Interview with The Rasmus
The Rasmus International Forum
08-08-’06
We had the chance to speak to the guys just before their show at the Lokerse Feesten. It was a lot of fun so we hope you enjoy this page!
Who is the cookiemonster of the band?
Who changes his socks least often?
Who buys their furniture at ikea?
Who has the dirtiest mind?
Who is the best dresser?
Who smells nicest?
Who has the worst sense of direction?
Who is the best kisser?
Who borrows stuff from the other guys most without giving it back?
Who is best at remembering birthdays?
Who looks messiest in the morning?
Who cries over Disney movies?
Who is the best cook?
Who is the best at snowball fights?
Who has the worst manners?
Whose house is the cleanest?
Who is the biggest flirt?
Who is fastest at pitching a tent?
Who takes longest to get ready for a gig?
And some questions in cooperation with Britta from The Rasmus Brazil!
If you came to Brazil, what would you like to see or experiment with?
Lauri: First of all, are we going there..?
Mumbling among the band.
Lauri: We might, *might* be going there this year actually. There’s been some talk, nothing is yet confirmed, but…
Eero: Maybe in November, that’s quite possible yeah…
That would be great!
Eero: That *would* be great!
Lauri: And then we definitely, we should meet her… (Note: “her” = Brazilian webmaster.)
Aki: We have one memory from Brazil and it was in São Paolo Airport… Puts on a Spanish accent. Aeropuerto… And erm, it was… Everything was extremely slow and… Chuckles. We couldn’t get any money and any food there and it was like erm, the only experience we have but next time it would be nice to you know, see the scenery and you know, got to some different places, some traditional stuff, traditional music, traditional food, local beer…
Everyone laughs.
Before, at Dauwpop (Note: Previous interview Åsa & Carine available here!), you told us that you were going to maybe go into the studio this summer, to work on some new stuff… So did you actually get ‘round to that yet, or not?
Lauri: No… We haven’t yet gone into the studio, we have a lot of more shows coming. Perhaps like we said we might be going to South America, but at least for the moment it looks like we’re going to play with LostProphets for one month, in North America, and then… And I think we, we’d like to have a little break after these shows, you know, before doing anything else just to… It’s been again a quite heavy year, a lot of touring and it’s somehow good to empty our mind of everything and sort of erm, leave this album behind at some point to have full concentration on the new. Because we, actually we tried to go to rehearse the new songs already… And erm, it felt like everybody had still their mind on the tour, not really at the rehearsal room so… It’s better to do one thing at the time and do it properly… So maybe next spring, next summer, it’s time for the studio.
Pauli: Nods exaggeratedly, smiling amused.
Yeah… So you’re going to the US like, this autumn… And do you have plans for anywhere else like Latin America, any other gigs or anything?
Lauri: Well it’s always stu… Erm, stupid… Because we have plans, but if we say that “okay we’re coming” and then we’re not coming, then it’s going to be a lot of disappointed people again. So it’s better not to say too much.
Somewhere, sometime, some place…
Everyone laughs.
Lauri: But since we’re… It looks like we’re going to do this LostProphets tour, we’ll be pretty close to South America… At least, it’s highly possible that we’ll come around but…
Aki: Everything will be on MySpace or TheRasmus.com, so…
And erm… When you are preparing albums you usually have more songs ready than what eventually will get onto the album. So how do you select the songs that will be on the albums, like why didn’t Open My Eyes make it onto the European version of Hide From The Sun? How do you select which songs are going to be there?
Pauli: Like Open My Eyes was made after… So, it wasn’t possible.
But it is on the English version..? And that came out at the same time…
Pauli: Really?
Yeah!
Everyone laughs.
Aki: Yeah we have two versions of that, we have this acoustic version and also that one with the drums and everything. But it’s always really difficult to decide which songs will be on the album.
You like them all and then…
Aki: Yeah, usually you have some, like special relationships, between different songs… And you know, it changes every day, and you know it’s…
Pauli: And it’s good to not to do a too long album, or it’s like “ohhh…”. Rolls eyes and sighs. So…
And the fans just buy five different albums to get all the different songs…
Pauli: We always do some songs that we don’t put on the album, like extra material…
Aki: B-sides and stuff…
Pauli: So we can put them on a single or something.
So, you mentioned a few times already that you are doing a video for Immortal, with your own recorded stuff, so how is that coming along?
