Steve finally succumbs to make-up!
Johnny B: It starts fast and then goes to a slow
dreamlike sequence which you imagine in black and white because of the clever lyrics.
Steve Harris: "Nine
times out ten we will already have a melody, a really strong melody and we will write
the lyrics to the melody. That’s how we do things usually. So then we are trying
to fit a lyric to a melody that may have already created a mood. You then have to
write something that will suit that, you can’t really write something that won’t
suit that song. That is where lyrically I get my inspiration from, the vibe and the
mood of the song."
I thought it was a great song to follow "The Mercenary" which is a real
fast blockbuster of a song.
"When we pan an album out we try and have light and shade in your album.
We had "Blood Brothers" which is a quiet at the beginning and end. We thought
that "Mercenary" will bring the tempo back up again. We then thought that
"Dream of Mirrors" which has those quiet sequences near the beginning will
slow the pace again.
Is there a reasoning behind "The Mercenary".
"Yeah but it really is about a bounty hunter. We named it "The Mercenary"
purely because we didn’t want to call it "The Bounty Hunter".
What about the "Fallen Angel" ?
"Age old thing really..It is all about Good Versus Evil.To me the whole
song is musically influenced by "Thin Lizzy". It has that celtic vibe to
it at the beginning that is very "Lizzy". I think the song is very ....
well not commercial ... but the chorus hook is very catchy.
I loved the whole thing about "The Nomad",
the long guitarfests, the epic feel of the whole track, the orchestral bit, the stirring
lyrics I thought it is a highlight of the album.
"Thanks ..... lets hope everyone else thinks so. We called it "The
Nomad" as it has that whole Arabian vibe to it ."The Nomad" summed
up the whole feel and vibe of the song. The theme of the music was great and this
is what I was talking about before, where the vibe of the music sends us in the right
direction for the lyrics.Itwas definitely one of those sort of tracks. The vibe was
very middle eastern and that is what inspired the lyrics. We were all thinking of
the desert and stuff."
Then we have the track "Silent Planet"
which if you were looking for that "taster" you described earlier surely
this is commercially friendly ?
"Well ... it definitely has a catchy chorus, well two choruses really. It
has a chorus and a sub chorus really. It had a feel about it when we were recording
like when we did "The Evil That Men Do". That had a strong bridge, which
could have been a chorus and then you hit the real chorus which takes you even higher.
Bruce wrote the lyrics for that one."
Was it based on the film ?
"Don’t think so. Again it sets off quiet and builds up to violent ending.
We love doing that type of stuff."
"The Thin Line Between Love and Hate" ....
that’s got to be one of the longest Maiden titles in years hasn’t it. ?
Again Steve laughs out loud
"Yeah ... "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" was pretty long. Again
the song has lots of different moods in it. The bits in the middle and the end are
real favourites of mine. They really have a great moody feel to them. There was a
different direction for some of the writing. Some of it was new for us as we wanted
to try a few new and different things."
"Despite what some people say and again it really depends on who you are talking
to, some people say we are not different enough. Other people say we are too different
from our last albums .... we don’t really analyse it but I think there is quite a
lot of different stuff going on here.
I don’t really think that people should try and pigeon hole us. It’s not just this
album, over all the albums we have had new stuff going on all the time. We write
from the heart and how we feel at the time. We are all changing all the time and
experiencing different and new things so that obviously affects how we write and
play. All those people who say we just play one type of thing have obviously never
listened to one of our albums properly. I really think that Maiden albums are something
that you have to listen to a few times to appreciate it. Our albums are not instant
stuff. One or two of choruses maybe but there is a hell of a lot of instrumental
stuff. We hope that there is a little bit more to our albums that make them thought
provoking. They are not something that you can take in instantly ....well not the
whole album anyway. It doesn’t matter who the artist is sometimes you have to persevere
a little bit and some people can’t be bothered with that. The attention span of some
people is .... well ..... pretty minute to say the least!"
I felt the album was a lot rockier this time ... or was that just me ?
