Rose Haze – “Charge On”
Today San Francisco’s Kate Ramsey, AKA Rose Haze, shares the first single from her upcoming album Maximum Security Prism, to be self-released on May 6th.
At one point along the mixing phase, I thought, ‘why am I so intense?’ Eventually the self-critic in me wandered off again and I fell back in love with it because of its intensity. It’s an anthem to never give up, to remind us that we all go through dark times, but are often never really as misunderstood or truly alone as it sometimes feels, and ultimately to not commit suicide. Because eventually we crawl back out into the light. Then of course when those periods of elation finally do come, it’s easy to feel invincible and lose sight of humility and gratitude. Balance. Balance is everything. Charge on through the dark with grateful fearlessness, charge on through the light with humble confidence, traits of the sage.
After self-isolating on Kaua’i, I left to tour in spring of 2020, so when that became impossible I turned my drive back inwards, went deeper into meditation practices which included practicing with a katana, and pulled my new band into all kinds of strange artistic endeavors. I direct and often film most of my own music videos, but it’s hard to do it all so the band became a film team. In the video I prepare for seppuku. I deviated a bit from the traditional concept of an honorable samurai suicide, which I find fascinating. Similarly, I wanted to portray that I’d felt like I’d fought my battles, had nothing left to offer life, and life had nothing for me. The chorus scenes represent multiple voices in my head chanting. The song and video have an 80s feel, John Hughes meets Tears for Fears meets David Lynch meets Kate Bush. Anyway the moral is, put the sword down and phone a friend. When there’s no friend, adopt a cat.
Kate Ramsey
Charge On came about from a period of time during which Kate Ramsey – aka Rose Haze -had come to fully purge years of past traumas while living on Kaua’i. Listening to her inner spirit, she moved to the island with the intention to isolate from the chaos of trying to make it in the music industry and take the time to heal herself physically and emotionally.
The song captures the deep reflection of her dark past from a place of renewed awe for life while resting, surfing, meditating, and delving into her music on a deeper spiritual level. Kate suffered extreme PTSD and prolonged periods of anxiety and depression stemming from sexual and violent traumas for most of her young life up through early adulthood. Throughout those years, she tried to break through as a musician with absolutely no resources beyond herself and a few dollars in the bank. Very talented musicians took notice of her, and things began to roll, but after some months and even years, a few of her most treasured music friends sabotaged her, setting her back.
Crushed, she began to study narcissism deeply and became more shrewd about who she could trust. Thus the Rose Haze persona was born and a subsequent new adventure in the SF bay area followed. Charge On, the second single from the forthcoming full-length titled Maximum Security Prism, is sonically intense, saturated with lush synth pads and snarky vocals. The lyrics poke fun at her dark past that now seems silly and foreign with her new sense of gratitude in all aspects of her life, especially with her place in the world of music.
She wants to remind others that periods of elation and depression will always occur in life to some degree, so as humans we must always charge on towards the light. Shout outs of “love and light and peace” are cute to her, but a bit too woke, so she stands fully in her natural gloomy “Daria-esque” pessimistic state of mind and rolls her eyes at the thought of “true happiness.” Life is light and dark, and so is the single.
As the first track on the album, it sets the mood for all those to follow, taking the listener through the journey of coming into comfort with feeling beautiful, powerful, and living in the light while still standing in a pair of Doc Martens and apathetically watching the world turn.
Rose Haze’s Maximum Security Prism is out 5/6. Pre-order it on Bandcamp.
