Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) explains what it means to him to play with musicians less than half his age

A few weeks ago, the vocalist of Iron Maiden, Bruce Dickinsonoffered his first solo concert in more than twenty years. As many will know, in this type of show, the charismatic frontman is surrounded by David Moreno to the battery, Mistheria to keyboards, Tanya O’Callaghan (Whitesnake) on bass, and the guitarists Philip Naslund and Chris Declercq. Dickinson recently explained what it means to him to play with musicians less than half his age.

In an interview with the Brazilian radio station Radio Kiss FM on account of his current tour around the country to present ‘The Mandrake Project’they asked the vocalist about what fans could expect from his shows and this is what he responded: “Oh, wow. We are having a great time on stage. It’s amazing to play with musicians who are less than half my age. So the energy and enthusiasm are simply beyond the usual. I mean, we’ve been learning new songs, and we just throw them into the set, say, “Yeah, let’s do it tonight.” Many bands, like Maiden, for example, don’t change the set every night because they have a big show, fireworks and monsters. But with this project we do”.

This peculiar configuration benefits musicians: “So, yes, the people who come to Curitiba to see the show and those who go the next night to Porto Alegre are going to have a different show. And it’s interesting for us, it keeps us on our toes musically. It’s the first time in Brazil, I have some things to put on the screens, so I think we will have screens behind us. I’ve developed a lot of material, some pretty good background stuff. Because we don’t play to a timecode or a pre-recorded track, we don’t use tapes, backing tracks and all that shit, we’re musicians who really play, so if we’re excited, we play a little faster”.

The band’s attitude comes from the old school: “We look at each other, and we say, ‘Should we stop now? Yeah. Okay. One, two, three, four, boom. Should we start now? One, two, three. Boom. Come on. We look at each other.’ each other, we play with each other, it’s old school. And the way the stage is, I designed it to be deliberately different than normal, where it’s all about having a huge drum set right in the center.. Well, we have a pretty big battery, but it can be heavy and also beautiful.”

There is a song that surprised live Dickinson and company: “We played “Navigate The Seas Of The Sun”, which surprised us when we first played it, because we had never done it before, I had never played that song live. We’ve played it three times now and each time I’ve been surprised by the reaction. It is a very emotional reaction. Is beautiful”.

Bruce Dickinson alone, precisely, will be one of the names that will be on the poster of Resurrection Fest for 2024 with Megadeth, Corey Taylor, Alice Cooper, Bring Me The Horizon, Avenged Sevenfold, Babymetal or Machine Head to the head. You can find entries at the official website of Resurrection Fest.

In it number 460 of La Heavy You will find among its outstanding contents a large poster of Bruce Dickinson. Deep Purple have taken the cover of this April issue in which they also hope Judas Priest, Ace Frehley, Kerry King or Rage among many others, in addition to Sober completing the poster section on this occasion. Run to your kiosk or visit our online store so you don’t miss anything.

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