Blaze Bayley Interview

Blaze Bayley is a metal veteran. He got his start with Wolfsbane in Tamworth, England in 1986. The band was the first British band to be signed by Rick Rubin's Def American label. Wolfsbane's debut album, Live Fast, Die Fast was released in 1989 and had success in the UK. 1990 saw the UK release of the EP All Hell's Breaking Loose at Kathy Wilson's Place. After 1991's Down Fall The Good Guys had lackluster sales, the group was dropped by Def American. Wolfsbane found a new label and released the 1993 live album Massive Noise Injection followed by a self titled 1994 studio album. Their last two CDs were re-released as a double set called Lifestyles of the Broke and Obscure in 2001.

Blaze Bayley joined Iron Maiden in 1995, replacing Bruce Dickinson. He left Maiden in 1998. Bayley then formed Blaze and released their first album, Silicon Messiah, in 2000. It was followed in 2002 by Tenth Dimension. Neither album was originally released in the US. Blaze's latest CD is As Live As It Gets, a 2 CD collection of live material that is being released worldwide.

Chad Bowar: How did you find the other band members when you formed Blaze?

Blaze Bayley: I put out a press release and basically asked for guys who love metal music and wanted to make an album. I then auditioned people. I was looking really for people who were interested in the music. There are a lot of people who just want to be a big star on MTV or fashionable. I was looking for people who were doing it because they wanted to be into the music. Those were the criteria. We went ahead and did a demo. I thought that was good, so we made the decision to do a whole album and it turned out great.

How would you describe Blaze's sound compared to some of your previous work?

It's British Metal, really. It's two strong lead guitars and a power lead vocal. It's a sound that's very much based around the heavy guitars and the dual guitar sound, but with a bit of a contemporary edge because the guys I'm playing with are a bit younger and their influences go right back from Black Sabbath right through to Machinehead and more modern stuff.

Blaze's first two studio albums are now being released in the U.S., right?

Yes, they're coming out now and we're really really excited about it. We've never had the opportunity to have a record out in the States until now. They're putting out the first two albums, Silicon Messiah and Tenth Dimension , and the new live album comes out April 29th.

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