Greek Rock Hard Interviews Bruce, Janick and Nicko
Bruce Dickinson InterviewFor starters, I’d like to ask how you see “A Matter Of Life And Death”; paraphrasing the title, could we support that it is a matter of life and death for Iron Maiden for this album to go well?
Ah. No, there is no such worry. We are not a band that is pressed to have commercial success; we don’t have that need anymore. Our only need is our unhindered expression through music. Many believe that we must compose music in a specific way because we are who we are. I, therefore, have to say that there is nothing constraining us but the respect to the name and history of this band, as well as to ourselves and to our need to play good music. For these reasons I believe and support with great passion that our new album is not that simple or easy. “A Matter Of Life And Death” is not a simple Iron Maiden album, it is not even a typical one! It’s something more than that in my opinion. It is the best thing we’ve done in many, many years. It is as good as our best albums. And if you keep in mind that “Piece Of Mind” is for me the strongest, most complete and overall best album we’ve ever done, that’s exactly where I place “A Matter Of Life And Death”. On the top! Possibly the best we’ve recorded along with “Piece Of Mind”!! That is my final and clear statement!
You are so passionate. What is it that makes it so special and better than all the others?
“A Matter Of Live And Death” could not have been written if we hadn’t written “Dance Of Death” first, I see it as a progression of the band that recorded “Dance Of Death”, which had some incredibly good moments, like the title track for example but it didn’t have the balance of “A Matter Of Life And Death”, from a musical point of view at least. We were satisfied but we wanted to move on a bit further, to experiment. Here, we found the golden streak in our musical progression as far as our goal was concerned. Which was to avoid repeating ourselves and issuing a typical Maiden album. We wanted to marry our classical sound with more progressive elements, in a direction which portrays a modernized evolution of the band and it’s music. You will notice, once you listen to the album, that is not easy at all to absorb, it is quite intricate in some moments and straightforward metal in others. It is what I was saying earlier, we had absolutely no restraints from creating a more modern, direct metal, which would, nevertheless, portray that we can evolve even further as a band.
Does that mean that you believe that there was a need for you to evolve? To create something different?
Yes, there was a need not to repeat ourselves and not to make an album that sounded like a copy of our previous one. That was our need, as well as not limiting ourselves compositionally. We didn’t stop until we felt that every song was complete in every aspect. I must, however, point out that one realizes all that in retrospect. I realized a lot after the recordings and once I heard the final results. Only then did I see that the band was finally free in its playing, to evolve and express what we are today. You know, when you complete something you don’t realize straight away exactly what that is, when you look at it once its complete and from a distance then you realize what happened, how it happened and why it happened. Today, if I were to speak to you about past efforts of mine or of Maiden’s, it is certain that I would speak to you from a different point of view and in a very different way, from when they first came out.
Do you believe that Maiden stagnated at some point and repeated themselves, resulting in nowadays’ effort to cover some steps of compositional evolution that they lost?
Tough question. Always, and without realizing this, in the spur of your passion you do some things that you later realize were not in the right direction or were a rehash of something you had already done. No band in the world avoids that trap. Today, Maiden don’t have anything to prove to anybody and we don’t look back, only forward.
The progressive elements are evident in the album, do you believe we could be talking about “Somewhere In Time” of 2006?
You are absolutely right, “Somewhere In Time” was a progression, as “A Matter Of Life And Death” is now, a step forward, with progressive elements and a rock feeling in some parts, notice the guitars on “The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg” or in “The Legacy” and you will realize that. Listen carefully to the sound of the drums! You will hear keyboards, synthesized guitars and, in some part of the album, Nicko’s drumming features special effects! The orchestrations are the most worked on we have ever done, very complex, technical but that showcases how much we’ve moved on as a band, the will we had to do something out of the ordinary and the good job that was done by Kevin Shirley.
How difficult was it for you to record the new tracks live in the studio?
