Singer Bruce Dickinson, drummer Nicko McBrain and guitarist Adrian Smith of British heavy metal legends were interviewed for an episode of "Hard" on the AUX music channel out of Canada when the band played in Toronto, Ontario on July 3, 2010. The segment can now be viewed below.
Rod Smallwood, IRON MAIDEN's longtime manager, told The New York Times that more than 800,000 copies of the band's latest album, "The Final Frontier", had been shipped to retailers around the world by the end of August, with the group having sold about 85 million records in its 30-year career.
"A lot of bands could learn a lot from MAIDEN," Smallwood said. "MAIDEN is essentially about the relationship with the fans, and nothing comes between that. They don't want to be rock stars. They just enjoy playing for the fans."
According to David Kassler, chief operating officer of EMI for Europe, digital tracking services showed only small levels of illegal downloading of "The Final Frontier", which is attributable in part to the fact that IRON MAIDEN's songs do not fit the mold of a radio single — three of them, on the newest release, are more than nine minutes long.
"You'd expect some people to be pirating, but they don't," Kassler told The New York Times. "They want the physical album. They love the artwork, the lyrics. It's something they want to show their friends and family."
SOURCE
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Final Frontier recording diary by Kevin Shirley part 5
SOURCE
nd thought it sounded a bit roomy, so I'll do a drier mix tomorrow.
February 24, 2010 Malibu, California
Did a dry mix then some updates on ..The Final Frontier. In the end we went with yesterday's mix - my original mix. After that I began comping the vocal on Mother of Mercy - Steve has a very particular vocal melody in his mind, which Bruce didn't really get 100% correct. It's close tho..... but needs a few tweaks. Left the comp about half way through - it was mind jumbling. Got home to find two sick babies....
February 25, 2010 Malibu, California
Last night was a rough night with our poor little sick kids - so not too much sleep at all for any of us last night. Got to my studio just after 11am to find Steve doing the crosswords - he loves them! I had to dig back into Mother of Mercy and complete the vocal compiling!
Adrian came by The Cave for a listen - he thought the tracks sounded good but "a little too much like the band in the studio". He thought more reverb to make them sound more "majestic" and "epic". Steve disagreed strongly. Honestly, they are both right. The thing I personally like about the dry, honest mixes, is that it sets them apart from any other Classic Rock or Metal band. They're not really metal anyway, in the present day sense of the genre, but they're more of a hard progressive rock band. I promised to run some mixes each way and decisions can be made down the road, if necessary.
February 26, 2010 Malibu, California
I started the day with an early 30 mile bike ride along the coast and went in to the studio at normal start time of 11 and finished the mix of Mother Of Mercy. Bruce came in from London this morning and very kindly brought me a stack of Formula 1 magazines - it's my passion and the States only sees them about 6 weeks after their appearance in England, so I was particularly thrilled! He listened to a few things we'd been working on - had some issues with a couple of vocal lines he'd sung, and disliked a particular guitar solo we'd recorded at Compass Point, but said "whatever!", and then dug into the work and sang Isle Of Avalon and Starblind. Both are very high - I suggested a lower vocal line in the Isle Of Avalon chorus, which he tried, so perhaps we'll have a harmony - we'll see.
February 27, 2010 Malibu, California
A massive 8.8 earthquake hit Chile early this morning. We were on a tsunami advisory again, and as we live on the ocean, we left for higher ground over the lunch hours. The waves were only about 2 feet higher, which didn't really affect things too much up here in Malibu. I'm sure this will prove to be catastrophic again.....
It's Adrian's birthday today! His wife, Nathalie, threw a great party for him. Gorgeous food, great ambience - Steve and his beautiful daughters Kerry and Faye attended, as did Bruce and a host of people. A lot of fun - she had been quite explicit about overstaying our welcome with "Carriages at 11" on the invitation, but by the time it came to go, Adrian wanted everyone to stay longer. Nathalie said, "but it's what you wanted!" We had sickish babies at home, and couldn't stay in any case.........
February 28, 2010 Malibu, California
Last day of the month - relax!
March 1, 2010 Malibu, California
Bruce came in from Marina Del Ray and sang two songs today - Satellite 15 and When the Wild Wind Blows. Started working on the Wild Wind mix.
March 2, 2010 Malibu, California
Compiled the vocal for When The Wild Wind Blows and mixed it! Steve's daughters, Faye and Kerry, came by and listened to all the music completed thus far, and they went with Steve to the local Italian restaurant, The Sage Room, for dinner.
March 3, 2010 Malibu, California
Bruce came by today to hear the five mixes that were done. Did a little touch up on When the Wild Wind Blows mix, compiled the lead vocals on The Alchemist and mixed it as well.
March 4, 2010 Malibu, California
Started compiling a lead vocal on The Talisman. It was a nightmare to compile! Adrian dropped in late afternoon to pick up a CD of the mixes thus far.
March 5, 2010 Malibu, California.
I mixed The Talisman, the second bit. Not the quiet intro bit that sounds like a haunting kids sea shanty. I think fans are going to love this song!
March 6, 7, 2010 Malibu, California
Weekend - happy to have a break!
March 8, 2010 Malibu, California
Finished mixing Talisman (the acoustic intro) and compiled the vocal on The Man Who Would Be King.
March 9, 2010 Malibu, California
Mixed The Man Who Would Be King. Adrian came in and said it all sounded good - and said he was 95% happy with the album mixes and we should look at them and tweak them slightly - I am perfectly happy to reassess any of the mixes, as daunting as the prospect of revisiting everything is, changing sonics etc., but Steve and I are quite happy with it and neither of us can really afford the extra time it would take to remix, so Steve jumped in and basically said we're going to be done this weekend and we are not remixing the entire album. Adrian ultimately understood but wasn't thrilled about it!
March 10, 2010 Malibu, California
Compiled the vocal for Starblind, and began the mix of it - it is proving to be a complicated mix and quite difficult.
March 11, 2010 Malibu, California
Mixed Starblind today. Adrian came by to hear it - and was desirous of more reverb on some things - it's a little bit of a continuous internal battle, and is essentially just a different way to hear things. Def Leppard on one hand, something garagey on the other. Extra reverb was not added to anything. Adrian left happy and understanding, I thought!!!
March 12, 2010 Malibu, California
It's Steve's birthday today! I've just finished mixing the entire album - mixed The Isle of Avalon and Satellite 15 today. The mixes went very well then I assembled the album in order - putting all the master mixes in sequences and adjusting the gaps or segues between the songs. Steve is packing to leave and I'm planning on having a glass of wine with Adrian at 9pm - both lads appear ecstatic! We're all off for dinner......
Friday May 7th, Oakland, CA
Well, it's almost two months later. I've completed the Black Country Communion album and am in midst of producing a new Journey album since we wrapped up the Iron Maiden album. I'm sitting in Oakland airport (I'm producing Journey album in San Francisco) - waiting for a one hour flight to Los Angeles where I'm going to play the folks from Universal Music the new Maiden album later today. We've had the album mastered three times, and have ultimately decided to go with my flat mixes over any of the mastering versions. I think the mastering place did a great job, but Steve, while liking these versions, feels that the integrity of the original mixes has been compromised somewhat and so it's coming out flat. No equalization, no compression, just as it was when Steve heard the MP3s of the mixes and just as it left my studio.
Tuesday June 8th, Malibu CA
Home after recording the Journey album - in the studio mixing a South African band called Panic Circle today. The first Maiden single, El Dorado, was released yesterday as a free download on the ironmaiden.com website and immediately clogged up the server, but I woke to about a hundred emails from people that have loved it - so, THANK YOU!!!
And that is how I spent the early part of 2010 - producing The Final Frontier. Hope you enjoyed that.......
- Kevin Shirley
nd thought it sounded a bit roomy, so I'll do a drier mix tomorrow.
February 24, 2010 Malibu, California
Did a dry mix then some updates on ..The Final Frontier. In the end we went with yesterday's mix - my original mix. After that I began comping the vocal on Mother of Mercy - Steve has a very particular vocal melody in his mind, which Bruce didn't really get 100% correct. It's close tho..... but needs a few tweaks. Left the comp about half way through - it was mind jumbling. Got home to find two sick babies....
February 25, 2010 Malibu, California
Last night was a rough night with our poor little sick kids - so not too much sleep at all for any of us last night. Got to my studio just after 11am to find Steve doing the crosswords - he loves them! I had to dig back into Mother of Mercy and complete the vocal compiling!
Adrian came by The Cave for a listen - he thought the tracks sounded good but "a little too much like the band in the studio". He thought more reverb to make them sound more "majestic" and "epic". Steve disagreed strongly. Honestly, they are both right. The thing I personally like about the dry, honest mixes, is that it sets them apart from any other Classic Rock or Metal band. They're not really metal anyway, in the present day sense of the genre, but they're more of a hard progressive rock band. I promised to run some mixes each way and decisions can be made down the road, if necessary.
February 26, 2010 Malibu, CaliforniaI started the day with an early 30 mile bike ride along the coast and went in to the studio at normal start time of 11 and finished the mix of Mother Of Mercy. Bruce came in from London this morning and very kindly brought me a stack of Formula 1 magazines - it's my passion and the States only sees them about 6 weeks after their appearance in England, so I was particularly thrilled! He listened to a few things we'd been working on - had some issues with a couple of vocal lines he'd sung, and disliked a particular guitar solo we'd recorded at Compass Point, but said "whatever!", and then dug into the work and sang Isle Of Avalon and Starblind. Both are very high - I suggested a lower vocal line in the Isle Of Avalon chorus, which he tried, so perhaps we'll have a harmony - we'll see.
February 27, 2010 Malibu, California
A massive 8.8 earthquake hit Chile early this morning. We were on a tsunami advisory again, and as we live on the ocean, we left for higher ground over the lunch hours. The waves were only about 2 feet higher, which didn't really affect things too much up here in Malibu. I'm sure this will prove to be catastrophic again.....
It's Adrian's birthday today! His wife, Nathalie, threw a great party for him. Gorgeous food, great ambience - Steve and his beautiful daughters Kerry and Faye attended, as did Bruce and a host of people. A lot of fun - she had been quite explicit about overstaying our welcome with "Carriages at 11" on the invitation, but by the time it came to go, Adrian wanted everyone to stay longer. Nathalie said, "but it's what you wanted!" We had sickish babies at home, and couldn't stay in any case.........
February 28, 2010 Malibu, California
Last day of the month - relax!
March 1, 2010 Malibu, California
Bruce came in from Marina Del Ray and sang two songs today - Satellite 15 and When the Wild Wind Blows. Started working on the Wild Wind mix.
March 2, 2010 Malibu, California
Compiled the vocal for When The Wild Wind Blows and mixed it! Steve's daughters, Faye and Kerry, came by and listened to all the music completed thus far, and they went with Steve to the local Italian restaurant, The Sage Room, for dinner.
March 3, 2010 Malibu, California
Bruce came by today to hear the five mixes that were done. Did a little touch up on When the Wild Wind Blows mix, compiled the lead vocals on The Alchemist and mixed it as well.
March 4, 2010 Malibu, California
Started compiling a lead vocal on The Talisman. It was a nightmare to compile! Adrian dropped in late afternoon to pick up a CD of the mixes thus far.
March 5, 2010 Malibu, California.I mixed The Talisman, the second bit. Not the quiet intro bit that sounds like a haunting kids sea shanty. I think fans are going to love this song!
March 6, 7, 2010 Malibu, California
Weekend - happy to have a break!
March 8, 2010 Malibu, California
Finished mixing Talisman (the acoustic intro) and compiled the vocal on The Man Who Would Be King.
March 9, 2010 Malibu, California
Mixed The Man Who Would Be King. Adrian came in and said it all sounded good - and said he was 95% happy with the album mixes and we should look at them and tweak them slightly - I am perfectly happy to reassess any of the mixes, as daunting as the prospect of revisiting everything is, changing sonics etc., but Steve and I are quite happy with it and neither of us can really afford the extra time it would take to remix, so Steve jumped in and basically said we're going to be done this weekend and we are not remixing the entire album. Adrian ultimately understood but wasn't thrilled about it!
March 10, 2010 Malibu, California
Compiled the vocal for Starblind, and began the mix of it - it is proving to be a complicated mix and quite difficult.
March 11, 2010 Malibu, California
Mixed Starblind today. Adrian came by to hear it - and was desirous of more reverb on some things - it's a little bit of a continuous internal battle, and is essentially just a different way to hear things. Def Leppard on one hand, something garagey on the other. Extra reverb was not added to anything. Adrian left happy and understanding, I thought!!!
March 12, 2010 Malibu, California
It's Steve's birthday today! I've just finished mixing the entire album - mixed The Isle of Avalon and Satellite 15 today. The mixes went very well then I assembled the album in order - putting all the master mixes in sequences and adjusting the gaps or segues between the songs. Steve is packing to leave and I'm planning on having a glass of wine with Adrian at 9pm - both lads appear ecstatic! We're all off for dinner......
Friday May 7th, Oakland, CA
Well, it's almost two months later. I've completed the Black Country Communion album and am in midst of producing a new Journey album since we wrapped up the Iron Maiden album. I'm sitting in Oakland airport (I'm producing Journey album in San Francisco) - waiting for a one hour flight to Los Angeles where I'm going to play the folks from Universal Music the new Maiden album later today. We've had the album mastered three times, and have ultimately decided to go with my flat mixes over any of the mastering versions. I think the mastering place did a great job, but Steve, while liking these versions, feels that the integrity of the original mixes has been compromised somewhat and so it's coming out flat. No equalization, no compression, just as it was when Steve heard the MP3s of the mixes and just as it left my studio.
