The Rasmus: Positively Melancholy
Festival season is at its end and the winter gig season is just around the corner. What is a band to do in that small respite? Promote their new material of course. With a new album, book, and tour on THE RASMUS’ horizon, we catch vocalist Lauri Ylönen in full promotional swing. “I get really frustrated and anxious when I don’t have something to do,” comes with a slight laugh. “Because I love my work – I can’t even call it a job. It’s just my hobby.”
The latest output of Lauri’s hobby is Rise. Album number ten within THE RASMUS’ franchise, like many other recent efforts, felt the effects of the pandemic. The band went from playing together in the living room of a Spanish villa to being separated indefinitely. The booked studio time in Eastbourne right here in England slipped down the drain. “It was really fucking difficult,” Lauri tells us as we touch on Rise’s recording process. “We’re used to being so interactive. The good ideas don’t come from when we’re playing together but more when we go out for drinks or, you know, in the sauna.”
With THE RASMUS being separated for an unspecified period, the band was faced with the choice of pressing forward with Rise or holding off. Spread across the world from Hawaii to Australia, Rise’s formation has some interesting stories. “I was recording my vocals in my car. It was downgrading in some way but I really enjoyed it. Just drove to the top of a mountain and would start singing there. The views made for an inspiring way to work.”
As the conversation begins to unfold, this need to adapt isn’t just a core theme within THE RASMUS’ material. The motivation from its opener Live And Never Die or the encouragement of the title track may not be for the listener at all. “We were very close to quitting,” Lauri admits, addressing the departure of guitarist Pauli Rantasalmi. “He wasn’t enjoying it or the touring anymore. It’s really hard work to be away from home for months and live out of a suitcase. If you don’t love it, you shouldn’t do it.” This move resulted in the recruitment of Emilia ‘Emppu’ Suhonen and a new lease of life was brought into the band. The difference within THE RASMUS has been monumental as Lauri explains. “Everyone is just so full of life and happiness. When we play live, everyone leaves the venue smiling and it’s good vibes all round.”
The Distorted Sound confessional booth opens before we could broach the reasoning behind Lauri branding THE RASMUS’ music as “positive sadness”. “Some people can’t deal with this lifestyle, I have trouble sometimes,” he says. “There are days where I walk the streets with my feathers on, full make up, and holding my head high. Then there some where I just have my hat on, try to disappear and not even leave the house.”
For a reason unknown to us at the time, it’s strangely comforting to know a man who’s perceived to have it all wrestles with their feelings too. We battle feelings of inadequacy but when those are piled on by internet commentators who have nothing better to do than spew negative nonsense, it’s no surprise there are times Lauri wants to hide from the world. The answer seems obvious when we ask what his anchors are. “It feels like the balance is back in the group now,” he beams. “I feel I’m surrounded by love on stage. They’re there for me and we’ve had good conversations about personal issues within the band. It makes us stronger when we know what’s going on so we can take care of each other.”
Not for the first time, the comparison between being in a band and being in a marriage bubbles to the surface. THE RASMUS’ trip to Spain was a last-ditch effort to save the relationship with Rantasalmi. The memories of cooking meals together, swimming, and purely enjoying each other’s company are ones Lauri looks back on fondly. Though the sadness tinging the laughs and smiles is still visible. As we begin to joke about the divorce rate of the tens of weddings Lauri has attended, including his own, the pain filled lyrics of the album suddenly make sense. A heart which is hurting is at its most creative.
Rise isn’t the only example of a soul on display. The positive sadness Lauri alluded to earlier is arguably the entire premise of THE RASMUS. An extension of those therapy sessions comes in the form of a biography simply titled THE RASMUS. What started as a “we’ll do that when we quit” joke between the band is now a fully-fledged title written by Ari Väntänen. Only in Finnish for the time being, a language Lauri has offered to teach us, the book details not only the life of the band but that of its members as well. Much of this book took shape in the most Finnish way possible; “naked in the sauna”.
Our newfound friend is keen to express the band’s work isn’t just an acknowledgement of pain; “There’s a whole other side to THE RASMUS which I hope people see. This is the story of the bond we have but, in a way, it’s the story of how I became myself.”
Rise is out now via Playground Music.
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