Producer KEVIN SHIRLEY: 'IRON MAIDEN Are The Best Band In The World To Work For'

Producer Kevin Shirley recently finished mixing the new IRON MAIDEN album, "The Final Frontier", at his studio for a late summer release. The CD was recorded at Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas with Shirley at the helm.

Shirley previously worked on the last three MAIDEN albums — 2000's "Brave New World", 2003's "Dance of Death" and 2006's "A Matter of Life and Death".

Writing in the "Caveman's Diary" section of his Caveman Productions web site, Shirley states about the final stages of the recording process for the new IRON MAIDEN CD, "Bruce Dickinson [vocals] flew in for a few days and sang all his parts before flying off to the four corners of the globe and Steve Harris [bass] stayed behind to finish the record with me. He's pretty hands-on like that. Adrian Smith [guitar] dropped in from time to time to hear stuff, and like in any band, not everyone has the same end result in mind, but we get there.

"That's the kind of watered-down stuff I can tell you.

"I will tell you that IRON MAIDEN are the best band in the world to work for — it's a family and they are the most grounded guys I have ever met in this business. Nary a Ferrari in sight."

The next IRON MAIDEN album will be the band's fifteenth studio record, and they face a challenge to follow up "A Matter of Life and Death", which was received well critically and saw the group play the whole album on tour.

Speaking at last year's premiere of the band's documentary film "Iron Maiden: Flight 666", guitarist Adrian Smith stated, "There's always a bit of pressure to follow up the last album. In a way, it's good, because it motivates you.

"We never get complacent; we always try our best for our own sake as much as anything else. As far as pressure for another album, we just do what we do — we've been doing it long enough now; we know what we're doing. [laughs]"

IRON MAIDEN will kick off a North American tour with very special guests DREAM THEATER in Dallas, Texas, on June 9 and finish in Washington D.C. on July 20, making it MAIDEN's most extensive North American tour in many years.

Following these shows in USA and Canada, "The Final Frontier World Tour" will travel back to Europe for a few selected major festival and stadium shows with the band planning to continue to many other countries in 2011.

IRON MAIDEN will guest on the nationally syndicated radio show "Rockline" with host Bob Coburn on Monday, June 7 at 8:30 p.m. PT / 11:30 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to speak with IRON MAIDEN by calling 1-800-344-ROCK (7625).

For more information, visit RocklineRadio.com.