Tuesday June 8th, Malibu CA
Home after recording the Journey album - in the studio mixing a South African band called Panic Circle today. The first Maiden single, El Dorado, was released yesterday as a free download on the ironmaiden.com website and immediately clogged up the server, but I woke to about a hundred emails from people that have loved it - so, THANK YOU!!!
And that is how I spent the early part of 2010 - producing The Final Frontier. Hope you enjoyed that.......
- Kevin Shirley
The Final Frontier recording diary by Kevin Shirley part 4
SOURCE
February 7 - Superbowl Sunday.
Gaddsy and Michael Kenney took me and my family to the airport as they left for L.A. today. Janick went off for his first scuba dive ever, with the crew from the Aga Khan's yacht, Shergar, and he really loved it. Gadd and I joined them on the boat about 4pm-ish, had a couple of beers onboard and got the royal yacht tour. Amazing! $100million worth of boat - each tank of gas costs $75,000!! It has two jet turbines, and at 100 ft long reaches about 50 knots! That's flying!! Then off to Crazy Johnny's we all went, to watch the Superbowl, and perhaps a few drinks.......
February 8
Not everyone looked like they were ready to run a marathon this morning, after a long night of Superbowl revelry. Our engineer Jared arrives a little puffy, and As 'Arry said of his eyes, "they look like two piss holes in the snow!" Well, as Jared has a vague connection to New Orleans, he was forgiven! We need to do a few updates to the last song and so Adrian started off the day recording a solo on When The Wild Wind Blows, after which we did some melodic lines on the same song with Davey, some guitar jangle chords in the verses, and that is the band tracks for the new album complete! I let everyone go for the day, and spent the rest of it getting the complex tracks in order so when we do some keyboards over the next few days, we hear everything as it's meant to be heard, and nothing clashes musically or sonically. Had a very English dinner of Bangers 'n Mash and a pint of stout at the Nassau Cricket Club, and home earlyish to watch a movie.
February 9, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Slept great, but woke feeling very stiff. Off to the gym for a gentle workout and then set off to the studio at the normal time of 10.45am, with an obligatory stop at Starbucks en route. Finally we got stuck into keyboards today. Michael Kenney set up the keys and Steve poked away at them, hunting for the melodies running around his head like a chicken pecking the ground. Simple lines, but effective and we accomplished a lot of work. We finished keyboard overdubs on seven tunes today then headed to Poop Deck for a quick drink with Steve before heading home to make dinner.... for myself.
February 10, 2010 Nassau, BahamasToday we finished the few keyboards overdubs left to do on the album. Janick's family arrived from England today, so he asked me to send him an MP3 of the solo he did on The Alchemist, which I did, and he called me later asking if he could redo it, so we'll have another crack at it on Friday. Adrian listened to all the tracks and has a few things he wants to add as well. We all went to dinner at The Poop Deck but as the weather had been a little rough, there was no fresh fish on the menu, so we had burgers while sitting at the bar. Nicko sent us his love from sunny Florida, where he's working on the official opening of his restaurant, Rock 'n Roll Ribs, in Boca Raton or somewhere in the vicinity, this weekend.
February 11, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Up early and I swam across the bay - didn't feel like the gym today. Headed to the studio about 10.30am after a quick stop for a "grande-four-shot-non-fat-wet-cappuccino" at Starbucks and once we got up and rockin', Adrian replayed the verse on Mother Of Mercy and added a harmony guitar to the pre-chorus. 'Arry didn't make it in to the studio today, and while waiting for some computer thing to be done, I was noodling around some blues scales on one of Janick's acoustic guitars, which prompted Terry Manning to show me an old National that used to be blues icon Robert Johnson's dobro! It was very humbling and awe-inspiring to hold it and slide a little on it, and I felt more moved even than when I met Jimmy Page or B.B. King. Its serial # is T968. Back to work, and we listened through a few things and I did a couple of edits that needed doing and we were done by 7pm, off to .........yep you guessed it, the Poop Deck again. It's the only place around, as you've probably gathered, that doesn't require getting a taxi. At least they had fresh fish today, and I ordered one to go and had it at my house while watching the news - boring but very tasty!
February 12, 2010 Nassau, BahamasAdrian and Nathalie, his wife, left early for a week at Parrot Key. It's the last day in the studio today. Janick came in and redid the solo on The Alchemist. He was much happier than before - the first solo had been much more "in the meter", but this one crossed the rhythms, and he liked the fact that it sounded like he wasn't going to make it, and then did. He felt it sounded more "incendiary!". His phrase.
Looked over the tracksheet of Where The Wild Wind Blows and sorted through the multiple parts, and made a cohesive tracklist - then made 2 safety copies of the Master drive, and said our goodbyes to the Mannings in the studio, took Steve two masters - one to leave behind, and one to bring with him. I have one to carry back to L.A. tomorrow, and that's all three master drives. We have a big art canvas in the studio, which has all the album titles and plots the progress of the recording session as we go. So I dropped the big canvas at 'Arry's house, and then went with Steve Gadd and his best gal to the Cricket Club, for bangers 'n mash. Again. Yummy!
February 13, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
The wind howled all night and the rain bucketed down. I woke at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. Packed, and checked the flight details. Atlanta is covered in snow and is a frigid 25 degrees. All good, it appears. Left for the airport to find my flight cancelled. Managed to get a coach flight (all Business was booked) back home - it adds another six hours to my flight!!! which means 13 hours from check-in til landing, if all goes to schedule. I'm in Nassau airport now.......
February 15, 2010 Malibu, California
Finally got home late last night. My luggage didn't. Lots of scrambling and frantic running between gates, but I finally had a good flight back and it is great to be home in Malibu on the beach. I had a very chilled Sunday with my family and now it's back to work in my studio today, going over all the tracks. They're not really ready for my studio, so had to spend the day preparing them to suit a different console, etc. Also, the big storms in California recently have knocked my studio about - all the lightbulbs downstairs had blown, as well as my Summit TLA- compressor, so the day was spent in repair mode, as well as getting the studio bedroom ready, where Steve Harris will stay for the month ahead - he arrives tonight.
February 16, 2010 Malibu, California
I'm in the studio early today. I FedExed my blown compressor out for repair - Brent Spear, my tech, is coming in for the day from Las Vegas to make sure everything is working perfectly, the Cable TV repairman is coming today to make sure Steve's English Premier League soccer is available on the telly, so it's all systems go around here. Bruce will be in from London tonight to sing ......
February 17, 2010 Malibu, California
Vocal day - Bruce arrived, with stories, as usual. Tales from flights around the world - Russia, Iceland, Niger..... Today he sang Coming Home and El Dorado, then we had a break for lunch, after which he nailed the lead vocal for Mother of Mercy! It's very, very high...
February 19, 2010 Malibu, California
Bruce sang again today, then left to fly back to London tonight and on to Africa as Capt. Dickinson tomorrow - I compiled the lead vocal on El Dorado, and then I mixed it. Went to the store to pick up dinner on the way home and my car got wrecked in the parking lot by some Bonehead. Exhausted!
February 20, 2010 Malibu, California
Knackered - feel brutally tired today.
February 21, 2010 Malibu, California
Had to go with the family to a kids birthday party - I realize I have to do these things, but I really hate doing them. Went for a bicycle ride when we got back, and decided while riding, that I'm going to cycle to San Francisco to do my next job - which is producing Journey's new studio album in April.
February 7 - Superbowl Sunday.Gaddsy and Michael Kenney took me and my family to the airport as they left for L.A. today. Janick went off for his first scuba dive ever, with the crew from the Aga Khan's yacht, Shergar, and he really loved it. Gadd and I joined them on the boat about 4pm-ish, had a couple of beers onboard and got the royal yacht tour. Amazing! $100million worth of boat - each tank of gas costs $75,000!! It has two jet turbines, and at 100 ft long reaches about 50 knots! That's flying!! Then off to Crazy Johnny's we all went, to watch the Superbowl, and perhaps a few drinks.......
February 8
Not everyone looked like they were ready to run a marathon this morning, after a long night of Superbowl revelry. Our engineer Jared arrives a little puffy, and As 'Arry said of his eyes, "they look like two piss holes in the snow!" Well, as Jared has a vague connection to New Orleans, he was forgiven! We need to do a few updates to the last song and so Adrian started off the day recording a solo on When The Wild Wind Blows, after which we did some melodic lines on the same song with Davey, some guitar jangle chords in the verses, and that is the band tracks for the new album complete! I let everyone go for the day, and spent the rest of it getting the complex tracks in order so when we do some keyboards over the next few days, we hear everything as it's meant to be heard, and nothing clashes musically or sonically. Had a very English dinner of Bangers 'n Mash and a pint of stout at the Nassau Cricket Club, and home earlyish to watch a movie.
February 9, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Slept great, but woke feeling very stiff. Off to the gym for a gentle workout and then set off to the studio at the normal time of 10.45am, with an obligatory stop at Starbucks en route. Finally we got stuck into keyboards today. Michael Kenney set up the keys and Steve poked away at them, hunting for the melodies running around his head like a chicken pecking the ground. Simple lines, but effective and we accomplished a lot of work. We finished keyboard overdubs on seven tunes today then headed to Poop Deck for a quick drink with Steve before heading home to make dinner.... for myself.
February 10, 2010 Nassau, BahamasToday we finished the few keyboards overdubs left to do on the album. Janick's family arrived from England today, so he asked me to send him an MP3 of the solo he did on The Alchemist, which I did, and he called me later asking if he could redo it, so we'll have another crack at it on Friday. Adrian listened to all the tracks and has a few things he wants to add as well. We all went to dinner at The Poop Deck but as the weather had been a little rough, there was no fresh fish on the menu, so we had burgers while sitting at the bar. Nicko sent us his love from sunny Florida, where he's working on the official opening of his restaurant, Rock 'n Roll Ribs, in Boca Raton or somewhere in the vicinity, this weekend.
February 11, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Up early and I swam across the bay - didn't feel like the gym today. Headed to the studio about 10.30am after a quick stop for a "grande-four-shot-non-fat-wet-cappuccino" at Starbucks and once we got up and rockin', Adrian replayed the verse on Mother Of Mercy and added a harmony guitar to the pre-chorus. 'Arry didn't make it in to the studio today, and while waiting for some computer thing to be done, I was noodling around some blues scales on one of Janick's acoustic guitars, which prompted Terry Manning to show me an old National that used to be blues icon Robert Johnson's dobro! It was very humbling and awe-inspiring to hold it and slide a little on it, and I felt more moved even than when I met Jimmy Page or B.B. King. Its serial # is T968. Back to work, and we listened through a few things and I did a couple of edits that needed doing and we were done by 7pm, off to .........yep you guessed it, the Poop Deck again. It's the only place around, as you've probably gathered, that doesn't require getting a taxi. At least they had fresh fish today, and I ordered one to go and had it at my house while watching the news - boring but very tasty!
February 12, 2010 Nassau, BahamasAdrian and Nathalie, his wife, left early for a week at Parrot Key. It's the last day in the studio today. Janick came in and redid the solo on The Alchemist. He was much happier than before - the first solo had been much more "in the meter", but this one crossed the rhythms, and he liked the fact that it sounded like he wasn't going to make it, and then did. He felt it sounded more "incendiary!". His phrase.
Looked over the tracksheet of Where The Wild Wind Blows and sorted through the multiple parts, and made a cohesive tracklist - then made 2 safety copies of the Master drive, and said our goodbyes to the Mannings in the studio, took Steve two masters - one to leave behind, and one to bring with him. I have one to carry back to L.A. tomorrow, and that's all three master drives. We have a big art canvas in the studio, which has all the album titles and plots the progress of the recording session as we go. So I dropped the big canvas at 'Arry's house, and then went with Steve Gadd and his best gal to the Cricket Club, for bangers 'n mash. Again. Yummy!
February 13, 2010 Nassau, BahamasThe wind howled all night and the rain bucketed down. I woke at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep. Packed, and checked the flight details. Atlanta is covered in snow and is a frigid 25 degrees. All good, it appears. Left for the airport to find my flight cancelled. Managed to get a coach flight (all Business was booked) back home - it adds another six hours to my flight!!! which means 13 hours from check-in til landing, if all goes to schedule. I'm in Nassau airport now.......
February 15, 2010 Malibu, California
Finally got home late last night. My luggage didn't. Lots of scrambling and frantic running between gates, but I finally had a good flight back and it is great to be home in Malibu on the beach. I had a very chilled Sunday with my family and now it's back to work in my studio today, going over all the tracks. They're not really ready for my studio, so had to spend the day preparing them to suit a different console, etc. Also, the big storms in California recently have knocked my studio about - all the lightbulbs downstairs had blown, as well as my Summit TLA- compressor, so the day was spent in repair mode, as well as getting the studio bedroom ready, where Steve Harris will stay for the month ahead - he arrives tonight.
February 16, 2010 Malibu, California
I'm in the studio early today. I FedExed my blown compressor out for repair - Brent Spear, my tech, is coming in for the day from Las Vegas to make sure everything is working perfectly, the Cable TV repairman is coming today to make sure Steve's English Premier League soccer is available on the telly, so it's all systems go around here. Bruce will be in from London tonight to sing ......
February 17, 2010 Malibu, California
Vocal day - Bruce arrived, with stories, as usual. Tales from flights around the world - Russia, Iceland, Niger..... Today he sang Coming Home and El Dorado, then we had a break for lunch, after which he nailed the lead vocal for Mother of Mercy! It's very, very high...
