Iron Maiden News, Links, and Interviews

Mosh, I couldn't find it so quickly.

Meanwhile, check all these interview transcripts from 1997.
http://strider.untergrund.net/toxicmag/toxichs1/articles/intsteve.htm

Various fans could ask questions to Steve and some answers are pretty interesting. Such as:

MARK: You took some time to come up with a new frontman. Obviously Maiden was due for a break, and you did have a lot of audition tapes to go through, but were you nervous at all that you had had too long a break as there was two and a half years between Fear of the Dark and The X Factor.

STEVE: Well we really wanted to come out with another album as soon as possible. The thing is that with the other changes of band members in the past, there has always been someone there waiting to come in, and we've been very lucky in that respect. For example, when Adrian left, Janick came down a week later, tried out and it worked out great, and we just carried on and went onto the studio straight away. But if it hadn't worked out, I suppose we would have had to have gone in and recorded the album with just Davey doing both guitar parts, which is possible. But with a singer it's different. You can't just go in and do an album. Also we wanted the person who came in to feel part of the band and be involved in the writing. So it took quite a long time to actually go through all the tapes that were sent in, get a shortlist, and audition. So once we decided on Blaze, it was a question of writing the album and then recording. The recording took a long time, about a year, which was not down to Blaze, but because we done nearly a double albums worth of material. Also the fact that we were working with a new producer all added up to the album taking a long time to make. It was a lot longer than we wanted, but we knew it was very important to take our time and get it right, so that when we go out we can be confident of being the best we can be which is what we always try to do. There's no point in rushing something like that. As far as we're concerned we did a really strong album, went out and did a really strong tour and we were happy with it so now it's a question of going in and doing another album. We've got an album and tour with Blaze under our belts and it's worked out great. Part of the worry when you've got a new member is that you never know if they are going to work out personally, but Blaze has worked out brilliant. I've got to be honest, he is a lot more fun to work with. He's one of the lads.

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PHILLIP: Has Iron Maiden ever been interested in working with other musicians to compose Maiden songs.

STEVE: II don't have any problem with that at all. If I thought that there was somebody that was a really strong songwriter and whose material would benefit the band, then I would definitely look at that possibility. I feel lucky in the way that we've always had strong songwriters in the band, so we haven't had to look elsewhere for material. So far no-one has come along with anything that we thought would enhance any of our stuff. But I certainly wouldn't rule it out because ultimately the lifeblood of any band is the songs, so it doesn't really matter who writes them in that respect.
 
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Edited, just for correctness.

Mosh, I couldn't find it so quickly.

Meanwhile, check all these interview transcripts from 1997.
http://strider.untergrund.net/toxicmag/toxichs1/articles/intsteve.htm

Various fans could ask questions to Steve and some answers are pretty interesting. Such as:

MARK: You took some time to come up with a new frontman. Obviously Maiden was due for a break, and you did have a lot of audition tapes to go through, but were you nervous at all that you had had too long a break as there was two and a half years between Fear of the Dark and The X Factor.

STEVE: Well we really wanted to come out with another album as soon as possible. The thing is that with the other changes of band members in the past, there has always been someone there waiting to come in, and we've been very lucky in that respect. For example, when Adrian left, Janick came down a week later, tried out and it worked out great, and we just carried on and went onto the studio straight away. But if it hadn't worked out, I suppose we would have had to have gone in and recorded the album with just Davey doing both guitar parts, which is possible. But with a singer it's different. You can't just go in and do an album. Also we wanted the person who came in to feel part of the band and be involved in the writing. So it took quite a long time to actually go through all the tapes that were sent in, get a shortlist, and audition. So once we decided on Blaze, it was a question of writing the album and then recording. The recording took a long time, about a year, which was not down to Blaze, but because we done nearly a double albums worth of material. Also the fact that we were working with a new producer all added up to the album taking a long time to make. It was a lot longer than we wanted, but we knew it was very important to take our time and get it right, so that when we go out we can be confident of being the best we can be which is what we always try to do. There's no point in rushing something like that. As far as we're concerned we did a really strong album, went out and did a really strong tour and we were happy with it so now it's a question of going in and doing another album. We've got an album and tour with Blaze under our belts and it's worked out great. Part of the worry when you've got a new member is that you never know if they are going to work out personally, but Blaze has worked out brilliant. I've got to be honest, he is a lot more fun to work with. He's one of the lads.

+


PHILLIP: Has Iron Maiden ever been interested in working with other musicians to compose Maiden songs.

STEVE: I don't have any problem with that at all. I have worked with the guys from Beckett, but they are not aware of it. If I thought that there was somebody that was a really strong songwriter and whose material would benefit the band, then I would definitely look at that possibility, but would probably not credit them. I feel lucky in the way that we've always had strong songwriters in the band, so we haven't had to look elsewhere for material, with the exception of Beckett. So far no-one has come along with anything that we thought would enhance any of our stuff. But I certainly wouldn't rule it out because ultimately the lifeblood of any band is the songs, so it doesn't really matter who writes them in that respect.
 