We followed that way of recording in the last 3 albums and it wasn’t a difficult thing, especially for “A Matter Of Life And Death”. Kevin allows the band to express itself freely in the studio, to perform together, to experiment, to exchange ideas and to perform as if we were onstage. It wasn’t the easiest thing in the word to perform and at the same time record tracks like “The Legacy”, “Brighter than a thousand suns” or “For The Greater Good Of God” which have complex passages, last long and have multilayered orchestrations. I believe we won the bet with “A Matter Of Life And Death”, since we succeeded in maintaining the power of a live recording, showcasing our power in the best possible way, adding progressive elements to our music and inputting all this in the album. There are, as you see, many reasons for which I believe that what our fans will get to hear in September will be the best today’s Maiden has to offer and possibly the best thing we’ve ever done, along with “Piece Of Mind”!
I am really glad to hear you being so enthusiastic. How did these new elements in your sound, while maintaining your identity, make your performance as a singer easier or harder?
It was truly a challenge to sing the vocals for “A Matter Of Life And Death”. Exactly because I had to combine our traditional ways with something more progressive that exited me as an aspect, it made me face the process and the vocal lines as the ultimate challenge. I was enthusiastic every time Steve or Adrian brought in the melodies and I realized we were doing something harder, more challenging for all of us. That was it! We all worked together in the studio and they let me guide my voice where the songs were taking me. In general, “A Matter Of Life And Death” was the most fruitfully difficult album I have sung on, even though the word “difficult” isn’t representative, the word “challenging” describes it better.
What do you make of the fact that 6 out of the album’s 10 tracks last over 7 minutes? I remember that you didn’t use to like long compositions.
We are not a pop band which has to write songs that last 4 or 5 minutes maximum. We let our compositions guide us and none of the songs that last that much was written to be long or short. When we feel that we have completed a song, then we stop adding things to it. It’s clearly the music itself which goes up to a point and we don’t care if that’s at 5, 10 or 15 minutes. You feel up to which point a song evolves and for no song did we stop to think if it lasts a little or a lot. When we felt that we had nothing more to add to a song and it was complete, Kevin would press “Record” and we’d start playing the song again to put it down on tape. To answer to your last comment, it’s not that I don’t like long songs. I don’t like a song which is based on motifs and recipes of the past, just so that there will be a song like that in the album. On the other hand, I like a song to end when it’s complete, regardless how long it is.
Earlier, you said that “A Matter Of Life And Death” is essentially an experimental album in a sense. Did you stop to think that people will not like it? Don’t you as a band feel pressure, feel that people expect very specific things from you?
In no case. Iron Maiden have not lost their identity, their power, the volume in their sound and as a result no one was worried about people receiving it negatively for a single minute. On the other hand, we never felt the least pressure regarding our musical course. We have the ultimate trust in ourselves and our potentials. There was a lot of enthusiasm, no pressure. I you want, we have the comfort, as Iron Maiden, to make our music exactly as we want it and after all these years we’ve earned that right.
Lyrically, even though we were allowed to see the lyrics only for a short while, basically, we have subjects touching on mythology and war, right?
Yes, something like that. For example, “The Longest Day” deals with the matter of war and terror [my comment: this must be an error, the song Bruce must be referring to is “For The Greater Good Of God”], it has to do with the war atmosphere that is felt throughout the world in the last years. “The Pilgrim”, which’s lyrics are written by Janick, is about the Crusades and the pilgrims of the Holy Land. In general, war is a subject that really concerns me, especially in the last few years it affects me as a lyricist and it troubles me as a human being. It has many dimensions and if you look to find all the outcomes, positive or negative it certainly is a never ending subject. You know, wherever there is a negative element, there is another positive one. It’s the same with war, as cruel as it might sound, it has positive elements that take effect during it’s course or afterwards.
Who is Benjamin Breeg, about whom you sing on “The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg”? Rumors have it that it’s referring to Paul Di’Anno!!
Ha, ha… No!! It can’t be that, there’s no way! Benjamin Breeg is a fictional character Steve made up and nothing more. He may have to solve the mystery himself, since he wrote the lyrics to it! On the other hand, there should always be some mystery there, ha, ha!
Another rumor comes from “Tiempos Violentos”, the most well known Heavy Metal radio show on Rock and Pop Radio, which is broadcasted over almost the entire S. American continent. They mentioned there that right after 2008’s tour, Iron Maiden will break up.
Ha… ha… That’s fiction, I don’t see the reason for that to happen but nothing, after all these years, surprises me anymore. Each one can say what he wants and we can’t stop him. As a result, I will not look into it. It’s a real waste of time, when we have a world tour ahead of us, a new album with such enthusiasm, to waste time on such rumors.