February 19, 2010 Malibu, California
Bruce sang again today, then left to fly back to London tonight and on to Africa as Capt. Dickinson tomorrow - I compiled the lead vocal on El Dorado, and then I mixed it. Went to the store to pick up dinner on the way home and my car got wrecked in the parking lot by some Bonehead. Exhausted!
February 20, 2010 Malibu, California
Knackered - feel brutally tired today.
February 21, 2010 Malibu, California
Had to go with the family to a kids birthday party - I realize I have to do these things, but I really hate doing them. Went for a bicycle ride when we got back, and decided while riding, that I'm going to cycle to San Francisco to do my next job - which is producing Journey's new studio album in April.
The Final Frontier recording diary by Kevin Shirley part 3
SOURCE
Sunday Jan 24, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Woke late -- a little tired still. Relaxed around the condo, made coffee and watched some Gridiron football. Adrian dropped by around noon and borrowed my iPod to listen to the rough mixes of the tracking recordings we have done thus far.
Monday Jan 25, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
The lads took the day off and 'Arry and I went to work about 11 o'clock and began the big job of editing the multiple takes of Where The Wild Wind Blows together. Nobody but he has any idea how it ultimately goes, and the structure altered a little from his original idea in the assembly, but it fits together and flows very nicely. An ironic epic about a suicide pact in the face of a nuclear explosion. And very Maiden!
Tuesday January 26, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Workout with a trainer again at 8am - he kicked my butt!
All the band - bar Bruce, who's gone back to London - meet at the studio to listen to all the tracks we've recorded and get a good overview of the album. All the guys seem excited after the playback, and we start work embellishing the rough recordings of Coming Home with some overdubs. Adrian puts an acoustic guitar picking through the verses and choruses, which we double track for stereo imaging. Then Davey plays the first of the guitar solos on his Les Paul guitar, which ironically sounds like a Strat! it's a very Hendrixy Little Wing-ish solo, and he's happy with the result. He's always happy! Then Adrian added the second solo. We assemble a different monitoring system for him in the studio, so he balances his own mix and listen on Genelecs. He's uncomfortable initially, but after a while we get a great solo from him. The raw sound bothers him, so i add a little Pitch Shift, and he's happy. End of the day. Off to the local bar called The Poop Deck for burgers and beer. And coffee tequila. And a last cleansing beer. Nicko and his chef mate, Frankie, visiting from new York, leave first. I leave Jan and Davey chatting at the bar.
Wednesday January 27, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Start the recording day by having Janick add an upper octave to his guitar line in the choruses of Coming Home. This is the end of guitar overdubs on this song.
Then we move onto the song El Dorado. Adrian does a guitar solo, quite a few takes - which I then compile. He's happy. Steve doesn't stay around for things like the guitar solos necessarily, but he likes to hear everything at some point. Next Janick has a go at the guitar overdubs, adding an octave to a prechorus line, then doing his solo. Davey comes in for a late start having had a little beach time and does the middle solo. We listen back quite loud and everyone seems very happy with it. They all leave and I stay to sort through some takes of Mother Of Mercy, so it's ready to be overdubbed. Dinner of fresh fish and a beer at the bar, and I'm home just after 7.30pm. Early night in....... speak to my babies on Skype.
Thursday January 28, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
A very full day in the studio today - Davey starts the day with a bunch of overdubs on The Man Who Would Be King - Harmony guitars on the outro and on the chorus - we try a few on the intro, but they don't really work. Then we do a quick solo, which I reverse a-la-hendrix, and he loves it! We do some other weird noises - divebombs, etc., which go alongside the backwards solo, then Janick does a little tag, after which we do a 3 part guitar harmony with all the guitarists on the second part of the solo. It was originally going to be an Adrian solo, but the track felt so out of control after Davey's musical madness, that we introduce the harmony melody guitars which brings some order into the chaos. This song is now done for the day, and we move to the overdubs on The Final Frontier. Adrian does a big strumming acoustic guitar on the choruses, and then adds a tenor guitar line which echoes Steve's bass line on the chorus - and last he does the solo on his trusty Strat...... and that's it for the day, and the week!
Friday January 29, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
My family are arriving at 1pm from Los Angeles, and we all take the day off work. No one complains! Well, Delta screws up my family's flight, and leaves them with an enforced long layover in Atlanta - so I take the opportunity to go grocery shopping. I need everything at our condo - toilet paper, water... you get the picture, so it's a godsend to have time to prepare for them. The lifestyle of a bachelor doesn't necessarily meet all the needs of a young family, and once I've sorted out the house I head to the airport with Steve Gadd and Mike Kenney, who've come to give us a hand with the luggage and kids. (They offered and are very gracious and friendly - it's no Producer control-freak thing!). They finally arrive at 5pm and as they come through the Arrivals and I see them, I get a little misty as my 2 year-old Talon yells, "My daddy, my daddy, my daddy" .... sweet!!
Weekend off playing with my kids in the pool and on the beach!!!!!
February 1 and 2, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
More recording on some of the other songs - it gets a bit "Groundhog Day" in the telling and diarizing of it all, as it's a very similar process every day for all the songs and overdubs. We do various guitar overdubs, solos, harmonies, acoustic guitars...... the Three Amigos take turns and occasionally we record all three together to get that great rolling, galloping rhythm that only Maiden can really create - there's nothing mathematical about it, it's all feel. If you sort it out in Pro Tools, all that feel goes, so we don't!!!
February 3, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
It's my wife's birthday today, so we take the day off and I spend the entire day at the Atlantis resort with my family. A great day, playing on the beaches, sliding down the water slides, floating on rafts on the articial rapids and rivers, and viewing the absolutely amazing aquarium they've built there! In the evening, we leave the babies with my mother-in-law and go out for an intimate adult evening, but we're so shattered by the day's activities that we end up crashing at about 9.30pm!
February 4 and 5, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Same agenda as Feb 1 and 2. We've almost finished the overdubs on the last song, guitar-wise. Just a last guitar solo of Adrian's to do on When The Wild Wind Blows on Monday, then we'll all gather for a final collective listen, and that's all the guitars on this new Iron Maiden album. We'll add keys for the rest of the week, then it's home for me next Saturday, and Steve and Bruce arrive the following week to finish up the vocals and mix......
February 6, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Windy and stormy today. No studio. Wife and kids are all packed as they leave Nassau for Los Angeles tomorrow - so we had an early dinner of fresh fish from the Poop Deck, then my wife, Dev, and I joined Steve Gadd and his better half, Jen; Janick and Adrian Smith and his wife Nathalie, for a late evening drink. A very nice time and it was fun socialising with just adults for a change.
Sunday Jan 24, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Woke late -- a little tired still. Relaxed around the condo, made coffee and watched some Gridiron football. Adrian dropped by around noon and borrowed my iPod to listen to the rough mixes of the tracking recordings we have done thus far.
Monday Jan 25, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
The lads took the day off and 'Arry and I went to work about 11 o'clock and began the big job of editing the multiple takes of Where The Wild Wind Blows together. Nobody but he has any idea how it ultimately goes, and the structure altered a little from his original idea in the assembly, but it fits together and flows very nicely. An ironic epic about a suicide pact in the face of a nuclear explosion. And very Maiden!
Tuesday January 26, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Workout with a trainer again at 8am - he kicked my butt!
All the band - bar Bruce, who's gone back to London - meet at the studio to listen to all the tracks we've recorded and get a good overview of the album. All the guys seem excited after the playback, and we start work embellishing the rough recordings of Coming Home with some overdubs. Adrian puts an acoustic guitar picking through the verses and choruses, which we double track for stereo imaging. Then Davey plays the first of the guitar solos on his Les Paul guitar, which ironically sounds like a Strat! it's a very Hendrixy Little Wing-ish solo, and he's happy with the result. He's always happy! Then Adrian added the second solo. We assemble a different monitoring system for him in the studio, so he balances his own mix and listen on Genelecs. He's uncomfortable initially, but after a while we get a great solo from him. The raw sound bothers him, so i add a little Pitch Shift, and he's happy. End of the day. Off to the local bar called The Poop Deck for burgers and beer. And coffee tequila. And a last cleansing beer. Nicko and his chef mate, Frankie, visiting from new York, leave first. I leave Jan and Davey chatting at the bar.
Wednesday January 27, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Start the recording day by having Janick add an upper octave to his guitar line in the choruses of Coming Home. This is the end of guitar overdubs on this song.
Then we move onto the song El Dorado. Adrian does a guitar solo, quite a few takes - which I then compile. He's happy. Steve doesn't stay around for things like the guitar solos necessarily, but he likes to hear everything at some point. Next Janick has a go at the guitar overdubs, adding an octave to a prechorus line, then doing his solo. Davey comes in for a late start having had a little beach time and does the middle solo. We listen back quite loud and everyone seems very happy with it. They all leave and I stay to sort through some takes of Mother Of Mercy, so it's ready to be overdubbed. Dinner of fresh fish and a beer at the bar, and I'm home just after 7.30pm. Early night in....... speak to my babies on Skype.
Thursday January 28, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
A very full day in the studio today - Davey starts the day with a bunch of overdubs on The Man Who Would Be King - Harmony guitars on the outro and on the chorus - we try a few on the intro, but they don't really work. Then we do a quick solo, which I reverse a-la-hendrix, and he loves it! We do some other weird noises - divebombs, etc., which go alongside the backwards solo, then Janick does a little tag, after which we do a 3 part guitar harmony with all the guitarists on the second part of the solo. It was originally going to be an Adrian solo, but the track felt so out of control after Davey's musical madness, that we introduce the harmony melody guitars which brings some order into the chaos. This song is now done for the day, and we move to the overdubs on The Final Frontier. Adrian does a big strumming acoustic guitar on the choruses, and then adds a tenor guitar line which echoes Steve's bass line on the chorus - and last he does the solo on his trusty Strat...... and that's it for the day, and the week!
Friday January 29, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
My family are arriving at 1pm from Los Angeles, and we all take the day off work. No one complains! Well, Delta screws up my family's flight, and leaves them with an enforced long layover in Atlanta - so I take the opportunity to go grocery shopping. I need everything at our condo - toilet paper, water... you get the picture, so it's a godsend to have time to prepare for them. The lifestyle of a bachelor doesn't necessarily meet all the needs of a young family, and once I've sorted out the house I head to the airport with Steve Gadd and Mike Kenney, who've come to give us a hand with the luggage and kids. (They offered and are very gracious and friendly - it's no Producer control-freak thing!). They finally arrive at 5pm and as they come through the Arrivals and I see them, I get a little misty as my 2 year-old Talon yells, "My daddy, my daddy, my daddy" .... sweet!!
Weekend off playing with my kids in the pool and on the beach!!!!!
February 1 and 2, 2010 Nassau, BahamasMore recording on some of the other songs - it gets a bit "Groundhog Day" in the telling and diarizing of it all, as it's a very similar process every day for all the songs and overdubs. We do various guitar overdubs, solos, harmonies, acoustic guitars...... the Three Amigos take turns and occasionally we record all three together to get that great rolling, galloping rhythm that only Maiden can really create - there's nothing mathematical about it, it's all feel. If you sort it out in Pro Tools, all that feel goes, so we don't!!!
February 3, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
It's my wife's birthday today, so we take the day off and I spend the entire day at the Atlantis resort with my family. A great day, playing on the beaches, sliding down the water slides, floating on rafts on the articial rapids and rivers, and viewing the absolutely amazing aquarium they've built there! In the evening, we leave the babies with my mother-in-law and go out for an intimate adult evening, but we're so shattered by the day's activities that we end up crashing at about 9.30pm!
February 4 and 5, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Same agenda as Feb 1 and 2. We've almost finished the overdubs on the last song, guitar-wise. Just a last guitar solo of Adrian's to do on When The Wild Wind Blows on Monday, then we'll all gather for a final collective listen, and that's all the guitars on this new Iron Maiden album. We'll add keys for the rest of the week, then it's home for me next Saturday, and Steve and Bruce arrive the following week to finish up the vocals and mix......
February 6, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Windy and stormy today. No studio. Wife and kids are all packed as they leave Nassau for Los Angeles tomorrow - so we had an early dinner of fresh fish from the Poop Deck, then my wife, Dev, and I joined Steve Gadd and his better half, Jen; Janick and Adrian Smith and his wife Nathalie, for a late evening drink. A very nice time and it was fun socialising with just adults for a change.
The Final Frontier recording diary by Kevin Shirley part 2
SOURCE
Thursday January 14, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Not everybody was up to cutting a track today so the band had the day off, and I went to work alone, to go through all the takes and compile a great performance of Mother Of Mercy.
Friday January 15, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Today we cut a Janick song: The Talisman. It really came out great and after the session, Adrian, Dave, Adrian's wife Nathalie and I went to dinner at Nobu in Atlantis. Chocolate martinis and wine started the evening, and then it was off to a late night rock 'n roll bar called Crazy Johnny's where the night turned into morning... I lost my driver's license and credit card and we got home in the very early hours - all the worse for wear. I'm getting too old for these shenanigans!
Saturday January 16, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Woke with a teensy hangover -- to the wrath of my wife back in the States, as she says she doesn't want to be a widow just yet, and I headed in to work nonetheless, after a swim in the ocean, to sort thru the track The Talisman. Sounds amazing, even if I do feel like Death warmed up! Home to recuperate and watch the NFL playoffs... Saints and Arizona...
