stringer is hopeful. "I'm interested in how this album is going to do and if there are going to be any singles that do well. "Dead Letters" was a huge seller, and if we can do half that, it would be great, but it's hard to know what's going to happen. I believe we have good songs and a great album. After all, you can't know how the radio or people will take it."

"It's a thin line between pessimistic and optimistic," smiles Aki.
"We're in a great situation, where people will give the album a chance."

The single "No Fear" is out on August 29, followed by the album "Hide From The Sun" on September 12, both on Universal/Island.

thanks to Hannah Joanne