Rock Overdose had the chance to talk with Ruud Jolie, guitarist of Within Temptation, Maiden uniteD, and of his solo project ForAllWeKnow. Focusing on Maiden uniteD some days before the release of their second full-length, Across The Seventh Sea, Ruud gives us a glimpse of the new album of the acoustic tribute project to legendary Iron Maiden, and shares his experience on their latest Greek tour. An experience he is going to recapture this November!
Rockoverdose.gr: Hello Ruud, welcome to Rock Overdose! You just came back from a theater tour with WITHIN TEMPTATION if we are not mistaken, how was it? We are updated with your tour vlog from South America at the moment.
R.J: Well, as matter of fact you ARE mistaken (Laughs)... Our theatretour ended mid-April. At the moment we're wrapping up the festival season. After that WT is gonna prepare for our 15th anniversary show 'Elements' that will take place in Antwerp on November 13th.
Rockoverdose.gr: When did you have time to record the new MAIDEN UNITED album? Apart from WT there is also your solo project at the same time!
R.J: We started arranging the songs for the new Maiden uniteD while we were on the road promoting our first album 'Mind the Acoustic Pieces'. Joey and me individually arranged different tracks on our own as well. During the last couple of gigs we played all the songs already so we were well prepared when we entered the studio in the beginning of March. In between the WT theatreshows we recorded the bass and guitars. I had about two weeks off from WT before the festival season kicked off and that's when Damian visited my place to record the vocals in my studio. He did that in one and a half day!!! After that it was two more days of recording the grand piano. We used Martijn Spierenburg's (WT keyboardist) grand piano for that.
And you're right; I released my soloproject ForAllWeKnow in April 2011. And I can reveal that I've started to write a second album. When that one will be released is still unknown. This is a project I do in between other things. I'm not easily satisfied with composing and writing so it will probably take a while. I can say that I'm definitely gonna work with Wudstik again...
Rockoverdose.gr: That's a hell of a schedule! We watched the trailer from “Across The Seventh Sea” some days ago. You have incorporated songs from different IM albums this time, not just one.
R.J: Correct. We were doing shows in support of the MTAP album. Since there are only nine songs on the Piece of Mind we had to rearrange some extra songs to be able to play longer than 45 minutes or so... We didn't want to do one album on it's own this time but take different tracks that we liked best.
Rockoverdose.gr: Which song has been the most difficult to re-arrange?
R.J: They were all pretty easy because we tried a lot different ones. We kept the ones that let themselves translate into acoustic versions best. That doesn't mean that the songs don't sound completely different in comparison to the originals. A song like 'Flash of the Blade' is almost unrecognizable in the beginning. And 'Infinite Dreams' is a pretty hard song to play so there are different levels of difficulty...
Rockoverdose.gr: Who came up with the title really and how?
R.J: Joey did. It's a line from 'Wasted Years', the last track on the album...
Rockoverdose.gr: Your debut had a guest appearance from Anneke Van Giersbergen, now it's Pertuu Kivilaasko of APOCALYPTICA! Is he going to follow you on your forthcoming European Tour too?
R.J: Well, he won't be doing all the gigs. He's a very busy guy... But we're looking into getting some special guests for our special gigs we're going to do in the Netherlands at the end of the tour (end December)...
Rockoverdose.gr: So finally the response of the people must have been pretty good! How do you feel while playing these IM classics?
R.J: One of our biggest concerns when we started this project was whether or not the biggest Iron Maiden fans would appreciate it or get it at all for that matter. For all we know (badabusshhhhh ;-)) they could have been like "don't touch and molest 'our' songs!!!" But I think that it has always been clear that we do this out of respect for the music. And it shows that we're having a lot of fun on stage playing these songs...
Rockoverdose.gr: Less than a year ago you did a mini tour in Greece, looking forward visiting us again in November?
R.J: Oh yeah! Bring on the suvlaki and tsatziki. Naah that remark alone wouldn't do justice on our experience first time around. The greeks are very passionate when it comes to Iron Maiden and that shows during our gigs. I'm really looking forward to it!
Rockoverdose.gr: It's too early but, are there any thoughts of yet a third album with MAIDEN UNITED?
R.J: Yes there are thoughts about it and we already know what it's going to be. And no; I'm not gonna tell you just yet...
Rockoverdose.gr: Fair enough...! Any other important news from WITHIN TEMPTATION's camp?
R.J: Other than the big anniversary gig not...
Rockoverdose.gr: Thank you very much for your time Ruud, see you in Greece soon! Is there anything you'd like to add?
R.J: Hope to see all your readers at one of the gigs we'll do in Greece at the end of this year; check www.maidenunited.com for more info...
For Rockoverdose.gr: Zisis Petkanas, Stella Tsolakou
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