Adrian Smith Interview - October 1997

Tell me about the tour? What has the response been?

Its been great. As we moved across the states it seems that the audiences have been getting bigger. We have to do things the hard way. In the 80’s, with Maiden, you had video, MTV and all that kind of media stuff and loads and loads of rock stations. Now were doing it the hard way, going across doing the clubs its getting around by word of mouth and it’s kind of paying off. And it’s fun to.

This is the first time you have been in America since 1988. Did you miss us?

Oh yea. Really! When we got the itinerary for the tour, all the old towns came up where I haven’t been to in a while, places like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland all those Midwest towns they really have been great for us. Even the west coast, LA & New York. We’re all excited about taking this band out on the road and playing these songs live and it’s been great fun. We’re pretty tight right now. We’ve just done 6 weeks of madness.

How many nights do you guys get off a week?

we usually do 4 on 1 off normally 3 on one off. About 5 a week. A lot of traveling in between.

Is the touring burning you out?

I was right burned out when I was in Maiden , because we did it for so many years. This to me is fun again. Because I’ve had a break from it. I just really enjoy playing these songs, so I look forward to that every night. Your whole day is geared around 2 hrs on stage.

In the 80’s you played in front of 100,000 people at Donington, Is it tougher to get up for a crowd of 500?

Well, the people are real close to you and we got no production to speak of. We just got our amps and guitars and that’s it. And every gig is different, we have a different PA every night and different monitors so it’s a challenge, so in that way it is a lot of fun.

What was it like being on stage with Bruce for the first time in 9 years?

It was great. I’ve spent time between Maiden and this, I’ve had my own band like Skeleton Crew, fronting that. I still have my own band, but now I have a singer. I trying to front the band myself. Going on stage with Bruce again is great. Just to go out there and he’s great with an audience he can work an audience and it takes a lot of the load off, you can just play your guitar.

Are you still singing background? I’ve always thought you guys sounded great together.

Oh thanks. It’s not a lot of harmonies, I do a few, but I don’t think Bruce is real big on harmonies. I think sometimes it takes the edge off the songs. But, I enjoy singing still.

What was it like playing with the Tribe of Gypsies for the first time?

They’re a great band in their own right. We just did a week in Japan, they did the first set and then the guys played with us for our set. I watched them every night. They are very unique. Nobody is doing that type of material. Roy is a great guitar player. I could watch him all night. He’s a very talented guy.

Was it different, cause I know you opened for Maiden with Psycho Motel?

We did once. That was a bit of a mistake really. At the time, cause we have the same management, there was talk of doing a whole tour, so I well, I felt a bit strange about it but I thought it might be good for the band and the guys in my band to do it. We ended up just doing one show and it was really good actually, but it just felt really strange, I don’t think I’ll do it again.

Was it strange to be back on stage with Bruce and a with a new band. Did it feel different to you?

It’s great. It feels really right. I still have my other projects, it’s not going to change.

You have just release a new CD in Japan.

That’s right. IT came out 22 September. Already, there’s been fans coming up that already have it on import, which is cool. So I’m really excited about that, as well . It ‘s nice to have different creative outlets. I feel free to contribute to Bruce’s thing and I’ve got my thing.

Is it going to be released in America?

Hopefully, next year. We are going to take four months off and do Bruce’s thing and then promote the Psycho Motel record. In fact, I would like to come back and do some gigs on the east coast possibly. Just do a couple.

Tell me about Psycho Motel. What happened to Solli?

Well, we released the album the beginning of last year, it was doing ok and we were trying to fix a tour and Solli kind of lost interest. He had some personal problems. He got divorce plus he lived in Norway, which is kind of difficult. He left the band so that we really couldn’t tour the record. So we had to find another singer and it took me till last summer to find somebody. I finally found a really good singer, a guy called Andy Makin. He fit in great. We wrote the songs to the album real quick and put the album down and then I cam e out with Bruce.

Did you produce the album?

No I didn’t. I got a producer this time. It was too much work playing and producing. So I got a guy name Simon Hanhart. He’s done loads of different bands form Marillion, yngwie, Saxon, Waysted, he done lots of stuff. He was really good.

What did you think of Bruce’s previous solo efforts, like Skunkworks?

Yea, I liked Skunkworks.

Did you ever see them?

No, I never saw them , but I like Skunkworks. Balls to Picasso had some really good songs. I’ve always liked Bruce’s songwriting.

