The album is just finished.. The band have been really
pushing to get the album finished on time and are now ecstatic that not only is it
finished but they class it as one of the best they have EVER done. After a weeks
break, they will jump on the Rock'n'Roll merry-go-round that is called "Promotion".
They will travel in pairs to far off countries to talk about the album and the tour
that is coming. Once they have returned from that they will get together again to
discuss the tour, singles, artwork... in fact a whole plethora of matters that will
ensure that you, the fan, get the best album and tour Maiden can provide. Then they
move into rehearsals and before they know it .... the tour begins!
There is no better time to grab bassist Steve Harris and fire a few well chosen questions
at him about the album, tour and anything else that comes to mind. He was more than
happy to oblige and gave a very open and frank insight into the thinking behind "BRAVE
NEW WORLD" and the forthcoming METAL 2000 tour.
Johnny B: You’ve
gone into writing an album so soon after finishing a tour, you were obviously up
for it. Was it the fact that you had a new line up and you wanted to get into the
studio and get on with it?
STEVE HARRIS:
"Oh that was part of the process of getting prepared to go into recording. One
or two weeks into the tour we knew we would go in and be fresh off the tour. It was
only a short tour obviously, the shortest tour we’ve ever done".
It was a good tour though.
"Yeah, It was a great vibe playing together again. and the crowds seemed
to love it"
And you were all up for recording?
"Yeah. It was just getting the vibe getting together again and playing together
again. We just thought we’d go straight in fresh off the tour and do a new album.
We could‘ve just gone in and done an album but we thought it best to go and do some
shows first. There was the Ed Hunter PC game to tour with as well. We did a completely
different sort of show for that than obviously we will do for the next tour. Basically
we wanted to go in the studio and add all the vibes, all the freshness of coming
off a tour and playing together again."
Did you find this album any harder of easier than
previous albums ?
"Well ..... this album we approached differently and we actually rehearsed
for quite a while before going in and doing it. Normally we just go in and do it
and rehearse the songs in the studio and we would allocate ourselves a specific period
of time before that when we write the songs.. This time however we had a sort of
on and off period, a sort of longer period to write. We were writing bits and pieces
here and there, then going in to finish off the writing then basically rehearsing
the songs at the end. Normally we just rehearse a song and then just do it as we’re
going along. It’s just a different way of approaching it when we’re recording at
my studio, at home, as we haven’t got a time problem there.It’s a totally different
approach. The recording and the rehearsals are all one and in the same place. Whereas
you can’t really go and start spending the same sort of money it would cost for the
recording to just rehearse. It’s just insane to rehearse for a month in a recording
studio that is costing ..... whatever a day it’s just stupid. So it just has to be
a different approach. So we rehearsed the new stuff in a rehearsal room rather than
in a recording studio. We rehearsed the stuff really well first so that when we went
in to do the backing tracks they went down obviously a lot quicker. We’d rehearsed
the songs as if we were going to play live."
Did you like that way of working ?
"Well yeah. We’ve done it that way before years ago and we enjoyed it and
it worked. Either way really it works because the end result is the same in the sense
that you just want to get the best performance down. It is just two different ways
of doing it basically. I mean either way I like doing it, it doesn’t matter one way
or the other really."
Why did you choose Belgium for your writing ?
"Well ..... Dick Bell (Maiden Production Manager) found the place and it’s
just a really good place. It’s just a great place to rehearse, the people are nice
and the whole atmosphere was relaxed and friendly."
What makes it a good place to rehearse ? Why was
that such a great place ?
"Simple .... because it was just a really good size and sound. For me it
was just a good vibe there. Like I said, the people were friendly and stuff like
that and that means a lot. The facilities were good and relaxed. You could just relax
and nobody knew where we were. We weren’t getting hassled by anybody and we could
just go there, do a job and get on with it basically. Conversely that’s also what’s
good when we rehearse at my place. I know nobody will bother us there. I know it
was kinda out the way but it’s good. Yeah it was a great place".
Did you have to completely change your recording
technique, seeing as how you’ve got three leading guitarists this time ?
"Well to be honest with you that’s a kind of difficult question to answer
because we were using a new guy. I mean we were using a different producer, Kevin
Shirley. So I don’t know if we would’ve approached it in the same way using three
guitarists as two. Obviously, you have to approach it slightly differently for mixing
the stuff but as to whether he would‘ve recorded it the same with two guitar players,
I don’t really know. I haven’t worked with him before but I don’t think it probably
would have been. After having worked with him, he’s just a straight head sort of
bloke and he just goes in and gets on with it. I don’t think he would of done things
much differently".
How was it working with Kevin Shirley ?
"Yeah, it was great. I mean it was really great working with him. I was
a little worried about working with a different person you don’t know. I always would
be because you don’t know what they’re going to be like. Obviously, you know what
they’ve done work-wise and their reputation. We met him and he seemed like a nice
guy. However until you get down to it you don’t know if you’re going to click with
somebody or not ...... but it clicked perfectly. It’s just the way he works. It’s
very similar to the way we’ve been working the last two or three albums anyway, in
a lot of ways, There were some things that he was doing that we hadn’t been doing
before but it was really good working like that. For instance we’d lay all the guitars
down, the rhythm guitars, some over dub guitars and they would all go and record
them altogether, rather than do them individually. This system worked out great.
However, again I think that was because we were so well rehearsed we could do that.
I think that if you weren’t as well rehearsed and you’d just gone in and done them
as we usually do them, by taking each song at a time, it may have been different.
It is after all just a different approach but the fact that we had rehearsed for
a month beforehand meant that we could just do things like that ..... and easily.
Everybody could just do their bits and it meant that we could just do it like that"
Does the producer influence an album in a way then?
"He influences the sound obviously of course, to a certain degree. If we
were doing sounds that he didn’t like he would say so. But yeah, he influences the
sounds, the way you record, he’s the engineer as well. He doesn’t influence you in
the writing of it. The right songs are already arranged and written beforehand anyway,
so he doesn’t influence you like that. He might have odd ideas, it’s the same with
other producers we’ve worked with like Martin Birch. It’s the same type of thing
..... they may have odd ideas but as to whether we used them or not is another thing.
It depends as to whether you liked them or not. It’s not a situation ...... Well
Maiden has never been the situation, where someone comes in and starts dictating
what kind of sort of songs we write."
It is so important to get the right sort of person
then ?
"Yeah, it’s important to get someone in that wants to get the right sort
of performance out of you. You don’t want someone that wants to just change the songs
around. We knew that he wasn’t that type of guy or we wouldn’t have entertained him."
You knew that from his reputation?
"Not really because he’s capable of doing that if need be and I should imagine
there are some band’s that may need that approach. Some bands need that, or want
that. We don’t want that and he knew our reputation also. He knew that we wouldn’t
be wanting that and that’s fine and it worked out great."
So would you work with Kevin Shirley again?
"Oh definitely yeah. We really enjoyed working with him and we had good
fun doing it."
Steve Harris interview -Part 1
Steve Harris interview -Part 2
Steve Harris interview -Part 3
Steve Harris interview -Part 4