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Calling All Weirdos With LAURI YLONEN From THE RASMUS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm Loudy, the singer of the Rathmus Finnish band from
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hell Thinky originally, and yeah, we started pretty long time ago,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: like in ninety four, played the first show at the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: school party. We have five songs, one of them being
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Metallica song Master Puppets and then if.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: You brought our own songs, you know.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: And it's been quite a ride, and here we are
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: thirty some years later, still doing it and still doing
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: better than ever.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Actually, Fantasy brother, thanks for joining us to save it
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: on it.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Thank you get to be here my pleasure.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: The rest Mus release your eleventh studio album, Rido, tomorrow's
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: September the twelveth. So how you feel about it?
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Feeling excited a little bit nervous still after all these years,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: you know, we've been putting a lot of emotion, a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: lot of time on this album and to this, you know,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: last two or three years and it's finally going to
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: be released.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: So always like a bit nerve wrecking, you know, to
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: let it go.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: But so far a really good response, especially you know,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: fans been liking the new little heavier sound.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: We have more guitar, uh like.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Orientated a sound, which is kind of something we used.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: To do before. It feels good.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: You know, it's a strong album, so I'm very happy
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to be talking about it here.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: They're on that subject, right, can can you dive a
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: bit deeper into the musical side of the album and
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: tell us what you're gone for this summer?
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: And well, yeah, I think, well, personally, I've been like
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: listening to heavier music, perhaps maybe something even like something
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I used to grow up with, like I sort of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: re rediscovered, you know, some of the player album like
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: South of Heaven, and like I was like, oh, this
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: is so good. I used to grow up with this
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: type of music, and you know, it brought back a
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: lot of memories. And also like the theme of this album,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: weirdough is sort of like echoes from the past, like
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: from the time when we started, when I was like
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: fifteen years old, and I used to look very special,
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: like I guess still today, like I have my own
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  Speaker 1: weirdo things.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: I too, And I was going to school and I.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Was always a bit afraid, like you know, if I'm
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: gonna get beaten up or you know, people don't like
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: me as the way I am, And that was kind
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: of the message in my early songs, like I was
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: always saying about that that topic, and I realized that,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: you know, I haven't got gotten too far from that.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: You know, it's still like kind of the main.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Message of the Rasmus Like, so we wanted to sort
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: of bring it back after all these decades and sort
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: of celebrate for being a weirdo and being a different
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: and being your unique self. So we want to sort
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of turn that word upside down to be something positive.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: Good on you, man, Good on you.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: And today you've released the singles Resting Pieces, Creatures, a Chaots,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: Break These Signs, and the title track will come out
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: with the album. So I think you go to sunny
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: representation of what do we expect from the whole thing?
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they are, but also there are different kind of songs,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: like you know, there's a song called Banksy. Banksy is
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: like a almost like a punk rock song, like a
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: two minute you know along like a fast one, uh
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: or maybe not so serious. And there's even there's even
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: a ballad song on the album, which I wrote.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: For my son.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I have a teenager son, and I feel like I
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: haven't been present enough in his life and I've felt
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: bad about it, and so I just.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Wanted to you know, make this song for him.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: It's kind of personal and almost like like like this
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: sensitive side of me like sometimes comes out. And so
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I think it's nice that when you write music and albums,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: you treat each song.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Like a separate piece of art, and like I always
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: want to.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Die deep in the lyrics and try to, you know,
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  Speaker 1: build the song around the message and the idea of
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: the song, like not to push it to be something
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: it's not born to be.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, if you've don't mind me asking, brother, what was
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: it like the first time you played those songs to
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: your son, Like you would have been watching his face
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: to see what it was like was his reaction?
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Well he was the first one to hear the song
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  Speaker 1: and I I was in a car with him and I,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: you know, I just said, like, well, I wrote to
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  Speaker 1: this song, you know I'd like to I like you
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: to hear it and you don't have to say anything
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: and just just listen to it.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: Then that's it.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: And I think it's quite overwhelming, like if anyone writes
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you a song already, like what can you say? It's
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: really it's really like grand so you know, but I
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: think he took it well, and you know, it's done.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Bet you that was probably the most nervous you've ever
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: been ed by a song to anybody, wouldn't it right?
