The Rasmus are still small fish in the U.S. pond.

Next month it will be Central Europe, and in January they are off to Japan.

Last week The Rasmus were mainly on tour across the Canadian side of the border and they have now moved south down to Mexico. The band has sold around 40,000 records in each of these markets. As a sweetener in between the two legs of the tour, the band also had its first live date in New York. The venue was the Knitting Factory, an "intimate" club with room for only around 400 fans.

"The New York gig is really about getting seen, getting a foot in the door. In economic terms it can't pay for itself", says bassist Eero Heinonen. But manager Seppo Vesterinen reports that the tour as a whole is a profitable exercise. "The gigs in Mexico will cover the expenses of this tour and more. The band will be playing to halls with a capacity of over 2,000 down there."

The Rasmus has played in the States before, at The Roxy in Los Angeles and in a studio gig at the Fuse TV-channel in New York. Record sales in the U.S. so far have not hit 100,000, which is very small beer relative to the group's platinum sales in Germany and gold discs received in roughly a dozen European countries. Vesterinen comments with a shrug that he feels the Interscope label has neglected their job in promoting The Rasmus in the United States. This is not to say the band themselves have been shy about pushing their work. MTV, Fuse, and several radio stations are part of today's programme in New York.

"A Merry Christmas to everyone from The Rasmus", the band-members wish viewers of Fuse's Xmas Special compilation. "I'm heading for the Caribbean at Christmas... because there are polar bears prowling the streets back home in Finland", says vocalist and frontman Lauri Ylönen, spreading the word about winter up north to people who quite possibly do believe what he's saying.

There were three fans lined up outside the Knitting Factory hours before the gig was scheduled to begin. Ruth and Michele Cesario from Pennsylvania and Bess Brown from London (!) wanted to see the band already during the sound-check. "Yep, I flew in from London just for the one night, and just to see The Rasmus. I've never done anything quite as crazy as this", explains the 19 year-old assistant from a London record store. Alright, but why wait out here for hours in the cold? "So we can chat in peace to the guys and get the sort of information that you can't get in the crush of the gig itself. We already talked to Aki (drummer Aki Hakala) and to Lauri. They were great, especially Aki."

In the wake of their not inconsiderable worldwide hit In The Shadows, which gained them extensive exposure on MTV Europe and elsewhere, the young Finnish musicians are no strangers to the extremes and excesses of fan culture. "Fandom is a hobby that can go to some pretty wild extremes, like I guess some people can with golf, say", explains Eero Heinonen. "We think it's pretty weird sometimes, but for those who do it, it's a gas." So far the most extreme example of a Rasmus fan is a 28-year-old woman from England. "She had Lauri's face tattooed on her shoulder. And when he signed his autograph on her arm, she got that tattooed as well. Oh, and then she lost her job because she followed us around on tour for two weeks straight", say the band-members with genuine puzzlement.

But there is little time for chewing the fat over fan behaviour. The band's equipment arrives from the airport security screening, and the stage and sound crew routinely and briskly set up a nice sound for the small Knitting Factory stage. "Things have gotten pretty professional. We got so that when we were in England, we had about 25 people working on gigs. There were two tour buses and a big truck, and everyone had his or her own task and things to remember. If you don't get it organised like that, then touring from one country to the next just doesn't work", says Lauri.

When the band come on stage later in the evening, the front row fans scream out their names. In the backstage bar the gathered rock police tut-tut over the "pots and pans sound" of the band, and compare The Rasmus for some bizarre reason with Iron Maiden, although the guitar licks of Pauli Rantasalmi are something else again.

The sound engineers have put together a great mix for the small club, and the hits from the band's Dead Letters album (worldwide sales of around 1.3 million) come one after another. "We've been touring with Dead Letters material for nearly two years now. Off and on it gets frustrating that in one country you have to start from scratch and in another the fifth single off the album is already in the shops", says Lauri Ylönen.

Next month The Rasmus will continue with a tour in Central Europe, and in January they are off to do some dates in Japan. Then they will go back into the studio to produce an album to capitalise on the melodic power-pop of Dead Letters and take it forward in directions the band would like to explore. And then what? Another couple of years of touring around the world to promote that album? "This has already become a way of life with us. We're looking to have a long career, at least another ten years of this", says Lauri. "And then when the time comes and we want to chill out, we can move to a windmill in Norway or live in a renovated lighthouse somewhere. That's the other alternative. There are only the two ways about it."

thanks to *ICE* (The Polar Bear)