I had the privilege to sit down with the guys from Ram, to talk about their new record, the band’s history and their influences.
1. What inspired the name of the band and what are your influences?
“The name came from the act of headbanging, and ramming as it were, we liked the name and the image it conjured so we went for that. We’re influenced by the same sort of bands as when we were kids, bands such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden.”
2. What process do you go through, when writing an album?
“Usually we start off with a riff, and then we try and find ways in which it will fit into a song, if it gives off a vibe to us we’ll work lyrics and the rest of the song structure around it. We tend to work off of a concept from the riff and go from there. Recently, we’ve been writing and recording in a studio that was owned by Andy La Rocque the guitarist from King Diamond, so we’ve had a lot more freedom to simply write and record, without worrying about anything else.”
3. Is there a connecting theme through the new album?
“There’s no connecting theme through all the tracks on the album, but what will be the B side on the LP has a common theme. We’ve always wanted to record a concept album but we found that playing such a thing live just wouldn’t be possible due to time constraints, so instead we’ve settled for the one sided concept. As it works better in a live setting. We did a short tour recently, and some of the new songs like Gulag have been received really well.”
4. What plans do you have for the future?
“We’ve just been out on a short tour, but we’ve got more plans to tour, more shows than we’ve played for previous records. November is packed, February is looking as though it will be packed as well. We’ll be playing the UK again as well.”