Rockoverdose.gr and Apostolos Pantazoglou spoke with Joey Bruers of Maiden UniteD a few days before their mini tour in Greece. You can read the interview below.
Rockoverdose.gr: How did you come up with the idea of forming an Iron Maiden tribute band?
Bruers: I’m playing already for more then 12 years in the Dutch Iron Maiden Tribute band ‘Up The Irons’. I always had the idea of playing Iron Maiden acoustic, but just had to find the right time. In 2010 my good friend Ruud had a sabbatical with his band Within Temptation and there was the right time. So we did it!
Rockoverdose.gr: Why did you choose to cover the album “Piece of Mind”?
Bruers: I really don’t know when we exactly decided to do ‘Piece of Mind’, but we do know that ‘Piece of Mind’ is one of our favorite ‘Maiden’ albums. So probably that would be the reason why we had so much ‘Piece’-tracks and at one point we decided to do the whole album…
Rockoverdose.gr: You are going to release a new album. Is it going to be another Iron Maiden cover album or new songs from you?
Bruers: It will be a Maiden cover album for sure! Maiden United is all about Iron Maiden acoustic!
Rockoverdose.gr: Playing these songs you do it as an artist or as a fan of Iron Maiden?
Bruers: First of all as a fan, but you have to be an artist make it possible. It’s a good combination actually. Never thought about this before, haha. One thing is for sure, if we were not Maiden fans we never had made this album.
Rockoverdose.gr: How did you come up with this line up?
Bruers: Ruud is a real good friend of mine for over more than 20 years already. We played together in our first bands and went our separate ways at one point. Ruud became the guitar player of Within Temptation and became very busy. We always wanted to do a project together again. It was Maiden United that brought us together in the studio and on stage. Mike and Marco are friends and real good talented musicians. They both know how to play in an acoustic setting. Damian is a different story. I am a fan Damian’s voice since the first time that I heard his voice on an Ayreon album. When Ruud and I finished the tracks for ‘Mind The Acoustic Pieces’ we made lists of singers and female singers we would like to have on our album and both of us had Damian at number one on our list. We contacted him, made some demo’s for this album and the three of us did fully agree that Damian has to be singer of this project. No doubt about that and so it happened. Anneke has got the most beautiful voice on earth! We know her and asked her to do some guest vocals. ‘Yeah I’m in’ was her answer. We collected a great bunch of musicians on this album which makes this album extra special!
Rockoverdose.gr: Did you get any reaction from the band?
Bruers: No, no reactions so far. We gave this album to Steve and Bruce. Steve was there at the first gig of Maiden United. Two thumbs up was the only reaction we received. We will meet the guys in the near future.
Rockoverdose.gr: How did you come up with the idea of the narrating intro in “Flight Of Icarus”? It makes it really epic.
Bruers: Thanks for that reaction! It was me that came up with that idea. I wrote this arrangement on a stormy and cloudy day. You can hear that through the whole song. ‘Flight’ became one of my favorites as well. I really like the high parts of Damian. I’m proud that you name it an ‘Epic’! Thanks a lot once again
Rockoverdose.gr: How would you describe the partnership with Anneke? Was it easy to convince her work with you?
Bruers: Anneke is a real nice person and a very professional musician at the same time. She is a real good performer and we have a lot of fun together on the road. Anneke is pretty busy with music and that’s the reason why she is not there at every Maiden United show. When we are in Greece, she will release her new album in The Netherlands.
Rockoverdose.gr: Do you collect stuff from Iron Maiden?
Bruers: I have every album, every video and I’m collecting all the vinyl stuff. I have the ‘Live + One’ vinyl record which is recorded in Greece in the beginning of the ‘80’s. So it’s very special for me to play in Greece!
Rockoverdose.gr: You know it would be really interesting if Maiden UniteD and Iron Maiden would make something together. Is there any chance that could happen?
Bruers: That would be great! But to be honest, I think that that won’t happen.
Rockoverdose.gr: In a few days you play in Greece. Will you play only the “Mind The Acoustic Pieces” or are you playing any other covers as well?
Bruers: We will play some other songs as well. When we come back from Greece we start to record our second album which will be released somewhere this year. We will play some songs from the new album as well if you like that.
For Rockoverdose.gr
Apostolos "Astaldo" Pantazoglou
Comments
