"IRON MAN ADRIAN SMITH MAKES HIS OWN SILVER AND GOLD"
by Lori Smerilson Faces Rocks Magazine, July/August
The acronym "a.s.a.p." is certainly a familiar one in today's society.
So is the name Adrian Smith, at least in the hard rock music society.
What is surprisingly unfamiliar about Silver and Gold, the former Iron
Maiden guitarist's Enigma debut LP as A.S.a.P. is the unique and
versatile performance that differs from his previous world renown
sound.
"Our music is straight ahead rock- melodic, but with a hard edge,"
Smith explains in his thick English accent. Furthermore, he says
making this record as Adrian Smith and Project (that is guitarists
Dave Colwell and Andy Barnett, bassist Robin Clayton, drummer Zak
Starkey and keyboardist Richard Young) let him experience new and
diverse aspects of the music industry. "There was a lot of
experimentation." he says. "Maiden had done so many albums, but this
was a new thing to me. I was much more involved in the day to day
running of the project, not only in the studio musically, but
business-wise as well. So that was a bit of an eye opener because I
had never done that before in Maiden.
Of course the most obvious skill that Smith utilized on this record
that he didn't with Maiden are his lead vocals. "I sang before I
joined Iron Maiden," he divulges. "I sang in bars for years with other
bands. I've always sang and played guitar though. I've never been a
straight, stand- up vocalist. When I joined Iron Maiden I kind of
sidelined that a bit and concentrated on guitar playing. Now, I'm sort
of picking up where I left off really I suppose."
He also picked up formal singing lessons a couple of years ago which
were quite an experience for the blond Brit musician. "They were a bit
of a joke because you're standing around a piano with this guy and
singing scales. I felt like a complete idiot at first, but he kind of
helped a little bit. I just thought I'd give it a go, broaden my
range."
Ironically enough, Smith had experienced a similar situation shortly
after picking up a guitar. "Yeah, it was a bit like the singing
lessons," he recalls. "Me and Dave (Murray) used to go to the same
guitar teacher and we'd go in there trying to play rock'n'roll and
this guy would be teaching us `Twinkle, Twinkle Lit'le Star' and we
had to play that. We were going `yeah, not quite what we want to do,'
but it teaches some sort of discipline, the basics."
Prior to those lessons Smith's same ex-axe-mate was the reason why he
picked up a guitar to begin with. "I grew up with Dave actually," says
Smith from NE London. "We just lived a few streets away from each
other. Around the age of 15 or 16 when you're thinking about what you
want to do with the rest of your life, I remember listening to bands
like Deep Purple and Free and that really made me want to get into
music seriously and play guitar and stuff. Around that time Dave was
playing guitar. Everyone's playing now, but then it was more rare. I'm
talking about a long time ago," he laughs. "It was like `Dave's got an
electric guitar!' So, we used to go to his house and he had a spare
one lying around so I sort of took up from there and learned a bit off
him. He'd already been playing about a year. That's where I started."
Smith also credits his career choice to his own Irish mother who plays
the fiddle (violin), his dad who plays the ukulele and harmonica, and
his brother who plays flamenco style guitar. And then there was his
drummer's dad, a fellow named Ringo who had a band with some mates . .
. "When I was growing up, the Beatles were really happening in
England," Smith recalls. "Everyone had Beatle wigs and stuff like
that. Yeah, I'll admit to that, I had one. That was sort of my early
influence."
Now, having played in bands from age 17 on in England's club circuit,
Smith feels he's come to terms with how he wants to assert his
capabilities with A.S.a.P. "When you're growing up you copy people or
you try to copy people and through your mistakes you stumble onto your
own style. I think that's definitely my case. I'm not an out and out
24- hours-a-day practicing guitarist. I appreciate technical players,
but I'm into others like singing and songwriting as well."
This is basically why A.S.a.P. was formed last January, apparently
only as a time filler initially. "Andy and Dave are two of my oldest
friends," Smith notes. "I had a year off with Iron Maiden so I decided
to go into the studio with some friends. I knew their work and I liked
their work. The rest of the guys were in fact a band on their own
called Ran, and we just hooked up.
