When I got back with Roy Z, we wrote [the album’s first single] Afterglow Of Ragnarok, I thought: I like the title, I like the chorus, it’s all good, but it’s got fuck all to do with the comic. But then I thought, it doesn’t matter, and the album is not a concept album, because that limits you, and you end up shoehorning in things to fit the concept.
At the end, you realise the Mandrake Project has conquered death, which raises all sorts of philosophical questions. At the heart of the comic is the question: is the universe scientific, or poetic?
I chuck everything in Steve’s direction. That’s how it works. Then he turns around and says: “Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, no…” These days we tend to write more in the studio, though, so I come up with stuff specifically for Maiden. Me and Adrian write a lot together. Steve might take a couple of ideas from Janick and then he’ll disappear into his little hole in the ground for two to three weeks. Then he’ll suddenly emerge and go: I think I’ve got one. That was how we did Senjutsu, which is a cracking Maiden album.
Yeah, they were. But I also great take pride in being able to voice Steve’s riffs. There’s not many people that can do it. I could never figure out why he wrote such bloody difficult words, though. Then we were chatting one day and it came out – the words follow the bass and drums. I tried to explain to him early on:“Look, Steve, I’m going to lose my front teeth trying to sing this.” But Steve has compromised over the years. I never thought I’d be able to sing Alexander The Great when I first heard it, but that worked out fine.
I wouldn’t have changed that [leaving Maiden in 1993], but I would have done it better. I would have had more of a plan. I realised Iron Maiden were doing its thing and there was nothing anybody could do to change its trajectory. At the time, I was sitting there making what ended up being Balls To Picasso, and I realised that I didn’t have much clue what to do outside of Iron Maiden.
About Tattooed Millionaire: It was a bunch of rock’n’roll clichés done quite well. People liked it – which I respect – but if I wanted to do something that was going to be the start of a solo career I wouldn’t have done Tattooed Millionaire.
Skunkworks was a cracking album, but they weren’t really a focused rock band. I heard the demos they were coming up with, and said: “It’s not really my thing, is it. But that band got me out of my comfort zone, and I learned a lot about singing, too.
Accident Of Birth was a lot of fun to make and it turned everything around for me. The Chemical Wedding was the big one, artistically. That’s when I realised if Iam going to do anything, I need to go deep – deep into the emotion and deep into the heart of it.
I want to come back, Steve, because, in the words of my mates, ‘the world needs Iron Maiden’, and secondly I think we can make amazing music. What I said was: “We will sweep away the past by doing an amazing future.” I also told them that we are not to just do ‘greatest hits’ albums, we are going to do a new album and it will be fucking great. And it was. Brave New World really delivered. So suddenly we’re off to the races again.
Really, I’ve been doing the same thing all along – telling stories. If I’m singing, Iam telling a story. If Iam doing a comic, it’s storytelling. I finally realised this is what I do. I love the musical part of it, but I’ve got to have a story before I’m there.
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