Bruce and Adrian Smith - "wotch my fingers....they never leave me 'and!"
Hello, All!
Source: JJJ radio in Australia - Costa Zoulio
Date: 14/3/00
Transcribed by: 'Aussie Dave'
C: Welcome Bruce
B: Hello mate
C: How are ya?
B: Good, shaken not stirred! (laughs)
C: Is it a working holiday? I guess if you're talking to me it must be a
working holiday.
B: (laughs) Well actually, I'm only in Sydney for 36 hours, I got in at 8.00
yesterday morning from America and I leave tonight at 10.00.
C: That's not exactly a holiday is it
B: No. I've gotta go to Tokyo for three days to talk about the record and then
off to Europe for six days to do the same thing and then back to America and
then to South America and then back to America. It's a busy three weeks, but
its worth it, it's a great record.
C: So far, there's been no release date, no name for the album, nothing on the
tour so far (Australia). Can you fill some of those gaps up for us now?
B: Yeah, the release date as I understand it is gonna be the end of May. The
single coming out at the beginning of May is gonna be called the Wicker Man,
and it is without doubt the best Iron Maiden single there's been since Run To
The Hills.
C: I've been very lucky to have been able to have a listen to that one and it's
a fantastic song!
B: Yeah, its really catchy and it's really heavy, and it's really up-tempo and
you know it's great. It's really good news. So we just did a video for that in
the States. The album will be coming out at the end of May about a month after
the single and the only kind of slight embarrassment here is that I can't tell
you the title for the simple reason that we don't actually know yet. We thought
we did about three weeks ago, we were gonna call the album The Wicker Man, same
as the single. However we had second thoughts and well you know what we had a
title earlier we liked. So at the moment we are torn between a couple of
different titles and ditto the artwork as well. We've got about six artists,
photographers, sculpters working on various incarnations of different covers.
We do actually have plenty of time, the rest of it is all coming together. The
credits and all the rest of it, that's all ready to go. The actual cover image,
we're still waiting on some of these people to finish their stuff to make a
final decision. That may actually influence the title of the record, so I'm
afraid I can't give you with any certainty what the actual title - "The album
with no name!" (laughs) Perhaps if we just call it "clint" or something!
(laughs)
C: And Eddie will be involved?
B: Oh! Eddie's involved big time! He's involved in the video. In actual fact,
for the video, the director had a friend of his, basically this guy's like a
giant, he's actually taller than the telephone box, has "guiness book of
records" the biggest feet in the world, and he's you know, huge this guy. And
we had a guy called "screaming mad George" a guy that does Prosthetics
for
movies and really hideous creations out of latex. He did a life cast from this
guys body and did a whole Prosthetic Eddie make-up for the guy.
C: Fantastic!
B: So we've got complete like latex Eddie monster human being and he drags some
poor hapless driver out of his car and lots of semi-naked women with lots of
you know, dance around a may-pole and sacrifice the guy, and the Wicker Man
which is about a thirty foot straw effigy that we burned to the ground.
(Bruce talks about the recording process)
B: Coming back in wasn't a big deal. I mean to be honest with you, it wasn't
like one of those secnario's when you start going in there laying down rules
and regulations about whats gonna happen here and whats gonna happen there. All
of a sudden it's not a band anymore, it becomes an arguing shop. But having
said all that we did have a fair amount about issues that we all wanted to fix
up. You know like who was gonna produce the record. Both Steve and myself
wanted a producer on the record and we're very lucky that Kevin Shirley
came
along and was absolutely the right decision he's done a great job on the
record. In a way he's a Martin Birch kind of figure. It's ironic that we've
ended up with a South African guy who lives in America and has the same effects
as like a Martin. A Catalyst on everybody. The other great thing he did was
that he made everybody record this album live. And this is actually the first
time, believe it or not that Maiden has ever been in a studio and actually
everything has been plugged in at the same time and has actually been recorded
properly.
C: That would have given you a lot of excitement and a lot of adrenalin
happening as
well.
B: Yeah, effectively every bit of racket we made was recorded, and if it was
good we kept it obviously and it's on the record. So you preserve that energy.
You can't fake it or do it afterwards and have anything like the same level of
energy as when you're actually doing in the room. And that's the truth you
know. I was astounded, we did four or five takes of each song before we
reckoned we had the ones we needed and I was doing the lead vocals as well
(same time). When I came back 3 or 4 weeks later, I was "I guess it's time for
my singing bit" and they just said no you're done! I went "whaddya mean?"
and
they went "you've done it all we got all the bits we needed". I was like
SHIT!
Wow!
