The career of Blaze Bayley has been characterised by triumph and tragedy: notable spells with Wolfsbane, Iron Maiden, and a solo career have found him releasing genre-defining albums whilst personal pains, including a motorcycle accident and a recent heart attack, threatened to derail his progress. Throughout it all, Blaze Bayley has remained an unstoppable force, and when we spoke to Blaze at this year’s Firevolt festival, we found him in rude health and ready to take on the world.
You’re due on the Firevolt stage in a couple of hours. What’s your initial impression of the festival?
“I’m very lucky in that my band, which is the guys from Absolva, played here a couple of years ago in that guise, and they absolutely loved it, and they said it’s one of the best festivals they’ve ever played. It’s nice to have things which aren’t corporate; there are many festivals I played which are mainly run by volunteers, and it’s all about the music, and you can just feel that people are there because they love the music. Then there are other places where you feel as if all the bands have been chosen for a specific reason, it’s totally commercial, and they’ve done just enough for the fans. In my heart, I’m still a fan, because I do loads of gigs and play all over the place, and I’ve made a load of records, which doesn’t stop me being a fan of music. I check out established and new bands; Wytch Hazel, Green Lung, and Tailgunner, then I’ll go and watch Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and W.A.S.P., and all of those groups. So, in terms of a festival vibe, I want it to be a more personal experience, and I don’t like massive ones. I also really like family-oriented things; I don’t like it when it’s exclusive, when it’s over 18s; does that mean there’s more drink involved, and people are a lot less sensitive?
So, I prefer family-oriented things; it’s nice when you can share your love with family, and generally speaking, all the band’s here this weekend are all playing music they wrote themselves, there’s a lot of emerging bands as well and that’s important for me; I look towards the future of rock and metal, and Firevolt is the future. It’s run by enthusiasts who don’t pick bands because it makes sense to a massive corporation, well, no, I want to see the bands that I know are good. For example, Wacken festival started with a couple of guys who wanted to see Saxon, they got permission from a farmer in Wacken village and put Saxon on a lorry trailer. Saxon weren’t doing so great at the time, but they did it, and where that lorry was is now the dressing room area; it’s a whole massive thing now. But they didn’t set out to make the biggest festival in Europe; they just wanted to put on the bands that they liked. It’s the same thing at Firevolt; it’s all about the music, and you can see a lot of great bands over the weekend. The other thing I like is discovering new bands.
You’ll often go to see a band for 10 minutes and then find yourself there at the end of the set. I’ve made a lot of new fans from festivals who would never know who Blaze Bayley was if they’d never seen me at a festival. Also, being in an interesting location is a big one; in Norway we played a festival on seashore behind some mountains and I said to the sound man “Can you turn the reverb down?” and he said “No, because I can’t move the mountains!”, the sound was bouncing off the mountains, it was fantastic, and Firevolt gives me the same vibe. There’s a nice feel to this festival, it’s friendly and everyone talks to each other, and nobody cares about which band you came to see.”
As an artist, what challenges does the festival season throw up for you? Yesterday you were in Belgium, does it mess with your body clock?
“It’s not so much the body clock because we’re all in Europe, it is mainly the packing for the flight; I always use my own microphone, then you’ve got to fit in your clothes. The next day I’m in the car and you can have a big bag with all your kit in, the next day I’ve got to downsize again for another flight. The worst part is the packing; to save cost and time, you’ve got to avoid those big check-in bags, you don’t want to be waiting by the carousel; you need to be on the way to the gig or the hotel. So, for me personally, the biggest challenge is switching between flying and driving to a festival. Firevolt is lovely because we drove here and we can stay overnight.”
Does all that travelling affect your voice?