What about a single? Until today (27/06/06), nothing has been announced.
Evidently “The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg” will be the first single. It’s a good choice. It is a 7 minute tune, but we though, we’re not a pop band that needs “easy listening” songs. The said song is very representative of what “A Matter Of Life And Death” is and it will give people a good idea of what’s to follow.
Do you have any bonus songs ready for the singles?
Yes. We have covered songs which we really like. “Hocus Pocus” (Focus), “Tush” (ZZ Top), “Space Truckin’” (Deep Purple), “Angel Of Death” (Thin Lizzy). It’s a small tribute from Iron Maiden to our favorite bands. These songs will be used b-sides on the possible CD singles from the album.
Nicko McBrain and Janick Gers interview
Firstly, I’d like to hear some words from you, Nicko, on “A Matter Of Life And Death”. You don’t give interviews too often and I would be really interested to hear your views, taking into account that you don’t take part in the writing of the songs.
Nicko: Yes, officially I don’t take part, in the sense that I don’t compose music or write lyrics. In the band, though, when somebody comes in with the melodies and we begin to structure a song we all take part equally. Personally, I got into the process of writing “A Matter Of Life And Death” relatively late, that is when the basic parts for the ten songs were already ready but during the process, ideas that were mine got used. As far as the album is concerned, I consider “A Matter Of Life And Death” a masterpiece and the best thing Iron Maiden has ever done!!
Ever???
Nicko: Yes, it’s our best album and if it was to be rivaled by any, those would be “The Number Of The Beast” and “Piece Of Mind”. That doesn’t mean I don’t cherish the rest of our output as a band, not at all, but “A Matter Of Life And Death” is a landmark for the band.
What do you, Janick, have to say on this?
Janick: You always feel great when you’ve created a new album. However, it’s different with “A Matter Of Life And Death”. Personally, I see it as a progressive album, in every sense of the word. That is because it features many elements of progressive music but also because it literally features musical progression for us. These are things that you will realize on the first listen and gradually the listener will discover new things, which were never there before. Basically, with our old albums you had a complete view of them after a while and there were no surprises after that. With this one, no matter how much you listen to it, you will keep discovering things that you hadn’t heard before. That’s what’s magic about “A Matter Of Life And Death” in my opinion.
I understand there’s some enthusiasm, it’s a new album, there is a will for renewal, but how could you persuade your fans that this is your best album?
Nicko: Let me explain and I hope that everybody who reads this interview will understand it. Firstly, I will refer to the level of cooperation with Kevin Shirley. Kevin is, at the moment, the seventh member of this band, he’s not just the producer with whom we’ve been working in our last few albums. He adds to our style a new sense of liveliness and ideas that, possibly, we couldn’t think of. Even concerning our own ideas, he always has something to add so that we avoid things that we may have tried before. But his main input is the freshness that he accomplished to bring out in a studio album and capture it wholly on CD. All the songs were performed live in the studio and what happened was he let us express ourselves freely, to feel, in the room that we were performing, the feeling of being onstage. He made us go back many years and feel once again like a band that plays to enjoy itself. You can take my word for it, that we had lost that the last 10-15 years and, honestly, on “A Matter Of Life And Death” we rediscovered ourselves!
If someone listens carefully to the album, he’ll notice some differences in the sound between some of the songs.
Janick: Correct. That is true and it is that way because each song must have its own aura and style, must have its own sound, which happens for the first time on an Iron Maiden album. The only exception is “These Colours Don’t Run” and “Brighter Than A Thousand Suns”, which are on the same wavelength, heavy with many progressive elements. If you move on to the next one, “The Pilgrim”, you travel back to “Piece Of Mind”! All that is Kevin’s doing.
Surely his contribution is important. But if the band wasn’t in a good state composition-wise or was not in form perormance-wise, what would be the result?
