Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley about singing with Geoff Tate and Tim Ripper Owens, filming his upcoming tour documentary, progress on new album and Sci-fi book and reflects on his audition with Iron Maiden

When asked about story behind the first album and how it leads into  the second part and third parts of the trilogy Albums.

“The first album is the story of the main character William Black and him going on a mission into Deep Space to visit Kepler Planet. He has got to wear a special suit which he is actually physically attached to his body like armour and what he finds out is on the first album, in fact this is not the suit, that he has a machine body and human consciousness has been downloaded into a machine body and he then has to decide for himself what is it to be human and can you be a machine and call yourself human? These are all of the questions. The second and third part of the album they take place closer to the Kepler planet, he is arriving and what happens there I can’t give too much away. A thousand years have passed one of the songs on the infinite Entanglement album is “I will live for a thousand years” and we are at the end of that 1000 years as we come into the second album.”

When asked if there will be a book based on the trilogy albums

“The book is going on alongside the album and all of the ideas for the songs, the lyrics for the songs, the characters that you see, the things that the narrator says all that comes from the book that I am writing, it’s a science fiction book and story and will make the journey complete. There are things in the book that aren’t on any of the albums. Hopefully to be finished at end of 2018.”

When asked about the filming of the upcoming behind the scenes tour documentary in Canada

“A lot of people cannot believe I move so fast, one day I am in Seattle and the next I am in Wales and people still think I’m in Seattle or still in Brazil. They don’t really understand how it works to be honest I don’t really understand (laughs). And I am hoping to give fans an insight into the total thing because you never see what you get when you travel, you just upload a few photos for Facebook. Sometimes it’s just the most boring thing and sometimes the most incredible things happen and you meet the most incredible people with amazing stories. I’m hoping that that will come over on the documentary.”

When asked about what he learned about Geoff Tate and Tim Ripper Owens that he did not know before, as he has rehearsing for the upcoming Trinity Tour?

“I knew Tim before and he is such a funny guy he is just hilarious, I love his sense of humour. With Geoff I started listening to Queensryche  with Operation Mindcrime and it was great to talk to him openly about some of those songs. I think one of those things that you never know and is a realty privilege is when you are close up and personal and you do a bit of rehearsing you actually get to hear the persons natural voice 100% percent no studio enhancement or tricks and you really hear that raw talent as it’s a little tingle down the spine hearing Geoff Tate singing.  And singing with him was amazing and he is such a gentle person as well.”

When asked why he never sang Iron Maiden’s ‘Run to the hills’ in his time with Iron Maiden

“I thought this is really Bruce Dickinson’s hallmark song so on the first tour I didn’t think it would be a good idea for me to do that song, nothing to do with the high vocal register, just because, people would have a direct comparison. On the second tour it just never came up and I really like that song and it feels like a lost opportunity to me so on the Trinity Tour what I will be doing I will be doing my own Version of ‘Run to the Hills’ and it will be the first time I’ve done it on a tour.”

When asked when he auditioned for Iron Maiden what songs did he sing.

“There were ten of the standard songs that were always in the set list at that time. From what I can remember is Trooper, Hallowed be thy name, Number of the beast, Wrathchild, Heaven can wait, Fear of the dark, the clairvoyant and others.”

Watch the Interview Here: