Guitarist Pauli Rantasalmi didn’t leave The Rasmus on a whim.
This is what The Rasmus looked like in 2017. In the picture, from the left, Pauli Rantasalmi, Lauri Ylönen, Aki Hakala, Eero Heinonen. Pasi Murto / All Over Press
Ari Väntänen in The Rasmus book written by Pauli Rantasalmi thought about leaving the band for a long time.
You look like the band’s front man Lauri Ylönen with had become tense. Both Lauri and Pauli each made songs for the band, but the collaboration began to falter. This was also influenced by the fact that the members of the band lived in different parts of the world.
– There was a lack of cooperation, and it created bad feelings. I started thinking about what would happen if I no longer held the band back but let the guys continue their journey with each other and went in my own direction, Pauli recalls the events of 2020, when the band made their tenth album
Then Lauri asked a question.
– Lauri asked him that “should I take a little break from the band?”
Pauli says that he thought that others wanted to move forward, he braked and it felt bad.
Pauli replied that maybe he should.
Around the same time, the idea of participating in the Eurovision Song Contest began to smolder in Lauri, but Pauli did not participate in the creation of the Jezebel song, but Lauri did it together with Desmond Child.
– When Pauli heard the songs, he said that they are really good, but he has nothing to add to them and making music doesn’t inspire me right now anyway, Lauri recalls in the book.
Lauri says that he wondered if it would be time for Paul to stop and think about other options if playing the guitar doesn’t excite him and making music doesn’t interest him. Leaving the band was Paul’s idea, but according to Lauri, he was close to suggesting Paul leave the band.
Lauri Ylönen, Aki Hakala, Emppu Suhonen and Eero Heinonen at the Turin Eurovision Song Contest last spring. Mari Pudas
Pauli says that at that point he wanted to do everything on his own terms, the values with the band had changed. For example, he didn’t want to make music with Desmond Child or participate in Eurovision, even though he liked the songs.
– I think a band like The Rasmus doesn’t need to compete with them. Others in the band said about Eurovision that “we have nothing to lose”, and that sentence was poison to me. We were in a situation where one braked three. It was important for me to finish on my own terms and not until it came up somehow, Pauli says.
Pauli told each of his bandmates separately about his breakup, and revealed that he had been thinking about the breakup for a long time.
– When I made my decision, there was no tension between us. After the call, I was overwhelmed by an insane feeling of happiness, says Pauli.
The breakup was kept a secret for a while, until during the New Music Competition, both Pauli and The Rasmus told about the breakup. He was hired as a new guitarist Emppu Suhonen Tiktok.
Ari Väntänen – The Rasmus (Work) will be published on September 1.