Johnny B : Yeah
he seemed a good fun guy in the studio!
Steve Harris : "Yeah
he is. When you’re stuck in the studio for all that time together you need to have
fun. What I mean is that I’m the one that’s in the studio with him every day, day
in and day out. I am there more so than the others so I need to get on with him.
We got on really well together. It is so important to have a good working relationship.
I imagine that there can’t be anything worse than going into a studio if you don’t
like the person that you’re working with. We were really lucky because we all got
on really well with him and we would definitely work with him again."
After doing a couple of albums at Barnyard studios
would it automatically have been a change to go anywhere else ?
"We did Fear of the Dark, X Factor and Virtual 11 and we also did a bit
of No Prayer there, although it wasn’t properly in the studio, as we did it in the
mobile studio. We also mixed a couple of live albums there as well. So we did quite
a bit of stuff there and we just felt like it was time to go somewhere else really.
It’s the same as in the 80’s when we did three albums in Compass Point in the Bahamas.
We did the recording there and then went and mixed the stuff in New York, at Electric
Lady studios. We did that for three albums and it felt good to go somewhere else.
So we did some other stuff, like Somewhere In Time at Wisseloord Studios Holland.
Who knows whether we’ll go back to that one or somewhere else. I mean I really like
the latest studio, the studio was great. Great environment to work in and really
enjoyable. professional people there.
Was it well equipped there ?
"Yeah fantastic. Very well equipped The people were really well on the button
with professionalism and totally together. I was very impressed with the studio.
I would work there again definitely. Whether we’ll do that next time round who knows,
that’s not something we’re thinking about yet. Whatever we decide now will probably
change in a few weeks anyway ..... such is the nature of the Beast."
Normally there’s a good theme running through the
album!
"I am glad you asked this because it may clear up a few misconceptions before
we get asked this on tour for the millionth time. Some people do think the albums
are like concept albums when they are not. That’s usually because of the artwork
and the strong imagery that we use. What with the booklets and graphics and everything
else and stuff like that. People get that impression. I say it with every album it’s
the way it is, it’s a pretty simple approach and we try and get together the best
collection of songs as best we can at any given time .... and you go with that. I
mean you might look at it a year later and go back and think ‘Oh we could have done
this or we could have done that’. You may think we could have second guessed this
or that and we could have written a better song than that one. However at the time
you’re enthusiastic about your stuff and you think that’s the best that you can come
out with ..... at that time ...... you just HAVE to go with it. I don’t think you
should look back over your shoulder at all, that’s always been our attitude. So that’s
something that’s never changed in that respect. I mean that goes for with whatever
the line up is, that’s always been the attitude. I hope that clears it up. We write
the best collection of songs we can at the time and everything else fits around them
.... not the other way around."
So when you were working away from your own Barnyard
studios, did you work on one song till it was finished or did you do a bit of each,
seeing as you were now working to a time limit ?
"With guitars and stuff as far as we could we were working on each track
as we were going along, getting the sounds we needed. That’s what made mixing easier
because we were building a track up layer by layer, one at a time really. You just
do bits and pieces what ever is needed and whoever is available at the time. You
just get them in to do bits and pieces and that’s how you carry on really. You get
a working format going. You have to be very strict in your procedures as you only
have limited time."
Do members of the band come in and say "Look
I’ve got a cool riff, or do you want to hear this", or is it pretty well set
before you go in ?
"Whatever work you need to do next .... you do it. You call them in and
they do it. If they say they can’t come in that day because of whatever but they
can come in at the end of the week, or that they are absolutely itching to get in,
then you just work it it like that. What I mean to say is that we’ve all been doing
this a long time so it’s not really a problem We just work it all out as you go along
really. Some might say it’s a bit disorganised but it’s not really.
Organised chaos!
"Yeah. Exactly."
Where did you come up with the name "Wicker
Man" for the first single ?
"I don’t know if people reading have ever seen the film. It’s a classic
sort of British style of film. I like all British classics and British made films.
It’s got Christopher Lee in it and it’s worth checking out, the scenes in that sum
up the Wicker Man really.All that good pagan ritual stuff .... ho ho. Now I’m pigeon
holing us !"
It was strong imagery in the Wicker Man, very eerie
!
"Yeah definitely, we’ve always liked a bit of imagery, a bit of light and
shade in our songs and a bit of atmosphere. It conjures up all sorts of things in
your mind and imagery carries it even further so."
What theme will you carry into the stage show ?
"We’re still deciding what we’ll do with the stage show, we’re talking about
designs and stuff. To be honest at this point in time we haven’t even got finished
artwork so I wouldn’t really want to comment completely on that.
Will it be a big theatrical show again ?
"Yeah, a big show definitely. I hope it’ll be one of the biggest. Again
it’s difficult to really talk about that too much without knowing what the artwork
is. I mean we’ve seen some stuff but it’s not finalised."
Can we go through the idea and concept behind each
track?
"It’s pretty boring !"
Well not really.
It might be for you but not for the people reading this who don’t know anything about
the album yet.
"There’s no concept really".
OK concepts the wrong word but there must be an idea
behind the lyrics?
"No. You see the thing is when people ask you what the lyrics are, we get
asked this question all the time and it’s one of the most boring and difficult questions
and you can quote me on that if you want to. You just write at the time whatever
you’re feeling at the time. You draw your influences from anything at the time, it
could be films, books, history or circumstantial events, whatever. Or whatever you
come up with out of your imagination at the time and that’s what it is. You know,
people kind of read into them all sorts of things. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes
they don’t. I think that’s good that they have a bit of imagination. They are thinking
what they perceive about the lyrics. It is great because the lyrics are obviously
strong enough that they make them think. The fact that they’re doing that and they
have their own impression is a good thing. For me to exactly spell out what I was
thinking (or whoever wrote those particular lyrics) at the time is wrong as far as
we are concerned."
Is it pretty even the song writing, or was it just
mainly you and Bruce ?
"Well you just have to look at the credits on the web and take it from that.
Sometimes we just pair up or sometimes it was whoever was around at the time. Sometimes
it was whoever was available for writing. Sometimes you think you might want to take
a song in a certain direction with one person or another. Sometimes it’s not even
like that, it’s whoever is up for doing stuff at that particular time you are working
on that particular song. There’s no big deal about it."
To be continued in Part 3...
Steve Harris interview -Part 1
Steve Harris interview -Part 2
Steve Harris interview -Part 3
Steve Harris interview -Part 4