Sunday January 17, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Woke feeling almost normal! Crazy Johnny, proprietor of his eponymous club -- scene of Friday night's debauched shenanigans - took a bunch of us out to Rose Island with his kid, Dylan, where he has a house on the hill overlooking an absolutely perfect gorgeous white beach -- a great day out. His 400HP Yamaha engines zipped us across the ocean in his boat at "a strong 50" knots, and it was very enjoyable. Janick was the only one from the band to come along; the rest either busy or perhaps even still suffering -- so tech Sean from the crew and his girl Sarah, Tour Road Manager Steve Gadd, and engineer Jared Kvitka made up the rest of the pirate crew. Back in time to watch the New York JETS make it to the conference championship! After living on the U.S. East Coast for 16 years, I'm a declared supporter
Monday Jan 18, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Up at 7am, a great way to start this beautiful day with a visit to the Dentist this morning (I chipped one tooth and a crown fell off another over the weekend). Seems I'm just falling apart! A pretty Bahamian dentist Dr Coverly worked on my teeth in her high heels and a nicely coiffed do. A first for me!
Nicko flew back from Florida today so we didn't start until 1pm. Cut a great proggy tune of Adrian's called Starblind -- which came out very strongly, I think....
Tuesday Jan 19, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Having trouble sleeping -- seemed to be up all night long last night. Late-night text chats with Joe Bonamassa seem to be the case most nights these days, as he sleeps weird hours, planning and scheming... and chatting with his girlfriend in a far off land. I'm the therapist...
Recorded another new Maiden song once we finally got going today. It was a late start at the studio as there was no power at all -- Bahamian Electricity was off until 1.30pm, but the song was quite straight forward - even quite simple for Maiden but very powerful: The Final Frontier -- almost more like a rollicking Mellencamp or Tom Petty type song than a Maiden song, but it looks like being the anchor tune for the new album. We kept it pretty raw!
Wed Jan 20, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Didn't sleep last night. Cut a highly complex song today, one of Davey's I believe, The Man Who Would Be King -- one which the band hadn't managed to rehearse beforehand as Janick had cut his hand very badly just as they were starting to learn it and run through it at the pre-recording rehearsals in France -- so he had been rushed to hospital and had surgery on his hand and fingers - the upshot being that the song was cut in sections and pieced together today. It was very difficult. Bruce has decided he didn't want to stay in the fairly boring accommodations we're in, that are a residential complex, so has moved to the Sheraton which is probably a lot more fun and goes on much later than we do, and consequently was a little tired today, which didn't really help
Well, he's at least not flying anywhere.......
Thurs Jan 21, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
I've been having trouble sleeping at night, so Maiden Road manager Steve Gadd gave me a sleeping tab, and I finally slept great all night. Got up, went to the gym and worked out with a trainer (first time in years), and really enjoyed it. Cut a great Deep Purple-ish tune today -- tentatively titled House of Dr. D! I'm pretty sure that title won't stick as it's pretty uniformly sneered at. (It was renamed The Alchemist. KS) Nicko, normally loves the way his drums come out on all the albums, and asked respectfully if I minded if he watched while I edited the takes, and he promised to not say anything -- I of course said I didn't mind, but once I began working, he couldn't stop talking and admonishing me the whole while, about his mistakes, which he calls "Nickoisms", and which I was attempting to repair, so I had to stop the session. Update tomorrow, when we cut the last song, which Steve is still working on tonight and it promises to be an epic... ahhh, the Mighty Maiden!!!
Friday January 22, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
We cut a very intricate piece today. Where The Wild Wind Blows. Nobody had heard it at all and Steve had all these ideas, so we cut about 10 totally different melodic pieces -- he'd show the band then we'd cut a few takes. He shows everyone the song and whistles the melodies to everyone. Nicko was unusually reserved today, but played very solidly and well. We ended up with over two hours of recorded music, which I attempted to start editing as the evening closed in on us, but Steve was totally wiped out - he'd forgotten to eat and drink all day, such was his concentration -- and I don't even know how the song pieces fit together yet, so it will have to wait 'til we get together on Monday! Steve won't come in over the weekend normally, as his weekends are mostly chock-full with his kids activities, and he is first and foremost a dedicated father.
Saturday Jan 23rd, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Went to workout at the gym early then on to the studio, and spent the entire day editing some tracks recorded for Black Country in Malibu -- Black Country is the group I put together with Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian. Met Nicko, Davey and Steve Gadd in the Poop Deck bar in the evening, and we drove to the big Atlantis resort where we had dinner at the fancy sushi restaurant Nobu, and then went to see Jerry Seinfeld doing standup. Davey is a big fan and really wanted to go, but it was just OK - nothing special actually. We had a little to drink over the evening... and invariably ended up at the Daiquiri shack chatting to some Irish wedding guests.
Thursday January 14, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Not everybody was up to cutting a track today so the band had the day off, and I went to work alone, to go through all the takes and compile a great performance of Mother Of Mercy.
Friday January 15, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Today we cut a Janick song: The Talisman. It really came out great and after the session, Adrian, Dave, Adrian's wife Nathalie and I went to dinner at Nobu in Atlantis. Chocolate martinis and wine started the evening, and then it was off to a late night rock 'n roll bar called Crazy Johnny's where the night turned into morning... I lost my driver's license and credit card and we got home in the very early hours - all the worse for wear. I'm getting too old for these shenanigans!
Saturday January 16, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Woke with a teensy hangover -- to the wrath of my wife back in the States, as she says she doesn't want to be a widow just yet, and I headed in to work nonetheless, after a swim in the ocean, to sort thru the track The Talisman. Sounds amazing, even if I do feel like Death warmed up! Home to recuperate and watch the NFL playoffs... Saints and Arizona...
Sunday January 17, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Woke feeling almost normal! Crazy Johnny, proprietor of his eponymous club -- scene of Friday night's debauched shenanigans - took a bunch of us out to Rose Island with his kid, Dylan, where he has a house on the hill overlooking an absolutely perfect gorgeous white beach -- a great day out. His 400HP Yamaha engines zipped us across the ocean in his boat at "a strong 50" knots, and it was very enjoyable. Janick was the only one from the band to come along; the rest either busy or perhaps even still suffering -- so tech Sean from the crew and his girl Sarah, Tour Road Manager Steve Gadd, and engineer Jared Kvitka made up the rest of the pirate crew. Back in time to watch the New York JETS make it to the conference championship! After living on the U.S. East Coast for 16 years, I'm a declared supporter
Monday Jan 18, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Up at 7am, a great way to start this beautiful day with a visit to the Dentist this morning (I chipped one tooth and a crown fell off another over the weekend). Seems I'm just falling apart! A pretty Bahamian dentist Dr Coverly worked on my teeth in her high heels and a nicely coiffed do. A first for me!
Nicko flew back from Florida today so we didn't start until 1pm. Cut a great proggy tune of Adrian's called Starblind -- which came out very strongly, I think....
Tuesday Jan 19, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Having trouble sleeping -- seemed to be up all night long last night. Late-night text chats with Joe Bonamassa seem to be the case most nights these days, as he sleeps weird hours, planning and scheming... and chatting with his girlfriend in a far off land. I'm the therapist...
Recorded another new Maiden song once we finally got going today. It was a late start at the studio as there was no power at all -- Bahamian Electricity was off until 1.30pm, but the song was quite straight forward - even quite simple for Maiden but very powerful: The Final Frontier -- almost more like a rollicking Mellencamp or Tom Petty type song than a Maiden song, but it looks like being the anchor tune for the new album. We kept it pretty raw!
Wed Jan 20, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Didn't sleep last night. Cut a highly complex song today, one of Davey's I believe, The Man Who Would Be King -- one which the band hadn't managed to rehearse beforehand as Janick had cut his hand very badly just as they were starting to learn it and run through it at the pre-recording rehearsals in France -- so he had been rushed to hospital and had surgery on his hand and fingers - the upshot being that the song was cut in sections and pieced together today. It was very difficult. Bruce has decided he didn't want to stay in the fairly boring accommodations we're in, that are a residential complex, so has moved to the Sheraton which is probably a lot more fun and goes on much later than we do, and consequently was a little tired today, which didn't really help
Well, he's at least not flying anywhere.......Thurs Jan 21, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
I've been having trouble sleeping at night, so Maiden Road manager Steve Gadd gave me a sleeping tab, and I finally slept great all night. Got up, went to the gym and worked out with a trainer (first time in years), and really enjoyed it. Cut a great Deep Purple-ish tune today -- tentatively titled House of Dr. D! I'm pretty sure that title won't stick as it's pretty uniformly sneered at. (It was renamed The Alchemist. KS) Nicko, normally loves the way his drums come out on all the albums, and asked respectfully if I minded if he watched while I edited the takes, and he promised to not say anything -- I of course said I didn't mind, but once I began working, he couldn't stop talking and admonishing me the whole while, about his mistakes, which he calls "Nickoisms", and which I was attempting to repair, so I had to stop the session. Update tomorrow, when we cut the last song, which Steve is still working on tonight and it promises to be an epic... ahhh, the Mighty Maiden!!!
Friday January 22, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
We cut a very intricate piece today. Where The Wild Wind Blows. Nobody had heard it at all and Steve had all these ideas, so we cut about 10 totally different melodic pieces -- he'd show the band then we'd cut a few takes. He shows everyone the song and whistles the melodies to everyone. Nicko was unusually reserved today, but played very solidly and well. We ended up with over two hours of recorded music, which I attempted to start editing as the evening closed in on us, but Steve was totally wiped out - he'd forgotten to eat and drink all day, such was his concentration -- and I don't even know how the song pieces fit together yet, so it will have to wait 'til we get together on Monday! Steve won't come in over the weekend normally, as his weekends are mostly chock-full with his kids activities, and he is first and foremost a dedicated father.
Saturday Jan 23rd, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Went to workout at the gym early then on to the studio, and spent the entire day editing some tracks recorded for Black Country in Malibu -- Black Country is the group I put together with Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian. Met Nicko, Davey and Steve Gadd in the Poop Deck bar in the evening, and we drove to the big Atlantis resort where we had dinner at the fancy sushi restaurant Nobu, and then went to see Jerry Seinfeld doing standup. Davey is a big fan and really wanted to go, but it was just OK - nothing special actually. We had a little to drink over the evening... and invariably ended up at the Daiquiri shack chatting to some Irish wedding guests.
The Final Frontier recording diary by Kevin Shirley part 1
SOURCE
January 6, 2010 Los Angeles - Nassau
Been working flat-out at home in Malibu. I'm pretty burnt out.
I've just remixed the classic Deep Purple album, Come Taste The Band over the New Year, and just recorded six new tracks with a brand new band this last weekend. Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and keyboard wiz Derek Sherinian (tentatively calling themselves Black Country). So, I am pretty wiped out.
The next adventure on my horizon is producing the new Iron Maiden album - this one to be recorded in the Bahamas.
Left the family, sadly, in the early hours of today, and met Jared Kvitka at LAX. He is to be my assistant and the engineer on the new Iron Maiden album. We fly together to Nassau in the Bahamas, where we'll cut the new album at Compass Point Studios. Maiden have made three of their huge albums of the 80's there. Piece of Mind, Powerslave and Somewhere In Time, I believe. It's cold in Nassau when we land -- highly unusual, but all of the States is mired in a "Deep Freeze" and the Bahamas are experiencing the runoff. Studio manager Sherrie Manning meets us at customs and immigration, and once the work permit thing is ironed out, she shows us to our accommodations. In the early evening I see Steve, Adrian and Janick at the local pub for a beer and walk back home. A cold night.
January 7, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Bump into Steve in the apartment complex parking lot - I have opted not to have a rental car so Steve kindly takes me to the supermarket and we push trolleys around like two old queens, doing their weekly shopping. Quite a sight! Nassau is expensive -- half a trolley of basics is just shy of $300!
Off to the studio, and the gear has just arrived - mine from L.A. and the band's from England. The crew, Sean, Charlie and Michael begin unloading the equipment. Not much for Jared and I to do at this stage as drums, amps, guitars, etc start escaping their packing cases.
January 8, 2010 Nassau, BahamasDrums are up, Guitar cabs are up -- the day is spent wiring, plugging things in, putting microphones up and doing line checks by studio owner and tech-wiz Terry Manning and Jared. It's a very complex setup -- the studio is basically one big room, and there are not any isolation booths in which to put guitar amps to avoid the leakage into the other instruments as we do record the basic tracks with the whole band playing together live. So 'Arrys bass speaker goes in an adjacent office -- the three guitar cabinets go into a second studio, with about 100 feet of high quality speaker cable running from the amp heads, while Nicko's huge drumkit is in the corner of the main studio, so they can all play together and interact with one another. The little tiki-hut vocal booth, originally made for Mick Jagger in the eighties, is where Bruce will sing to get a little separation, but it's still in the main room and there's just no escaping Nicko's booming bombast! The old Neve V series console at Compass Point isn't on it's last legs, but it's definitely seen better days. We don't use any of the console channels for anything other than monitoring -- every microphone has it's own preamp and feeds the Pro Tools recording system. Most channels won't be recorded with EQ. The exceptions are the kick and snare drums, which have copycat Neve 1073 EQs across them. Nothing much, a little top on the snare and a little scoop on the kick -- as Nicko has no padding and the drum sound very resonant.
January 9, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Final touches are made to the guitar rigs -- the crew string the guitars and the studio is made ready. We get sounds on everything and the road crew play AC/DC's Highway To Hell to test the systems. Ironic, as the iconic Back in Black album was cut in this very room! We finish up about 6pm, and Jared and I head to Compass Point Resort across the road, and have a drink as we watch American NFL football and the Eagles lose their wildcard game. Jared is from Philly. Michael Kenney drives back from the apartment complex in the rain to pick me up and get me back home. I have hiccups...
