Blaze Bayley
Time To Dare

14.06.2010

Blaze Bayley is a person with a very interesting, but very challenging destiny. Successful start with Wolfbane in the late 1980s, getting the lead vocalist position in Iron Maiden in 1994, which seemed a dream come true back then, departure from the band 5 years later, and more than 10 years of ups and downs with a solo band. The latest album by Blaze, “Promise And Terror”, once again covers a variety of interesting themes, including Russian history. No one is able to tell about Blaze’s life better than Blaze himself, so we met with the man shortly before his gig in Moscow, namely, overnight to May 22 in a cozy chill-out of Club Jimi. Unfortunately, what was promised to us as a detailed talk in a comfortable environment eventually turned out in extremely nervous 20 minutes, but we will not complain, as Blaze still managed to tell us a lot of interesting things.

Let’s talk about your new album “Promise And Terror”. What idea did you put in this title?

Well, it comes from the dream world and it is connected directly to the song “Time To Dare”. “Promise and terror” is the situation we find in life when some dream speaks to us. We have an ordinary life that we live and maybe it’s not the way that we chose, perhaps we are not happy with this life. But we live it anyway, because we think that we have no alternative and any other opportunity. And perhaps in a dream or in a daydream we see something and say, “I think that’s my path”. “Promise And Terror” means that to believe that dream and follow than what you may become, you have to leave every certainty behind. Everything that you have in this world you think is certain - you have to face the “terror” of leaving that behind, and the “promise” of what may be your true path in life that gives you happiness and satisfaction and make you feel that every day is the day you wanna live. So that is the idea of “Promise And Terror”.

On the album in songs we describe these feelings. The album comes in two parts. The first part contains the songs that you probably expected to hear from Blaze Bayley band about things that inspired us and the things we are interested in. On this album we did the song about St. Petersburg (“City Of Bones”). It’s about Dmitry Shostakovich writing his famous 7th symphony in St. Petersburg, and the terrible suffering the people of St. Petersburg went through when they were almost near death. The spirit of the city, of those few people that remained to be completely and totally defeated is something that inspired me. Because of Dmitry Shostakovich, because a musician decided to do something using his music and a talent that he had. And one of the Nazi generals said after that, “We knew when we heard that we would never take Leningrad”. For me that story is something when I could get inspiration: when a musician decided to do something for the whole city of people that was like, “Come on! Let’s not be defeated if some of us died”. It’s such a courageous story. We wanted to do this for a very long time but never the theme of the album and this story fit together. And on the “Promise And Terror” album all really came together.

We have a song about Gallileo which is about your beliefs and how it is being in that terrible situation of lying about your beliefs to save your life (“1633”). Not many of us were in such situation, maybe in a war situation or revolution, and that was the subject that very much interested me.

And we have a song “God Of Speed”. That’s about someone of the age of 65 who broke the world speed record in motorcycle racing. Everybody said that he is too old and this cannot be done on a 1922 Indian Scout. But he went to America and did it. It’s a fantastic story!

 Why did you choose your Wolfsbane colleague Jase Edwards as a producer?

Jase has been doing a lot of work with a lot of small bands. And when we did our last album “The Man Who Would Not Die” we had a lot of technical problems, so we asked Jase Edwards to help us with that stuff. He managed to make an album from all the pieces that we had. And we chose him as a producer. I am a little bit tired of being responsible for everything and I wanted to be concentrated on the emotion of the vocal performance, the lyrics and interpreting our lyrics to go with the music. and I felt that now I had more time to do that.

If somebody else was a producer we would have some creative arguing about what we wanted to make and what he think would be good for us. Jase had so much experience, so we trusted him. And that is an important thing because I have never worked with the producer I really trust. He didn’t try to push me in a different direction, but he did make suggestions, “Well I think that voice is better”, “Perhaps, Bayley, in this way it would be better” or “Perhaps if we put the bass line higher we will bring things to life”. So, that’s why we chose him.

This time I wanted to work with the producer, I didn’t on the last one. This time we’ve done it with producer and it was very good.

“Promise And Terror” is the second release of Blaze Bailey Recordings label. Is it better for you to work on your own label or do you have some plans about moving to a major label?

