Die finnische Alternative-Rockband The Rasmus ist mit einem neuen Album zurück und geht außerdem auf EU/UK-Tour. Im Interview mit dem Frontstage Magazine spricht Frontmann Lauri Ylönen über das neue Album, warum es gut ist, „weird“ zu sein, über Features in Rockmusik und über die anstehende Tour.
Frontstage Magazine: Why did you choose „Weirdo“ as the album title and not another song?
Lauri Ylönen: „Weirdo“ was the first song we wrote. That was kind of the key song for the album. It sort of created the whole concept. Many times when you make an album you try to find that one song that kind of makes sense the most and kind of grabs you somehow. And this was the type of song that I personally feel very deeply. I think I’ve always been a kind of a strange guy in my own way. And when I was younger maybe I had trouble with it. Like I was kind of ashamed of it a little bit or something like that. Like it was more like a burden. But I think when I’ve got older, I’ve gained some confidence. And I’m actually very proud that I’ve always been a weird weirdo. Because I’ve still had a perfect life, it doesn’t matter. Like you don’t really have to follow the rules you’ve been given or like I’ve made crazy choices in my life, you know, sacrificed everything for the band. Basically, I quit my school. I didn’t have any girlfriends, any relationships. I was always just fully committed to the band. And it was just my happy place in life. And this album title is also resonating a lot among the fans. When we announced the title I think many of the fans were very excited. Like „oh, yeah, I get it. I already know what you mean, only by seeing the word weirdo“. So it’s definitely a positive title.
Frontstage Magazine: So it’s motivational that being weird or a weirdo isn’t bad?
Lauri Ylönen: No, we want to celebrate being different and being unique and your own self. I think there’s a lot of pressure coming from social media to sort of look like something. And there’s always these beauty trends and, of course, with clothing and everything. But I think people are taking it very far and it seems like a lot of people try to even cut up their faces to look like this perfect human or something. It’s very crazy. So I think we should always try to live with our little flaws. When I was younger I used to hate my nose, I have this small nose. And I was too sharp. Always something wrong about me, myself. But now I think I’ve got over it. I don’t think it means anything. But of course when you’re young, you are very self-conscious and you always kind of think about yourself. It’s like a constant survival game.
Frontstage Magazine: Is this also the message of the whole album? Or what do you want to say with it?
Lauri Ylönen: It’s not exactly every song but that was kind of the starting point. And I think many, many of the songs fall in this weirdo category. So, yeah, I would say it represents the whole album. But I still wanted to treat every song, every idea of a song, especially and have them have like their own sound or production style and everything. Because it’s just more interesting artistically to take one song and really dig deep into, in the concept of the song and try to make it sound like production-wise, like it fits the lyrics of the song or the mood or even the artwork, the photos, of course, but also if we did some single artwork. Now that we have prepared the live shows we have the artwork for the screens on the stage and everything. So it’s fun to be involved with all the stages and try to draw a bigger picture. I think all these things matter. It’s not just the songs. It’s like the whole world of The Rasmus that we sort of want to create and show people.
Frontstage Magazine: How does the new album differ from the other albums?
Lauri Ylönen: In general this is sounding a bit harder and heavier than the ones before. It has a little bit more a modern touch sound wise. We work with different producers. The main producer for the album is Desmond Child. He is a very legendary guy known from the eighties already. He did amazing songs like „I was made for loving you“ from Kiss or Bon Jovi’s biggest hits, „Living on a prayer“ and „You give love a bad name“ and many great songs. So it was awesome to work with him but also we had this young guy called Joseph McQueen who is in LA. And he had this cool vision of what the music is like in 2025. So this combination that we could work with a lot of different talents made it very good and fit on the moment in this music scene.
Frontstage Magazine: I read that you wrote most of the songs in Greece and finished the album in Nashville. How did these places influence the songs?
Lauri Ylönen: The ideas for the songs are being born in a long time frame. I always keep my ears and eyes open for everything I see, everything I hear, even other people’s stories, sometimes fans or whoever that is. Something that happens to me or situations we are in with the band so that those are in my system and then they come out later. We have the tradition of going to Greece on this island of Folegandros where we’ve gone four or five times for songwriting. I spent a couple of weeks there. It’s a really quiet island, four hours with a boat from Athens. And it’s beautiful, a very isolated place. And we always go to the same small hotel. It’s a very special magical place to write music because it’s nice to be away from home and from everything busy and to focus on that moment and writing songs. It’s kind of like 24/7 Because when you’re in the writing mode, I think I’m always. Even in my dreams I’m kind of finishing up sentences. And when I wake up and I go straight to my computer and write down everything and sing in my little dicta folder. It’s very focused. And a place like that can really make it happen.
And then recordings were made in Nashville in a beautiful studio, Sienna studios, which is a legendary place for a lot of country music, but also Taylor Swift made her album there. It’s a great studio and it felt really good to go in a studio. To make it like an old school recording session after COVID. Because for the previous album we had to work from home and everybody was recording some bits and pieces at home and sending them over to each other. That was really, really, really bad. So we really enjoyed this time coming together, spending a lot of time in the studio, jamming and improvising there. Because that’s where the magic happens: When we’re all together.
And also Em (Emilia Suhonen), the new guitarist, she joined us four years ago, so it’s been a while. But this was the first album that she was with us from the very beginning. So that’s also made it special to us because she has a lot of cool ideas. She is also singing some parts and some songs on the album and, and that’s really refreshing. Also when we play live she’s a really kick-ass girl. She’s really, really great. A lot of the fans really like her. And I’m very happy about that because I was pretty afraid, how will the fans take it? When this other guy left, he had been a founder of the band with me and then all of a sudden there’s a new person but it all went well. And I think this change was good for all of us because we just realised later how much trouble we had and how many issues. So now the air is very clear and the fun of playing together is back. I think that’s a lot because of it. We are grateful.