"We wrote together pretty well," he continues, "myself, Andy, Dave and
a little bit with Dick. We all knew each other so it went pretty
smooth. Well, we had our moments, but overall it was pretty smooth! I
didn't really have anything solid in mind. We had the songs written so
we just put them down and tried to make them as good as we could. We
spent a lot of time arranging and writing songs. I think that has a
large bearing on the overall end product, you know? Get it right from
the start and not try to tidy it up as you go. That was the idea we
had."
Even though Smith shared songwriting responsibilities with his
bandmates for brand new songs like "Down the Wire" and
"Misunderstood," he wrote "Silver and Gold" and "The Lion" some five
years ago. "I never really took much interest in lyrics before," he
admits, "but this time, having to sing them and sound convincing on an
album, I took a lot of time out to make sure people would feel what
the songs are about. For instance, `Lion' is an old story about
someone picking up a hitchhiker. A guy picks up a girl, drops her home
and then goes back the next day the home is all broken down- she was a
ghost and all that sort of thing."
Smith & Project also utilized this type of clever creativity for their
album cover and video. "We kind of sat down and said, `what would be a
good idea for the album? How could we make it different, you know,
sleeve- wise?' I think my manager Rob hit on the idea of calling it
Silver and Gold. Originally it was supposed to be like a girl and the
Goldfinger kind of feel, you know the film Goldfinger? The James Bond
film? the girl with the body paint?
"So, we explored that a little bit and got in touch with Spencer Rowl.
He's a fashion photographer and he kind of took it one step further
and we got the whole feel. Then we did a video for `Silver and Gold,'
which I think is in the process of being banned from MTV at the moment
because we have bits of the album cover, the naked girl that I must
say is very, very tasteful. you can't see anything specific. It's kind
of an artsy shot. We hope MTV will play it. Smith also hopes to have a
second A.S.a.P. album released possibly before he tours extensively.
As a veteran musician, he expresses his enthusiasm for playing tin the
States, claiming that it's easier to tour here than in Europe.
"Europe's like a nightmare," he says. "You're going through like 12
different countries, you've got pockets full of change you don't know
what to do with, you eat different food everyday, you feel really
messed up. Over here, it's easy. You get on the highway and go."
Smith's obvious admiration for U.S. radio and clubs (apparently,
England is still rather underground) will hopefully pay off as his
record makes its bid for success on these shores. But why wait? Silver
and Gold should be added to every trued fan's collection A.S.A.P.
-----------------8<----------cut here----------8<-----------------
ADRIAN'S SILVER THREADS AMONG THE GOLD
by Andy Bradshaw Metal Hammer No. 21, vol. 4 (late 89?)
Adrian Smith presents the modest face of rock. Most lead guitarists
will regale you with tales of outright debauchery, hedonism and
general making of hay while the sun doth shine. Most guitarists who
are part of an internationally successful rock band tend to want to
put out solo albums consisting of widdly-widdly guitar indulgences.
NOT so Adrian Smith.
"Silver and Gold" is an album which completely "knocked my socks off"
so to speak and delivers a set of ten songs which are nothing like the
preconceptions I had drawn up in my mind.
For a man who is supposed to have been taking time off along with the
rest of Iron Maiden, Adrian Smith and Project sound like a band who
have either worked unbelievably hard in a very short time, or have
been together for a correspondingly long time!
In order to express my utter astonishment at having my illusions about
solo projects completely shattered, I met up with Adrian at EMI's
London offices to talk to him about his glittering achievement.
He arrived looking somewhat hassled. He was after an hour late.
London's infamous traffic had claimed another hapless victim. He was
plied with tea and invited to soothe his ruffled nerves before we
began.
It has been well documented how Adrian used to work with an outfit
called "the Broadway Brats" and "Urchin" and also how with Nicko
McBrain he played a few light hearted gigs in a band under the moniker
of "The Entire Population of Hackney". What I was keen to know was
whether he had waited a long time for a chance to go out and do his
own thing?
