Ram-Zet pour l'album "Intra"

1. First, a simple question that I've always wondered : what does "Ram-Zet" mean and what reprent your tribal sign?

My birth name is Henning Ramseth, and Ram-Zet is another way to write my last name sort of...
It wasn’t meant to be the name at all. I only used it as a temporary name for the project, but then everybody thought it was kind of cool, and I got used to it and just decided to use it.
Our tribal is something made by Tore Larsen, our first cover designer, and it doesn’t mean anything, but it’s gotten well known, and looks rather cool I think!


2. Before talking about the present, I would like to come back a few years ago. Your first album "Pure Therapy" was a big surprise, something we haven't heard before. How the "Ram-Zet" style was born? Were you influenced by any band?

I locked my self up in my studio, starting with the idea of creating music, which was heavier than anything I’d done before, and yet, I wanted to create music without limits, so that I could, sort of, use all my influences. I didn’t want to have to bother, what kind of genre it would fit into, or what kind of audience who would actually listen to it. So I ended up with three songs on the first demo, which was “kill my thoughts”, “sense” and “through the eyes of the children”.
I can’t say that Ram-Zet is influenced by any particular band, but it’s the result of many bands, which gives me inspiration to write.


3. Since the beginning, your albums seem to deal with insanity. Why did you choose this way?

Well, I always create the music first, and I didn’t really know what the lyrics should be like when I started to write. But then, when I’d written some songs, and made the first attempt to create the Ram-Zet sound, it seemed natural to write about madness ha ha... I mean, my voice isn’t exactly sane, would you say? And also the music brings a certain feel of schizophrenia to ones mind, so I think our lyrical concept, suits our music rather good!


4. In Ram-Zet, you are the only one compositor but I suppose that it's not a one-man-band. What do the other members bring?

It started up as a one-man-band, but now, we’re definitely a complete band, and the rest of the members, are really skilled, and creative musicians, so they do a lot of work, when it gets to the arranging of the songs. We rehearse the songs, at least in the drums-bass-gutiars. Section, and then we record a pre-prod, where everyone influences the final result. This time, is the first time, we’ve worked that way, and I think you can hear it at the result. It sounds much more like a band this time!


5. On all your albums, the term "Peace" is recurrent. What is its real signification?

The 3 short cuts in the middle of each album, is a “replacement” for the break you’d have back in the days, when you listen to your vinyl-records ha ha... I’ve missed that part with the cd’s, the little break you got, between part 1 and part 2. Also, peace, is something that the main characters in our lyrics try to reach, but it’s a condition you only kind find for very short periods in Ram-Zet, both lyrically, and musically speaking. But it’s a nice feeling... it just shouldn’t last to long, because then, it gets boring!!


6. Your albums have always been well-welcomed by the whole metal press but the name of Ram-Zet is still unknown for a large part of the metal community. I suppose that you don't run after that but does it have an importance for you? What represent "Ram-Zet" in your life?

Of course, we would like to sell a lot of albums, but I would never try to change our musical direction, to try to reach bigger sales. The whole point of Ram-Zet is to create music from an idealistic point of view. Not for the reason of being very special, but just to make the music that I want! I hope we can grow bigger for each album we release, so that we can stay on the metal scene for a long time. Ram-Zet is something really special to me, and I love to create, and play this music.


7. 3 years after "Escape", "Intra" is finally released. What happened to the band during this time? Was it hard to find a new label?

The reason for the long “break” was that I’ve written a whole lot of stuff for this album, and thrown away nearly 30 songs, to end up with the 8 (+ peace) which got through to the album.
I wasn’t completely satisfied with the material for “escape” and didn’t want to end up in that situation again. I can’t say that it was that hard to find a new label, cause TABU was our first choice I would say, and when they said yes, it was no use to search any more.


8. How spent the writing process? How would you describe the music of "Intra" briefly?

As I said, the writing process has been really long and difficult this time, because I put all that pressure at myself. I’ve been spending a lot of time in my studio, and in various cabins, all around our country, to try to come up with the best I possibly could...
It’s been frustrating at times, but also, I think both I, and the rest of the band, has grown a lot on these years. We really worked hard, to get this album done; and it’s really satisfying today, because I’m very proud of it. It’s hard to describe music that you’ve created yourself of course, but I would say, that the guitars, has got a bigger space in our sound, and the riffs, are a bit trashier, death inspired sometimes, and even if we got more of Sfinx vocals, and Sareetas violins, I think this is our heaviest album so far, definitely!