"It is your perception of it. This is probably gonna be the first released
interview about this album and we are gonna get asked this question so many times
so don’t feel bad about asking it. However .... I’ll give you the answer I probably
will give all of them .... people perceive things in different ways.
Some people are going to say it’s a rockier album. Some are gonna say it’s a more
progressive album, some will even say it’s more commercial. It will amaze us as always
with what perceptions people will come up with. The answer to all of them is .. GREAT!
Get out of it what you want but don’t go pigeon holing us. Listen to it a few times
and then see if your original perception is the same."
Are there any songs that you finished off that didn’t make the album ?
"No, not at all. We don’t work that way. We write and then work on whatever
we need. We never write say twenty songs and then just use ten, we would never do
that."
I guess it is all steam ahead now. The albums finished
so I guess it is off to mastering, shoot a video and off on tour.
"Sounds scary but yeah, that’s basically our lives mapped out. We master
the album and then after a few weeks of promotion, where we pair off and go off doing
press all around the world, we rehearse. We have to go out and do the press stuff
so that we give the album a good opportunity to do well. It allows all the record
company and our guys to go out and promote the thing properly.
People will not know it’s there unless we put the ground work in promoting it. We
can never take things for granted. We have a pretty hardcore following but you cannot
just expect people to cough up, hard earned cash for something they have not heard
about. The groundwork is important so you have to go out and do that sort of thing.Now
we go and rehearse the tour and do the best show we can.
What will be nice about this tour is that we are going out based on a new album.
It was kind of hard for me on the last tour to go out and play a set where we didn’t
have any new songs. It was great on one hand for us all to get back together and
for it to go so well but I found it particularly difficult myself. That’s because
I like to go out on tour with new stuff.I like to have the conviction in new material
and give an impression like that.
I am looking forward to this tour more. I really am ..... purely for that reason.
I love to see the crowds reactions to new songs. I think it is a great challenge
to go out and play new stuff.."
But don’t the fans love to see you come and play your greatest songs ?
"Yeah, of course. They want to hear old stuff as well but it is really nice
to go and play new stuff. You can look at it from another way. If we DON’T go and
play brand new stuff how will any of the new songs ever become great live songs.
Everyone seems to have a different song they like to us playing live. Some like Run
To The Hills, others love Fear Of The Dark. How would they know that these are great
songs live if we had never had the faith in our convictions to play new stuff, on
previous tours.
I think it is challenging and sometimes I even think it’s quite brave of us to play
the amount of new stuff that we do.Whenever we go out on tour with a new album we
always play at least 6 new songs. A lot of people don’t do that. They are scared
of reactions so they only play one new song. They are worried about people bitching
about new material but I think it just shows a lack of confidence in their new product.
I have always wondered at that myself .... I think it is a bit strange. If they think
they have written a good new album ....go out and play it to the fans .... that’s
the only way you will find out if it really is any good."
Are you going to play any places that you have never
played before?
Oh yeah .... there are places already lined up and hopefully there will be more.
We are playing Estonia, Ukraine and places like that. I always like playing new places
it is a challenge. It is still a challenge to go back and play at places you have
played before because you still have to go and prove yourself all over again. Hopefully,
the fans will leave thinking you were even better than the last time they saw you.
Having said that I really like to go to new places to see crowds reactions and obviously
..... as a tourist. I finds it refreshing to go to new places.
Will you get to more places than you did on the Ed
Hunter tour?
"Oh yeah, Ed Hunter was a very short tour. It was really only a couple of
dozen shows, which is nothing for us really. This will be quite a long tour. Not
as long as some of the previous long tours purely because we are doing a festival
tour. With the festivals you can play one show and reach the same amount of people
as you would reach with five or six shows. This is different because it is a summer
tour. If we do a winter tour then obviously we cannot play festivals so we do a longer
tour to make up for it."
Well I wish you all the best for the tour and the
new album. I think the new album has a real depth to it. I absolutely love some of
the new tracks and cannot wait to be jumping up and down with the crowds to "Navigator".
Thanks. See you all there ..... somewhere !
Steve Harris interview -Part 1
Steve Harris interview -Part 2
Steve Harris interview -Part 3
Steve Harris interview -Part 4