The Rasmus is a Finnish rock band which are best known for their hit single called ‘In the Shadows’. The band has been pretty succesful and has sold over 5 million copies all over the world and have won awards both at the domestic and international level.
Formation
The band was formed in 1994 with the members being Lauri Ylönen, Eero Heinonen, Pauli Rantasalmi and Jarno Lahti. They were still in high school and played their first gig during a pre Christmas party on 23rd December 1994. Jarno left the band later in 1995, and was replaced by Janne Heiskanen. The band produced a few songs in their debut EP called 1st which featured songs like “Funky Jam”, “Myself”, “Frog” and “Rakkauslaulu”. Janne Heiskanen left the band later and went to India to pursue meditation. He was replaced by Aki Hakala.
Albums released later
Later on, the band went on to produce more albums and signed with labels mainly Warner Music Finland and Playground Music. They produced great albums during the 2000s like Dead Letters, Intro, Hell of a Collection, Hide from the Sun etc.
Their last album was ‘Dark Matters’ released on 6th October 2017. During the Dead Letters Anniversary Tour at Rock City in Nottingham, Lauri announced that the band might release new music in the future.
World Tours and Making Music
The Rasmus is definitely one of my favourite bands of all time and ‘In the shadows’ is one of the best songs that I have ever heard. Lauri spoke about his experience of being part of the band and said that the time they spent together definitely was what laid the foundation for their career and that is the reason that they still are active till this day. Apparently, the members of the band live far away across continents-Hakala and Rantasalmi live in Helsinki, Heinonen in Australia, and Ylönen in the USA. However, the bond between the band is strong and they are really passionate about the music that they produce. Lauri spoke about how the members could take a 10 year break and it would feel like yesterday coming back together.
We are such good friends it’s more like a brotherhood. I have gone to the same class with Eero since I was 9 years old. We had our first band together already then. Playing together for 25 years is way more than half of our lives. We could take a ten year break and it would feel like yesterday coming back together.
Lauri Ylönen
The band does release videos on its youtube channel. They mostly have been doing remake of their older songs but we might get to see a new album from them. It is good to see The Rasmus still producing music. Now each member of the band has their own families to take care of and with these responsibilities, their priorities have definitely changed.
With that being said the band still is quite active in doing live tours and going around the world to perform gigs. Lauri does not want to retire and would prefer to sing for another 20 years if it is possible. The band has played in 70 countries and plans to cover more destinations if they get the chance. They seem to be quite eager to go on tours, however I believe the plans changed because of lockdowns that happened. But, hopefully we will get to see them create more music in the future.
