 Appleton. Yes. Yes. We're going to discuss the brand new Blaise Bailey album War Within Me. Yep. Yeah. Very exciting guys. Gentlemen. Alan, you should have sort of coordinated with Chris. Appleton. Hold on. We got the same one. We got the same Taylor. Look at that. That's bizarre. However, I'm the outsider. All right, Blaise. Very exciting news. New album. Yeah. Very exciting. All right. I mean, let's take this apart. I invited Chris because Chris had to be on the show. Huge part of this album. Right? So well, I mean, a little triangle in the background. Well, it's, it's, I started to get rid of him about, you know, five years ago. What happened was we, we did the trilogy. It was our first big album together, our first big undertaking. And I mean, it was impossible really, but three albums, three years. And the third part, we did all of that, I think, was just me and Chris. And when we still had some ideas, we had some bits and pieces left over, but we spent so much energy making those three albums, three album, one each year. Really, I mean, great quality in the songs that we just run out of energy, you know, creatively speaking. So I said to my manager, well, we need two years really before we can, before the energy comes back and you start getting creative and ideas just start appearing rather than just using technique. So, um, so he managed to find that two years. And we did bits and pieces over that time. And we had always scheduled our recording to be 2020. We were going to come back from South America, do a little bit of touring, then do some writing and then some festivals. And what happened was we did one of the last live gigs of any band, I think, in March at Burr Fest, I think it was, in London. Sold out show, absolutely fantastic. And then after that, gigs just went bup, bup, bup, bup, bup, and they never came back. And we were already scheduled to start recording. So in one way, we had this crazy thing. We were really sad that all the shows had disappeared. But each festival that disappeared gave us an extra three days to work on the album. And what we did was we used that as kind of cooking time, which is very important in the process, the way that we write, get together. We did everything on, we started out using everything on this old green guitar. We made that decision early on. And Chris played, he worked out the riffs, the melodies, the solos, everything on the guitar. Honestly, everything, you know, and all our early demos were purely acoustic. And then we could take them away, give ourselves time, come back, having not listened to them, come back and then go, okay, now with a fresh ear, how do we feel? And it was great. It gave us that little bit of extra time to really find the arrangements that the best thing. We're always looking for the best journey from the start to the end. How do we connect the lyric, the music, and the emotion? How do we get those three things together and get them across? And sometimes we get a flash of inspiration. Sometimes it's a battle with each other. And sometimes it's like have you seen a movie, Sharknado, where the sharks come into it? Sometimes it's like that. And we're grabbing a shark and trying to wrestle the thing down. That's how the song feels. Feels impossible. Well, I thought this was a fast song. No, it's a slow song. I thought it was a long song. No, it's a short song. April 9th, I want to throw it out there. April 9th, pre-order the album. April 9th, it's coming out. And I want to get Chris's opinion here too. Chris, was the shark tank described the shark tank a little more? Tell us your input there. I know Blaze not really, really dramatic there. Oh, well, yeah, there was a bit of tangling and it does get challenging at times. But that's just one of the things that we do when we're songwriting because we're always trying to get the best results. And if one of us is thinking one way and one's thinking the other, I think the good thing that me and Blaze always do, that we always want to try everything with a song before we actually go, yeah, all right, this is definitely the way we should go with it. So if Blaze says, oh, let's try this quiet intro and then I say, oh, let's try this in the instrumental or something with a different swing to the song, we're always interested in trying to find the best thing. So sometimes it's a battle and sometimes it comes fairly naturally. It's the best type of music, right? And I think Blaze nailed it. You've got to cook it up. You've got to cook it up, right? Sometimes it's like a part of the process which I have always found really valuable. It's like the oven. You put something in the oven, you open the door too many times, it's never quite cooked, it's never quite finished. You put it in the oven, you leave it, you come back to it, and you see if it's good or not. And that's what we did quite a few times. And we were very lucky that we had that opportunity that we were able to live with things. We had some ideas that we had in the vault for a couple of years, a lot of brand new things. And we knew at the beginning that it was a positive album and it was going to talk about heroes and it was going to say, look, when you feel hopeless, when you feel like you can't go on, get this album out and remind yourself that you can. Just simple messages. And as the lyrics came and different things up, we just kept this thing in the mind, right, we're going to be inside our fans head. And when we have this privilege and honor that people are letting you into their room, into their life, into their head, what am I going to say when I'm there? Because look what we're going through and look how difficult it is for all of us to adapt to this change in circumstances. And that's what we kept doing. And we just worked here in our own small home studio. And I remember Chris just coming up with this one little bit, I said, I