No, I don’t have any plans like that at the moment. For me at this point it’s about freedom. I’ve been with EMI, SPV etc. And to me if you sign a contract you are basically assigning yourself in a prison cell in a “gulag” of record company. I didn’t get a record deal and I want to make that stuff on my own. I don’t want anybody saying, “You can’t have that artwork” or “You songs are too long/too short”. I worked with Iron Maiden, and “Man On The Edge” was a top hit all over Europe and many different parts of the world, and a lot of the songs that I wrote with the band were very successful so I didn’t want anybody to tell me what to do. So that’s why I decided to run my own record company.

I had a lot of problems with Blaze band. When I wanted to release my album the record company said, “No, you can’t release it”. And it cost me a lot of touring and a lot of money because they didn’t support it. This time I thought, “No, I will do it myself.” With “Promise And Terror” it was the first time when I had an album and the tour and press and promotion the way it should be. I haven’t that since I left Iron Maiden and it seems to be working. So I wanted to do that and I wanted to be free. It’s not easy, we’ve got a lot of things to take care as a record company even if we had only one band that is ourselves. But we feel that is the price of freedom. We don’t want to work under anybody else.

The real people who have the power are the fans. They decide what bands are successful. Record companies with millions and millions of euros pick videos and make a lot of  other promotion so that they could convince people that this band must be good because they look good, but if you go and see the band – they can’t play very well or they have only one good song from the album. I wanted to go in a totally different way. I said, “Right. We are not gonna have big videos, we are not gonna have big adverts. What we gonna do is go and play as many shows as we can in Europe, South America, Russia and rest of the world. As many shows as we can for the fans and let the fans decide if we deserve their support”. Heavy metal fans are very tough, they listen to the music and musicians, but if they do like you, they will support you for whole your life. Those fans are the ones that I want, because the heavy metal fans are the best fans. Pop fans buy your record, then they will buy someone else’s record because of fashion. What I want to do is go to the fans and say. “Look, your decide the band’s life by your support. If you buy a CD, T-shirt we will come back, if not we won’t.”

With Iron Maiden and Wolfsbane you worked in big studios, but "Promise And Terror" was mostly recorded in your own home. What option do you like better - to work in the studio environment, or to stay in the comfort of your home?

I’d rather record at home. You know, it’s great to have all the equipments and the big thing, but all the time the music we play… If you are Sting in the studio or Peter Gabriel or somebody like them then people around you will say, “He is a great artist”. If you are a heavy metal band in the studio, everybody who works in the studio will say: “Oh, it is just a heavy metal band.” Like your music isn’t important. So that’s why I prefer to record at very small studio for the drums and at home. Nobody around! And we don’t have to listen to anybody else. So you are more free to focus. What we do is we always write for life. And at the back of our minds every part of the songwriting in process I am thinking of the fans. I always think: “How would the fans like this? Am I explaining the story to the fans in a right way?” I imagine fans listening to the album and when I am singing in the studio I imagine singing to the fans in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sweden etc. And I think, “When I come to Moscow, what Moscow fans will think about this song? Will they understand it?” That’s why I perform these songs live easier. It’s just us. We will go to as many pubs and clubs that we can and see as many rock fans we can, we will come to concert with cheapest tickets and play and let the fans decide.

Your lyrics become darker from album to album, what is the reason?

It’s my life. Because we write and sing about our lives. And my life has come through some darkness and I hope the things will change, but I can sing only about things that happen, about how I really feel, about real situations that affect me and my life. I am trying to be as honest as I can with fans. And a lot of the fans appreciate my honesty because they feel that way too. For me it’s great to know that’s I am not the only crazy person, someone else is crazy too.

Were all of your band members involved in the work or it was more of your solo album?

Yeah, everybody was involved. What we say is, “It’s not important who has the idea if it’s a great idea”. That’s it. I learned that from Steve Harris Steve Harris from Iron Maiden. So we all write together. On this album I did most of the lyrics but Jay (Walsh, guitar) did most of the lyrics on “Madness And Sorrow” and most of the arrangements. We all talk about the lyrics for every song and Nico (Bermudez, guitar) and I often go through the lyrics and say, “right”, “in this way”, “is that right?” In this band you can say anything, there is nothing beside, so you have to justify anything. Writing the lyrics I have to justify, and if that guitar solo isn’t good enough I will say, “Guitar isn’t good enough”, or “I don’t think it’s melodic”. So everybody gets to decide. This is the way we get our sound. That’s an important part when we started with “The Man Who Would Not Die” and we hope to carry on to like this.

