This September sees the long awaited release of “The Book Of Souls” by IRON MAIDEN. A double album, the LP comes after the news that vocalist Bruce Dickinson has now happily received the all clear from cancer (he was receiving treatment for a small tumour on his tongue; the record itself was recorded late last year in Paris, before diagnosis). The Quietus recently had an interview with Adrian Smith and Janick Gers which you can read some excerpts of below:
Can you tell us about the writing process behind The Book Of Souls?

Adrian Smith: “We didn’t actually rehearse anything at all – which is a very different way of working for Maiden. We just brought our ideas to the studio. I think Bruce and I had one session which produced ‘Speed Of Light’ and ‘Death Or Glory’. Steve and I got together in the studio and I played him a load of stuff I had and got busy writing lyrics for that. I actually did a lot of writing on my own. We hadn’t actually played together as a band before we went into the studio in Paris. I did a lot of writing on my own and everyone just brought ideas in.”

Janick Gers: “I’m really proud of it, I think it’s a fantastic album. Bands have to grow, travel different avenues, push the boundaries and we always do. People say, ‘Oh, Maiden always sound the same’, but we don’t; we travel different pathways and this one is no exception. I’ve got to say that the writing process was really different this time. Normally, we go into rehearsal and spend three or four weeks rehearsing. We’ll go off writing with different people in the band and get all the ideas up to speed – almost so that we can play them all live as a set – but this was different. We went into the studio with only outlines and finished writing the songs in the studio – so we were actually learning them, rehearsing them, and putting them down all at once. It gives it an immediacy because we were learning them as we went; it all has a very live feel. We all brought different things, a really broad spectrum of musical ideas – I don’t want us to become a parody of what we were; you get bands that come out and only do one song off the new album – and I know people love that and some people want that – but that’s not what we do at all.”

How much pressure was there, writing that way?

AS: “There is pressure but it’s a good pressure because it snaps you into action. Before we go in, a month before we go in the studio, I like to go in my home studio and put down a load of rough demos and ideas – it’s a good pressure, it fires you up. I like it.”

Adrian, the tracks that you and Bruce wrote together for the record- ‘Speed Of Light’ and ‘Death Or Glory’ -are the shortest and punchiest. Was that a conscious decision, to focus on a more straight up sound?

AS: “Well, Bruce and I hadn’t actually written anything – just the two of us – for some years. So I had it in my mind to do some shorter songs. We used to do stuff like ‘Two Minutes To Midnight’ back in the day. If I’ve got something a bit more involved, I usually bring Steve in and say, ‘What do you think of it?’ because these days he’s focussed on lyrics and melodies as much as anything. Whereas before he’d bring in four or five complete songs – from beginning to end – it’s a much more collaborative process these days. He’ll provide a steer lyrically and melodically.”

For the full interview visit this location.