Janick: Whatever production you have, no matter how much the producer feels as a member of the band and even if the band accepts him as an equal member, nothing can go well if, for example, I cannot play the guitar or Bruce cannot sing. Another reason we firmly believe and proclaim that “A Matter Of Life And Death” is a top Iron Maiden album is the performance of each one of us. From the moment we felt the freedom of expression that Nicko described earlier to you, our hands were set free, we didn’t stress ourselves if a solo should sound one way or the other. We didn’t spent hours discussing if the drum rhythm should be faster or slower. Through that, we all delivered to the maximum of our abilities, without that meaning necessarily the most technical of our abilities. Simplicity of expression, no matter how contradictory that might strike you because there are difficult songs in there, prevailed on all levels of our effort. These difficult passages came out that way because they are spontaneous, otherwise I don’t think that we would have pulled them off and we would have found ourselves amidst a musical labyrinth.
Nicko, the drums indeed sound different.
Nicko: It’s because the parts have been put down in real time, live and the album’s style is quite different this time around, that the style of my playing and the sound is different. The songs’ rhythms differ, as well as the orchestrations; the drums couldn’t stay the same, of course. As for their sound, they’re more 70’s I’d say, a bit rougher than usually.
The album’s title doesn’t come from a specific song, like it has been for most of your previous albums. How did that come about?
Janick: Initially we had many titles from which we had to choose. We really thought about “The Legacy”, but searching, we saw that other known bands had issued albums with similar names, so it was rejected. “A Matter Of Life And Death” was Steve’s or Bruce’s idea, I don’t remember exactly but because many of our songs have to do with war lyric wise, we finally decided to give it this title, which sounds dramatic…
Don’t you think that an album which’s most songs last more than 7-8 minutes might possibly tire the listener? Or even that it might be difficult to get it played on the radio on in rock clubs?
Janick: Ha, ha… for us it is a matter of information, because we see our music as an image. The more you look into it, the more you discover elements you don’t see on first sight. We weren’t that interested in getting played in clubs or on the radio, because we know we will! We’ve earned that right and we know that rock stations will play the new Iron Maiden album. But is that our goal? No. We wanted to complete our music and we let no obstacles get in the way. If “A Matter Of Life And Death” lasts about 75 minutes and features ten songs, this is because that’s the way it should be, because that way we felt that we satisfied our inner demand for creation. No one forced “The Pilgrim” to last 5 minutes and “The Legacy” to last 9 minutes upon us. “A Matter Of Life And Death” is a picture you need to examine really carefully or a big book you need time to read and understand.
And what about performing it live onstage?
Nicko: Either way we’ve already performed it live many times, recording it and that is the reason it took us so long to issue a new studio album. So what difference does it make for us to play it live again on the next tour? Surely, there are parts which we worked with in the studio after the live recordings, like some vocal parts, some synth guitars, some keyboards and some peculiar synth sounds that we added, some more complicated mixes of acoustic and electric guitar but lets not get into technicalities. I could explain in detail the way the entry vocals on “Brighter Than A Thousand Suns” are made to sound, in the first and second choruses for example, but we’d get tangled up in details which do not concern the listener that much. Usually, the listener is interested in liking what he will hear on the album and liking what he will hear in concert the same or even more. For better or worse, some technical elements that can be heard in the studio recording can’t be reproduced live or there’s no need for them to be. However, these do not alter the songs’ essence.
However, you have a more artistic approach to your music. Won’t the average listener who listens to Maiden for some direct metal be tired of it?
Janick: Song by song, they have been played in the studio so many times, that I tell you with full awareness, no matter how complicated, how progressive our songs are, there is absolutely no problem of performing them on stage and boring people. As far as their long duration tiring them, I guarantee that the performances will be so energetic that there’s no way anybody is going to get tired. I think everybody knows what craziness we showcase onstage… ha, ha!
Janick, theoretically speaking, you are the newest member of the band and a lot of people, as I imagine you might know, claims that your solos onstage are inferior or “fake”.
Nicko: Ha, ha… Yes, and normally I play bass guitar, but I’ve been fooling everybody all these years! My God! What are these people saying…
Janick: Yes, I know. I’d have to answer to that I think. It’s very justified of you to ask that question, but what would a band like Iron Maiden want me for on stage, if they don’t want me to play guitar?? Ha, ha, ha…
Nicko: Ha, ha! We already have Eddie as a mascot!!! But now that you mention it, you’re uglier than him!!! I’ll suggest it to Steve, ha, ha…
Translated and typed by gor
1 Comment
Amazing interviews. Thank you everyone who made this read possible on Maidenfans ! This new album is becoming my favroite ever... I can't believe it myself.