Janne Heiskanen, the original drummer with top Finnish group The Rasmus, passed away at the age of 43.
As announced on their official Instagram profile, Janne Heiskanen, the original drummer of the Rasmus Band passed away at the age of 43, on Thursday, October 27.
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Heiskanen was initially part of a band that only operated under the name Rasmus between 1994 and 1999. He played on their albums Peep (1996), Playboys (1997) and Hell of a Tester (1998). Aki Hakala became the drummer after Heiskanen left the band, and he is still involved.
In an update, The Rasmus says that it received information about Heiskanen’s death the night before Friday, but there was no mention of his cause of death.
According to Ari Väntänen’s recent biography ‘The Rasmus’, Heiskanen, Lauri Ylönen, Pauli Rantasalmi and Eero Heinonen decided to start a band together at school in Helsinki, although Heiskanen left for a while at the beginning for a reason that the members no longer remember. Rasmus was chosen as the band’s name at Heiskanen’s suggestion.
“The last meeting I had with Janne was when he appeared virtually at the book launch event via my video call”, bassist Eero Heinonen told HS from The Rasmus’ European tour in Holland
Recently, Janne Heiskanen worked with, among others, the band Apocalyptica. “There was a gig like that even when the book was published”, says Heinonen.
As a player, the band described Heiska as “the backbone of groove and stable beats”, recalling that the title track of the band’s first album, Peep, was Heiskanen’s composition.
After Rasmus, Heiskanen played in the band Lovestone, which toured in the early 2000s. The band released one full-length self-published album, as reported by hs.fi