C: Fantastic!
B: It's like painless, all you do is just sing!
C: Were you in the studio with the boys or were you actually in the control
room?
B: No, everybody was in the studio. So we had this studio in Paris that we were
using. The reason Kevin picked it was because it was an old cinema and so
there
was huge amount of room for the drums and there were little nooks and cranny's
where we could stick the bass guitar and stuff. Effectively there were three or
four separate area's which could all be encased in glass, we could all have eye
contact, but the sound would have seperation.
C: The best of both worlds basically!
B: Yeah, we were all sat there looking at each other playing, having everything
we did recorded and Kevin also has this fantastic monitor system that he brings
with him, where by each member of the band gets their own little 8-track mixing
desk, which gives them the headphone mix.
C: Okay, rather than "can you turn this up, can you turn that up", it's
all at
your own finger tips.
B: You get exactly what you need to hear, so everybody's in like recording
nirvana. It's great.
C: And there weren't any problems, now you got the three guitarists, the boys
weren't all vying for lead solo's?
B: I don't think if you put them all in a room together there's half an ego.
You know, we call em the country club actually. They disappear off in a little
huddle and they've sorted it all out.
C: I've actually heard four tracks off the record, I had this feeling that
because of the three guitarist it might sound a bit cluttered. But it doesn't
at all, everyone's got their place - it sounds great!
B: Absolutely. There's several tracks where one guitarist plays a solo and
that's the only solo on that track. Not everybody felt the urge, they've all
gotta have equal numbers of solo's and the rest of it. It was just like do what
is appropriate.
(Bruce talks about touring)
B: We did the Ed-Hunter, which was a short but very successful last summer in
the States and Europe. Basically to remind people what they were dealing with
and what it was like when Iron Maiden came out firing on all cylinders. Well,
it worked, and there's huge expectations about the record.
C: You didn't go to the UK. Was that on purpose?
B: Yeah, it was yeah. We were pretty hacked off with the UK press, because
they're pretty fickle and we felt that where we were with Maiden, potentially
in a really strong place and we didn't see any point in allowing the national
press and tabloids or whatever in England to take a pop at us. And the metal
scene in England was a bit in the dumps, so we were "lets just stay away".
Do
it from outside England and then go back in from a real position of strength.
Like we have nothing to prove and that has worked out brilliantly. We brought
some journalists over to Paris where we played a 17,000 seater which was
completely sold out months before the event. And everybody saw it and went
"JESUS!" "Amazing!" Went back and wrote reviews about it and
the people went
"but we can't see it!". So this year we announced a show at Earls Court,
which
has now sold out I believe which is 20,000.
C: Well I think all is well for you guys and metal in general I think. Metal in
the UK hasn't really been up there, it's always been there in Europe and it's
even crossing into the rock stations in the US.
B: US Radio is unbelievably heavy now. They're playing like Primus and stuff
like that in the day time.
C: It's a shame you can't stick around longer and have a listen to our radio
station, certainly on the 3 Hours of Power we give it heaps. Now, a tour! We
get ripped off a little bit here in Australia because sometimes World Tours
don't include us!
B: We're talking to a promoter at the moment and I believe the dates are
scheduled at the back end of August just before the Olympics. I think there's 7
shows I believe that the guy was talking about. And it is at the moment purely
a question of, we've got a guy doing the number crunching, how much it's gonna
cost, but as far as the band is concerned we're all desperate to go to
Australia, we love it here and last time we were here was 1992 which is far too
long.
C: And it must be tough I guess, bringing the full stage show down here as
well.
B: Yeah that's what we gotta figure out. What we can do, what we can't do and
how to make it happen.
C: I think most of the Australian Iron Maiden fans wouldn't give a toss, as
long as it's loud , has a good sound and if there's four lights up well you
know::(laughs)
B: There'll be more than four lights up (laughs) I don't think you need to
worry about that.
C: Well that'd be enough I think there's a lot of anticipation around and
everyone would be happy to see, I think we're champing at the bit, the
anticipation and ground swell of support and interest when you and Adrian were
back in the goup, it was quite astounding you know. From me hearing it from the
punters out there so like I said I don't think you're gonna have too many
problems getting bums on seats.
B: Well, I don't think so either.
C: Well Bruce it's been great to talk to you mate, I really hope we get a
chance to play some of your music on the radio at some stage. I'm not allowed
to play what I've got until the record actually comes out. So we might have
another chat hopefully at least with one of the guys when the record does come
out and play a few tracks.
B: Absolutely! We're always happy to phone in and talk about the record,
particularly when we can play the bloomin' thing! (laughs)
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