January 10, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Day off today -- the weather is miserable. Rainy and windy. I'll stay home and watch football, and work on the "Black Country" Hughes/Bonamassa recordings. I have Pro Tools on my laptop, and quite enjoy the zen of working at my own pace, on headphones. Enjoyed watching an NFL playoff game in my apartment and then Steve Gadd, Maiden's Road manager called, saying Bruce and Davey were getting in and wanted to meet me. So off to the bar and dinner and a chat with the lads, then it's off home.
January 11, 2010 Nassau, BahamasStarted tracking today -- was very funny seeing all the band assemble at Compass Point, and they all share a similar headspace, all exclaiming "holy fuck, remember when we were here 25 years ago -- it's still the same!!!!" First we worked on getting everyone's headphones sorted etc. Cut the basics for the ballad Coming Home by 2.30pm, then went on to track called El Dorado. Got 2 takes done, when technical gremlins jumped in -- Adrian's headphones became intermittent, Janick's guitar kept cutting out, then Bruce's vocal microphone fried, then the vocal compressor fried -- but despite all these, we still managed to get 7 takes done -- one of which I'm sure will be quite good enough to begin with. Then at Nicko's bidding, it was off to the Travellers Rest for all of us and a dinner of banana daiquiris and minced crawfish -- apparently band staples 25 years ago.
Haiti just had an earthquake this evening which looks to be devastating... and as we are on a tsunami warning for the Bahamas, we headed back to the studio and retrieved the hard drive for storage on higher ground for the night.
January 12, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Cut an awesome track called Isle Of Avalon today. There were no high waves overnight, and no tsunami here, but we hear reports that Haitian capital Port-Au-Prince is in ruins. I donated to Red Cross this morning as they'll need all the help they can get. My family are home in L.A. and are off to Disneyland today. I miss them...
Wednesday January 13, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Up early and swam across the bay in front of the apartments. Glenn Hughes rang just as I was leaving, to discuss Black Country, (his new band) -- and then I drove to the studio with Steve, Janick and Charlie (Nicko's tech). I had to stop for a cup of Starbucks en route. Once at the studio, I reviewed the track Isle Of Avalon and overdubbed new guitars with all the guitarists - the Three Amigos - playing together. They have a unique chemistry playing together and the signature gallop in the guitars is a result of their individual rhythms combined. After that was wrapped up, it was everyone back in the room and we cut a new song - Mother of Mercy...
Banana Daiquiris have started something -- Bruce came in this morning with a brown paper bag filled with alcoholic ingredients to brew disaster -- 63 proof rum, etc., and after they had cut the track, Nicko and Bruce proceeded to "experiment" with making the perfect banana daiquiri -- blowing up the blender in a stinky electric puff of smoke in the process! Really......
Finished the new track at about 6.30pm, then Nicko, Bruce and I went in search of more daiquiris, Nicko was on a mission and wanted to take in a bit of adult entertainment and do some gambling, and he wanted me to tag along and be his foil -- so I said I was up for a little fun, but that I needed to get back home by midnight - after all I do have a job to do! A determined Nicko went off and I ended up having a beer with Jan at the end of the night, who's about the most normal of the lot I suppose!! Charlie appeared later after putting Nicko to bed about 10ish, after Nicko had cleared the casino at the Sheraton on Cable Beach and lost a bit of money! That's our Nick......... we do love him so!
January 6, 2010 Los Angeles - Nassau
Been working flat-out at home in Malibu. I'm pretty burnt out.
I've just remixed the classic Deep Purple album, Come Taste The Band over the New Year, and just recorded six new tracks with a brand new band this last weekend. Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and keyboard wiz Derek Sherinian (tentatively calling themselves Black Country). So, I am pretty wiped out.
The next adventure on my horizon is producing the new Iron Maiden album - this one to be recorded in the Bahamas.
Left the family, sadly, in the early hours of today, and met Jared Kvitka at LAX. He is to be my assistant and the engineer on the new Iron Maiden album. We fly together to Nassau in the Bahamas, where we'll cut the new album at Compass Point Studios. Maiden have made three of their huge albums of the 80's there. Piece of Mind, Powerslave and Somewhere In Time, I believe. It's cold in Nassau when we land -- highly unusual, but all of the States is mired in a "Deep Freeze" and the Bahamas are experiencing the runoff. Studio manager Sherrie Manning meets us at customs and immigration, and once the work permit thing is ironed out, she shows us to our accommodations. In the early evening I see Steve, Adrian and Janick at the local pub for a beer and walk back home. A cold night.
January 7, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Bump into Steve in the apartment complex parking lot - I have opted not to have a rental car so Steve kindly takes me to the supermarket and we push trolleys around like two old queens, doing their weekly shopping. Quite a sight! Nassau is expensive -- half a trolley of basics is just shy of $300!
Off to the studio, and the gear has just arrived - mine from L.A. and the band's from England. The crew, Sean, Charlie and Michael begin unloading the equipment. Not much for Jared and I to do at this stage as drums, amps, guitars, etc start escaping their packing cases.
January 8, 2010 Nassau, BahamasDrums are up, Guitar cabs are up -- the day is spent wiring, plugging things in, putting microphones up and doing line checks by studio owner and tech-wiz Terry Manning and Jared. It's a very complex setup -- the studio is basically one big room, and there are not any isolation booths in which to put guitar amps to avoid the leakage into the other instruments as we do record the basic tracks with the whole band playing together live. So 'Arrys bass speaker goes in an adjacent office -- the three guitar cabinets go into a second studio, with about 100 feet of high quality speaker cable running from the amp heads, while Nicko's huge drumkit is in the corner of the main studio, so they can all play together and interact with one another. The little tiki-hut vocal booth, originally made for Mick Jagger in the eighties, is where Bruce will sing to get a little separation, but it's still in the main room and there's just no escaping Nicko's booming bombast! The old Neve V series console at Compass Point isn't on it's last legs, but it's definitely seen better days. We don't use any of the console channels for anything other than monitoring -- every microphone has it's own preamp and feeds the Pro Tools recording system. Most channels won't be recorded with EQ. The exceptions are the kick and snare drums, which have copycat Neve 1073 EQs across them. Nothing much, a little top on the snare and a little scoop on the kick -- as Nicko has no padding and the drum sound very resonant.January 9, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Final touches are made to the guitar rigs -- the crew string the guitars and the studio is made ready. We get sounds on everything and the road crew play AC/DC's Highway To Hell to test the systems. Ironic, as the iconic Back in Black album was cut in this very room! We finish up about 6pm, and Jared and I head to Compass Point Resort across the road, and have a drink as we watch American NFL football and the Eagles lose their wildcard game. Jared is from Philly. Michael Kenney drives back from the apartment complex in the rain to pick me up and get me back home. I have hiccups...
January 10, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Day off today -- the weather is miserable. Rainy and windy. I'll stay home and watch football, and work on the "Black Country" Hughes/Bonamassa recordings. I have Pro Tools on my laptop, and quite enjoy the zen of working at my own pace, on headphones. Enjoyed watching an NFL playoff game in my apartment and then Steve Gadd, Maiden's Road manager called, saying Bruce and Davey were getting in and wanted to meet me. So off to the bar and dinner and a chat with the lads, then it's off home.
January 11, 2010 Nassau, BahamasStarted tracking today -- was very funny seeing all the band assemble at Compass Point, and they all share a similar headspace, all exclaiming "holy fuck, remember when we were here 25 years ago -- it's still the same!!!!" First we worked on getting everyone's headphones sorted etc. Cut the basics for the ballad Coming Home by 2.30pm, then went on to track called El Dorado. Got 2 takes done, when technical gremlins jumped in -- Adrian's headphones became intermittent, Janick's guitar kept cutting out, then Bruce's vocal microphone fried, then the vocal compressor fried -- but despite all these, we still managed to get 7 takes done -- one of which I'm sure will be quite good enough to begin with. Then at Nicko's bidding, it was off to the Travellers Rest for all of us and a dinner of banana daiquiris and minced crawfish -- apparently band staples 25 years ago.
Haiti just had an earthquake this evening which looks to be devastating... and as we are on a tsunami warning for the Bahamas, we headed back to the studio and retrieved the hard drive for storage on higher ground for the night.
January 12, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Cut an awesome track called Isle Of Avalon today. There were no high waves overnight, and no tsunami here, but we hear reports that Haitian capital Port-Au-Prince is in ruins. I donated to Red Cross this morning as they'll need all the help they can get. My family are home in L.A. and are off to Disneyland today. I miss them...
Wednesday January 13, 2010 Nassau, Bahamas
Up early and swam across the bay in front of the apartments. Glenn Hughes rang just as I was leaving, to discuss Black Country, (his new band) -- and then I drove to the studio with Steve, Janick and Charlie (Nicko's tech). I had to stop for a cup of Starbucks en route. Once at the studio, I reviewed the track Isle Of Avalon and overdubbed new guitars with all the guitarists - the Three Amigos - playing together. They have a unique chemistry playing together and the signature gallop in the guitars is a result of their individual rhythms combined. After that was wrapped up, it was everyone back in the room and we cut a new song - Mother of Mercy...
Banana Daiquiris have started something -- Bruce came in this morning with a brown paper bag filled with alcoholic ingredients to brew disaster -- 63 proof rum, etc., and after they had cut the track, Nicko and Bruce proceeded to "experiment" with making the perfect banana daiquiri -- blowing up the blender in a stinky electric puff of smoke in the process! Really......
Finished the new track at about 6.30pm, then Nicko, Bruce and I went in search of more daiquiris, Nicko was on a mission and wanted to take in a bit of adult entertainment and do some gambling, and he wanted me to tag along and be his foil -- so I said I was up for a little fun, but that I needed to get back home by midnight - after all I do have a job to do! A determined Nicko went off and I ended up having a beer with Jan at the end of the night, who's about the most normal of the lot I suppose!! Charlie appeared later after putting Nicko to bed about 10ish, after Nicko had cleared the casino at the Sheraton on Cable Beach and lost a bit of money! That's our Nick......... we do love him so!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
MMN Exclusive Video: Iron Maiden Talks The Final Frontier, Touring, and Their Future
Iron Maiden aren’t just a metal band–they’re godfathers of the genre. Since 1975, the British icons have seen members come and go, but they’ve shredded arenas all the same, and became one of the world’s most successful and longest-running groups in the process. Now, fresh off releasing their new album, The Final Frontier, the sextet opens up about creating their 15th studio record, the inspiration behind their songwriting, the rigors of relentless touring, and the future of Iron Maiden in these MMN-exclusive video interviews after the jump….
Iron Maiden on recording The Final Frontier and having fun in the studio
Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson on the heavy prog-rock influence throughout The Final Frontier, and Adrian Smith, Dave Murray, and Janick Gers on the importance of moving forward and not looking back
Bruce Dickinson on how the economic recession helped him write the lyrics to lead single “El Dorado”
Steve and Bruce discuss the rigors of going on tour, and the weird transition between non-stop traveling and relaxing at home (Bonus: Scenes from Iron Maiden’s Flight 666 tour set to the sounds of “Coming Home”)
Finally, Iron Maiden on what the future holds for them, and whether they have another album left
SOURCE
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Piece Of Mind era
Interview by Kevin Thompson
first published in Artist Magazine, San Francisco
first published in Artist Magazine, San Francisco
My first excuse for a band was while I was at school. I had a pair of bongos. We did Smoke on the Water and I used to beat the crap out of those bongos because we didn't have a drum kit. The band realized that the singer couldn't sing, so I got the job...
--Bruce Dickinson
Formed in London, England, in 1976, Iron Maiden was from the start the brainchild of Steve Harris (b. 12 March 1957, Leytonstone, London, England; bass), formerly a member of pub rockers Smiler. Named after a medieval torture device, the music was suitably heavy and hard on the senses. The heavy metal scene of the late '70s was widely regarded as stagnant, with only a handful of bands proving their ability to survive and produce music of quality. It was just at this time that a new breed of young British bands began to emerge. This movement, which began to break cover in 1979 and 1980, was known as the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, or NWOBHM. Iron Maiden were one of the foremost bands in the genre, and many would say its definitive example. Younger and meaner, the NWOBHM bands dealt in faster, more energetic heavy metal than any of their forefathers (punk being an obvious influence). There were several line-up changes in the Iron Maiden ranks in the very early days, and come the release of their debut EP, the group featured Harris, Dave Murray (b. 23 December 1958, London, England; guitar), Paul Di'anno (b. 17 May 1959, Chingford, London, England; vocals) and Doug Sampson (drums). The group made its live debut at the Cart & Horses Pub in Stratford, east London, in 1977, before honing its sound on the local pub circuit over the ensuing two years.
Unable to solicit a response from record companies, the group sent a three-track tape, featuring Iron Maiden, Prowler and Strange World, to Neal Kay, DJ at North London's hard rock disco, the Kingsbury Bandwagon Soundhouse. Kay's patronage of Iron Maiden won them an instant welcome, which translated itself finally into the release of The Soundhouse Tapes on the band's own label. November 1979 saw the group add second guitarist Tony Parsons to the line-up for two tracks on the Metal For Muthas compilation, but by the time the group embarked on sessions for their debut album, he had been replaced by Dennis Stratton (b. 9 November 1954, London, England), and Sampson by Clive Burr (b. 8 March 1957; drums). A promotional single, Running Free, reached number 34 on the UK charts and brought an appearance on BBC program Top Of The Pops. Refusing to mime, they became the first band since the Who in 1973 to play live on the show.
