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Not sure if this is news or not or if it has already been posted, but www.metal-rules.com has just posted and interview with Blaze conducted at last year's Wacken festival. In the interview he talks a little about Paul D'ianno and his time with Maiden. Also he hints his departure was due to 'the management'! Here is the relevant text, full url follows:
You recently did one gig together with another ex-Iron Maiden singer Paul Di´Anno?
Yeah, we played in Turkey at the Rock the Nations festival. Paul was there and we know each other from before and we thought it would be good fun to do a song together. So we went up and did "Sanctuary" together. It was really good fun.
Is it possible that you might do something more together with Paul in the future?
There´s no plans, but I wouldn´t rule it out. It was a lot of fun but he´s not so much heavy metal, he´s more on the punk side of things, and my band is British metal through and through but everything’s possible?
Well, because just talked a few words related to Iron Maiden I have to ask how is your relationship now with Steve Harris and the other Iron Maiden guys…?
Steve and I are still friends. We still talk occasionally on the phone. Whenever they´re playing a gig near me I go and see them. Steve came to see my band a couple of times and he got up and jammed with us on stage for "Futureal". So we´re still friends. I don´t have any animosity or bad feelings towards them. I think the management was responsible for what happened, not the band.
So there was nothing personal in it?
No, I didn´t take anything personal. It was difficult to do my best. I felt I couldn´t do my best work when I was in Iron Maiden. I did the best I could, but I didn´t feel that under the circumstances I was able to do my best work. I spent a lot of time living in the shadow of Iron Maiden cause they have been doing their things and nobody´s been interested in what I´m doing. But now when Maiden aren´t doing anything, people have started to ask "what´s Blaze doing?" and started to find out about my music. Lots of the Maiden fans from "X Factor" and "Virtual XI" have been starting to get into my own band and that´s great.
After you split with Iron Maiden did you ever had any plans to re-unite your old band Wolfsbane?
No, I wanted to move forward. I learned so much in Iron Maiden about songwriting and how to get my own voice that I really got an idea of what I wanted to do. I really wanted to work with two strong lead guitars and in Wolfsbane we had one guitar. And I really wanted to have two guitars and have all the different variations you can get with that and with slightly different arrangements and everything. So I really had a strong idea of what kinda of band I wanted to be in and what kind of music I wanted to play. I wanted to move forward, I didn´t wanna go back to the past.
Did any of the guys from Wolfsbane even tried to contact you then?
No, not so far.I wouldn´t rule out doing a gig or a couple of gigs in the future just because it was fun. But no one has really spoken about that.
Do you know what other former members are up to now?
Steve Danger is the manager of a band. Jase Edwards is a session guitar player and he´s got his own studio now and Jeff Hately plays with different bands.
Ok. This question has been a long time in my mind.Are there any songs on your first album "Silicon Messiah" which were originally written for the next Iron Maiden album?
No full songs. I had a couple of ideas but there were no full songs. I just had ideas in my notepad and on my Dictaphone, nothing that I´d worked on with anyone.
But there are songs which would have been on the next Maiden album?
Well, there are ideas that I would have worked on with the guys in Maiden if we had done that album. I really thought we were gonna do a third album and I thought it was gonna be a killer. I thought it would be an absolutely fantastic third album, but it just didn´t happen.
Our time seems to be running out so this will be the last question… Do you have any opinions of the last two Iron Maiden albums ?
I like "Brave New World" and my favourite song from "Dance of Death" is "No More Lies".That's all i'm going to say "laughs"
Okay thanks for your time and see you later!
Thank you!
full interview at: [a href=\'http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=54\' target=\'_blank\']http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/index.php?...d=122&Itemid=54[/a]
You recently did one gig together with another ex-Iron Maiden singer Paul Di´Anno?
Yeah, we played in Turkey at the Rock the Nations festival. Paul was there and we know each other from before and we thought it would be good fun to do a song together. So we went up and did "Sanctuary" together. It was really good fun.
Is it possible that you might do something more together with Paul in the future?
There´s no plans, but I wouldn´t rule it out. It was a lot of fun but he´s not so much heavy metal, he´s more on the punk side of things, and my band is British metal through and through but everything’s possible?
Well, because just talked a few words related to Iron Maiden I have to ask how is your relationship now with Steve Harris and the other Iron Maiden guys…?
Steve and I are still friends. We still talk occasionally on the phone. Whenever they´re playing a gig near me I go and see them. Steve came to see my band a couple of times and he got up and jammed with us on stage for "Futureal". So we´re still friends. I don´t have any animosity or bad feelings towards them. I think the management was responsible for what happened, not the band.
So there was nothing personal in it?
No, I didn´t take anything personal. It was difficult to do my best. I felt I couldn´t do my best work when I was in Iron Maiden. I did the best I could, but I didn´t feel that under the circumstances I was able to do my best work. I spent a lot of time living in the shadow of Iron Maiden cause they have been doing their things and nobody´s been interested in what I´m doing. But now when Maiden aren´t doing anything, people have started to ask "what´s Blaze doing?" and started to find out about my music. Lots of the Maiden fans from "X Factor" and "Virtual XI" have been starting to get into my own band and that´s great.
After you split with Iron Maiden did you ever had any plans to re-unite your old band Wolfsbane?
No, I wanted to move forward. I learned so much in Iron Maiden about songwriting and how to get my own voice that I really got an idea of what I wanted to do. I really wanted to work with two strong lead guitars and in Wolfsbane we had one guitar. And I really wanted to have two guitars and have all the different variations you can get with that and with slightly different arrangements and everything. So I really had a strong idea of what kinda of band I wanted to be in and what kind of music I wanted to play. I wanted to move forward, I didn´t wanna go back to the past.
Did any of the guys from Wolfsbane even tried to contact you then?
No, not so far.I wouldn´t rule out doing a gig or a couple of gigs in the future just because it was fun. But no one has really spoken about that.
Do you know what other former members are up to now?
Steve Danger is the manager of a band. Jase Edwards is a session guitar player and he´s got his own studio now and Jeff Hately plays with different bands.
Ok. This question has been a long time in my mind.Are there any songs on your first album "Silicon Messiah" which were originally written for the next Iron Maiden album?
No full songs. I had a couple of ideas but there were no full songs. I just had ideas in my notepad and on my Dictaphone, nothing that I´d worked on with anyone.
But there are songs which would have been on the next Maiden album?
Well, there are ideas that I would have worked on with the guys in Maiden if we had done that album. I really thought we were gonna do a third album and I thought it was gonna be a killer. I thought it would be an absolutely fantastic third album, but it just didn´t happen.
Our time seems to be running out so this will be the last question… Do you have any opinions of the last two Iron Maiden albums ?
I like "Brave New World" and my favourite song from "Dance of Death" is "No More Lies".That's all i'm going to say "laughs"
Okay thanks for your time and see you later!
Thank you!
full interview at: [a href=\'http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=54\' target=\'_blank\']http://www.metal-rules.com/zine/index.php?...d=122&Itemid=54[/a]
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