Janick's view, 11 years later

Forostar

Ancient Mariner
BraveWords spoke to Janick Gers about a number of topics including the band's latest album, a Matter Of Life And Death. Looking back (somewhere!) in time, BW&BK poised the question: What are your favorites of the catalogue?

"You know, it’s like saying which is your favorite kids," reflects Gers. "You know, I’ve made lots of albums in my time, with White Spirit, Gillan, Fish, I couldn’t pick one. It’s like having eight, nine, ten children, and saying the middle one is your favourite. I like things, a solo here, a melody there, but I like them all the same. I enjoyed playing on all those albums. X Factor I felt was a great album. Wasn’t well-received at the time. The grunge thing had happened, and every rock artist was canceling tours right across America. We went out and we played and we were the most unfashionable band at the time in the world, but we still went out and did the gigs and we enjoyed ourselves, and we thought we had a good album. See you go out and you play, and you make an album, and you hope the people like it, and if they do like it, got bless them, and the people that don’t, well, God bless them too."
 
Grunge, Blaze, hard to say :) But does not matter now. Iron Maiden survived that period, that is what is important. The X Factor is one of my favourites and I believe that with Bruce it would be different and I would not liked it that much, because Blaze just fits in this kind of dark music :)

Now this is interesting, almost four years old thread revived :)
 
I could have sworn I had seen this interview ages ago, and then I looked at the date of the original post. :p
 
Travis_AKA_fonzbear2000 said:
Grunge had little to do with it being not well received. As much as I like his vocals, Blaze was the main reason.

I don't think one can underestimate the impact of grunge. I really did nearly kill off metal, thankfully not one of the bands had the stamina or the talent that Maiden have. I do agree though, Blaze just wasn't a good fit for Maiden.
 
If you want to know how Blaze was recieved just read the first rant on the commentary.
 
I just discovered X Factor [and Virtual XI] recently and Bruce would have been all wrong for it. Blaze was just right for that record, imo.
 
It was written with Blaze in mind, so it makes sense that it matches his vocal style rather than Bruce's. Very possibly the reason they don't perform Blaze era music live now - it doesn't suit Bruce's voice ;)
 
It was written with Blaze in mind, so it makes sense that it matches his vocal style rather than Bruce's. Very possibly the reason they don't perform Blaze era music live now - it doesn't suit Bruce's voice ;)
Bruce pulled of, I think, Sign Of The Cross and Clansman equally good compared to Blaze (and I'm partial to the RiR rendition of SotC), and Lord ofthe Flies and Futureal was pretty decent, although not as good as with Blaze.
 
I think so when it comes to SoTC - The RiR rendition is amazing. On par regarding The Clansman.
 
Grunge had little to do with it being not well received. As much as I like his vocals, Blaze was the main reason.

Oddly enough, I always felt that Blaze was chosen for the MAIDEN job
because of his vocal style being in the guttural lower register --
which happened to be similar in range to many of the fashionable grunge singers at that time.
Granted, this attempt didn't help to boost low album sales in the U.S. market.

In a similar move, GENESIS hired a brooding gravelly vocalist for their mid-90s
Calling All Stations album-- probably also hoping to somehow fit in the post-grunge takeover.

ASIA, on the other had, recruited a hair-metal-crooning vocalist in the early 90s,
just as the grunge explosion was happening... so that marketing endeavor was dead on arrival.
:uhm:
 
Back
Top