Bruce Dickinson
interviewsofrecordingartists.com Ask Bruce Dickinson, lead vocalist and the most prominent member of the legendary British metal band Iron Maiden, why the group has maintained a
large and highly supportive international fan base for over twenty years and you will receive a simple response.
"Loyalty"."We've always been really uncompromising about that attitude," Dickinson says during a recent interview. "If you're with Maiden, then you're with Maiden.You stick with it. It's very much like almost supporting a sports team. You stay loyal to your team and as long as your team doesn't let you down and they keep trying, you stick with them. No matter or not if they win or lose."And for over twenty years, no matter what the lineup of talented musicians who have surrounded Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris (bass), the group has continued to record albums and stage concert tours, that have generated millions of record sales and sold millions of concert tickets.
The most recent adventures for Iron Maiden are some of the most interesting and yet challenging the group has ever undertaken.
First Iron Maiden has released (release date for the USA March 26th, 2002) their latest album titled, "Live In Rio". A live album and an accompanying
DVD of a one night only, Brazilian show.Then, via the company McFarlane Toys and McFarlane toys executive Todd McFarlane, the group has unveiled a series of action figures based on Eddie, the animated character who is a "member" of Maiden and has been depicted numerous times on the group's album cover artwork and on-stage as well.Eddie has become very popular with long-time Maiden fans.
In the following interview, Bruce Dickinson discusses the creation of the action toy figure based upon the concept of Eddie, as well as the marketing of the toys along with the new Maiden recordings. Dickinson also looks back on the long history Iron Maiden and offers his stories as to why the group remains a major force in the international metal music genre.
(Q)- Why has Iron Maiden remained so popular internationally for over twenty years now?
Bruce Dickinson- I think the main reason is that whenever you get something that is genuinely unique, that does stir people on the street level, you can't erase it, you can't get rid of it. Because the sum of it has been created if you like, by the audience in fact. And they are the people who created Iron Maiden being a Big Band. And they are the people, the audience, who make it that way. Bands which have been created by media trickery or by the purchasing power of a large major corporation with snappy marketing, tend to have a much shorter shelf life then a band like Iron Maiden. Because while Maiden has been marketed in a very smart way and we've made the most of every opportunity which came our way and was passed down to us, the fundamentals are that the popularity of the band was created on the street. And, to this day, that is still the case.
(Q)- For the record, who actually founded Iron Maiden?
Bruce Dickinson- Steve Harris. He was actually the engine driver of the band for the first two or three records.
(Q)- Many long time Maiden fans have this impression that Harris and you have a Keith Richards verses Mick Jagger relationship.
Bruce Dickinson-(Laughs.) There's always in most bands, these two people. With Maiden, actually everybody makes a contribution. While, as the front man, the singer, I obviously make a very visible contribution and I tend to be the guy who gets dragged out around the world for the media, because Steve hates doing it.(Laughs)
(Q)-Steve is not the individual you refer to in your own solo hit single "Tattooed Millionaire" now is he?
Bruce Dickinson- He does have tattoos and he is a millionaire, but I did not write that song about him in any way shape or form. Nobody is like that in the band. Because I wouldn't be with them time if they were.
(Q)- What are your impressions regarding the entire body of work that is Iron Maiden's record catalog?
Bruce Dickinson- The entire body of work I think is a great achievement with the same (musical) identity over the years. It really stands up and the more you look at it in hindsight, the more the music continues to stand up. I think the band is, certainly with respect to the last thirty years, basically timeless. I don't think that you can fit Iron Maiden into one particular era of say the 70's, 80's, or the 90's. I think the music works no matter which period of time you put it in.
(Q)- Both the Iron Maiden recordings during the periods of time when the group recorded with and without you?
Bruce Dickinson- Well, I don't want to comment on anything that I didn't play on.
(Q)- Taking the band's mascot "Eddie" public as an action toy with a media promotions surrounding the character is a difficult move. Eddie is Iron Maiden's "Harry potter" isn't he?
Bruce Dickinson- And that he is.
(Q)- Why the toy depicting Eddie and the promotional campaign with Edie now?It is very difficult to do that and still maintain artistic integrity isn't it?
Bruce Dickinson- Yes it is now isn't it? He definitely is like our own
"Harry Potter". We guard Eddie very jealously.
(Q)- That could backfire and make Iron Maiden unintentionally look almost like the band in the movie "Spinal Tap" now couldn't it?
Bruce Dickinson- Yeah. Well like most things in life, it is all down to the details. Getting involved with Todd McFarlane, (The artist and individual heading up McFarlane Toys which has released the Eddie action figure toy.) has been great. Because he is an artist and he has his own creations that he cares very much and passionately about. So he gets what Eddie is about because after all, Eddie is our creation and we feel very passionate about him.
Todd understands that and he actually has taken a huge amount of time and trouble to provide the attention to detail that we (Iron Maiden) approve of and enjoy. I think the toy is great! Todd has been and is being extremely faithful to the original artwork and he does nothing without the band's approval.
(Q)-Eddie has always had a sarcastic side to him hasn't he?
