Sivu 47 |
According to Ylönen, the Rasmus' new album brings back fun and risk-taking to the band's music. Ylönen says The Rasmus has earned gratitude in Russia by playing in larger cities that lie far from Moscow, such as Chelyabinsk and Kazan. REWIND, FAST FORWARD When success is based on well-timed tricks, that success can be extremely difficult to repeat. Ylönen found that out in 2005 when The Rasmus's album Hide from the Sun sold 15,000 copies in the UK about one-twentieth as many as the 290,000 copies of Dead Letters sold there. Ylönen has since admitted that as a result of their sudden success, the group tried to be something they weren't. The popularity of "In the Shadows" trapped the band into a stereotype from which they couldn't escape. The rest was an album full of contrived music, which Ylönen now says was not really The Rasmus. "I realised that the idea of The Rasmus has been to try out any and all ideas," Ylönen says. Ylönen was not content to lick his wounds. Instead he decided to rediscover his old idearich seam of creativity. He spent three years writing songs for the Black Roses album, which was released last autumn. As Ylönen sees it, the disc brings back a sense of fun and risk-taking to the band's music. The album became the group's most extravagant and expensive project to date. "We found this amazing new self-confidence. It was as if we had been possessed by something on our previous albums," he muses. As producer of the album, the group hired American music business legend Desmond Child, known for writing such smash hits as Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca," Bon Jovi's "You Give Love a Bad Name" and Kiss's "I Was Made for Loving You." Ylönen says that Child approached the band and proposed the collaboration. Sound-wise, the collection is poppier than ever. According to Ylönen, the group decided it would rather go in the direction of, say, recent Britney Spears than heavy metal which led to the band's own description of the music as "death pop." Despite its ambitious production, Black Roses did not take off as hoped after its release in late September. As of early February, the album had only sold some 135,000 copies internationally, 5,000 of which were in the UK. HOME FIRES BURNING Despite their happier sound, The Rasmus's new songs feature lyrics suffused with death, bitterness and loss although you would not guess the latter from Ylönen's cheerful, laidback mood. Last spring, his partner Paula Vesala, singer with the popular Finnish rock duo PMMP, gave birth to their first child, Julius. "That's been really great; I arrived in a good mood for this interview because I spent most of the morning with my son. It helps you forget all the crap." Guitarist Rantasalmi became a father last summer, now all of four band members have kids. That will have an effect on future tours. Whereas in the past the group played as many as 250 concerts a year, tours will from now have to be shorter and more concentrated to allow for more family time. "That's a good thing," says Ylönen. "It helps keep you focused on what you're doing." The Rasmus's European tour continues through the spring with March dates in Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Bilbao and April dates in Bochum, Frankfurt, Vienna and Haus im Ennstal. www.therasmus.com MARCH 2009 BLUE WINGS 47
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
Page 5
Page 6
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 14
Page 15
Page 16
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Page 20
Page 21
Page 22
Page 23
Page 24
Page 25
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
Page 29
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Page 41
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
Page 45
Page 46
Page 47
Page 48
Page 49
Page 50
Page 51
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 55
Page 56
Page 57
Page 58
Page 59
Page 60
Page 61
Page 62
Page 63
Page 64
Page 65
Page 66
Page 67
Page 68
Page 69
Page 70
Page 71
Page 72
Page 73
Page 74
Page 75
Page 76
Page 77
Page 78
Page 79
Page 80
|
|
|
Why do I see this page ?
Your Flash Player is older than version 7 or Javascript is not enabled. What you see is the raw text of the publication.
To read this Digipaper-publication install/update your Flash Player from this link or enable Javascript.
|
 |
For proper operation Digipaper-publication needs Flash Player version 7 or newer.
Install the latest version of Flash Player from this link. |
|