Frontstage Magazine: You spoke about playing live. The EU/UK tour starts soon. Are you looking forward of being on tour in Europe?
Lauri Ylönen: Yes, very much. The touring part is maybe the best. I have two favorites because there’s kind of four parts in this album cycle. There’s always the creative part when everything like songwriting and all the like concepts and everything is sort of free. Imagine the band again. I like that part a lot. And then it’s the recordings and then it’s the interviews and then it’s the touring. So we’re almost at that touring point now. And it feels awesome because we’ve always loved to travel. This is a fantastic job because we get to do all the things we love the most, which is playing music, hanging out with my best friends, traveling, eating, sleeping. It’s amazing. We are so lucky bastards that we get to do this always. But I have to say that it’s also hard work. But also if I compare it to any other job, then I feel like I shouldn’t say anything. It’s almost like just a hobby. A hobby that pays my living, a hobby that pays my bills.
Frontstage Magazine: And are you looking forward to come back to Germany?
Lauri Ylönen: Oh, yeah. We haven’t played in Germany in many years but we have a lot of fans in Germany. Germany was the first country after Finland where something started to happen. So we owe a big thank you to all the German fans who started calling for Viva back in the day. There was almost a hysteria kind of happening in Germany, 20 something years ago, Bravo and these magazines, teenage stuff. And it was really cool. Germany is a big market. We got to play so many cities. It’s unbelievable. We had such fun times. In weird places like Baden Baden. We went there for a couple of days, just drinking beer and taking baths. And I have such good memories from those times. It’s a really nice place. I can’t wait. I hope the weather is good. It’s kind of late in the fall. We like to go explore the cities we play in. In Germany there’s so many, so much character, different cities have a totally different vibe.
Frontstage Magazine: When you’re on tour you always have time to explore the cities you play in?
Lauri Ylönen: We do. I want to have that time for building the best experience and best vibe for the concert. Because the concert is the main thing we go there to do. And for me it starts from the very morning. Whatever I do during the day creates the good vibe. And if I do something I don’t like then it’s not good. It’s nice to go explore the cities. We’re quite active and kind of a healthy band nowadays. We go running or at least walking the city. And if there’s a national park, that’s a perfect thing to do. Get some exercise, go to see some museum, have a good lunch somewhere local. It’s nice if we can have a local guide. Sometimes we ask the fans, from Instagram, like, „Hey, who wants to show us around?“ And sometimes we pick some random band and they can show us around and maybe we have a coffee somewhere. It’s always good to know the city, feel the vibe, meet people, this is the cultural thing. And before you go on stage because then you know where you are, you know, it’s nice to talk to the audience because you actually know something and it just makes the show much better.
Frontstage Magazine: Back to the album, you worked for two songs together with other artists. How did this happen? Why did you choose these artists?
Lauri Ylönen: It got more common also in rock music to have features. It used to be only hip hop guys were doing it. And I was always thinking „Wow, that is so cool“. They can just go and jump on each other’s songs and do some parts and sometimes doing tours together. And I’m glad that we were able to do something like that. There’s the song „Break These Chains“ that has a feature from Niko Vilhelm from Blind Channel. Nico is a friend of ours. Obviously from Finland. Finland is such a small country and everybody knows each other here. So it was just easy to ask him. I like what they do. They have a cool band. And I think he’s a really great singer, too. That was nice. And I like to work with Finnish artists, something about it, our tiny nation, 5.5 million people. And we deliver a lot of music in the world. I’m very proud of us, proud to be a Finn. And then on Weirdo, we have a feature from American new friend band called The Funeral Portrait. The singer Lee Jennings, he’s an incredible singer. We just played a tour with them in America this spring for five weeks. We were supporting them on the east coast. And it’s great that we made a new friend, a new connection in America because we haven’t been there much. Last time we played there was 16 years ago. So it was really enjoyable to go there. And also we signed a deal with the American label Better Noise Music. So this is kind of all new for us, new and exciting. It’s just an American cool band and they’re actually going to be supporting us on the tour. So they are coming to Germany as well to play. So we kind of made this deal. We could go to America to support them.
Frontstage Magazine: So will you then also sing the song live with Lee Jennings if he’s there?
Lauri Ylönen: I think at least we try to do it.
Frontstage Magazine: So you just asked and then you did the feature together?
Lauri Ylönen: I sent him the song and it was kind of a coincidence because they, without me knowing, had a song called „Stay Weird“. It’s almost the same idea in the song, it’s good to be weird, this type of idea. So I was like, what? This is so crazy. This is like a destiny talking, like this was meant to be. So it’s just sometimes you find soulmates. And I think with this guy and this band we just clicked immediately. Even before I met them, I was texting with him. And I just felt like I know this guy already, like he’s my little brother or something.
THE RASMUS EUROPE “WEIRDO TOUR” 2025 GSA DATES:
11.11. – Hamburg, DE – Markthalle
12.11. – Berlin, DE – Metropol
16.11. – Wien, AT – Simm City
17.11. – München, DE – Technikum
20.11. – Zürich, CH – Komplex 457
21.11. – Karlsruhe, DE – Substage
22.11. – Saarbrücken, DE – Garage
23.11. – Frankfurt, DE – Batschkapp
25.11. – Köln, DE – Live Music Hall
Fotocredit: Venla Shalin