What is the meaning of the new album's cover artwork?

The cover artwork goes with idea of the “Promise And Terror” album and song “Time To Dare”. The central character is there on a rock, which is an only solid ground in the middle of a massive ocean. It’s the only solid place that he has that he understands, and if he wants to change his life he has to find the way through that stone and out of it. So if you look then on the “Time To Dare” artwork then you’ll see that he stands up and he sees a path. He doesn’t know if he should take that path. And then if you look at the back of the album behind the CD – he is gone, he has taken the path. That’s the meaning of the artwork – that three things I told you is that he dares to take that path.

Why did you choose Felipe Machado Franco to paint cover artworks for you?

We got in touch with him for “The Man Who Would Not Die” and we told him our ideas – he did well. Normally with the album I want one illustration for each song that has meaning towards this song. I told Felipe on a phone for hours what I want for design for each one. Let’s take “The Trace Of Things That Has No Words” as an example. It’s the song of grief when you have your heart torn. The character in the illustration has his heart torn and the he has scars all over it and his chest is open and he is showing that his chest is open. Or “Faceless” – if you look at that illustration you can see the man who has a wardrobe with a selection of faces he can wear so he can fit in to any situation but he doesn’t have his own face. That’s how we work and describe things to him (Felipe). He is gonna work with me again, we are releasing “The Man Who Would Not Die” on vinyl the limited edition of “Promise And Terror”, and we will do all the Blaze catalogue reissues on our label.

How is your tour going so far?

So far I am really surprised how well it’s going. We expected it would be much more of a struggle. We started in the UK when the record had just come out and we could do 30 shows in the UK. They say metal is dead here. At some shows people come to see us for the first time. On this tour it seems that there are Iron Maiden fans who have never seen the Blaze Bayley band and people come and say, “I know you from “Virtual XI”, I saw you on the “X-Factor” tour, and this is the first time I come to see your band. And I wish I came to see you before.” We got a lot more people to the shows than we expected and it’s going really well, so we are really hoping the show in Moscow will be good. We played in “Plan B” last year and it was a fantastic show, and we didn’t know what to expect but it was great. So we are really hoping that people come and see us again.

You have been touring basically non-stop since January. I guess it's rather challenging both mentally and physically to be on the road so much. How do you manage to do it?

It is a challenge. But it’s all about the music and it’s about the fans. We are free to do this and we determine to do what we do, because we are free and the fans make us free. They buy our CDs, they buy our T-Shirts. We are only on tour because the fans support us. So we feel very lucky. Every time I had a big record deal I hardly ever toured apart from when I was in Iron Maiden. That was with SPV, they said: “We don’t think touring sells CDs”. And I am a live band. And really they say, “Touring can’t make you any money”. So I can’t go on tour to do the one thing I love – to sing on stage for the fans, to sing live. Suddenly my life didn’t make sense. That’s why we stay on tour and do as many shows that we can, and so far fans seem to understand what we are doing. It’s very much similar to the way when heavy metal started in the late 70s – a band used to go on tour and keep going and going and going until they would finally get recognition. Then along came MTV and big magazines and all of this… But we are going back to the fans. That’s an important thing for us and we hope that will work. We will see at ”Plan B” and we will know –If we have a future in Russia then we will play more at “Plan B” like it was last year, if we don’t – then we won’t be. The fans will decide.

You had two DVDs – “Alive in Polland” and “Night That Would Not Die”. In Russia it’s difficult to get them – I haven’t seen them in CD shops. Will you bring those DVDs as part of the merchandise on your shows?

We sold that because it was limited edition. We sold “The Night That Would Not Die”, but we may reissue it in September and put it in retail. That was Internet only, because it was very much just for the fans. “The Night That Would Not Die”, the CD, will be in retail and it will be in shops. We have just started to get a distribution. We are distributing in Russia, I have just started to do it. It’s a difficult place. You can get everything from our tour merchandise on blazebayley.net, but at the moment the DVDs are sold out. A lot of fans ask us for DVD, and we will try to re-print it and re-do it in September.

