After more than three decades, The Rasmus are finally headlining North America—and frontman Lauri Ylönen is treating the intimate-club run like a return to the band’s roots.
Speaking with 15-year-old host Remzi “Jam Man” Yates from Toronto, Ylönen looked back on the unlikely path from an eighth-grade Christmas concert in a school gym to a global career, an eleven-album catalog and a long-awaited North American headline tour. The conversation moved far beyond standard tour talk, digging into the weight of “In the Shadows,” the band’s survival, the meaning behind Weirdo, artificial intelligence, fame, sobriety and the one thing that could finally bring The Rasmus to an end.
From a School Gym to a First North American Headline Tour
The Rasmus began in Helsinki in 1994, when its members were still teenagers. Ylönen can still picture that first five-song performance in front of their schoolmates. More than thirty years later, the band opened its first North American headline run in Chicago before reaching Toronto’s Opera House.
“It feels incredible to be still doing this,” Ylönen said, describing fans who had waited more than twenty years to see the band live. Despite The Rasmus building major audiences across Europe and Latin America—and Ylönen himself living in the United States for twelve years—the band never managed a full North American headline tour until now.
Rather than seeing the 500-capacity rooms as a step backward, Ylönen views them as a chance to rebuild from the ground up. He called the shows “primal,” praising the closeness between band and audience and the opportunity to speak directly with fans every night.
The Friendship That Kept The Rasmus Alive
When Jam Man asked whether the band survived because its members are great friends or because they learned when to leave each other alone, Ylönen did not hesitate: the foundation is friendship.
He has known bassist Eero Heinonen since the third grade, long before either of them could imagine an international career. That shared history created a bond closer to family. When one member struggles, the others try to help—not simply because the band needs to continue, but because they have spent most of their lives together.
Just as important, they still enjoy the work. Two months in a tour bus, small dressing rooms and venues without showers might not sound glamorous after decades of success, but Ylönen embraces the back-to-basics reality. To him, it feels like 1994 again.
Living With “In the Shadows”
Instead of asking Ylönen to retell the story of writing “In the Shadows,” Jam Man asked a sharper question: if the song had never existed, how different would his life be?
Ylönen acknowledged that the worldwide hit gave The Rasmus financial stability and artistic freedom. It allowed him to focus on creating music instead of worrying about rent or his next meal. He also believes the song’s strange chemistry helped it travel: dark guitars, a bouncing rhythm and a sound that refuses to fit neatly into one genre.
The success did create pressure when the band began working on its next record. Every new song had to stand beside a monster hit, even as the musicians wanted to move forward instead of repeating themselves. But Ylönen has never turned against the song. He rejected the idea of resenting a career-defining hit, noting that fans deserve to hear the music that first connected them to an artist.
If “In the Shadows” disappeared and one other Rasmus song could become twice as big, Ylönen would choose “Livin’ in a World Without You”—a song whose massive, wide-open mood still makes him proud every time the band performs it.
Weirdo and the Power of Staying Different
The band’s eleventh studio album, Weirdo, brings Ylönen back to an idea that has followed him since school: being the strange kid in the room. He remembered using extreme hairstyles and makeup to provoke people, but also to make a larger point—that nobody should be afraid of being different.
That message has existed inside The Rasmus since the beginning. Ylönen connected the new album’s themes to the early song “Myself,” which dealt with the feeling that he could not be himself at school. Decades later, songs including “Creatures of Chaos” and “Weirdo” defend outsiders and encourage listeners to stop living by other people’s expectations.
Lauri Ylönen Draws a Hard Line on AI
Jam Man presented Ylönen with a direct hypothetical: if artificial intelligence wrote the greatest song he had ever heard—better than anything he had written—would he record it?
His answer was immediate: no.
Ylönen said the deepest pleasure in music comes from the act of creating it: finding the first idea, building it into a song and solving the puzzle of fitting a powerful emotion into three or four minutes. Giving that part to AI would mean surrendering the very experience that keeps him inspired.
He understands why someone focused only on speed or profit might use the technology. For him, however, songwriting is not simply a method of producing a marketable track. It is the reason to make music in the first place.
Why Getting Older Can Be Harder Than Starting Out
Asked whether it is mentally harder to be a young band desperate to succeed or an established band trying to prove it still matters, Ylönen chose the second.
Young artists can be fearless, naïve and wildly confident. Established acts carry their history everywhere, and trying to chase current trends can quickly become a disaster. Ylönen believes longevity requires growth without pretending to be something you are not.
Experience has also strengthened his craft. English is not his first language, and he still treats every song as a lesson. Working with songwriter Desmond Child—whose credits include massive songs for Bon Jovi, Kiss and others—helped sharpen Ylönen’s sense of melody, storytelling and structure.
Fame, Sacrifice and Seventeen Years Sober
Ylönen now defines success less by one hit than by the fact that music became his life. That life has demanded sacrifices, especially in personal relationships, because the band so often came first.
He also admitted that fame can be exhausting. Although he loves walking onstage and connecting with an audience, he often reaches his social limit immediately after a show and retreats to the tour bus. In Finland, where he has appeared on television for years, anonymity is nearly impossible.
His version of rock-star life has changed dramatically. Ylönen said he has been sober for seventeen years after earlier years of heavy drinking and smoking. Now he wakes up early, explores the cities he once slept through and focuses on staying physically and mentally ready to perform.
Will The Rasmus Ever End?
The band has discussed how long it can continue, but every conversation reaches the same conclusion: not yet. The mixture of music, travel, friendship and discovery remains too much fun to surrender.
Ylönen joked that death could end the band, but offered a more personal answer as well. If he ever loses the joy of making music, he will move quickly toward something else. His creative interests already extend to architecture, home design, solo work and a clothing brand he hopes to pursue when time allows.
For now, The Rasmus are fit, focused and still excited by the challenge. After more than thirty years, they are not coasting on history—they are walking into small North American clubs and earning the room again.
And when Jam Man closed with his signature Death Row Meal question, Ylönen gave the most unexpected answer of the interview: pickles.
Follow The Rasmus
- Official website and tour information
- Listen to or order Weirdo
- The Rasmus on Instagram
- Watch the complete Rocking With Jam Man interview on YouTube
Interview by Remzi “Jam Man” Yates for Rocking With Jam Man.