 Eddie |
Iron Maiden was a roughly-produced album, but reached number 4 in the UK album listings on the back of touring stints with Judas Priest and enduringly popular material such as Phantom of The Opera. Killers boasted production superior to that of the first album, and saw Dennis Stratton replaced by guitarist Adrian Smith (b. 27 February 1957). In its wake Iron Maiden became immensely popular among heavy metal fans, inspiring fanatical devotion, aided by blustering manager Rod Smallwood and apocalyptic mascot Eddie (the latter had been depicted on the cover of Sanctuary, standing over PM Margaret Thatcher's decapitated body).
The release of Number Of The Beast was crucial to the development of the band. Without it, Iron Maiden might never have gone on to be such a force in the heavy metal arena. The album was a spectacular success, the sound of a band on the crest of a wave. It was also the debut of former infantryman and new vocalist Bruce Dickinson (b. Paul Bruce Dickinson, 7 August 1958, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England) replacing Paul Di'anno (who would go on to front Lone Wolf, Battlezone and Killers). Formerly of Samson, history graduate Dickinson would make his live debut with Maiden on 15 November 1981. Singles such as "Run to the Hills" and "The Number of the Beast" were big UK chart hits, Iron Maiden leaving behind their NWOBHM counterparts in terms of success, just as the movement itself was beginning to peter out.
Piece Of Mind continued their success and was a major hit in the USA (number 14). Clive Burr was replaced by Nicko McBrain on the sessions, formerly drummer with French metal band Trust, who had supported Maiden on their 1981 UK tour (he had also played in Streetwalkers). Piece Of Mind was not dissimilar to the previous album, showcasing the strong twin guitar bite of Murray and Smith, coupled with memorable vocal lines and a sound which fitted their air-punching dynamic perfectly. Single offerings, "Flight of Icarus" and "The Trooper," were instant hits, as the group undertook two massive tours, the four-month World Piece jaunt in 1983, and a World Slavery retinue which included four sellout dates at London's Hammersmith Odeon a year later. With the arrival of Powerslave in November some critics accused Iron Maiden of conforming to a self-imposed writing formula, and playing safe with tried and tested ideas. Certainly, there was no significant departure from the two previous albums, but it was nonetheless happily consumed by the band's core supporters, who also purchased in sufficient quantities to ensure UK chart hits for "Aces High" and "Two Minutes to Midnight."
Live After Death was a double album package of all their best-loved material recorded live on their gargantuan 11-month world tour. By this time Iron Maiden had secured themselves an unassailable position within the metal hierarchy, their vast popularity spanning all continents. Somewhere In Time was a slight departure. It featured more melody than before, and heralded the use of guitar synthesizers. Their songwriting still shone through and the now obligatory hit singles were easily attained in the shape of "Wasted Years" and "Stranger in a Strange Land." Reaching number 11 in the US, this was another million-plus seller.
 photo © Rick Brackett digital effects © Joy Williams |
Since the mid-'80s Maiden had been staging increasingly spectacular live shows, with elaborate lighting effects and stage sets. The Somewhere in Time tour (seven months) was no exception, ensuring their continued status as a live band, which had been the basis for much of their success.
A period of comparative inactivity preceded the release of Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son, which was very much in the same vein as its predecessor. A concept album, it still retained its commercial edge and yielded hit singles in "Can I Play With Madness," the surprisingly sensitive "Evil That Men Do" and "The Clairvoyant."
After another exhausting mammoth world trek, the band announced their intention to take a well-earned break of at least a year. Speculation abounded that this meant the dissolution of the band, exacerbated by Dickinson's solo project, Tattooed Millionaire, his book, The Adventures Of Lord Iffy Boatrace, and EMI Record's policy of re-releasing Maiden's single catalogue in its entirety (on 12-inch).
After a considerable hiatus, news of the band surfaced again. Steve Harris felt that the direction pursued with the last two albums had been taken as far as was possible, and a return to the style of old was planned. Not wishing to pursue this game plan, Adrian Smith left to be replaced by Janick Gers (b. Hartlepool, Lancashire, England), once guitarist with White Spirit and Gillan (he had also contributed to Dickinson's solo release). The live show was also to be scaled down in a return to much smaller venues.
No Prayer For The Dying was indeed much more like mid-period Iron Maiden, and was predictably well-received, bringing enormous UK hit singles with "Holy Smoke" and "Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter." The latter, previously released in 1989 on the soundtrack to A Nightmare On Elm Street 5, had already been granted the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Song in that year. Yet it gave Iron Maiden their first ever UK number 1. The obligatory world tour followed.
Despite being denounced as "Satanists" in Chile, 1992 also saw the band debut at number 1 in the UK charts with Fear Of The Dark, which housed another major single success in "Be Quick or Be Dead" (number 2). However, it was to be Dickinson's swan song with the band, who invited demo tapes to be sent to them following his announcement that he would permanently depart following current touring engagements. His eventual replacement was Blaze Bayley (b. 1963, Birmingham, West Midlands, England) from Wolfsbane. His debut album was X-Factor, and on this and at live gigs (which they only resumed in November 1995) he easily proved his worth. This was a daunting task, having to learn Maiden's whole catalogue and win over patriotic Dickinson followers. Smith resurfaced in a new band, Psycho Motel, in 1996.
The following interview was recorded in Cleveland Ohio with Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith before the band's World Piece tour:
Q: Bruce, you joined Iron Maiden in September of '81, just after the Killers tour....
BRUCE: Yes, it was after Paul Di'Anno had left the band. The rest of the band members had welcomed me by locking me in a rehearsal studio so I could learn the set, and then we were off to Italy in October for my first live work with Iron Maiden.
Q: What was the first band you were in?
BRUCE: My first excuse for a band was while I was at school. I had a pair of bongos. We did "Smoke on the Water," and I used to beat the crap out of those bongos because we didn't have a drum kit. The band realized that the singer couldn't sing, so I got the job (mainly to stop the noise of the bongos)! We played in each other's bedrooms, annoying our mums and dads.
Q: How did you come about joining Samson?
BRUCE: I saw an ad in a local paper wanting a singer for recording. Together, we put down a song called "Dracula" and called the band Shots. I was then working as the social secretary at the college, and Manfred Mann's Earth Band was going to play, so I put Shots down to play, and that's when the guys from Samson heard me sing.
Q: Which do you prefer, touring or recording?
DAVE: I enjoy both, but touring is more fun, and I get off better when I'm playing to a live audience.
Q: I hear that one of your guitars belonged to Paul Kossof. How did you come about owning it?
DAVE: I bought it from an ad in the papers. (Other than that, I have] three Fender Stratocasters and an Ibenez Destroyer I picked up on tour.
Q: Which is your favorite guitar?
ADRIAN: My Les Paul.
Q: And your favorite Maiden song?
STEVE: "Phantom of the Opera" and "Murders in the Rue Morgue".
Q: What about non-Maiden tracks?
STEVE: "Love to Love" by UFO.
Q: What's the venue you like playing the most?
STEVE: Any industrial area in Britain.
Q: It seems that the band doesn't have so much a "sound"—an "Iron Maiden sound"—but rather a style which has developed as each member has become more comfortable with his role. On the new album, Piece of Mind, there seems to be more emphasis from each individual member.
STEVE: Well, on the Killers album, Adrian was very new and it really wasn't until he'd been with the band about a year-and-a-half that he really felt he was a full member. He always had been, but he never really seemed to accept that it was happening. (Perhaps] because he went from a local band in the East End to Iron Maiden, which, even at the time, was quite a big act. It took him quite a while to settle in, and it also took both he and Dave a long time to get the right guitar sounds. Even on the last tour, which was the second world tour, they were still changing equipment at various intervals to get the sound they were looking for…because they're both perfectionists when it comes to sound. Then, Bruce came in and he really did fine things for the band too. As the tour progressed last year, we just gelled more and more as a band. And I think on this album, because Bruce has been with the band awhile and also was very involved with the writing, he's more relaxed. So the vocal performance is tremendous. He's so quick in the studio because his ear for pitch is so good; he just gets up there and bang, it retains a great live feel. The other really big difference is the new drummer, Nicko, because his drumming is some of the best rock drumming there is. His feel is magic. Nicko toured with us when he played with the French band Trust in 1981 and '82. So he's been on the road with us. Trust and Iron Maiden have always been big friends anyway, and personality-wise there was no problem. He was actually born about a mile and a half from me, and he's just a couple of years older than I am. His drumming, I think, has given us a different dimension. It's tougher, and his timing is perfect. He's a total rock drummer; he's got a great feel and he hits it real hard. So the whole thing's grow up. Every album's improved both in term of production and musicianship. I think now it's really becoming what Iron Maiden is all about, and we expect it's going to develop even more from here.
Q: What influence has producer Martin Birch had on Maiden?
STEVE: The reason we use Martin is that he puts down the sound that we want, the way we like it. And we think the first three albums were really leading up to this one in terms of quality. In general, bands are being given producers that make the music for them and, in some cases, even co-write it. With Martin, that's not the case at all and never has been. What Martin has always added with us is his expertise in the studio and his great ability at recording our sounds. We've only just come to this point in our drum and guitar sounds, which are exceptional now; it's just a team growing up together. Martin's also become aware, obviously, with the experience of working with us, of the way we want to proceed. The suggestions going both ways are very fluid, so Martin's very much a part of the band in the studio.
Q: With the World Piece tour underway, what's left on the itinerary?
ADRIAN: After the US, we end up in Canada on October 16, then we go to France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria and Yugoslavia. We're quite willing to keep coming over and touring because it's the touring that we enjoy most. You can't play 180 concerts a year all around the world unless you really enjoy the gigging and the travel.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Metal Hammer interview with Adrian Smith 2009
Following the tabloid media bullshit over the ‘Maiden riots’, Hammer were lucky enough to be out in South America with Iron Maiden, and below is the first exclusive interview with the band. Adrian Smith talks about the next Iron Maiden album, one-upmanship between members and whether they will call it a day after 15 records.
MH: Talking to everybody else, the attention seems to be now turning to a new album…
Adrian Smith: “Yeah, we were talking about it briefly the other day and I’ve been thinking about it every day since because there are so many ways we can go with it. It’d be nice if we had the songs now and we could come off tour and go straight into the studio match-fit, as it were. Usually we have a long time off, and the way we play in the studio is as live, so it’s always a bit tense at first because we haven’t played for six months. I’d ideally like to go in [soon]. Again, it’s a day-to-day thing, you go in, take it as you find it, try and do the best job you can.”
MH: We’ve noticed one thing that was different from 12 months ago, when we interviewed Steve, he said “we’ve always said ‘we’re only going to do 15 albums, we’re coming up to it, there’s going to be an ending point.’” Is everyone seeing things a little differently now?
Adrian: “Look, we write music, we’re musicians, we’ll carry on. The great thing is that there’s clearly a huge audience out there waiting to hear what we’re going to do right now ; and in the real world that’s not a very common situation so you have to appreciate it. It’s not always easy to make an album, you’ve got six guys with their own ideas and focusing it into one outcome is quite difficult.”
MH: Is it the case that you use up every idea for an album each time, and that there’s never anything left over from that for next time?
Adrian: “I know a lot of bands who demo stuff from 30 songs or something and then break up when they’re trying to pick 10 because you get the ego and the each guy wants to get their ideas in, so we just try to write 10 or 12 songs, and get everybody’s best ideas in there. You soon know when you start playing it whether it’s going to fly or not. You just have to do the best you can. It’s difficult for everybody to be happy with the album: there’s always a compromise, but as long as you can get through it and come out the other side and still be a band that’s what it’s all about. Sometimes creative conflict is good in songwriting, it brings out the best in everyone.”
MH: Is there a bit of one-upmanship though?
Adrian: “I’m thinking about the album now. So yeah there is a bit of competition, of course there is, you want to see your stuff included on there, but its not bad natured. It means the world to me when someone comes up and says ‘I really like that song’ or ‘that’s a great riff’. You play the song you’ve created, everyone’s playing it and they’re excited and that’s the main buzz for me. Of course everybody wants their songs on there and that slap on the back. It’s like any job really, getting a bit of job satisfaction, there’s the motivation . One thing you don’t do is to turn up with a load of half-arsed ideas to rehearsal; you turn up with something you think is pretty good.”
MH: I can imagine ‘your peers’ can be really quite brutal about half-arsed ideas….
Adrian: “I wouldn’t even bother taking any! Showing people your new songs is where you earn your money really because it takes a lot of nerve to sit down and say ‘I’ve got an idea boys.’ I cheat a bit, I usually make demos sound quite good (laughs). But I grew up in an era before you could do that , so I’ve been through all the thing of sitting down and bearing your soul to someone else and that’s why it’s such a great rush when you do it and it works. It’s almost like a relief.”
MH: Talking to everybody else, the attention seems to be now turning to a new album…
Adrian Smith: “Yeah, we were talking about it briefly the other day and I’ve been thinking about it every day since because there are so many ways we can go with it. It’d be nice if we had the songs now and we could come off tour and go straight into the studio match-fit, as it were. Usually we have a long time off, and the way we play in the studio is as live, so it’s always a bit tense at first because we haven’t played for six months. I’d ideally like to go in [soon]. Again, it’s a day-to-day thing, you go in, take it as you find it, try and do the best job you can.”
MH: We’ve noticed one thing that was different from 12 months ago, when we interviewed Steve, he said “we’ve always said ‘we’re only going to do 15 albums, we’re coming up to it, there’s going to be an ending point.’” Is everyone seeing things a little differently now?
Adrian: “Look, we write music, we’re musicians, we’ll carry on. The great thing is that there’s clearly a huge audience out there waiting to hear what we’re going to do right now ; and in the real world that’s not a very common situation so you have to appreciate it. It’s not always easy to make an album, you’ve got six guys with their own ideas and focusing it into one outcome is quite difficult.”