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Exactly? Yeah?
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: And now it's out there, and I mean soon on
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: Friday's out out, and like I think it's I'm not
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the only one who could could have lived in this
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: kind of guilt, you know. I think many times lyrics
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: are translatable to different situations, people's different lives, you know,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And that's good the way I you know, but I
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: just like I want to put a lot of personal things.
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Into my lyrics.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: It's just it's purifying too to get them out. And
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: like I think I'm quite shy or reserved person, and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: sometimes talking about things.
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  Speaker 2: Is not easy.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: So it's like writing a song when I can spend
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: like thousand hours getting it just right and say exactly
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: what I want and like, you know.
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: Good, you right, that's beautiful, It's beautiful.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: The time track weird I features Lee Jettings from The
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: Funeral Portraits as well on gets Vicals and the song's
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: an absolutely cracker bright The par of you hormonos so all
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: together on that song, like tell us more about it
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: and why you chose Lee to be with me or not.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well Lee came about.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: Because we we signed a record deal with American label
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Better Noise Music recently and then and then this idea
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: came like to us to go support them on the
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: US tour, which was dismay, and we became really good
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: friends with these guys. You know, they just happened to
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: be our type of people, and you know, sometimes you
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: find find the soulmates, like you know, it's like destiny.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Because I asked him to to to join.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: The track, and then I figured out later that they
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: have a song called stay Weird, like almost the same
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: kind of ideas, Like it was really like a good
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: match and they're a wonderful band.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: He's an awesome singer. So it was just yes, yeah,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: they will be touring with us in Europe now this
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: auto they are coming over.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: Here, so's yeah, and weird I was actually the first
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: song you write for this album today?
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  Speaker 4: So how did it shape through the album as a whole?
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you always kind of want to find that a
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: key song that sort of resonates deeper and like feel like, okay,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: this has something to say, like it is already sparked
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: an idea of the next song, and the next song
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: kind of one of those songs, and then we started
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  Speaker 1: sort of like.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Hovering above the weirdo theme, and.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: I think we made quite many songs that fall in
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: that category. Like you know, Creatures of Chaos also is
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: like an anthem for outsiders. Again like similar but different approach,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: more like the Joker movie, you know, like he's the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: bad guy, like all the creeps, all the weirdos come
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: to him and they just have a good party together,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: just like we do at our confort.
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: That's nuts.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: I read you sort of touched on us a little
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: bit before my but I read it quite from you
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: that said. I find it companying that our eleventh album
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: is pretty much the same message as our first album
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: released in ninety six.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: So can you love right on it?
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Be more?
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Like it said, it's had a central theme for everything
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: you do.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is like kind of maybe the main message
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of the band, like like just be yourself no matter what.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Like I think that's always been a struggle for me.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: But as I've grown up, you know, I've been able
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: to find my soulmates, like people like me have come
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: to me because it was like an almost like an
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: invitation to dress up like that, to put make up
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: like that, do my head like that kind of like
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: that's especially back in the days when there was no
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: social media and that kind of easy access to people. Well,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: you had to like send messages out there please find me.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Then all the way those same to me and then
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: that's where we've you know, from the band and like
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you know, that's where I make my life lasting relationships
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: and people who are still my best friends from you know,
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  Speaker 1: those days. So that was kind of like something comforting
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: about that, you know, like you're not alone, Like you
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: just have to like you know, let them know.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: To find you.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: And for me, worked really well, and I I believe
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: in that, like you shouldn't change yourself because the society
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: wants you to be something or you know, there's a
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: lot of pressure from social media for young kids to
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: be certain type and you know, be successful and blah
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: blah blah, you know everything. Like I still don't know
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: where I'm going. I still don't know where I'm gonna
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: be when I grow up. You know That's how I feel.
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: But you know, you're having fun right now, which is
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: all that matters.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I know it's not easy to be young.
