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Out of the Silent Planet
Why Adrian Smith Likes Improvising Now, YouTube Wormholes + New Album (Interview)
Read our interview with Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith as he chats about the new Smith/Kotzen album 'Black Light/White Noise.'
loudwire.com
New cool interview with Adrian. The curious bits:
This album is a little more focused and consistent. A little heavier, maybe.
The very first time we started working together we wrote a song called "Running," which was on the first album, and that kind of set the blueprint. I think a dirty bluesy riff is kind of timeless.
Richie is one of the best rock singers out there and he's very underrated.
With Bruce, I've usually got an idea or I might have a title. "The Writing on the Wall," I had the title and a few melodies. Bruce will carry a thick book of lyrics — he just writes lyrics all the time — so he'll go, "Hang on, I've got something for that." It's very quick.
With Steve. I usually have a piece of music already recorded and I'll play stuff to him. I'll leave it with him and he'll write some lyrics or maybe we'll work on lyrics together.
You never stop being influenced by people and sounds that you hear. I try to. When I hear a piece of music and someone wants me to play a solo on it, I hear the solo in my head and I try and play it.
That's all I do, really. I'm not a shredder by any means. I'm not really technical, but I think I've got a fair musical sense. I try to make my solos musical because I think melody is kind of timeless, isn't it?
Melodies are earworms. I try to incorporate that into my playing as well as a bit of sort of flash and dash, if I can.
When I first joined Maiden, I'd never really done much recording before, but I tended to work out my solos in advance. I don't do that so much these days, although I still have a few preconceived ideas going into it. If I could play like Yngwie Malmsteen, I probably wouldn't shut up. Everyone has their specialty.
Having said that, when you play in my sort of style, the solos are melodic and people kind of expect to hear that. Steve will quite often say to me, "You know, do you have to improvise so much? I like the solo you play.'' People want to hear what you played on the record because it's part of the song, so I have to take that into account as well.
I listen to music when I'm going somewhere in the car or I'll go down a YouTube wormhole of guitar players. I like to watch them play. I don't like to have music — I find it scrambles my brain a little bit. Because I do it for work, I need to let my brain rest from music so I can recharge it. But I do usually play the guitar for at least an hour a day. That's my kind of musical fix rather than listening to stuff. There's a lot of technical stuff and I have guilty pleasures. I'll try and work out a few licks or watch other instructional stuff, but it's always the same.
Metallica, obviously. Specifically, 'The Black Album.' I think has such a wide appeal because it was a little bit more groove oriented. I love the chunky rhythm guitar — I really do enjoy that.
That's my forté — shorter songs, melodic.
I actually listened to Primal Rock Rebellion recently and I was like, "Wow, this is actually really good. I forgot how good it was. It was very different to anything I've ever done before. I like being creative." My first solo album was Silver and Gold under the name ASAP. I was in the gym the other day and I just ran out of things to listen to, so I played that and it sounded really good.
It's quite a body of work since Brave New World. I really like that album.
There's a song called "Paschendale" and I was quite proud of that. That was quite an epic one and it was great fun to play live. It's the sort of thing that I'd never attempted before — a longer, more proggy song. I think that's the stuff that Maiden tends to do best.
The very first time we started working together we wrote a song called "Running," which was on the first album, and that kind of set the blueprint. I think a dirty bluesy riff is kind of timeless.
Richie is one of the best rock singers out there and he's very underrated.
With Bruce, I've usually got an idea or I might have a title. "The Writing on the Wall," I had the title and a few melodies. Bruce will carry a thick book of lyrics — he just writes lyrics all the time — so he'll go, "Hang on, I've got something for that." It's very quick.
With Steve. I usually have a piece of music already recorded and I'll play stuff to him. I'll leave it with him and he'll write some lyrics or maybe we'll work on lyrics together.
You never stop being influenced by people and sounds that you hear. I try to. When I hear a piece of music and someone wants me to play a solo on it, I hear the solo in my head and I try and play it.
That's all I do, really. I'm not a shredder by any means. I'm not really technical, but I think I've got a fair musical sense. I try to make my solos musical because I think melody is kind of timeless, isn't it?
Melodies are earworms. I try to incorporate that into my playing as well as a bit of sort of flash and dash, if I can.
When I first joined Maiden, I'd never really done much recording before, but I tended to work out my solos in advance. I don't do that so much these days, although I still have a few preconceived ideas going into it. If I could play like Yngwie Malmsteen, I probably wouldn't shut up. Everyone has their specialty.
Having said that, when you play in my sort of style, the solos are melodic and people kind of expect to hear that. Steve will quite often say to me, "You know, do you have to improvise so much? I like the solo you play.'' People want to hear what you played on the record because it's part of the song, so I have to take that into account as well.
I listen to music when I'm going somewhere in the car or I'll go down a YouTube wormhole of guitar players. I like to watch them play. I don't like to have music — I find it scrambles my brain a little bit. Because I do it for work, I need to let my brain rest from music so I can recharge it. But I do usually play the guitar for at least an hour a day. That's my kind of musical fix rather than listening to stuff. There's a lot of technical stuff and I have guilty pleasures. I'll try and work out a few licks or watch other instructional stuff, but it's always the same.
Metallica, obviously. Specifically, 'The Black Album.' I think has such a wide appeal because it was a little bit more groove oriented. I love the chunky rhythm guitar — I really do enjoy that.
That's my forté — shorter songs, melodic.
I actually listened to Primal Rock Rebellion recently and I was like, "Wow, this is actually really good. I forgot how good it was. It was very different to anything I've ever done before. I like being creative." My first solo album was Silver and Gold under the name ASAP. I was in the gym the other day and I just ran out of things to listen to, so I played that and it sounded really good.
It's quite a body of work since Brave New World. I really like that album.
There's a song called "Paschendale" and I was quite proud of that. That was quite an epic one and it was great fun to play live. It's the sort of thing that I'd never attempted before — a longer, more proggy song. I think that's the stuff that Maiden tends to do best.
