Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris admits the band find it hard writing short songs these days.
They’ve recorded long tracks in the past but made latest album The Book Of Souls their first double studio release as it contains several lengthy pieces, including the 18-minute epic Empire Of The Clouds.
Harris tells Goldmine: “We’ve always done what we wanted to do right from the first album, so there’s no difference there.
“It’s just that we do have difficulty writing short songs these days. I don’t know why that is. It’s just the way it evolved.”
He continues: “There’s no real reason besides the fact that we do have all kinds of influences. Some of them being prog kind of stuff. But we’re not trying specifically to be like anything other than just writing what the songs we feel are right at the time.”
Harris reports part of the excitement of the writing process is that they don’t know what the end result will be, and adds: “We just go in and do it and what comes out, comes out. It’s only afterward, when we do interviews, when we try to analyse it. We don’t analyse what we do. We just do it.”
The Book Of Souls hit the no.1 spot in 24 countries after its launch earlier this month. Maiden have confirmed dates in New Zealand, Australia and South America. Details of their plans for Central and South America, North America, Japan, China and Europe will be announced in due course.
Maiden are the multiple cover stars of the latest edition of Classic Rock, out sale now in print, digital and via TeamRock+.
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