Lauri: Eero has been mastering that, so, tell then. Theatrically puts the recorders in front of Eero on the other side of the table.
Eero: Yeah, erm… We’ve been erm… We’ve been shooting for Immortal, in erm, some countries like South America, when we were there the last time we were shooting a lot of stuff and erm… South Africa as well and also in Japan and erm… In Finland also something and… And it’s been… It’s been really nice. There’s a lot of material of us playing like very energetic shows and erm, a lot of pictures of audiences… And also just sceneries from places like, beautiful sceneries from the seaside and erm, everything interesting…
Lauri: In Finland and…
Eero: Yeah!
So will you release that video, or will you just put it on-line for downloading, or..?
Eero: Well, we have to see like what it’s erm… One thing is, where it’s going to be is erm, the US, US-edition of the album, it’s going to be as an extra there, yeah and erm…
Pauli: Headbangs, imitating the band on stage. YEAHHH!
Eero: And erm… We’d try to get some TV-channels to play it but, but it’s made with erm, Super 8 millimetre like erm, film, so it’s not really like erm… Like the videos that they show on MTV is like, more expensive kind of thing… So, I don’t know how, where can we get it but of course we hope we can show it to many!
It’s kind of special then anyway!
Eero: Yeah, the song is very good and we believe in the song very much so…
So are you considering releasing the song as a single as well then, or just a video only?
Eero: I think we won’t release it as a commercial single. At least erm… Because it’s not very, the song is not very commercial, it’s more like erm, kind of heavy and fast and… Yeah I don’t know, it’s, it’s not a very commercial song. But, but anyway it’s a great song, we like to play it live.
And now we have some questions from fans, the first one is… Do you use a lot of technological stuff besides your normal instruments and add sounds to the songs? Like computer sounds or..?
Eero: Well I think that one thing in this band is to experiment with some sounds and like we, on the albums we have synthesizers and stuff so… It’s like, it’s part of this band.
Lauri: It’s nice to create this atmosphere and I think they bring something to our sound… Which is erm, perhaps part of the 80s sound… A bit more moody.
Pauli: Wooohooo!
What do you think are the best qualities or features about yourself and the band member who’s sitting to your right hand?
Everyone laughs.
Eero: Erm, maybe the best thing about me in the band is that erm, I have a different point of view most of the time, so, which can be a richness or it can be a curse. And erm… About Aki, erm, Aki is very, he’s very responsible over the things that he chooses to do. So, like, everything that he wants to do he wants to do it properly and, and you know that if he does something it will be on time and…
Pauli: Whistles and makes silly noises.
Eero: It will be, he will not like, just leave it. So he’s, you can rely on him.
Aki: Yes, I’m hard-working and erm… And… Now about Lauri? Or what..?
Uh huh… Yeah.
Aki: Looks at Lauri amused. Lauri’s…
Pauli: Laughs.
Aki: Erm…
Pauli: Laughs again and says something in Finnish.
Aki: Says something in Finnish as well.
Everyone laughs.
Aki: Yeah Lauri is erm… Says something in Finnish again.
Pauli: Laughs again.
Lauri: Smiles. Dedicated.
Aki: Dedicated!
Everyone laughs again.
Aki: Yes, that’s the word!
Lauri: Okay, my good qualities might be that I’m a good listener…
Everyone laughs yet again.
Lauri: Smiles cheekily. Because I like to steal ideas from people’s lives, for my song lyrics, you know. Oh and, at least half of them are somehow also from other people’s lives. I like stories, when people open their hearts to me and…
Everyone giggles.
Lauri: And erm, about Pauli… Well, when you get Pauli on the right mood, you, he has to be really, erm, on his erm… Enthusiastic about something. And when he is, he is very creative.
Pauli: Grins. Yeah… When I’m very enthusiastic…
Everyone laughs.
Pauli: It’s a very good thing. And about Eero, he’s erm, he has an always different point of view. Which can be a curse or…
Everyone laughs again.
Pauli: But usually it’s a really good thing because erm, we are more, like, the same with the three of us… Points at Lauri, Aki and himself. But we don’t see ourselves from the erm, as the big picture, as a band so easily. So it’s very good to have Eero who has some other points than usually this… Yeah, it gives us like, so we are not boring basically, so that’s a very good thing!
Many thanks to Universal Music and of course The Rasmus for making this interview happen!