Janick Gers

Yeah, I knew Jeff Beck and Rory Gallagher were his favorite guitar players.
I heard somewhere that He and Dave were to a Jeff Beck gig because they're fans of him.
Great interview. Thanks!
 
Janick is absolutely my favourite guitar player, bar none, and this interview sums up why: all that stuff about doing what you believe in, about playing from the heart not from the head - everything about how he understands music resonates with me on a personal level. Every time I hear him interviewed I'm constantly thinking "YES! That's what I think too!"
 
The_7th_one said:
I think Janick should release some solo stuff with maybe some collaborations (Gillan, Bruce, Fish and other friends)
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I've said it before, for me it's really curious and I want Janick to do a solo album, because he is a fantastic songwriter - he only have to find someone who can help him with the lyrics. Collaborations with guest vocalists (for example: Bruce, Blaze, Di'Anno, Gillan, Fish, Dee Snider, the two vocalists from his band White Spirit...) would allow him to improvise with styles and that is really curious to me.

It's also curious if he will ever write a song all by himself for Maiden.
 
TheTalisman said:
If you exclude Blaze's vocals in Como Estais Amigos and Man on the Edge, I think he did (Blaze does not play any instrument).
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I'd imagine the same for Dickinson/Gers ones, even though Bruce does write some music. Also possible Harris only wrote lyrics in some of the many Gers/Harris songs.
 
srfc said:
Also possible Harris only wrote lyrics in some of the many Gers/Harris songs.
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Janick on how he writes with Steve:

"So generally with pretty much anything me and Steve write it means I’ve asked Steve to add some lyrics to it, and he might add some melodic ideas within the song as well."


I gather from this that Steve is now Janick's lyricist of choice. My general observation is that Janick is just not interested in writing lyrics: not necessarily because he couldn't, but simply because he prefers to have Steve do it for him. He's mentioned elsewhere that he rates Steve's lyric-writing abilities very highly (this is just one example):

Iron Maiden Official Website - Steve Harris

The Official Iron Maiden Website.,
web.archive.org
 
I believe Janick wrote the lyrics for “The Pilgrim”, which is some pretty awkward stuff, so it’s probably just as well that he outsources most of it.

He shouldn’t have any shortage of material for a solo album — he’s said in the past that he usually brings over an hour of music into the writing sessions for each album, and they only tend to use a small portion of it. The quality of the leftovers is anyone’s guess.
 
I think Janick also wrote some of the lyrics for The Legacy since Steve mentioned having to nix a namedrop of a real-world politician in that, which he obviously wouldn't have had to if it was all his words from start to finish.

I somehow got the impression from old interviews that he was so busy with FTGGOG and the other songs he contributed to that he just didn't have the time for The Pilgrim's lyrics and presumably that extended to a portion of The Legacy as well. It does leave me wondering how much of the music in those songs is Steve's rather than Janick's.
 
GhostofCain said:
I remember Jan mentioning that he had written the song based on a politician (my guess is it would have been Tony Blair following the disappointment of getting involved in the Irak war) but Steve told him that they could not be that explicit.
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Janick in Fan Club mag #76, talking about "The Legacy":

"I wrote the music, which was about something specific to me. I talked to Steve about it and he took it a different way, but it's still about the same truths and untruths that the music was written about."

"... we couldn't really write what the song was originally about. It's, mmm, it's not political, but we couldn't touch upon what it was actually about. Steve took the idea of what it was about, and made it into something we could use. There are only so many things that you can write about. We are not a political band, so we don't want to get into that too much. The Legacy was about a certain person, and Steve took it on a different level, and wrote some brilliant lyrics, and he kept the understanding and the feeling of what the song was about, and still asks the same questions."

Based on this my immediate assumption is that this "certain person" is not a politician, and probably not a public figure at all. When you take away the cover story about the military leader, what are you left with? What is it then about? I'd say it's about someone who abuses a position of trust in order to further a personal agenda.