“The voice is so powerful as an instrument and so expressive. It’s such a powerful instrument to have, and over the years I’ve learnt more about controlling it. But on the flip side, it’s vulnerable to a lot of things, and things show up in your voice, especially if you are tired, and that is quite nerve-racking. You can’t go to the shop and get a new voice box; you can’t get one off Amazon like you can with guitar strings. In many ways, the perceived view of rock ‘n’ roll is that people have a drink and go crazy, but that’s not what being a professional vocalist is about; a lot of what you have to do is be quiet, avoid social situations where you might be talking loud, and that’s the dilemma. I meet people at festivals who I’ve known for years, and it’s easy to greet them loudly and enthusiastically, and something as simple as that can affect your voice. So, it’s really nice when I go to a festival and I’m not performing, that’s a real treat.”
As an artist, you have a deep and wide discography. What are the challenges of putting a set list together for a festival?
“This year I’m celebrating the 25th anniversary of my Silicon Messiah album, which is my first solo album after Iron Maiden, and I wanted to do something of my own with everything I’d learned working with Maiden, and all the things I’d learned from Steve Harris. My songwriting was a little bit hit and miss before; I’d make a few good songs and then struggle turning them in to what I thought it should be, but I learned a hell of a lot in Maiden. Also, on Silicon Messiah there’s a few ideas that I was hoping would be on the next Iron Maiden album, I was hoping I’d be making another Iron Maiden album, so a couple of ideas like ‘Born As A Stranger’ and ‘Ghosts In The Machine’ would be on that album, that never happened and I thought these ideas are too good to let go, so I reworked them for Silicon Messiah.
Now, all of these years later and the way that my voice has grown, it feels so good to go back to those old songs with the voice that I have now and really bring them to life. It’s like seeing old friends, and a lot of my fans go back to that album as well. It is one of those things people first got interested in. They’ve been living with that album for 25 years, but a lot of the songs they’ve never seen performed live. I’ve also got newer fans who haven’t seen anything from Silicon Messiah, so it is really cool to go back and present the album live. I also throw other songs into the set, but it’s a challenge with 14 albums to choose from. There are so many songs which sound great live that when I’m putting the show together, I’ve got a list of about 50 songs! So, it’s horrible, but you have to be ruthless: this is a Silicon Messiah tour, so that’s where I pick most of the songs. I love performing those songs, but other tours, you think, ‘This is mainly Circle Of Stone, ‘ the new album. I love those songs; they were carefully crafted, and I agonised over them. But hopefully there’s time to circle round other songs from different tours. It is a challenge, but I have loyal fans who’ve stuck with me for years, so they enjoy different set lists.”
I was going to ask how you think Silicon Messiah has aged, but by the sounds of it, you are still very proud of that album.
“If you think about the job that Andy Sneap does with Judas Priest and Saxon production, we’d worked together before, but Silicon Messiah, we were very close, it was rehearsals, pre-production and everything, so that record sounds like it is this year’s album, it’s that good. Apart from the songs, which I’m extremely proud of and believe in 100%, it sounds so fresh, so it has aged very, very well.”
We’re coming to the end of our time, so finally, what are your future plans? You have lots of live dates for this year, but what’s next, studio-wise?
Studio-wise is bit by bit. I’m not planning on doing a complete album. What I find is that doing something that is worth listening to, that has artistic merit, I like to have two years between. It is not ideal. I could do an album every year, which I did with my trilogy, and it worked out great, but some of my songs for the third album were written for the first. Next year is when I’m writing and getting that album together. I’ve got some ideas, and as I do different things and go to different places, I see things and connect with that idea and know I’m in the right direction, but next year is when I really start and hopefully, we’ll have a new album for 2027.”
So, the future’s looking bright.
“I’m very, very lucky, my fans are so loyal and they make it possible for me to be a professional singer, they make it possible for me to even think about a new album. So, I’m incredibly lucky, not only with that, but surviving a heart attack and being an old bloke, but still people book me, and there are more people at my shows than ever before. I’m incredibly lucky.”
https://www.facebook.com/officialblazebayley
Interview by Peter Dennis
All Photos By Labrat Photos – https://www.labratphotos.co.uk/