George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): “Once we end the tour, we gotta get back in the studio as fast as we can to record the new album!”

THE RAVEN AGE are a melodic metal band formed in London in 2009 by guitarists Dan Wright and George Harris (son of Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris). In 2007 the band released their debut album, Darkness Will Rise and they have taken part on several tours  supporting great bands like Iron Maiden, Anthrax etc ...

Greece will have a chance to enjoy their performance at Rockwave festival, supporting Iron Maiden, Volbeat, Tremonti so few days before their first show in Greece  George Harris on behalf of The Raven Age speak to RockOverdose and to Vivi Zapantiotou.

 


 

 

 

Rock Overdose: Hello George, welcome to Rock Overdose. How's the tour going so far?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): Thank you! Tour's going awesome so far, it's really great, it's our first big tour, we've got a run of six shows in the UK and it's a good warm up for the upcoming festivals where there will be a lot of crowd, so it's really doing great.

 

 

Rock Overdose: Are there any special moments you'd like to share with us, anything funny or interesting from backstage?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE):Yes, Novarock was quite funny, we had the day off the next day and we went to a bar where we had a few drinks, our bass player ended up falling into mud. I can't remember anything else specific because we've been pretty busy all day while on tour.

 

Rock Overdose: What about the debut album, ''Darkness Will Rise''? Are you satisfied from the acceptance of the crowd?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE):Yes, yes, definitely! It's our first album, it's tough to see how it will go down but, if a small amount of people is interested in the album, you did pretty well, we didn't go sky high or anything like that, but the reaction from the fans has been really positive and we see more and more people around Europe coming to our shows and they are singing the words and the fans are increasing consistently so I think it's going down pretty well. We're really excited about this one, it's a long album, it's almost 75' and people had an issue with that but it turned up they liked it and we're really excited about the future in general.

 

 

Rock Overdose: Do you remember the first time you performed in front of a crowd?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE):Yes, with The Raven Age or me personally?

 

 

Rock Overdose: Both!

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE):Both, so my first time was in school, in front of a few people and classmates and I was 13 I think, that's probably the most nervous I've ever been. We were playing covers and I remember the first one was a song by Blink 182, I was very concentrated and ready to kick off but the flashlights went wrong and as the drummer entered, I couldn't see and I completely ruined the song, it was not as it was supposed to be and it all went wrong, it was pretty the worst start you could have at your first show. The first show with The Raven Age was in a studio locker room, where I was nervous again with me looking at my guitar to check that I could play correctly. But it's been a lot of time since then!

 

 

Rock Overdose: Does being the son of Steve Harris create an obstacle in your career?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): An obstacle? I guess it works on both ways, some people may have a negative opinion for the band and our music before they even hear the music, when someone has something in his head, it's kinda hard to get it out. I think people should first listen to the music and see how it goes after that, we've been lucky enough to do our thing and see support from some people, it doesn't make any difference to me, I'm doing what I have to do, I'm not doing this because my dad is who he is, I'm doing it because I love music.

 

 

Rock Overdose: Does your father agree with your choices? Can you tell us the best advice he gave you?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE):Yes he does, he definitely does, he never forced me to get into music, he always was happy I was into music myself and into rock and heavy metal music, he never forced me to do anything and he doesn't force his opinion on the band. I think some of the best advice he gave were pretty basic like to stick to your original self, don't let anyone come and tell you what to do, the more you play, the bigger you get, the more the shows, the more the fans for you and there's more and more opinions, he told us to stay original to our sound and stay true to ourselves.

 

 

Rock Overdose: You will have a show here in Greece. Many of the fans may compare your band with your dad's band, Iron Maiden, since you play together with them.

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): Yes, definitely, people know the situation and they may compare it to this fact, but there's no reason to do that, we're two different people, I'm not trying to copy him, I guess the music is just heavy metal and there's definitely influences from my dad of course, we're totally different.

 

 

Rock Overdose: Have you ever been in Greece before? Will you have any time to see any sights in Athens?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): I haven't actually, it's gonna be the first time. We're really excited about that. I hope we will have time, because it's one of the cities that I'd like to have time to see, but some shows we just got to play and leave as soon as possible, I don't know if there's actual free time for us to go and see anything.

 

 

Rock Overdose: What are the plans for the future of The Raven Age?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): Once we end the tour, we gotta get back in the studio as fast as we can to record the new album, we'd like to have a new album 'til the end of the year, which is pretty hard, but we'd love to.

 

 

Rock Overdose: What should Greek people expect from your live show?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): Our live show is pretty that we go for it from start to finish, we definitely give anything we have, so expect a lot of energy and headbanging, we're messing up around the stage and in one of our last shows, the wire from my guitar got mixed with the bass and the bass went down and we were like ''what's going on?'', so we're drawing symbols down so this doesn't happen again.

 

 

Rock Overdose: Are you a fan of Iron Maiden?

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): Yeah, I've been listening to them since birth, didn't have other choice also, I'm definitely a fan of the band!

 

 

Rock Overdose: Thank you for this interview, I hope we meet in Greece, I'd like you to give my regards to your father Steve, as I'm a big Iron Maiden fan, I wish you a good show in Greece.

 

George Harris (THE RAVEN AGE): Thank you so much, thanks for everything, I'll give him your regards!

 

 

For Rock Overdose

 

Vivi Zapantiotou

 

Τranscription

 

Dimitris Aloras

 

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