Is it difficult to fight the stereotype of Iron Maiden?

Yes it is. What were doing now is rolling with it. The people that are into Maiden probably like what we are doing now with Bruce’s thing. When you leave a band it cause you want to do something different. That’s kind of a catch 22, you want to do something different but the fans don’t want you and the record company doesn’t want you to, because they want to sell records and they think they can exploit you from your track record. Artistically is very difficult.

Did you ever think of getting Bruce to front your band when Solli left?

No, I don’t think so. We were in Maiden we always talked about maybe doing a joint album outside of the band. So, I heard he was going to get in touch with me and he did. He got an idea for this next album and called me up, he already written some songs with Roy, I had a couple ideas that I thought might suite and we wrote 2 or 3 songs and that was it. We’ve been rolling ever since.

What ever happened to the infamous secret sound you had using Gallien-Krueger that I read about in 1988?

It was probably cause I couldn’t remember what it was. I used to use GK for a while, they were really good.

What are you playing now?

Les Paul and a Strat. It works real well. I’ve been using that for 4 or 5 years.

Are you using Marshall Amps?

Marshall Poweramps, an 88 pre-amp. I used to be terrible in Maiden, I was always changing amps and come down and messing around with my sound. I don’t change it now.

Do you still change guitars(i.e. Powerslave Tour)?

Now we do a lot of songs with different tuning. I’ve got one guitar, the Les Paul is tuned down to a D string and the Strat is standard.

Is that the first time you played down tuned?

Yeah. I had a tape of the songs that Roy and Bruce had written and I learned them a certain way, but when Roy was playing them he playing them he was playing them with completely different approach on the guitar. And I was like what the F*@% is that. So I learned em’ like this, but they sounded better the way he was doing them, so I had to learn a whole new technique. Once I got into it it was great. I think he copped that off of the hard core bands he produces, like DownSound. They do that real low tuning thing, which makes the guitar sound real heavy, so I like that. It’s great working with other people, we certainly never did with Maiden, which is so insular. Since, I left the band I’ve worked with a lot of different people and you pick up licks and different techniques and different ideas. It’s great.

Are you happier musically now?

I think just having had a break I appreciate it a lot more and I just a bit more grown than I used to be. Just kind of generally a bit more easier going with it. With Maiden, playing with the big tours and big crowds, everyone used to get up tight. Now it’s only rock-n-roll.

Dave Murray played on your album?

Yeah, he played on one song.

Do you miss playing with him? You guys were so perfect together, It was almost tearful to see you guys leave.

Well, I’ve known Dave since we were kids, we started off playing together. Since I had Psycho Motel I just played one guitar, which is another approach, a three piece power trio with a singer, and playing with Roy, once I got used to that again, I thought that was really cool. So I started putting more guitars on the record, we were doing and I got Dave down and thought it would be great, for old times sake and I thought he would sound really good on this song. It was a balladly song called "With you again," and he came down and did some work on it and it sounded great.

This is your last show in America, do you have any plans after the show. Are you going to trash the hotel room like Guns and Roses?

We don’t have a hotel room to trash. We go straight to the airport.

Are you guys dying to get home?

Yeah pretty much. We gotta recharge the batteries cause we got another big tour in Europe.

You guys are playing with Lynryd Skynyrd?

That’s right were opening for those guys.

To me that seems like an odd combination?

Yeah. They’re seen as a legendary rock band. Over here it’s probably still the same.(In England) You don’t get rednecks in cologne. They just like it for the music. So, hopefully they’ll appreciate us because we go on there and we rock.

Do you know any "Sweet Home Alabama" licks?

I used to play "Freebird," when I was a kid. It was one of the first songs I learned. They also have a guy named Ricky Medlock in the band, who used to be in Blackfoot, who we did a lot of touring with when we were in Maiden.

Are you surprise that your solo career has not taken off as much as you thought?

No. At the time, I thought it would do really well. I thought it was very accessible and almost AORish. I thought this is the kind of people that could get into this. Looking back, I can see while it wasn’t successful, because it was so far removed from what I was known for and the kids didn’t really get it at all. I wished I would have done Psycho Motel back then, but you can’t do that you can’t go back and say. You just do what you think is right at the time. It’s like this thing feels right now. You just what you think is right at the time.

At this point, the tour manager came in and, we moved to Bruce. That interview will be available soon.

Credits http://www.oocities.org/sunsetstrip/club/5619/interviews/as1097.html

#AdrianSmith #interview #1997