Bruce Dickinson-Oh yeah, he's heavily ironic. Just like all of those Clint Eastwood movies. "Dirty Harry" and all of his westerns. You can't have a big antihero without having a sense of self mockery now can you? When you have an antihero in the movies, it is all made more palatable by some sense of irony there. Very often that sense of irony is important.
(Q)-In popularity, the band remains oriented towards working class people around the world. No matter what phase the band has been going through,
you've always kept the trainers (athletic shoes) or work boots on your feet.
Bruce Dickinson- Yes. (laughs)
(Q)-There also has always been street level, working class anthems within the mix of even the earliest Iron Maiden material, as well as the music from
later on. Yet, Maiden didn't have mass market appeal whenever the band first started out with "The Soundhouse Tapes" back in 1979. Correct?
Bruce Dickinson- Certainly not. Mass appeal is not what is important because by and large by the time the masses get to hear about the music, there already is a really big fan base of devoted people. Some of whom have been already following the band for three or four years. And those are the heart and soul of the people who get into the band. You know, during the tour for "Brave New World" in 2000, where I basically rejoined the band and we got out and did a few shows, we were playing a lot of newer material from albums from the previous past twelve years. And one night in Milwaukee (Wisconsin. USA.) we had this one guy come up to us in the hotel bar after we'd done the show. And he said, "I saw the show. You guys didn't play any songs that I know." So I said, "Oh. so what was the last Iron Maiden album you bought?" Then, he said, "Piece Of Mind" (1983). I said, "Ah. Well that was only eighteen years ago. What do you think we've been doing for the last eighteen years? Where have you been? And don't think you own the band just because you bought a multi-platinum selling record from eighteen years ago. There have been other people whom have been buying our albums all the way down the line and they know the band. It's kind of like you've been a fair weather friend of the band." He then left the bar.
(Q)- With the new Iron Maiden "Live In Rio" DVD and live album coming out, what was the experience of that one show like for you personally with all of the attention being focused on you?
Bruce Dickinson- The Rio show was one show. One show in front of 250,000 people which was broadcast live the same night to an audience of 100 million people in which we had once chance of recording a double "Live" disc and a DVD in one concert. It was a huge amount of pressure for me. We were flown in by helicopter into the concert waiting area by the side of the stage and we flew at night over the top of all of these people. And we then we went on-stage in front of an audience of 250,000 people at one in the morning. And, when we came off the stage over two hours later, I was absolutely drained. Now I've been on-stage before and I've been physically tired after a show, quite obviously, but this time, I was physically tiered and emotionally exhausted. It was every single once of my being and I couldn't give another single once of my strength. It was great for the band because I knew then that we as a band had just done one of the best concerts I had ever heard.
(Q)-How did you enjoy that experience?
Bruce Dickinson- I liked it by the time we'd got it done and were off of the stage.(he laughs) I was so nervous before the show. It is hard to say that you enjoyed something when you were so scared in the beginning. Basically you do not want to screw up. When you've got 250,000 people there in front of you and 100 million people listening and you've got only one shot at getting it right, then you're nervous.
(Q)- When you heard the tapes and were present in the recording studio for the remix what was that experience like?
Bruce Dickinson- We just mixed it, we didn't touch it.
(Q)-Untouched completely?
Bruce Dickinson- Completely untouched.
(Q)-There was talk years ago that some of the "Live" Iron Maiden recordings were later, after the recording of the live, in concert show, were
"touched up", in the recording studio.
Bruce Dickinson- The "Live After Death" (1985) album had some stuff fixed up on it. This new album is the way it was. Some people will say that we messed with it, but for this album we mixed it and that's as far as it goes. It is all of the original performances and one complete concert. And there is actually one copy of a bootleg of the TV broadcast that went out that night. So there is a copy of the show and if people ant to compare one to the other, then that's fine. They can find out for themselves. (laughs)
(Q)-What is Iron Maiden and Bruce Dickinson scheduled to do in 2002?
Bruce Dickinson- We're not doing anything until the last quarter of this year when we'll be getting back into the studio to record another new album. Then we'll have a new album out in the summer of 2003 and we'll have a big tour to go with it. I don't know what the music is going to be about, we haven't begun working on anything.
(Q)-What will you personally be doing for 2002?
Bruce Dickinson- I plan to go to sleep for a long time. (laughs) I mean, I have been working and so has the band, so we're taking a break.
(Q)-When Bruce Dickinson looks into his crystal ball and is asked to predict the future of metal (rock) music, what does he foresee?
Bruce Dickinson- I'm going to guess that people are going to start rediscovering and reinventing things going in a kind of backwards direction. Because I don't think that a lot of the stuff that is out at the moment is going to last longer then about a year and a half. I think the music is going to go back to quality and back to integrity and the inspiration is perhaps going to result in music
that is something new. But, it is going to be hard for bands to find outlets for their integrity.
(Q)-In your opinion, will the corporations which run the huge global pop music empires have a part in that movement back to integrity in music?
Bruce Dickinson- I don't know if the big corporations even want to be involved in any music with integrity. They don't understand it. They want to get value for their shareholders and they're not interested in how much they care about the music anymore.
End.