The Legacy

Re: 'The Legacy' I must try and find out where I read it, but some poster on some forum somewhere stated it reminded him of the film "Jacob's Ladder". It has been around 13 or 14 years since I watched the movie and can't remember too much about it, but the plot certainly centres around...
forum.maidenfans.com
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
Janick in Fan Club mag #76, talking about "The Legacy":

"I wrote the music, which was about something specific to me. I talked to Steve about it and he took it a different way, but it's still about the same truths and untruths that the music was written about."

"... we couldn't really write what the song was originally about. It's, mmm, it's not political, but we couldn't touch upon what it was actually about. Steve took the idea of what it was about, and made it into something we could use. There are only so many things that you can write about. We are not a political band, so we don't want to get into that too much. The Legacy was about a certain person, and Steve took it on a different level, and wrote some brilliant lyrics, and he kept the understanding and the feeling of what the song was about, and still asks the same questions."

Based on this my immediate assumption is that this "certain person" is not a politician, and probably not a public figure at all. When you take away the cover story about the military leader, what are you left with? What is it then about? I'd say it's about someone who abuses a position of trust in order to further a personal agenda.

The Legacy

Re: 'The Legacy' I must try and find out where I read it, but some poster on some forum somewhere stated it reminded him of the film "Jacob's Ladder". It has been around 13 or 14 years since I watched the movie and can't remember too much about it, but the plot certainly centres around...
forum.maidenfans.com
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I’d still say it was originally about Tony Blair and the fallout from the Irak war, and Steve made it more ambiguous.
 
GhostofCain said:
I’d still say it was originally about Tony Blair and the fallout from the Irak war, and Steve made it more ambiguous.
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And I still fail to see how the subject of a politician sending us into a controversial war could possibly be described as "not political" ;)
 
Ruflux said:
I think Janick also wrote some of the lyrics for The Legacy since Steve mentioned having to nix a namedrop of a real-world politician in that, which he obviously wouldn't have had to if it was all his words from start to finish.

I somehow got the impression from old interviews that he was so busy with FTGGOG and the other songs he contributed to that he just didn't have the time for The Pilgrim's lyrics and presumably that extended to a portion of The Legacy as well. It does leave me wondering how much of the music in those songs is Steve's rather than Janick's.
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Hmm, Steve used to be busy a lot with ideas from others, resulting in a co-credit (apart from 1 song). So he indeed did a lot of stuff in a later phase.
But I think that would be an extra good job by Janick if he were asked last minute, "hey can you write some lyrics, because I lack time".
I'd say it's more logical that Janick, like with most other main contributors, started with ideas at home (or in the "writing period"), but who knows.
And then later Steve had not enough time or simply he (and Bruce) approved of the Pilgrim lyrics (maybe even from the start), so no extra work was needed.
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
And I still fail to see how the subject of a politician sending us into a controversial war could possibly be described as "not political" ;)
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Perhaps because Jan was not blaming Labour but the ego of one particular PM, so the song was about the person’s acts rather than general politics? Only Jan knows!
 
GhostofCain said:
Perhaps because Jan was not blaming Labour but the ego of one particular PM, so the song was about the person’s acts rather than general politics?
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That may not be "party politics" but it's still about political decisions he made in his professional capacity: I wouldn't class that as "not political".

You're entitled to your opinion though :ok:
GhostofCain said:
Only Jan knows!
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And Steve ;)
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
That may not be "party politics" but it's still about political decisions he made in his professional capacity: I wouldn't class that as "not political".

You're entitled to your opinion though :ok:

And Steve ;)
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Another thing that makes me think the song refers to a politician is the “mmm” in Jan’s explanation, suggesting he was trying to find the words to express himself. The historical context points towards Blair if that were the case.

I am probably wrong though.
 
GhostofCain said:
he was trying to find the words to express himself
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Or indeed trying to find the words to not express himself, since the actual subject of the song is clearly a closely-guarded secret :D

You are obviously approaching this from a completely different angle to me.
 
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