Ragnar Zsolberg

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Ragnar Sólberg was born December 2nd, 1986 in Reykjavik, Iceland. When he was 2 years old Ragnar built his first drum kit out of pots and pans from his mothers kitchen. At the age of four he got his first guitar from his grandmother and started playing along to the tunes of Metallicas "Black Album" but smashed his guitar in the heat of the moment soon after as he had seen Jimi Hendrix doing so on TV.
At the age of six Ragnar began taking guitar lessons at the Iceland Guitar School but needed new teachers soon because he learned everything so fast.
In the very time Ragnar wrote his first song. His first roadie by the way was his mother as Ragnar insisted on bringing his guitar and drum kit to kindergarden or school, hoping to start a band with the other guys.
His dad, a famous drummer in Iceland, fuelled Ragnars and his brothers enthusiasm by presenting them their first real drum-kit.
While his brother turned out to be very skillful on drums and still plays to this day, Ragnar soon found out that playing the guitar was more his thing.
Another important moment in Ragnars life: He saved an old "Hustler" magazine from the dump and later on traded it for a "Kiss"-movie. He watched it almost every day and started dreaming of becoming a rock star one day himself.


At the age of 11 Ragnar had so many demos of his own songs that his father offered him recording an album in order to publish it via his record company. The result, “Upplifun” (“Experience”), featured Ragnars range of original rock/pop material.
It did not sell that much but gave Ragnar a taste of what was to come. And with his dad as a drummer and his mother as a roadie the future was lying just in front of him. And when Ragnar got an 8-track recorder from his parents he wrote and recorded one song per day for the next two years.
As a result of this Ragnar, only 14, adapted the name Zolberg and started his first real band called "Sign" which made an even better musician out of him.
For his work with "Sign" he received awards, toured around Europe as main support with the likes of Wildhearts, Skid Row, Wednesday 13 and Aiden. Sign played at Downloads main stage in 2008 along with long time idols KISS and have released four albums - two in English and 2 in his mother language Icelandic. But Ragnar is only honest when admitting that his alter ego Zolberg was the out-of-control guy, very unpredictable and often dangerous to himself while the booze-fuelled touring with Sign was certainly not helpful. “I met Soley at a pub that Sign often played at.
She definitely did not belong there, you could see that she was misplaced, way too cute and innocent to be hanging at a place like that. But we soon became very close and she helped me getting my feet back on the ground and inspired me to be a better person basically” Says Ragnar about his now fiancé.

After 8 years of fronting the heavy rock outfit "Sign", using make-up, drinking, partying and screaming instead of singing his songs, Ragnar felt that this “rock n' roll” lifestyle wasn’t quite what he wanted after all. He quit drinking, focussed more on the music and started working on his solo project again.
Releasing his second album “The Circle” in December 2008 Ragnar found out that this was the path he had been looking for - no heavy partying, no ego-trips, just a calm and a quiet focus on music. Writing all the songs himself and playing all instruments on the album, Ragnar reinvented himself, both as a person and a musician.
Taking a break from Sign, moving to Sweden the new Ragnar was born. So say goodbye to the masked Zolberg and welcome the more honest, sober and talented Ragnar Sólberg.

Member Since:

July 06, 2008

Influences:

Sóley
mamma
Pabbi
Skid Row
Devin Townsend
American Head charge
Slipknot
Glassjaw
Gojira
John Lennon
King Crimson
Cosby-Stills-Nash & Young
Peter Pan
Pain of salvation
Björk
The Cure
Lil Wayne

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