Curiosities About Instant Clarity

Credits web site kiskelized

Kiske commented a funny anecdote about his relationship with Adrian Smith during this recording: "When I was 15, I went to a Maiden gig in Hamburg (Piece of Mind tour, November 8th at Ernst-Merck-Halle), and Adrian threw his bracelet to the audience, and I caught it. I still have it today! It’s on my wall (laughs). When I told this to Adrian, he asked for it back, because it was his! (more laughs). I went to his house in England and I slept in the maid’s room! (laughs). But what the hell, he was my idol! Adrian is a great guy and I was very happy with the result of his collaboration."

Kiske about Adrian Smith collaboration:

"From the day he got out of Iron Maiden he was just doing nothing. He was just hanging around and having a good time and he did his projects and stuff. I was also in the same situation. I always thought he was a big loss for Iron Maiden because he always had this melodic playing and great guitar lick ideas. So since we were on the same management I actually asked Rod Smallwood about Adrian and he told me that Adrian was also asking about me as well! So we just met and he was an extremely nice guy and was absolutely a good hearted person and I really think he was a great guy and what came out of this collaboration was the song 'The Calling'. I mean 'New Horizons' was mainly written by him and I just did the vocals, bridges and the lyrics."

Adrian Smith talks about the collaboration with Michael Kiske:

​"I met Michael for the first time when I was still in Iron Maiden, we had a concert with Helloween in Spain and Portugal, we didn't talk so much in that moment but we share the same management office, we saw sometimes each other for example at the wedding party of our manager. I thought he was very energetic and earnest. As vocalist he can sing on key, steady technically. I suggested him to compose together. I have a few days-off for several months at that time. I may be able to contribute in the album. We talked on the phone and then he came to my house. I have my studio at home. We started to write and it worked nice from the beginning. It was delightful because if we were not compatible everything will be difficult. I was surprised when he played for me first, he played Wagner for me! When we were talked which direction we would go through, he said: "listen to this", and he played something at full volume, it was a Wagner Opera, he said: "I want to sing anything like this", so I thought that it will be certainly unique. He thought in using some stuff of Wagner and Elvis Presley... we didn't have a close idea for what kind of songs we would make, but I had one. It became 'The Calling'. I played many ideas for him with some tracks he said: "too normal", he expresses his opinion frankly in every moment. It's his good point, this songs will be releases on his solo album so he must do it how he likes. I think that kind of hard rock fits with his voice. I feel happy the song ended in the album and I'm proud of this work. For 'New Horizons' I flew to Hamburg. We tried to write songs but we got only two riffs which Michael said "too normal" so we did like a musical rally. I think this album has a huge variety of songs. Each song is different and it's nice. I think that 'New Horizons' is one of the ideas which we wrote then. I was sure that this would be good, I like it. I like a lot another song 'Hunted', it was not composed by me, but I played the guitar on it, also the solo with "wah-wah", we recorded not in a studio it was in a spooky farm house. It was in the middle of countryside in Germany, it was very cold, I think it was in February, we had to collect woods for fuel in the forest, and we had to warm ourselves at fire. There was a terrible messy but I enjoyed. Both are very powerful songs. I think this album is the best in whole Michael's career, he controlled everything and he said: "I don't care if it's a success or not, all I'll do is what I want to do" He is very artistic, he never take a look at the business side. But he leaves good music behind at last, so I collaborate with him. He has also a home studio and some good equipments. He understands how to work at studio and he is a great engineer. He can make good guitar sound and he reconizes what sound he wants to do. This is another of his good point, too."