IRON MAIDEN Guitarist
Dave Murray On Upcoming Tour:
"It Is Going To Be A Bit Of A Learning Curve In Some Ways Because There Are Some Songs We Haven’t Played For 20 Years
www.Ultimate-Guitar.com spoke to
IRON MAIDEN guitarist
Dave Murray recently about a number of topics including the much-anticipated Somewhere Back In Time tour. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:
www.Ultimate-Guitar.com: The upcoming world tour is going to focus primarily on ‘80’s Iron Maiden especially in the selection of set list and the stage set?
Murray: "That is right. The whole theme of the tour is going to be based on the Egyptian kind of thing that is similar to the production of the Powerslave tour. We are putting a big production together and also we are going to be focusing on the songs from around the mid-‘80s. Though there are a lot of songs and we basically know all of what we are going to be doing, it is going to be a bit of a learning curve in some ways because there are some songs we haven’t played for like 20 years. We will have to go back and relearn them because we may have forgotten how they go or need to know how they all go again (laughs). We are really excited about this because some the songs are really strong and it will be nice to breathe fresh new life into them now especially since Janick [Gers] wasn’t on most of those songs anyway. So it is going to be nice having the three guitarists playing within the framework of those older songs. It should be really good so we are looking forward to working those out."
www.Ultimate-Guitar.com: On those early Iron Maiden albums, how much input did producer Martin Birch have in regards to helping the band forge its trademark sound?
Murray: "The thing about Martin and for that fact Kevin Shirley too, is that they both have the same kind of filter. What I mean is that, they just let the band go in there and do its thing. Martin and Kevin will just enhance it all through the production of the sound. With Martin it was great, as we would go in there with the songs and just play the songs and he would just enhance it through the production side of it all and through the editing process and stuff like that. I know some producers who want to go in there and take over the whole band and mold it in their way. They will normally demand that the band plays like this and you plays that but then it doesn’t sound like the band anymore. It sounds more like the producer. So we’ve been really blessed with Martin and Kevin where we just go in there and play. So you have the identity of the band still in there being the primary focus. And they will have their go at putting in the little things that helps bring out the sound of what we’re like even more."
www.Ultimate-Guitar.com: Iron Maiden has always been an easy target for the moral majority particularly over in the US where the band members have in the past been labeled Satanists?
Murray: "You couldn’t get a group of people further in the opposite direction than any of us. We’re definitely not devil worshippers. I think it all started because of the Number of the Beast album. When it came out, a lot of the people who didn’t like that sort of thing, just started gravitating towards that album in particular. And though it became a big issue at the time, it wasn’t as big as people made out it to be. But we basically ignored it and left it alone."
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