9. Could you tell us more about the concept of "Intra"? Why this title?

The lyrical concepts, is still schizophrenia, and a story based on two characters in a mental institution. It’s a thin line, between the madness going on in these peoples minds, and what actually happens. If you look at the front of the cover, it’s the corridor the way he sees it, and the back, is the corridor, the way it really looks. A lot of pictures are created in the human brain, and we would like to describe it, kind of, in one word, which would be “within” But then it didn’t seem like a great album title, so we chose the Latin version instead.


10. "Intra" was mixed by Daniel Bergstrand and the sound is really great (...it's not a surprise). How was the collaboration with him?

It was truly great, and I really would like to go there again! The only sad thing was that we had to go back to Norway, before he’d completed the mix, but we shared a lot of thoughts, when it came to sound, so it wasn’t really a problem. And I’m very pleased with the work he’s done for us!


11. Is there a tour planed to promote your new album? Do you think you'll come to France one day?

TABU is working on some European tour right know, but I don’t really know to much details yet. We’ve been in France one time, at our tour with Theatre of Tragedy, and it was really one of the greatest shows we had, so I would really like to visit you again! Let’s hope I can confirm something sometime this autumn!


12. Sfinx is more and more present and participated to the writting of the lyrics. Is she as crazy as you? What does she represent in Ram-Zet? Have you always wanted to insert much more clean female vocals in your music since the beginning?

She’s as crazy as me, definitely! And it was inspiring to write the lyrics together with her, so I think we’re going to keep it that way in the future!
When I started Ram-Zet, I just knew that I wanted to add some female vocals, but I didn’t know how much, so I “hired” Sfinx along with some other female singers in the studio, and she did a tremendous job, so I asked her to come back, and do some more. This worked out so well, that I wanted her to join the band permanently, and she said yes... of course!!
I never decide how much female vocals a song should contain, before I’m done writing it, but of course, it’s tempting to write parts for a female vocal, when you got such a great singer as her, to perform it!


13. On the song "Queen", we could hear a little of your clean voice. I don't know if I'm the only one, but I found it very powerful and totally appropriate with the atmosphere of the song. Why don't you develop this aspect?

Thank you very much. If you listen to “enchanted” on our new album, you will hear me sing with a clean voice along with Sfinx, and also “not dead” and “pray” from the “escape” album, along with a few others.
However, I don’t think my voice is strong enough to do a lot of clean vocals, but I think it’s a nice contrast, when it just appears a little bit from time to time.


14. What do you do for a living apart from the band?

I work part time on a place with retarded people, and then I run Space valley studio, which also does a lot of recordings for other bands. I’ve also been playing a bit session jobs with other artists, but it’s not to much of that now, because I need to keep my focus at Ram-Zet, and another project which I’ve started along with Sfinx.


15. What are you listening today? What is your last big suprise(s) in music these times?

In my cd player at this moment, you will find Alica Keys actually ha ha... that’s the kind of music I sometimes put on, when it’s only meant to be there... if you see...
But I don’t really cope up with all the music being released today, and I really can’t remember the last time, some new act just blew me away. I think the new Madder Mortem album is a killer!! (recorded in space valley of course... :) ) and I think it’s going to be released in November!
The artists I listen to anyway, is Samael, Dimmu Borgir, Soilwork, Björk, Meshuggah, Queenryche (old), Accept (old), Tori Amos, Dream Theater, Cradle of Filth, and a lot more...


16. What is your opinion concerning the metal webzines? Are you a reader of them? How do you evaluate the impact of such magazines, compared to "real" magazines?

I read them from time to time, but I guess, most when we’ve just released an album ha ha... I think they’re a healthy compotator to the “real” magazines, and of course the opportunity to update every day, if necessary, is a advantage. I guess it’s place for both, and it seems a lot of the webzines, got a huge crowd visiting them all the time.
The metal community is growing bigger from day to day I think, and it’s probably also a bit because of this zines, so keep up the good work!!!!!!!


17. Thank you very much for your time and do not hesitate to come to France (I know I insist). The last words are yours !

Thank YOU for this interview, and your help to spread Ram-Zet music in France, and all over the world! We’ll do our best to visit you sometime in the future, and in the meantime, tell every reader what a great band we are, and force them to buy INTRA!!! Ha ha...