IRON MAIDEN's STEVE HARRIS: 'I Don't Court Mainstream Media'

In a new interview with Andrew McKaysmith of Australia's Scars And Guitars podcast, IRON MAIDEN bassist Steve Harris spoke about his working relationship with MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson, particularly as it relates to the two of them being the most prominent public figures within the band. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, I've always encouraged whatever band I've been in or whatever I've done in the past, even before that, it's always really the frontman that you wanna push as being the key focal figure, really. I mean, it was only because, say, Paul [Di'Anno, former IRON MAIDEN singer] wasn't really that active on stage — he had a great stage presence, but he wasn't really very active on stage. So, you kind of, I would not say compensate, but you just fill in for whatever. When Bruce came along, he was a full-on frontman. And also Bruce does a lot of the interviews, and he's out there speaking to mainstream media. I'm not so good with them… He's a bit different with mainstream media — he's good at doing the mainstream media — so we get him focused on that. And also with him being a pilot and all these other things, it gives him more of a profile when [it comes to dealing with the media] than the rest of us. I'm totally happy with that because I don't really see the limelight anyway… I don't court mainstream media. I've been asked to do loads of things on mainstream media, and unless it's got a purpose, like I've been asked to do lots of football programs, for example, and I don't really do them unless there's a tour coming up or an album coming up and it's something that's important for us to promote or whatever. Then maybe I'll do it, but just to go and do stuff just for the sake of it, celeb-type stuff, I'm not into that. I've never been into that side. That's not me. But that doesn't mean to say that someone else can't do it, and Bruce is good at that stuff. And so it all works."

IRON MAIDEN kicked off the 2024 Australian leg of "The Future Past" tour on September 1 at the RAC Arena in Perth.

"The Future Past" tour, which includes songs from both IRON MAIDEN's most recent studio album "Senjutsu" as well as 1986’s seminal album "Somewhere In Time", alongside other fan favorites, played to over 750,000 fans at more than 30 sold-out shows across Europe in the summer of 2023. The band also performed in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver alongside their highly praised appearance at California's Power Trip festival last October which had Consequence stating: "IRON MAIDEN set the bar high at Power Trip" and The Desert Sun saying "IRON MAIDEN didn't disappoint and delivered a hard-hitting performance to open the festival on a high note." Featuring one of the most spectacular stage productions of the band's career, it has received rave reviews in every city and country that IRON MAIDEN visited.

In a separate interview with Australia's "Everblack" podcast, Harris was asked if there is any new music from IRON MAIDEN on the way. The bassist responded: "No, not at the moment. There's nothing in the works at the moment. But that's not to say there won't be.

"Bruce has only just done his solo tour. So he spent quite a long time just doing that. So, I don't know. Yeah. I mean, maybe we'll find time to cram [a new album] in somewhere. You never know."

MAIDEN's latest album, "Senjutsu", was released in September 2021 via BMG. The band's first LP in six years was recorded in 2019 in Paris with longstanding producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Harris. It features three tracks whose running time exceeds 10 minutes each.

For "Senjutsu" — loosely translated as "tactics and strategy" — the band once again enlisted the services of Mark Wilkinson to create the spectacular Samurai-themed cover artwork, based on an idea by Harris.

In the U.S., "Senjutsu" bowed at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, charting higher than even the band's early classics like "Powerslave" and "The Number Of The Beast". Nearly 90 percent of the LP's 64,000 equivalent album units earned came from pure album sales. The critically acclaimed double album debuted one place higher than 2015's "The Book Of Souls" and 2010's "The Final Frontier", which both peaked at No. 4.

"Senjutsu" was MAIDEN's 13th album to top in the Top 40 in the U.S.

According to Billboard, "Senjutsu" logged the second-largest week of 2021 for a hard rock album in both equivalent album units earned and in traditional album sales.

"Senjutsu" topped the charts in several European countries upon its release, including in Belgium, Finland, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.