MH: Is it the case that you use up every idea for an album each time, and that there’s never anything left over from that for next time?
Adrian: “I know a lot of bands who demo stuff from 30 songs or something and then break up when they’re trying to pick 10 because you get the ego and the each guy wants to get their ideas in, so we just try to write 10 or 12 songs, and get everybody’s best ideas in there. You soon know when you start playing it whether it’s going to fly or not. You just have to do the best you can. It’s difficult for everybody to be happy with the album: there’s always a compromise, but as long as you can get through it and come out the other side and still be a band that’s what it’s all about. Sometimes creative conflict is good in songwriting, it brings out the best in everyone.”
MH: Is there a bit of one-upmanship though?
Adrian: “I’m thinking about the album now. So yeah there is a bit of competition, of course there is, you want to see your stuff included on there, but its not bad natured. It means the world to me when someone comes up and says ‘I really like that song’ or ‘that’s a great riff’. You play the song you’ve created, everyone’s playing it and they’re excited and that’s the main buzz for me. Of course everybody wants their songs on there and that slap on the back. It’s like any job really, getting a bit of job satisfaction, there’s the motivation . One thing you don’t do is to turn up with a load of half-arsed ideas to rehearsal; you turn up with something you think is pretty good.”
MH: I can imagine ‘your peers’ can be really quite brutal about half-arsed ideas….
Adrian: “I wouldn’t even bother taking any! Showing people your new songs is where you earn your money really because it takes a lot of nerve to sit down and say ‘I’ve got an idea boys.’ I cheat a bit, I usually make demos sound quite good (laughs). But I grew up in an era before you could do that , so I’ve been through all the thing of sitting down and bearing your soul to someone else and that’s why it’s such a great rush when you do it and it works. It’s almost like a relief.”
Smallwood interview to CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Somewhere in South America right now a head-banger is getting very excited.
Veteran hell-raisers Iron Maiden have announced five new tour dates in Brazil, within months of playing to capacity crowds in some of country's biggest music venues.
Last March, they packed the 40,000 capacity Palmeiras Stadium in Sao Paulo. Next March, they'll be following in the formidable footsteps of Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, rock band Kiss and the Pope, no less, to wow the crowds at the Autodromo de Interlagos.
The race track is one venue they don't expect to sell out.
"Capacity is about 400,000. I don't think we'll get 400,000," Iron Maiden's manager Rod Smallwood told CNN, "We're set for about 60,000 and we hope to go past that."
The band has every reason to be confident of strong ticket sales in South America where fan loyalty verges on fanaticism.
When the band last toured Curitiba in Brazil in March 2008, thousands of ecstatic "Maiden" supporters kept them awake overnight by booming Iron Maiden music outside their hotel.
Across Latin America, they sold 250,000 tickets in less than one week to nine concerts in seven countries. In Colombia, they set a new record for the fastest ticket sales of any event.
Rapid ticket sales are expected this Saturday when seats go on sale for three new concerts in Latin America: Venezuela, Colombia and Chile.
Tickets for concerts in Brazil are due to go on sale next week -- along with seats for four concerts which are still to be announced, in four more countries, two of which will host Iron Maiden for the first time.
"We've always had tremendous success with the fans down there (in Latin America)," said Smallwood.
But why, many may be moved to ask? What is it about Iron Maiden and South America? Are they in love with Iron Maiden or is it heavy metal as a music genre that's really captured their hearts?
Malcolm Dome, presenter of British heavy metal radio station TotalRock has a theory.
"The Latin way of life seems to connect with heavy metal enormously," he told CNN. "It's not just in South America, it's the Latin communities in Spain and Portugal."
"I think it's got a lot to do with what heavy metal represents -- passion, energy, emotion, rebellion, a slight anarchy. I think it's the part of the Latin mentality," he added.
Iron Maiden may have been formed in a London pub the 1970s, but it wasn't until 1985 when they took to the stage at the original "Rock in Rio" concert that their South American fan base began to swell.
The band played one gig as guests of British compatriots, Queen, that was broadcast live across the continent winning them new fans, many of whom have stayed loyal over the years.
Heavy metal has not always been viewed with the same sense of awe by fans in South America, according to Cristiane Richardson, a Brazilian who presents the weekly heavy metal radio show Sonic Attack from London.
"It started perhaps as a novelty," Richardson told CNN, "Maybe it was kids rebelling against the samba or the church, but for many years it was looked on as a joke almost."
"[But] it slowly gained credibility and now if you go to a Havana show you'll see several generations -- fathers bringing their sons and nephews. Older people appreciate it as well. It's not just young kids."
She said Iron Maiden's sheer hard work has also won them fans.
"They make an effort everywhere they go to meet their fans and to learn the local language."
Claudio Vicentin, the editor of South America's best-selling heavy metal magazine Revista Roadie Crew, said, for some fans, heavy metal songs are their first introduction to the English language.
"In Brazil and South America many heavy metal fans begin to learn English translating the lyrics and singing together the lyrics on concerts."
"The fans here are very passionate about music. And then, once you like heavy metal, you are going to die listening to heavy metal. You are not going to love Iron Maiden just for one summer."
What is it about the music? "It's the energy of the sound," Vicentin said. "The guitar riffs, the melodies, the heavy drummer sound and the voice of the singer."
Right now, the band is taking a rest from a grueling schedule that started with the first concert in the "Somewhere Back in Time" tour in India last February. From there they went to Australia, Japan, the U.S., Latin America and Europe.
The tour resumes on February 9, when they'll pack up their version of a tour bus, Ed Force One, a 757 airliner decked out in Iron Maiden logos and take again to the skies for the first scheduled concert in Dubai.
As in previous legs, lead singer Bruce Dickinson will be in the pilot's seat, flying the entire band and their roadies from city to city.
One thing that will change is the line up.
"It will be different from last time," Smallwood told CNN. "We'll have pyros with us which we didn't take last time (and) there'll be a few songs we didn't do last time."
SOURCE
The crowd went wild when Iron Maiden took to the stage in Colombia earlier this year. They're going back in March, 2009.
Last March, they packed the 40,000 capacity Palmeiras Stadium in Sao Paulo. Next March, they'll be following in the formidable footsteps of Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton, rock band Kiss and the Pope, no less, to wow the crowds at the Autodromo de Interlagos.
The race track is one venue they don't expect to sell out.
"Capacity is about 400,000. I don't think we'll get 400,000," Iron Maiden's manager Rod Smallwood told CNN, "We're set for about 60,000 and we hope to go past that."
The band has every reason to be confident of strong ticket sales in South America where fan loyalty verges on fanaticism.
When the band last toured Curitiba in Brazil in March 2008, thousands of ecstatic "Maiden" supporters kept them awake overnight by booming Iron Maiden music outside their hotel.
Across Latin America, they sold 250,000 tickets in less than one week to nine concerts in seven countries. In Colombia, they set a new record for the fastest ticket sales of any event.
Rapid ticket sales are expected this Saturday when seats go on sale for three new concerts in Latin America: Venezuela, Colombia and Chile.
Tickets for concerts in Brazil are due to go on sale next week -- along with seats for four concerts which are still to be announced, in four more countries, two of which will host Iron Maiden for the first time.
"We've always had tremendous success with the fans down there (in Latin America)," said Smallwood.
But why, many may be moved to ask? What is it about Iron Maiden and South America? Are they in love with Iron Maiden or is it heavy metal as a music genre that's really captured their hearts?
Malcolm Dome, presenter of British heavy metal radio station TotalRock has a theory.
"The Latin way of life seems to connect with heavy metal enormously," he told CNN. "It's not just in South America, it's the Latin communities in Spain and Portugal."
"I think it's got a lot to do with what heavy metal represents -- passion, energy, emotion, rebellion, a slight anarchy. I think it's the part of the Latin mentality," he added.
Iron Maiden may have been formed in a London pub the 1970s, but it wasn't until 1985 when they took to the stage at the original "Rock in Rio" concert that their South American fan base began to swell.
The band played one gig as guests of British compatriots, Queen, that was broadcast live across the continent winning them new fans, many of whom have stayed loyal over the years.
Heavy metal has not always been viewed with the same sense of awe by fans in South America, according to Cristiane Richardson, a Brazilian who presents the weekly heavy metal radio show Sonic Attack from London.
"It started perhaps as a novelty," Richardson told CNN, "Maybe it was kids rebelling against the samba or the church, but for many years it was looked on as a joke almost."
"[But] it slowly gained credibility and now if you go to a Havana show you'll see several generations -- fathers bringing their sons and nephews. Older people appreciate it as well. It's not just young kids."
She said Iron Maiden's sheer hard work has also won them fans.
"They make an effort everywhere they go to meet their fans and to learn the local language."
Claudio Vicentin, the editor of South America's best-selling heavy metal magazine Revista Roadie Crew, said, for some fans, heavy metal songs are their first introduction to the English language.
"In Brazil and South America many heavy metal fans begin to learn English translating the lyrics and singing together the lyrics on concerts."
"The fans here are very passionate about music. And then, once you like heavy metal, you are going to die listening to heavy metal. You are not going to love Iron Maiden just for one summer."
What is it about the music? "It's the energy of the sound," Vicentin said. "The guitar riffs, the melodies, the heavy drummer sound and the voice of the singer."
Right now, the band is taking a rest from a grueling schedule that started with the first concert in the "Somewhere Back in Time" tour in India last February. From there they went to Australia, Japan, the U.S., Latin America and Europe.
The tour resumes on February 9, when they'll pack up their version of a tour bus, Ed Force One, a 757 airliner decked out in Iron Maiden logos and take again to the skies for the first scheduled concert in Dubai.
As in previous legs, lead singer Bruce Dickinson will be in the pilot's seat, flying the entire band and their roadies from city to city.
One thing that will change is the line up.
"It will be different from last time," Smallwood told CNN. "We'll have pyros with us which we didn't take last time (and) there'll be a few songs we didn't do last time."
SOURCE
Bruce Dickinson Interview Powerslave?
I think this was filmed around the Powerslave tour and just recently came across it while rummaging through a bunch of VHS tapes....you remember VHS tapes?
He ain't heavy he's your captain 2008
Champion fencer. Iron Maiden rocker. And fully fledged commercial pilot. For those about to fly with Bruce Dickinson, we salute you
Iron Maiden's secret to success 2008
Iron Maiden's secret to success
The Orange County Register
To keep the excitement level high, he says, "we just, you know, play a bit less."
Not as infrequently as you'd imagine, mind you - it was less than two years ago that Iron Maiden, one of the longest-running and still popular heavy metal bands in rock history, played Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. And little more than a year before that they appeared at an ill-fated Ozzfest stop in Devore - that infamous show that still makes fans grumble, when Sharon Osbourne reportedly had eggs thrown at the band during its set and eventually shut off the sound off so she could instead yell, "Ozzy! Ozzy!"
Not as infrequently as you'd imagine, mind you - it was less than two years ago that Iron Maiden, one of the longest-running and still popular heavy metal bands in rock history, played Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine. And little more than a year before that they appeared at an ill-fated Ozzfest stop in Devore - that infamous show that still makes fans grumble, when Sharon Osbourne reportedly had eggs thrown at the band during its set and eventually shut off the sound off so she could instead yell, "Ozzy! Ozzy!"
Still, Maiden's touring schedule is never very full, typically sporting only a handful of stateside dates each time out, and often with a conceit attached, from The Early Days Tour, focusing strictly on material from the band's first four albums � to 2006's trek behind the hailed return-to-form "A Matter of Life and Death," when the group would play the album in its entirety � to this season's Somewhere Back in Time Tour, devoted to reviving the bulk of the band's 1984 World Slavery Tour, complete with a wilder pyrotechnic display than they set off at the Forum in February and the most gigantic Eddie (Maiden's skeletal mascot) ever assembled.
"When we looked back at the 'Live After Death' DVD," Dickinson recalls, "the big Eddie at the back that comes out � we said, 'Oh, well, let's just build it the same as we did before.' And then we found the measurements of it, and we went, 'Yeah, that's pretty small. We can't do that. We've got to at least double the size of it.' So now it is absolutely monstrous."
So big, in fact, that a special hydraulic cherry-picker has to be flown with the band in order to lift it.
Could be stunts like that that keep attracting fresh-faced fans. Or it could also be that while so many of Maiden's peers and progeny have faded out or lost their edge after an album or two, these British veterans - including founding members Steve Harris (bass) and Dave Murray (guitar), drummer Nicko McBrain and guitarists Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, all in their early 50s - have soldiered on, surviving a rocky '90s to re-emerge this decade as one of the enduring masters of the form.
I caught up with Dickinson, 49, by phone while Maiden was in final rehearsals after touching down in Texas, and I began by wondering the same thing I do of all global phenomena: Great though both highs must be, it must feel different to play for 30,000 Californians across two nights at Verizon in Irvine, as Maiden does this weekend, than it would to encounter 45,000 people all at once in Bogota, or 50,000-plus most anywhere across Europe.
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: But � how is it different, exactly?
BRUCE DICKINSON: Well, it doesn't so much go geographically, but it is different from place to place. Over the years, it's strange how places have taken on different characteristics.
When we first started coming to America 25 years ago, we always used to imagine that the West Coast was the laid-back one, and the East Coast was where it was really happening. But certainly for the last 10 years, we were doing shows in Los Angeles and going, "Man, what a great gig!" The audience reaction is just really in-your-face, and they're really attentive and listening and informed. It was just really spectacular. I would say, actually, that the West Coast is one of our favorite places to play in North America at the moment.