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: I know it's not easy and I'm afraid it's even
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: more difficult now than he was.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: Social comedy, that's the question for a normal I've got
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: two young daughters myself, and they'll come home and tell
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: me something that happened to him at school, and it's like, really,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: did you just knock him out?
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: They're like, Dad, I'm eleven years old. I can't knock
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: him out. But it's just it's so frustrating these days.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Wow, it's it's crazy.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: It is a long those lines by like, how would
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: to say the Rasmus have brown or changed musically from
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: that first album Pete Rudo Rido.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, it's been such a long career.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: So you know we have grown up in this band,
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: being fifteen years old when we started now forty something,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: you know, so it's like a lifetime. Obviously, you change
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: as a person. You have different faces in life. You know.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I became a parent.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: I was like depressed, I had all these things like
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: along the way, and I was always like reflecting that
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: into my music. And you know, it's now when I
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: look at the whole career, all these eleven albums, it's
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: it's really like a diary, you know, all these eleven
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: chapters plus like all the episodes, all the songs, like
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: it's pretty wonderful to see and like, oh, I remember.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: That, I remember why I wrote that one.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And you know, like and also you see like some
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: of the like things connecting from.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: The past to the present day, like the weirdo thing,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: like you know, and you.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Realize, oh, that's that's me, that's us, you know, like
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: it all makes sense because time has passed and we've
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: been like grinding for so long. It's a really good feeling.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: And and and we had changes in the in the lineup,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: like and joined us as a new guitarist.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: She came in like three four years ago.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: But this was the first album we could start from
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: scratch with her, like really like from the clean table,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: as we say, And then it made it so much
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: more like better, Like I just feel like her presence
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: has really, you know, saved us from drowning.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: And I'm really grateful for her.
• 13:27
  Speaker 4: You know some blood yeah god no, yeah, yeah.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: Currently part way through a world Totter from I read,
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: I would says, you hit Astride for the very first time,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: starting Brisbine on January thirtieth, and you hit Sydney and
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: melbourniy consecutive days. But the big question out of that,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: mate is how and why have you neglected us for
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: so long?
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: This is your first tour.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: I'm so sorry.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I know it's it feels like a waste, waste because
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: like I know, like even two thousand and three, our
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: song in the Shadows was a huge hit there and
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: and we were just so busy and like I.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: We it's just I don't know, it's just spent and
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: it's like being like twenty.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: Two years now or something crazy.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: But hey, better than never, you know, I'm really really
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: really excited about this. You know, it's it's the first time.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: It can only be that one first time, and it's
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: always magical because I know people have been waiting for
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: us for like twenty plus years and that that moment
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: will be like you know, fire, It's gonna be so good.
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: And and also you know, I've never visited.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Australia in my life, so also getting that country point
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: we've been collecting. I think we have played in like
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: seventy two countries.
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: From Australia on the Lift, just you know, be finally
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: you go roight. I've got a new segment I've started
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: called photo bombs. So basically I've trod through the social media.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: I've come up with a few photos that I want
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: to ask a bit more about. So the first one
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: I've come across.
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: Is this one here. But that's a lot of rubbish
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: for four guys, mate, Like, is that just one night
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: partying with the rastus?
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: Oh my god, Well, I don't know where that's from.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Is that from England? Maybe?
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's from one of your old MySpace photos that
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: you stug up.
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: That's not all your rubbish, is it.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: That's from our tour, I guess one day one day. Yeah.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: The other one I've found was.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: This one here, like that looks like the world's tiniest
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: space to do a bad photo shoe.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: That's a that's a legendary club in healthin Kia, h
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: called Tabastia, Like it's been there for like I don't know,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: seventy years or something incredible. It's like a quite small
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: but intimate place. And you can see that this is
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: the shower of the.
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know we have that song in the shower.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: It looks pretty tiny there, right.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's how we always that's what we do after
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: every show, take a shower to get sweet.
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: Fantasy. Brother.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: Thanks for your tom I'd been a pleasure speaking with you,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: rid I was out September twelve till it starts January thirty.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: There'll be a pleasure to say on this side of
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: the world, brother, So I'll see you the Britty Show.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Have a good day.