IRON MAIDEN's JANICK GERS On 'The Book Of Souls': 'There's All Types Of Different Songs On This Album'

IRON MAIDEN guitarist Janick Gers spoke to Glide Magazine about the band’s forthcoming double album, “The Book Of Souls”, which will be released globally on September 4 through Parlophone Records (Sanctuary Copyrights/BMG in the U.S.A.).

Regarding what it was like making the new CD in the months prior to the announcement that MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson had a cancerous tumor on his tongue and would have to undergo extensive medical treatment, Gers said: “Actually, nobody knew that Bruce was ill when we did the album. We put the album together between September and early December and Bruce was singing fantastic. In fact, he was staying with me and we were staying in the same hotel — the rest of the band were in different places — so we were going out and having a drink and a chat about how things were going. We were really happy with the album and his voice was sounding great and he was his usual bubbly self — excited about the album and we were having great fun. It wasn’t until afterwards when he got back to England that he said he got an abscess, which he’s had before and he had a couple of teeth taken out, and it came back. It was only then he said to me, ‘I’ve got this abscess back.’ He couldn’t drink because he was on antibiotics and I thought that was strange because he said that last year. I didn’t have any clue — nobody had any clue — and then we got a message from Andy Taylor, one of our managers, who told me what happened. I was in shock, because Bruce was singing incredibly well.”

He continued: “Obviously we had to just scrap everything for this year. We had a tour booked, and we said forget that. Bruce was very positive, he found it very early, and the doctor told him it was going to be curable. It was on his tongue, nowhere near his vocal cords, and he’s in the clear now. I saw him a couple of weeks ago and he was looking good. He was still a bit thin from his chemo; he’s not back to running a 10K yet, but he looks fine, he’s talking fine. I don’t know what his singing voice is like, because he’s had radiotherapy on his throat, so obviously his throat will be quite swollen. But when we did the album we had no idea about any of this; it only became apparent after we got to the end of the album. So it didn’t affect the album in that way, it’s just affected this year and the fact that we won’t be touring.”

Asked why it has taken IRON MAIDEN so long to release a double album, Gers said: “This is a time when people’s attention spans are so limited, they’re so small and they’ve got the attention span of a gnat. This is a triple album in actual fact — it’s a triple vinyl album and a double CD. We just do what we want to do and we’ve always done that — we always kind of fight against the tide. It wasn’t that we set out to make a double album; we just brought so many ideas into the studio and they were all good ideas. Some of the songs weren’t that long when they came in, but they ended up that long when we finished them. Everybody always brings in probably an hour’s worth of music. You might only want to use 15 minutes of it, but you’ve got an hour of stuff that’s really good. It’s indicative of how creative everybody in the band is. This band’s been going a long time and we never have to scrape around because there are always so many ideas to use — melodies, tunes, themes. It just ended up we had 11 songs in 92 minutes, which is quite too long for a single album. I think it’s good; we just come in and try different things, and we never restrict ourselves in terms of melodies and tunes. If it’s long, it ends up long, and it’s as simple as that. If it feels right, that’s what it is. This album just dictates where we are right now in 2015. We’re not a band that looks backwards, we always look forward and we’re always trying to develop new ideas, new strategies, new attacks of songs, and taking songs down different pathways. And I think this album proves that we’re still valid; the songs are powerful and edgy. There’s all types of different songs on this album and there’s almost something for everybody — classically influenced, jazz influenced, rock and blues influenced — it’s all there and it’s just indicative of what the band’s about.”

Read the entire interview at Glide Magazine .

A listening party for “The Book Of Souls” will be held on September 3 at Rock N Roll Ribs, the barbecue restaurant owned by MAIDEN drummer Nicko McBrain and close friend Mitch Tanne, in Coral Springs, Florida.

“The Book Of Souls” will include “Empire Of The Clouds”, an 18-minute track penned by Dickinson. The CD was recorded in Paris, France with producer Kevin “Caveman” Shirley in late 2014, with the finishing touches added earlier this year.

Fonte: Blabbermouth.net