OCR: Well, you have some history here, of course. (Maiden's widely regarded 1985 live album "Live After Death" and its companion video, finally released on DVD in February, was captured across four nights at Long Beach Arena in 1984.) Do you have specific memories of those shows that stand out the most?
BD: Well, it was just a gorgeous summer. It was a time when metal and rock music were really at a peak, culturally speaking. After "Live After Death," to be honest with you, I think the sort of hair bands, and one or two of the more embarrassing episodes in metal history that happened around then, tended to take over a bit in the public perception. Which was a shame, 'cause of course we were still doing the same thing. And we're still here doing the same. So we must be doing something right.
OCR: How would you characterize metal now?
BD: It's kinda come full circle. Except, of course, that now more than ever the audience own the music, because of the Internet and downloads and things like that. Audiences have such a choice now. But because of that, it's really heartening when you see your ticket sales going through the roof. And with no radio advertising, no TV - we don't even have a record out. Well, we do now �
OCR: But it's a greatest-hits record ("Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989").
BD: Yeah, and it's designed - completelydesigned - to capitalize on people that are new to the band, who need some kind of reference to know what to dip into first. In effect, what we're looking at is a global phenomenon that is caused by word-of-mouth, and it's pretty unprecedented.
OCR: It does seem that way. When I saw you at the Forum, I noticed the crowd was astonishingly young. To see 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kids � other bands who have been around as long or longer than you don't draw like that. What accounts for it?
BD: The heartening thing is that it's happening in America now. This is what's been going on in Canada for ages, and it's what we expect in Europe and South America. When we go into a country and 45,000 people show up in Colombia, 30,000 in Costa Rica � we don't even have a record company in Costa Rica. These are not old, die-hard fans. These are people who are seeing us for the first time.
And a lot of them are very, very young, which is great, because with all respect to old rockers, they don't put out like 16-year-old kids. You know, they sit there and nod their heads sagely and ruminate - and they enjoy it for sure. But they don't really start leaping up and down and head-banging and taking their clothes off and sweating buckets. They'd end up in hospital.
But with kids and us � it's like feeding the hurricane. You need those warmer-temperature waters to keep the hurricane fed. We get our energy from the audience, and we fire it right back at them.
OCR: Some of why you're so popular with younger listeners must have something to do with older brothers and even parents handing down records. But I think a lot of it also has to do with metal now bearing so much of your influence.
BD: Yeah, I think a lot of the bands that are around now will all name-check us as being a major influence. Because, you know, we went out and we did things our own way. We went, "Screw the Establishment, we don't care about radio, we just want to rock the way we want to do it."
OCR: You continue to do that.
BD: Exactly. But the thing I'm really proud of is that the stuff we've been doing really stands up to scrutiny. So many of the bands now - the young bands coming up - are much heavier than we are. We don't have a problem with that - we're not gonna try to out-heavy them or anything else like that. We just do what we do.
OCR: Yeah, but you outsing the majority of them. I think there's good new metal, fine, but there's also just a lot of growling and screaming now.
BD: Look, I'm not gonna diss people's choices. People choose to sing that way, and audiences choose to buy it. They enjoy it. My son is in a band, and he's a singer, and his vocals � they're screaming-growling stuff � and he's got a pretty reasonable voice. Yet he practices really hard to get the screaming-growling thing without losing that voice every five minutes. So I'm, like, "Hats off to you." And then I go along to see him at gigs, and I'm like, "OK, I get this." It's not how I would sing it. But I get it, within the terms of reference.
At the same time, all the kids in his band are really into Maiden. They love it because of what it represents and its heritage, but also because of what we do right now. So many of these kids who are into the band now have gotten into us during the last five years. Effectively, that means that they've been listening not only to our heritage albums - if even that - but to the new stuff we've been putting out.
OCR: Perhaps, but they must be hoping to recapture some part of your past, too.
BD: Oh, one of the main reasons this tour has seized young people's attentions in particular is that they have no idea what it was like when Maiden played "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" back then - but they would have given their eyeteeth to have been there.
And now we're offering them that opportunity. Not by doing kind of a pastiche or facsimile of the World Slavery Tour. But we are bringing those songs back to life with more experience than we did in 1984. Everything in 1984 sounded like we were really in a hurry to get to the end, 'cause we were just excited, and still pretty young. We'd come on stage and play everything at twice the speed.
Now, as we've gone down the slippery slope of doing this for umpteen years, we have the confidence to give our songs the power they really deserve. A lot of bands along the way lose the excitement level, 'cause they've been doing it for years. So they get really good at delivering music that kids are gonna look upon and go, "Yeah, but they look kinda bored." (Laughs.)
OCR: You look anything but bored.
BD: We figured this out a while back. How do we stop this happening to us? 'Cause all of us would be really disappointed with ourselves if that happened. And we thought, well, don't play too much. Treat this as a huge privilege. Treat it like when kids get together and they're in a band, and they've got their first three or four gigs - each gig is just like the first time you do a world tour, 'cause it's so exciting.
So to keep that excitement, we just, you know, play a bit less. And we leave gaps in between. That gives us time to recover physically, but more importantly, mentally. It keeps that excitement level there.
OCR: That also helps keep a mystique going.
BD: Of course, once you go out, like when we did the initial part of the tour and we played in L.A. and we played in New York � I mean, you could tell the sort of seismic ripples that went through on the Internet after we played L.A. That went all the way through North America. Kids were e-mailing going, "God, you should have seen it, it was awesome, they were fantastic." The business on this tour � we've never done business like this for years and years and years in North America. It's really, really cool.
OCR: I think part of why you endure is that your music has added resonance, especially now. I think your last album reflected our times very heavily.
BD: I think "A Matter of Life and Death" is one of the best albums Maiden has ever made. It stands up to all of our best from the '80s. I'm immensely proud of that album, and funnily enough, it was critically quite well-received. But even if it hadn't been, what mattered is not so much what the critics say. What matters is what happens when people listen to it and go, "Wow, this is anything but an old and tired band."
"When we looked back at the 'Live After Death' DVD," Dickinson recalls, "the big Eddie at the back that comes out � we said, 'Oh, well, let's just build it the same as we did before.' And then we found the measurements of it, and we went, 'Yeah, that's pretty small. We can't do that. We've got to at least double the size of it.' So now it is absolutely monstrous."
So big, in fact, that a special hydraulic cherry-picker has to be flown with the band in order to lift it.
Could be stunts like that that keep attracting fresh-faced fans. Or it could also be that while so many of Maiden's peers and progeny have faded out or lost their edge after an album or two, these British veterans - including founding members Steve Harris (bass) and Dave Murray (guitar), drummer Nicko McBrain and guitarists Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, all in their early 50s - have soldiered on, surviving a rocky '90s to re-emerge this decade as one of the enduring masters of the form.
I caught up with Dickinson, 49, by phone while Maiden was in final rehearsals after touching down in Texas, and I began by wondering the same thing I do of all global phenomena: Great though both highs must be, it must feel different to play for 30,000 Californians across two nights at Verizon in Irvine, as Maiden does this weekend, than it would to encounter 45,000 people all at once in Bogota, or 50,000-plus most anywhere across Europe.
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER: But � how is it different, exactly?
BRUCE DICKINSON: Well, it doesn't so much go geographically, but it is different from place to place. Over the years, it's strange how places have taken on different characteristics.
When we first started coming to America 25 years ago, we always used to imagine that the West Coast was the laid-back one, and the East Coast was where it was really happening. But certainly for the last 10 years, we were doing shows in Los Angeles and going, "Man, what a great gig!" The audience reaction is just really in-your-face, and they're really attentive and listening and informed. It was just really spectacular. I would say, actually, that the West Coast is one of our favorite places to play in North America at the moment.
OCR: Well, you have some history here, of course. (Maiden's widely regarded 1985 live album "Live After Death" and its companion video, finally released on DVD in February, was captured across four nights at Long Beach Arena in 1984.) Do you have specific memories of those shows that stand out the most?
BD: Well, it was just a gorgeous summer. It was a time when metal and rock music were really at a peak, culturally speaking. After "Live After Death," to be honest with you, I think the sort of hair bands, and one or two of the more embarrassing episodes in metal history that happened around then, tended to take over a bit in the public perception. Which was a shame, 'cause of course we were still doing the same thing. And we're still here doing the same. So we must be doing something right.
OCR: How would you characterize metal now?
BD: It's kinda come full circle. Except, of course, that now more than ever the audience own the music, because of the Internet and downloads and things like that. Audiences have such a choice now. But because of that, it's really heartening when you see your ticket sales going through the roof. And with no radio advertising, no TV - we don't even have a record out. Well, we do now �
OCR: But it's a greatest-hits record ("Somewhere Back in Time: The Best of 1980-1989").
BD: Yeah, and it's designed - completelydesigned - to capitalize on people that are new to the band, who need some kind of reference to know what to dip into first. In effect, what we're looking at is a global phenomenon that is caused by word-of-mouth, and it's pretty unprecedented.
OCR: It does seem that way. When I saw you at the Forum, I noticed the crowd was astonishingly young. To see 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kids � other bands who have been around as long or longer than you don't draw like that. What accounts for it?
BD: The heartening thing is that it's happening in America now. This is what's been going on in Canada for ages, and it's what we expect in Europe and South America. When we go into a country and 45,000 people show up in Colombia, 30,000 in Costa Rica � we don't even have a record company in Costa Rica. These are not old, die-hard fans. These are people who are seeing us for the first time.
And a lot of them are very, very young, which is great, because with all respect to old rockers, they don't put out like 16-year-old kids. You know, they sit there and nod their heads sagely and ruminate - and they enjoy it for sure. But they don't really start leaping up and down and head-banging and taking their clothes off and sweating buckets. They'd end up in hospital.
But with kids and us � it's like feeding the hurricane. You need those warmer-temperature waters to keep the hurricane fed. We get our energy from the audience, and we fire it right back at them.
OCR: Some of why you're so popular with younger listeners must have something to do with older brothers and even parents handing down records. But I think a lot of it also has to do with metal now bearing so much of your influence.
BD: Yeah, I think a lot of the bands that are around now will all name-check us as being a major influence. Because, you know, we went out and we did things our own way. We went, "Screw the Establishment, we don't care about radio, we just want to rock the way we want to do it."
OCR: You continue to do that.
BD: Exactly. But the thing I'm really proud of is that the stuff we've been doing really stands up to scrutiny. So many of the bands now - the young bands coming up - are much heavier than we are. We don't have a problem with that - we're not gonna try to out-heavy them or anything else like that. We just do what we do.
OCR: Yeah, but you outsing the majority of them. I think there's good new metal, fine, but there's also just a lot of growling and screaming now.
BD: Look, I'm not gonna diss people's choices. People choose to sing that way, and audiences choose to buy it. They enjoy it. My son is in a band, and he's a singer, and his vocals � they're screaming-growling stuff � and he's got a pretty reasonable voice. Yet he practices really hard to get the screaming-growling thing without losing that voice every five minutes. So I'm, like, "Hats off to you." And then I go along to see him at gigs, and I'm like, "OK, I get this." It's not how I would sing it. But I get it, within the terms of reference.
At the same time, all the kids in his band are really into Maiden. They love it because of what it represents and its heritage, but also because of what we do right now. So many of these kids who are into the band now have gotten into us during the last five years. Effectively, that means that they've been listening not only to our heritage albums - if even that - but to the new stuff we've been putting out.
OCR: Perhaps, but they must be hoping to recapture some part of your past, too.
BD: Oh, one of the main reasons this tour has seized young people's attentions in particular is that they have no idea what it was like when Maiden played "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" back then - but they would have given their eyeteeth to have been there.
And now we're offering them that opportunity. Not by doing kind of a pastiche or facsimile of the World Slavery Tour. But we are bringing those songs back to life with more experience than we did in 1984. Everything in 1984 sounded like we were really in a hurry to get to the end, 'cause we were just excited, and still pretty young. We'd come on stage and play everything at twice the speed.
Now, as we've gone down the slippery slope of doing this for umpteen years, we have the confidence to give our songs the power they really deserve. A lot of bands along the way lose the excitement level, 'cause they've been doing it for years. So they get really good at delivering music that kids are gonna look upon and go, "Yeah, but they look kinda bored." (Laughs.)
OCR: You look anything but bored.
BD: We figured this out a while back. How do we stop this happening to us? 'Cause all of us would be really disappointed with ourselves if that happened. And we thought, well, don't play too much. Treat this as a huge privilege. Treat it like when kids get together and they're in a band, and they've got their first three or four gigs - each gig is just like the first time you do a world tour, 'cause it's so exciting.
So to keep that excitement, we just, you know, play a bit less. And we leave gaps in between. That gives us time to recover physically, but more importantly, mentally. It keeps that excitement level there.
OCR: That also helps keep a mystique going.
BD: Of course, once you go out, like when we did the initial part of the tour and we played in L.A. and we played in New York � I mean, you could tell the sort of seismic ripples that went through on the Internet after we played L.A. That went all the way through North America. Kids were e-mailing going, "God, you should have seen it, it was awesome, they were fantastic." The business on this tour � we've never done business like this for years and years and years in North America. It's really, really cool.
OCR: I think part of why you endure is that your music has added resonance, especially now. I think your last album reflected our times very heavily.
BD: I think "A Matter of Life and Death" is one of the best albums Maiden has ever made. It stands up to all of our best from the '80s. I'm immensely proud of that album, and funnily enough, it was critically quite well-received. But even if it hadn't been, what mattered is not so much what the critics say. What matters is what happens when people listen to it and go, "Wow, this is anything but an old and tired band."
Contact the writer: 714-796-2248 or bwener@ocregister.com
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