Interview with
Zet (guitars,vocals++) conducted by Jan F. Lindsø in 2005
Earlier this year, Ram-zet released their long awaited album "Intra", which is their third album. Both me and AJ are great fans of this band, and I thought it was about time this fine band got their spot in our webzine!
Hello Zet! How are you, and how does it feel to finally release Intra after 3 long years?
I’m fine thanks, apart from my computer, giving me a hard time these days, and I’ve probably lost a lot of work….but that’s not the first time… I hate my pc!!
But of course it feels good, finally to have released “intra” and it’s been a long travel to get there, I have to say.
Tell us a bit about the album, the title and the lyrics.
The title “intra” came up when Sfinx and me, discussed album title. We wanted to have something simple, but also kind of describing the theme, of the lyrics, which is pretty much based on the weird things, going on in our brains. So, within, would be a describing title, but the Latin version, somehow sounded better!
The album sure took some time to complete, most because of my hard time, writing material this time. I’ve never thrown away so much music in my life, like I’ve done during the writing of this material. But it was important for me to have this process, because when I wrote the songs for the “escape” album, I wrote 8 songs, and that’s it.
Looking back, I think I should have spent more time on that album, because I don’t think the material is quiet as strong as either “pure therapy” or “intra”
So this time, it was really important for me to know, that I’d done my best.
Your band is unique both musically and lyrically. Do you personally consider yourself as an odd person, or do you feel that you release all you oddness through you music? He-he
I consider myself as an odd person indeed, and I think it’s a really good thing, that I can release it through my music…. It’s a perfect way for me, to express a lot of the weird things going on in my mind. Not that I’m mad or something….not proved anyway.. ha ha.., but I think that I maybe see the world a bit different, than the average citizen.
And maybe you could tell us where you get all your inspiration for your lyrics and music?
My lyrics… this time I’ve worked close with Sfinx on the lyrics, and I think we inspire each other, cause she’s a bit odd also you see…ha ha.. But I’ve always been kind of fascinated by the complexness in the human brain, and how we can manipulate it, to see the reality in thousand of different ways.
When it comes to writing music, of course I’m inspired of my favorite artists, and they’re such different from each other, and that leads to the various mixture of elements that Ram-Zet is.
The most unique elements in Ram-Zet have to be your “insane” vocals. Do you intentionally make your voice sound like this to give your band a personal finish?
Intentionally…. Hmmm, what can I say… When I first started up, writing songs to this project, I didn’t really see myself as the singer-growler at all, but I had to do some vocals at my demos, to get the whole picture of the songs of course. And in the beginning, I thought it sounded awful, (some people still does…ha ha…) and I didn’t know how to control my voice at all, but after a while, I started thinking more melodic when I screamed, and even if it can be hard to discover all the time, it’s always a melody (at least in my head) when I do my vocals. So, it sounds that way, because it kind of has to, due to my voice, and the sound of it. I sometime would like to have a deeper voice, but like you say, it’s turned out to be a rather unique vocal, and I think it fits to our music.
The vocal in a band, should be the “personal finish” I think, and the contrast between me, and Sfinx beautiful voice, gives a rather great feeling in my opinion.
I know you had some problems with loosing some equipment a while ago. I don’t remember the whole story, but I read something about it. What really happened, and did you get your equipment back? How did this affect your writing-progress?
I’ve had two break-ins at Space Valley, and both times, equipment for a huge amount of money disappeared. I used to have my studio in an old house, without much people living around, so I guess I had it coming, but it’s pretty fucking annoying anyway, and some of the stuff I’ve lost, can never be replaced of course.
That’s the saddest part.
I’ve never gotten any of it back, and I think that’s how you should expect it to be, when these things happens. It was probably far from here, the morning after the burglary.
However, I don’t think this affected my writing process in any ways, and it happened in a period with rather low creative activity.
In Beat the Blizzard you received 10/10 from both me and AJ. How have the response been elsewhere? What were your expectations when you released this album?
First of all: Thanks a lot, both AJ and yourselves, but what the fuck shall you do, when we release an even better album next year?? Ha ha…
But seriously, of course it’s nice to receive such good reviews for an album, and the reactions have been close to overwhelming this time. I only hope that it does create a little more sales, than we’ve been used to, though I understand, we will never be “music for everyone..”
I don’t really know what my expectations were. The focus was intense on getting the album done, and sign at a decent label, so then you feel kind of empty, when the album is released… strange but…
You changed label for this album from Spikefarm in Finland to the Norwegian metal label Tabu Records. Why is this? And how has your cooperation with Tabu been so far?
Our deal with Spikefarm, was a two album deal, and that was that. We discussed the possibility to continue our co-operation, but I guess it was the best thing to move on.
We don’t really fit into their label along with the other bands I think, and I think they would agree. But we’ve had a good time at Spikefarm, and been taken really good care of, so cheers to Sami Tenetz, for his great attitude, and personality!
TABU was the natural first choice when we’d decided to change label, and it was the same guys, taking care of the distribution in Norway for the first two albums, so it’s kind of safe in a way…
It’s been some changes in the staff though, but I think the cooperation has been good this far and I hope, and think that we’ll stay there for a while.
I think you’re playing too few live concerts. Will there be more of this in the future, and maybe even a tour?
It’s been taken care of now, and hopefully we will be playing a lot more through the autumn, and winter. The problem has been that we hasn’t been able to make a deal with anyone who’s good at the booking part, and that’s been a problem, but I think things will change now.
How does the future look for Ram-Zet? What are your plans?
We will make a video for the song “and innocence” and then hopefully we will tour a bit, both in Norway, but also the rest of Europe in a while. I’ve also started the writing of the material to the next album, because I really don’t want it to be 3 new years, before we release our next album!
Thanks a lot for the interview and good luck with your band! Any last words for our readers and your fans?
Thanks to you, and thanks to every one of your readers, who bought “intra” and those who hasn’t, what the f…are you waiting for??…ha ha…. Hope to see you all live somewhere, sometime near into the future!
Take care, and stay metal!
|
|
