Ex-IRON MAIDEN Singer BLAZE BAYLEY Says He's 'Completely Independent'

United Rock Nations recently conducted an interview with British heavy metal vocalist Blaze Bayley (IRON MAIDEN, WOLFSBANE) and guitarist Chris Appleton of Blaze's solo band. You can watch the chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the success of Blaze's 2016 "Infinite Entanglement" album:

Blaze: "I really didn't expect 'Infinite Entanglement' to have any success. I hoped it would. I was really, really hoping that people would take the idea and be a part of it and start understanding. I've done some science fiction-themed songs and science fiction-themed concept albums once before with 'Tenth Dimension', but 'Infinite Entanglement' seemed to be much further out there, but all of my fans really liked it. I'm completely independent. I don't send my music to journalists or magazines before the fans, so my fans hear my album before any journalist. That's very important to me, personally. And they liked it. That was really encouraging and it was a huge relief. and when we did the tour, they sang the new songs and started to feel like the new songs are old friends in the set. Things started to go really, really well."

On whether he would have done the second part of the trilogy ("Endure And Survive") had the first not been received well:

Blaze: "Absolutely, yeah. My management that I have support completely my artistic vision. So does Chris. Once we knew that 'Infinite Entanglement' wasn't one album, when we understood that it had to be three, I said to Chris, 'This is not one album. It's three. It's a trilogy. It has a beginning and it has an end. This is a big idea.' Then everybody went, 'Oh, God!' But everybody stayed with me, believed in it, they didn't question the idea, they did their absolute best and it's just been fantastic."

On his passion for science fiction:

Blaze: "I used to watch science fiction programs with my mother when I was a boy. 'Doctor Who' and 'Moonbase Alpha' and the original 'Star Trek' series, so we watched these things together and fiction really inspired me and it's stayed with me. Reading books by Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick, those are things that have inspired me. Many science fiction movies have inspired me as well. It is very similar to heavy metal in one way. There's a lot of bad, ordinary science fiction movies, but when a great science fiction movie comes [out], it is incredible and life-changing, so I like science fiction. I like the feeling of the future is already there and we can take a picture of it in some way. That's why I really love it and also, science fact that the future is based on facts. Things that we touch on quantum physics and Einstein's 'Theory Of Relativity,' things are based on all of this stuff. It's put together in unusual ways and do amazing things."

On the first metal album he listened to as a kid:

Blaze: "It wasn't really metal, it was QUEEN's 'A Day At The Races'. It had a huge influence on me because of the melody and the guitar work of Brian May; so many of his guitar solos are flowing and memorable, melodic solos. I think from there and SWEET, the rock band from the '70s, those are the first kind of hints of heavy rock and metal that I started listening to. Of course, then as I got into metal, it became IRON MAIDEN, BLACK SABBATH. I was very lucky in a way that as a boy, THE SEX PISTOLS were in the charts and the first BLACK SABBATH album, I remember going to my friend's house, we both liked THE SEX PISTOLS and the energy, the anger of THE SEX PISTOLS, then I heard the first SABBATH album and I was like, 'This is scary.' The sound of that album is scary. Emotionally, it makes me feel uncomfortable. Many years later, I came back to that. I sought that discomfort. I sought that out, that difference and I think that's part of the attraction of metal when it's done really well, it asks you a question and it is dark and passionate and melancholic, and it will keep you coming back to that intense feeling that you remember when you first found out about it."

Bayley's ninth solo album, "Endure And Survive" was released on March 3 via Blaze Bayley Recording.