Are you satisfied with “Night That Would Not Die” DVD? (It was shot with no more than 3 cameras, and most of the time you only can see Blaze on the screen – ed.)

Yeah. It was the best DVD we could do at that time with the money that we had. That was the best thing we could do, so it was great. But it’s an only a snapshot of where we were and what we were doing, so in a couple of years we will do another DVD which will be very different. “The Night That Would Not Die” is a very simple DVD, that’s the point of it. It was supposed to be simple. It is just if you are at the show watching the show yourself, forget the cameras. If you are watching the show – that’s what it is. But if you watch it again you will see more. Yes, I am very happy with it.

You split up with your drummer Larry Paterson recently. Can you explain reasons why Larry is no longer a member of the band?

No, you have to ask him.

Who is now playing drums for the band after Larry's departure?

We have Claudio (Tirincanti) from Italy whom you can talk to later, and he will be playing at “Plan B”. He learned all of the songs in seven days and came to South America with us. He stayed with us and he will stay with us till the end of this tour and he will play with us at summer festivals as well. Most of the fans that we asked, “What do you think of the drummer?”, answered, “We like him”. He is a very good drummer and he is very dedicated.

Members of your solo band change quite often. What are the main requirements that you have for musicians who are willing to play with you?

Mental toughness.

You're not one of the musicians who do a lot of guest appearances. But recently you took part in the recording of a metal opera called SoulSpell, which will be released soon. Why did you decide to take part in this project?

It was something that interested me, because I like concept albums. And I like albums-stories, not just music to listen to. They sent me the demos of the songs and it was something I wouldn’t normally sing in that style. I wouldn’t normally be involved in something like that, and that’s why it interested me. So I spoke to Jase, “Will you be prepared to produce and record this?” He said “yes”, and we worked on it together. I am really happy with it, I made a lot of input in the lyrics and the recording of it. I really enjoyed it. If I get a suggestion of such project, I will always listen to it first and I If I feel it is a good for me and my fans would appreciate this and If I have ability, I will certainly be involved in it.

You said that your father was very supportive of your music career in the years before he died. Was it always the case?

Yes, he always was. My mother passed many years ago. And yeah my father was very very supportive, and in very tight and difficult situations he said, “Don’t give up the band. Even if you play part time, don’t give up your music”. And I follow that.

How did your parents react when you first got into heavy metal and decided to become a musician?

My father wondered why I was doing it because he was a huge jazz fan and my mother was very supportive. So yeah, I am very lucky with very supportive parents. My father was an actor, he went to drama school, he was a stand up comedian as well. So I am very happy that I had that kind of support.

You had some motorcycles long time ago - Honda Blackbird, Ducatti 916, Honda Fireblade. Have you got a motorcycle now?

Yeah, I’ve got an old 1100 Yamaha Viraga. It’s an old moto that had been owned by a friend of mine, and I got it for a very good price – he bought a Harley. It is good to go out and cruise even it is not as cool as a Harley, but it’s reliable. So whenever it’s a sunny day in England when I am off, that’s not very often – we go out on a motorcycle.

I heard that you like football. What is your favorite team?

I don’t have a favorite team, but I was born an Aston Villa fan. In my family you are an Aston Villa fan or you don’t survive. So you are born as an Aston Villa fan. My dad, grandfather, aunt, uncle, cousins are all Aston Villa fans.

Do you visit a stadium regularly?

No, because I am always on tour.

I saw a Maiden video when you were playing football and doing it well. Do you still play?

No, because of my leg. I can’t run very much, I do cycling instead. Since I had a motorcycle crash I can’t run properly. I used to play middlefielder but I now can’t run a lot.

Blaze Bayley on the Internet: http://www.blazebayley.net

Special thanks to Nonna Abramova and Sergei Morozov for organizing the interview, extra special thanks to Sergei Isaev for helping with it

Interview by Sergei “BoBr” Bobrik
Questions also compiled by Roman Patrashov
Photos by Natalie “Snakeheart” Patrashova
May 22, 2010
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