"Well I used to sing in a band for years and this was something that I
had always wanted to do, but it was just a matter of the right timing.
It just so happened that this year the vibe was right to do it and
having kept in contact with the guys from "Urchin" and "The Broadway
Brats", Dave Colwell and Andy Barnett, we got together to do the
album. We had pencilled this time in to put something together during
this break with Iron Maiden, so we recorded some demos and started
writing some material."
The songs sound nothing like the material which you would expect from
a Maiden guitarist. I asked him whether he found himself writing a
great deal of material outside Maiden?
"Not really, I write songs only if I have to! I'm not a particularly
prolific. I don't get up in the morning and start to write or
anything. I normally take the approach that I've got to come up with
some songs so I sit down and work at it until I do. It's very
satisfying to come with good songs, but I do find it a bit of a wrench
to do it."
Steve Harris recent mentioned that he had heard some older Adrian
Smith songs and was a little surprised he had not included any of
these on the album. Was this a deliberate move?
"Yeah, there were some older songs such as a song called "Lady" which
we used to do about ten years ago which I suppose we could have used,
but I suppose there's this psychological thing where you want to come
up with new material. Maybe there is some old stuff which may be one
day resurrected. I think what happened was that I just got my down
writing and completely forgot the old stuff!"
Adrian was supposed to be taking a year off. I would hardly call
sitting down and writing and recording an album over a period of seven
months a nice quiet rest by the seaside!
"It was more a question of a change being as good as a rest. I must
admit I did find myself at some points asking myself why I was doing
it, as it started right off the back of a tour. There were a lot of
things happening in my personal life too, my wife was pregnant, we
were moving house and there I was trying to write songs with the guys
coming round making a racket! In addition to all that, because it was
essentially all running through me, there wasn't a spare moment when I
wasn't on the phone to someone. It was very enjoyable, even though it
was quite hard work and I learned a great deal, particularly singing
for the first time on record. I look at it this way, I can spend the
rest of my life putting feet up but this is what I want to do now."
What particularly surprised me about the album was Adrian's voice. The
first time I hit the "play" button on my Walkman I remember thinking
"I must find out who the vocalist is . . ." only to find out it was
none other than Mr. Smith himself! For a guitarist who'd never sung as
a front man it must have been quite daunting the first time when he
was standing there in front of a great big vocal mike with the tapes
rolling in the background recording every little nuance and vocal
inflection.
"We rehearsed for there weeks and we were kind of loose about the
whole thing. We had a lot of fun and went out to clubs and things, but
we didn't really hone it all down too much in rehearsal, we just got
together, had a few beers and effectively played a gig. We didn't do
much pre-production either until the producer Steven came in at the
last minute. But yeah, when it came down to that first take it was
pretty nerve wracking, but that it's all a lot easier. You have to
take direction form the control room and learn as you go along."
Were there any vocal lessons involved anywhere down the line?
"A year or two ago I had proper singing lessons. I'd never had any
before but I thought I'd give it a go. I so there I was singing all
these "proper" songs and scales standing next to his piano feeling a
complete prat! I thought then that if I could do that then I could do
anything. Fortunately, I couldn't apply any of this new found
knowledge to what I was doing with this and I reverted back to my
basic shout with a few vocal licks here and there! Luckily, the
texture of my voice seems to fill up the space on the track, which is
good because I don't really have a range. Also, I write to suit my
voice and within my limitations."
What I find frustrating about the albums is that if this were a new
British young band we would be sitting round promising great things
for them, but all it is a project. It seems a great shame if this is
not going to be taken any further than just a one off release, with no
live dates to accompany the album.
"Well, the more I think about it and the more people ask if I'm going
to gig the material and the band, the more I'm inclined to think about
doing it. At the moment having spent what amounts to seven months
working on this album, what I am really thinking about is trying to
catch up on other things. The last thing I want to do is put myself
under the added pressure of a tour. Apart from that there is not
enough time before Maiden gets back together to make an impression
with enough gigs. The only sort of gigs we'd be able to do would be
showcases which would just be in major cities, which even then is
quite a lot of pressure. But as the pressure of the album is now
easing of I am starting to seriously think about going out there. I
know the guys in the band certainly are. Ideally, I'd like to do a
parallel thing with Maiden. It all depends on how much interest is
generated by the album."
