Iron Maiden

Mötley Crüe are gone. Pink Floyd ain’t coming back. David Lee Roth no longer surfs above the crowd or rides an enormous inflatable microphone between his legs. And while Slipknot still have plenty of fire – both literal and metaphorical – there’s nobody who puts on a show like Iron Maiden. The UK rockers’ stage presence is so damn massive it requires its own jumbo jet to cart it around.

Iron Maiden’s The Book Of Souls World Tour, in support of the band’s 16th album, sees the UK rockers playing in 36 countries across six continents. Their customised Boeing 747-400, named Ed Force One and piloted by frontman Bruce Dickinson, touches down in Australia this May.

“We’ve been playing in Australia since the early ’80s and we’ve had loads of really good memories and good tours there,” says bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. “It’s a country we all enjoy playing in and visiting anyway, so it’s all good really!”

Across Iron Maiden’s long career, they’ve crossed paths with many an Australian band, but only one of them remains a particular inspiration. “Obviously AC/DC,” Harris says. “I wouldn’t say there’s an influence, but they’ve been around. I originally saw them at The Marquee [in London] – although they’re not originally from Australia, they’re from Scotland, but Aussies might get a bit miffed about that [laughs]. But there are some great bands [from Australia]. We’ve had some great bands support us over there. But because it’s so far, and since the scene in the UK has been so strong, I can’t really say I’ve been influenced by any Aussie bands. That’s not to say there aren’t some good ones, because there is.”

Harris makes a good point about AC/DC’s heritage, and likewise, Australians tend to claim Iron Maiden producer Kevin ‘Caveman’ Shirley as one of our own, since he lived here between 1987 and the mid-’90s, producing bands like The Screaming Jets, Baby Animals, Cold Chisel, Hoodoo Gurus and Silverchair. “Yeah!” says Harris. “He’s originally South African but in fact I think he’s thinking of relocating back to Australia.”

Shirley has collaborated with Iron Maiden since 2000’s Brave New World, and while he’s one of those producers who don’t put an identifiable sonic stamp on the acts they work with, there’s a certain lack of bullshit about every project he takes on. “He’s very direct,” Harris confirms of his frequent producing partner. “He just gets on and does the job and that’s what we want. No nonsense, really. We get on really well with him and work really well with him.”

While Shirley’s contributions have been important to Iron Maiden, it’s their songwriter Harris who has shaped the evolution of metal itself. And although some songwriters will just bring a skeleton of an idea to their bandmates for completion, Harris can be quite particular about exactly what he presents to the other guys.

“If you see a credit with just my name on it, that means I write absolutely everything,” he says. “Rhythm guitar parts, guitar melodies, vocal melodies – absolutely everything, really. The only thing I don’t write is the guitar solos, but even then I might suggest one or two things.”

It must have been an exciting moment for Harris as a songwriter and an arranger when Iron Maiden made their 1999 transition into a three-guitar band, with Dave Murray and Adrian Smith playing alongside Janick Gers (who replaced Smith in 1990 but was kept on when he returned).

“Yeah,” Harris confirms. “There were things we’d done before where we did layer up the guitars so it meant we could do full melodies, harmonies and rhythms like we’d recorded. And it does help when you’re writing stuff, because you can bear that in mind as well. I think the early stuff that we played with two guitars, you don’t really miss the other bits too much, but when you add them in, it does make the band sound bigger and better.”

One of Iron Maiden’s most enduring classics is ‘The Trooper’, a song about the Charge of the Light Brigade – a famous battle in the Crimean War. (An aside: I recently found several of my ancestors fought in this battle, and one of them wrote about his exploits. His horse was torn apart underneath him by a shell, then it fell on him, trapping him as easy prey. A Russian officer took a swing at him with his sword, but my ancestor stabbed the attacker, grabbed the reins of the dead guy’s horse, pulled himself out from under his own horse and rode his new steed back to safety. He was permitted to keep the horse and later sold it to Prince Alfred. Real Indiana Jones shit.) Harris’ own lyrical inspirations are sometimes abstract and intuitive, but often he’ll find himself hitting the books to fully research a topic before bringing it to life.

“Something like the Light Brigade I knew about anyway just from school, and with something like that you just try to put yourself in the position as if you were there. It depends on the song, though. Sometimes I do research, and I did that with a couple of songs here and there, like ‘Isle Of Avalon’ from The Final Frontier. I just want to be absolutely correct before I say something!”

Alongside Iron Maiden, Harris’ other songwriting outlet is British Lion; this side project released a more rock-oriented debut in 2012. And there are plans for more British Lion activity in the future.

“Yeah, definitely,” says Harris. “I really enjoyed playing smaller places, and they’re a really good bunch of guys. There will be more albums and more touring. I just love playing live anyway, so to be able to play big places and small places is fantastic. It’s great to be able to do both. Iron Maiden grew fairly gradually. We started playing clubs and then we played theatre-type places, and then when we went to Europe back in the day we started playing bigger and bigger places. We just sort of lapped it up and took to it like ducks to water, to be honest. It was just a natural progression. But these days, both bands give me the chance to do both.”

Some musicians feel more comfortable on the stage than anywhere else, as if it’s their natural habitat. Does Harris see himself as one of them?

“I dunno, really – I’ve never been asked that question, actually! I do feel very comfortable onstage, though, once I’m comfortable that we’ve rehearsed enough. But I wouldn’t say I’m most comfortable there. I probably feel most comfortable on the football pitch, to be honest! Because I’ve been doing that longer, since I was nine. Some people need all kinds of things like alcohol and what have you to come out of their shell, but I think if you’ve got a guitar in your hands and you’re confident, you can be a very different persona offstage to on. I’m still me, but yeah, it’s just a different way to express yourself in another way.”