:rolleyes:

Heh, I was hinting at Steve not wanting to use a Bruce track for the last album because Bruce had written it with Roy Z.
Twenty years ago, it seemed of lesser importance.
 
:rolleyes:

Heh, I was hinting at Steve not wanting to use a Bruce track for the last album because Bruce had written it with Roy Z.
Twenty years ago, it seemed of lesser importance.

True, but now it sounds really hypocritical... Anyway, Steve Harris seems to be able to get away with anything, from plagiarism to nepotism. :lol: :lol:

Joking aside, I raise my glass to the talent of Steve Harris for being the driving force behind one of the best rock bands of all time.
 
And not crediting Roy Z for the one that IS on the album.::)

Are you referring to If Eternity Should Fail? As far as I know, and this came from someone allegedly in the know, that song was written by Bruce alone, unlike the rest of the songs for that tentative solo album that Steve got to listen on the Maiden England tour.
 
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And not crediting Roy Z for the one that IS on the album.::)
Hah, as soon as I saw that post I wanted to make this same joke.

But yeah, it doesn't really sound anything like Roy Z's style of writing, though I admit it is a little curious it's in Drop D. You'd think with Bruce doing the track by himself it would've been in E standard if anything. I mean, despite the relatively common use of drop tunings on the solo albums he made with Roy Z, I'm pretty sure most of his solo songs still have E-tuned guitars.
 
Yes, he created something great from all his varied influences. He could have been a bit more subtle in The Nomad though. :lol:

I think it's quite funny that when steve rips off something it's never subtle, it's always from songs that he's on record as being a fan of.

It's apt that that quote comes from the X Factor era as there's a good few obvious rip offs on that, "eleven saintly shrouded men... one in front with a cross held high" is very similar to lyrics from his favourite genesis song suppers ready, the intro to lord of the flies is very similar to the intro to Love to Love from UFO which I think he said is his favourite all time song, and the Aftermath riff is again very similar to Warrior by Wishbone Ash who he always states as a huge influence on Maiden.
 
Hah, as soon as I saw that post I wanted to make this same joke.

But yeah, it doesn't really sound anything like Roy Z's style of writing, though I admit it is a little curious it's in Drop D. You'd think with Bruce doing the track by himself it would've been in E standard if anything. I mean, despite the relatively common use of drop tunings on the solo albums he made with Roy Z, I'm pretty sure most of his solo songs still have E-tuned guitars.
Maybe to keep the same tuning as the rest of the album he was working on? Roy was definitely jointly involved in other material for that project.
 
Are you referring to If Eternity Should Fail? As far as I know, and this came from someone allegedly in the know, that song was written by Bruce alone, unlike the rest of the songs for that tentative solo album that Steve got to listen on the Maiden England tour.
I don't buy it.
 
Also, according to Adrian around the time DoD was released, he actually wrote more songs for it than made the album and suggested they'd be used next time. Considering he mentioned something about them being maybe a bit heavier and riff-based, I'm fairly certain at least some of those songs ended up on AMOLAD. Which is full of great tracks, sooooooo...

So Smith knew that DoD is bullshit and saved his best material for the proper 'reunion' mega-record.

Middle part of Lord of Light > (Paschendale x 10)
 
Hah, as soon as I saw that post I wanted to make this same joke.

But yeah, it doesn't really sound anything like Roy Z's style of writing, though I admit it is a little curious it's in Drop D. You'd think with Bruce doing the track by himself it would've been in E standard if anything. I mean, despite the relatively common use of drop tunings on the solo albums he made with Roy Z, I'm pretty sure most of his solo songs still have E-tuned guitars.

The song proper is D, his voice is optimal in D. Smith suggested to Gers and Murray that they do it in drop tuning. The instrumental part starts with E, so it might be written by Harris or just a joint idea of the instrumentalists in the band. You don't really believe that Dickinson wrote Powerslave's instrumental section, do you?
 
Really ? I didn't know. Not fully formed songs, though ? I remember to read that Tears of a Clown was the last one they proportly wrote.
Hadn't heard about it either. I did miss a fanzine though. ;)
This was from a source, not the FC magazine. I don't know how fully developed the ideas were, but the impression being given was that they were bursting with ideas when they last went into the studio, and couldn't do everything.
 
The song proper is D, his voice is optimal in D. Smith suggested to Gers and Murray that they do it in drop tuning. The instrumental part starts with E, so it might be written by Harris or just a joint idea of the instrumentalists in the band. You don't really believe that Dickinson wrote Powerslave's instrumental section, do you?
Only H and Jan are tuned to D though.
 
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