Adrian admitted that he would feel naked going on stage without a
guitar in front of him but that would not deter him from going up
there and fronting the band. He used the term "band" more often than
"project" which implies a number of things, particularly that although
it is headed up with his name, more than just his input goes into what
happens in terms of writing and arrangement. There is more to it than
even that, because the overall sound of the band has that tightness
which only comes from a band and not just a bunch of randomly
assembled session men. Adrian explains why.
"The band is a band in its own right! The guys play together as a unit
called "Ran". Andy Barnett sings the lead vocals in that and plays
lead guitar. ON the album the two of us play the lead lines, so it's a
case of "whammy bars at dawn", as someone said! Then there's Bucket
who plays a lot of the more textured stuff on the album and he played
a few of the solos too."
As the band was the "Adrian Smith Project" as such, did he find
himself becoming precious at any point about doing all the solos or
was it all done in a relaxed atmosphere?
"We actually joked about this, because yeah there could have been a
problem if I'd been funny about it. We worked it all out OK so that
everyone was happy, because unlike in Maiden where there are two solos
in every song in these there is generally only one because the songs
are so much shorter. At the end of the day though there was enough
work for everyone to do without them feeling hard done by. It got to
the point at times where because we did a lot of over-dubs and
acoustic stuff, it was more like "right, you can do this bit!"
What about the rhythm section?
"Robin Clayton on bass also plays with "Ran". He's a school of music
graduate and is to say the least, adept! He plays a five string bass
and is really good. On drums we had Zakk Starkey, Ringo's son who came
in for us. Originally Nicko was going to do it but he had set a date
to get married which happened to coincide with the first few weeks of
us recording the album, so he couldn't do it. But it worked out really
well with Zakk anyway."
Would the band which recorded the album be the band which went out live?
"Yeah, I think it would be great if we could use the same people. the
nucleus of the band was me, Andy and Dave, the three guitarists plus
the keyboard player Richard Young, who also contributed to the
writing."
The arrangements of the songs are very rich in texture, how much input
came form the band in tailoring the overall sound of the songs?
"We gave a lot of thought to those arrangements even to the point of
changing them in the studio. That was one of the major differences
with this project, everything was like a first time thing. In Maiden,
you go in and you know exactly what you are going to do with your
guitars, the sound, everything. With this we did more experimenting.
There was never any danger of it ending up sounding like Maiden,
because Maiden has such a distinctive style and sound that if you get
a group of guys together, they are not naturally going to end up
sounding like that. What we were doing was more or less the opposite
end of the spectrum from Maiden as well, less progressive and more
traditional verse-chorus-verse-chorus which I quite enjoy."
That was one of the sides to the album which I personally found very
satisfying and refreshing. When I first heard about this project I
thought "Oh, great, Iron Maiden guitarist, solo album, hours of
widdly-widdly!" Adrian found this idea highly amusing and was
evidently please that he had chosen to go down the route of good solid
songs instead of epic indulgences. The songs themselves were an
amalgam of the whole band's input.
"It's quite complicated really, because when we got together to do the
album, I had about forty-five percent of the songs like "The Lion",
"Silver and Gold", "After the Storm" and a couple of other ones off
Side Two. The other guys had "Down the Wire", "Misunderstood", and a
few other ideas. We ended up amalgamating different ideas we had and
adding bits to each other's songs which is why we eventually decided
to split everything. This way we could bounce ideas around together
without worrying about who wrote what."
Did he ever consider what might happen if the album really takes off?
How on earth would he support it as it's not really a full time band?
A follow up album perhaps?
"I've never even thought of it like that. But it's a question which
I've got to ask myself. What do I do if Maiden take another break?
Record another A.S.a.P. record? Who knows? I'll take it one step at a
time for the moment."
What about Iron Maiden, looking forward to getting back to work?
"Yeah, it'll be great, slippin' back into the machine!
(
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