Anything about or related to the metal band Iron Maiden. Discussion, pics, videos, art, you name it.
**Note: This is all speculation and may be much ado about nothing.**A recurring complaint about modern Iron Maiden records voiced on this subreddit concerns their production, which makes them sound somewhat unrefined, albeit intentionally so in order to capture a "live feel". I speculate that Adrian Smith would agree with these complaints based on some interview material showcased below, which give a bit of insight into what the recording process is like behind the scenes.
In , the direction of the production was a point of contention between Smith and Harris/Shirley, where Smith wanted to devote more time to making the songs sound more polished and Harris/Shirley wanting them to leave them as what they (probably) ended up like on the record. What Kevin writes on February 25th illustrates how the discussions would go:
Adrian came by The Cave for a listen - he thought the tracks sounded good but "a little too much like the band in the studio". He thought more reverb to make them sound more "majestic" and "epic". Steve disagreed strongly. Honestly, they are both right. The thing I personally like about the dry, honest mixes, is that it sets them apart from any other Classic Rock or Metal band. They're not really metal anyway, in the present day sense of the genre, but they're more of a hard progressive rock band. I promised to run some mixes each way and decisions can be made down the road, if necessary.
This dynamic would essentially repeat itself at different times during the recording of TFF. Here is an entry at March 9th:
Mixed The Man Who Would Be King. Adrian came in and said it all sounded good - and said he was 95% happy with the album mixes and we should look at them and tweak them slightly - I am perfectly happy to reassess any of the mixes, as daunting as the prospect of revisiting everything is, changing sonics etc., but Steve and I are quite happy with it and neither of us can really afford the extra time it would take to remix, so Steve jumped in and basically said we're going to be done this weekend and we are not remixing the entire album. Adrian ultimately understood but wasn't thrilled about it!
And again on March 11th:
Mixed Starblind today. Adrian came by to hear it - and was desirous of more reverb on some things - it's a little bit of a continuous internal battle, and is essentially just a different way to hear things. Def Leppard on one hand, something garagey on the other. Extra reverb was not added to anything. Adrian left happy and understanding, I thought!!!
Watching the TFF behind the scenes, Adrian struck me as being dejected over how the record ended up sounding (, I transcribe it in full below):
Interviewer: Adrian, how was it working with Kevin on this record?
Adrian: Well, Steve is co-producing as well, so you got two guys in the driving seat, and they're very definite about... how they do things. It's always difficult. I really enjoy the writing process, the recording is always a bit painful, I find- It can be. I really enjoy sitting in a room playing, that's great, but having demo'd a lot of the things, it's two sides to when you demo songs, you get a bit close to them and you get used to hearing them a certain way, and you wanna follow it through. And there's one thing I wanted to do on the album, is I really wanted to pursue the way I thought [the songs] should be. And I did that as much as I could. But the end of the day, I didn't produce it, so, there's always that.
It can get a bit tense in the studio, when there's 6-7 guys in there, you've been in there a few hours, you've been (flogging?) away at a song, you've got to be tactful sometimes. Some people are more tactful than others. It's all part of the chemistry, and if you don't have disagreements, it wouldn't be a breathing band, but that's what it is, and so there's a bit of give and take. But all I can do, I say, is you just give it everything you can. The way we record these days, it's a bit like making a movie. You do your takes and you do your best, and it's up to the guys who are really mixing the album.
Interviewer: Plus I know from when we've chatted previously, you're a bit of a perfectionist, you pay attention to details, you pay attention to the nuances of everything...
Adrian: Yeah, I don't know if I've got a sensitive ear or something. For tuning as well. I can hear stuff's out of tune. No one can hear it but me. Maybe it's just... [laughs] I don't know. Tune is one of my things. With three guitars, it's... the intonation of the guitars... Even if you're playing the same riff, the same notes, sometimes they don't blend. I really wanted, on this album, to try and make sure that they blended as well as they could. It's easy to say "ah yeah sound's alright", but you got to stick your neck out a little bit sometimes... even if it gets chopped off!
(page 2), Adrian mentioned he was pleased with the production of Book of Souls, comparing it to Brave New World (since they had also recorded that one in the same studio):
I’m really pleased with the production. Sometimes I think our albums are a little too raw, a little too undercooked for me (...) One of our better sounding albums is Brave New World and someone said, without knowing where it was recorded, that it sounded similar.
Put together, I think it's safe to say that Adrian wasn't too happy about TFF ended up sounding, and maybe voiced that opinion going into BoS. Moreover, I think it reveals a bit about the dynamic behind the scenes during the recording process. Steve Harris and Kevin Shirley seem to be more along the lines of "record it and get out" whereas Adrian Smith seems to spend more time getting them polished. Like Adrian says, bands have disagreements, so there's nothing controversial about that.
It does, for me, give a new light to No Prayer for the Dying/Fear of the Dark albums, which (particularly the former) sounds quite shoddy in comparison to their earlier records. I suspect that it might have been that Adrian was more of a stopping force against Steve Harris's dominion when it came to how things were to be recorded.
Maybe I'm also reading a bit too much into it, but I still feel for Adrian when he says that he wanted to "pursue the songs the way they should be" and that he "did as much as he could", only to be stopped by Harris saying they don't have "time" to remix the album. Yeah, Iron Maiden does not have time to spend a few more weeks on making their album sound special. I get that you have to take practicalities into account, but it still reeks of bs to me.
I really want to hear Adrian's demo version of the songs on TFF (El Dorado, Mother of Mercy, Coming Home, Isle of Avalon, Starblind), though that may only make me sad.
Edit: Fixed some formatting and a mysterious acronym.
