IRON MAIDEN Guitarist Talks New Album

March 16, 2009

U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine recently conducted an interview with guitarist Adrian Smith of British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Metal Hammer: Talking to everybody else, the attention seems to be now turning to a new album…

Adrian Smith: "Yeah, we were talking about it briefly the other day and I've been thinking about it every day since because there are so many ways we can go with it. It'd be nice if we had the songs now and we could come off tour and go straight into the studio match-fit, as it were. Usually we have a long time off, and the way we play in the studio is as live, so it's always a bit tense at first because we haven't played for six months. I'd ideally like to go in [soon]. Again, it's a day-to-day thing, you go in, take it as you find it, try and do the best job you can.”

Metal Hammer: We've noticed one thing that was different from 12 months ago, when we interviewed Steve [Harris, bass], he said, "We've always said, 'We're only going to do 15 albums, we're coming up to it, there's going to be an ending point.'" Is everyone seeing things a little differently now?

Adrian: "Look, we write music, we're musicians, we'll carry on. The great thing is that there's clearly a huge audience out there waiting to hear what we're going to do right now; and in the real world, that's not a very common situation, so you have to appreciate it. It's not always easy to make an album; you've got six guys with their own ideas and focusing it into one outcome is quite difficult."

Metal Hammer: Is it the case that you use up every idea for an album each time, and that there's never anything left over from that for next time?

Adrian: "I know a lot of bands who demo stuff from 30 songs or something and then break up when they're trying to pick 10 because you get the ego and the each guy wants to get their ideas in, so we just try to write 10 or 12 songs, and get everybody's best ideas in there. You soon know when you start playing it whether it's going to fly or not. You just have to do the best you can. It's difficult for everybody to be happy with the album: there's always a compromise, but as long as you can get through it and come out the other side and still be a band that's what it's all about. Sometimes creative conflict is good in songwriting, it brings out the best in everyone."

Read more from www.metalhammer.co.uk.

Find more on
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).