fancy something with like a descending chord vibe. And he started going on it. And bang, it was pull yourself up. And I was going to push it out. And the chorus started working. And then the lyrics came out. And it was about two major episodes in my life. First, I had a terrible motorcycle accident just after I joined Iron Maiden. And the physio said, I don't think you will ever walk without a limp. And I thought to myself, you don't know me. And man, I got off those crutches as soon as I could. I threw away that walking stick as soon as I could. And over the years, and he took a couple of years, I got the strength back in my leg. And I never limped. And I was in pain a lot of the time. I never, I never limped. And another thing was, I remember a family member saying to me, you're never going to make it. You can't sing. What makes you think you can sing? And I remember a journalist writing, Blaze, you just can't sing. And that's like 30 years ago. And there I am tonight. Here I am. I own my own tiny record company. I've produced my own album. And my wonderful fans support me and enable me to live my life as a professional full-time artist. So the second part of the song goes, come and sing with me. Because there's nothing special about me. But I had this help and this support. People kept me going. Fans kept me going. And I was able to get a voice, find my voice and get to the top job that any heavy metal singer could dream of, being the frontman of Iron Maiden. And just from that little thing that Chris did, it just went bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. And all this came together. And that was it. And it's a fantastic song. You know, it is. And it's got this repetitive chorus. And somehow he's made it. He's made that chorus grow and it's not boring even though it repeats. And he just, he goes, pull yourself up. Because those are the words, the mantra that I had to use sometimes when I felt desperately alone to keep going, pull yourself up. Come on, pull yourself up. Get yourself up. Pick yourself up. Keep going. Come on. Don't listen to them. To throw this to the reviewer, Alan. Alan, you heard this album. I've heard this album. Describe this album without the musicians. Go. I mean, Blaze just touched on so many points there. I mean, for me, it's a much more positive album with the shorter songs of the trilogies and their albums before much more longer and much more introspective, I can say. But I mean, you know, listen to this album, it's just, wow, wow, nice short songs get to the point and positive. I mean, I think Blaze, am I wrong or you're in a better headspace, it seems like, with this album than maybe in some of the prior question. Well, I wanted to do something very positive. I knew that I wanted to do a song that had heroes. I knew that I wanted to have some songs with heroes that perhaps, you know, people weren't so familiar with. So 303 Squadron were Polish and Czech pilots. The Nazis in World War Two had already invaded their countries, tortured and murdered their families. And these men were able to make their way to Britain and join the RAF and fight against the Nazis again. And they had the highest kill rate of any fighter squadron. They were a vital part of the battle of Britain on some heroes. I had to do something about them because what they did was incredible, absolutely incredible. And just to point out, that's the song 303. And the first song was actually called Pull Yourself Up. Chris, musically speaking, and Alan always makes fun of me for this. What is the musical direction? Like, what is, if you had to describe, if someone came up to you and said, what does this album sound like musically? Is it like Maiden? Is it like Blaise Bailey's solo? Is it like, what is it like? Well, it's a combination of everything that you've said. It is a very, you know, everything that we do, do has that kind of Maiden influence, you know, and has that kind of tag to it. But I wouldn't say that it's an out and out, sort of Maiden copycat when you're listening to it. You know, if you say that I Maiden because it's got harmony guitars and memorable riffs, then, you know, that's definitely in there. But I think if you listen to the album, it's got a lot more towards the heavier side of metal. The Maiden. And it does sound like a Blaise Bailey solo album, you know, because it's the fourth studio album I've worked with Blaise on. And it was a great thing working on this album because we've written so many songs together now, even down to choosing what key the song is in we're able to, you know, have your gelling over the years. It's almost like we've got to go to things. So, oh, yeah, let's let's put it in this key because this is a really comfortable thing. And then when we want the aggressive side of Blaise's voice, we can go to certain keys that we know work. And so and we've got a lot of things in common with both big Dio fans. So, you know, that that rubs off with a lot of the sort of melodic parts. And when Blaise wants to do the more expressive side of his voice, we know where to go and how to put it in. So, you know, a lot of the guessing work had already kind of been eliminated because we had so much experience working with the trilogy. You know, I got to say, and I'm going to as a reviewer here and Alan is a reviewer. And I think Alan touched on it short to the point songs heavy. This is like a heavy album and the production Blaise and Chris and Alan, to me, it's it's it's three steps up from the last time. Am I right? Thank you. Am I right? Yeah. It's a lot of it's a lot of work. What we what we did was we went back and listened to all of my solo albums together. We just had a day in the studio. We listened to everything, right? Because the manager, my manager, Mark, had said, Well, there's a couple of things that I like the sound of. And, you know, I'm not telling you what to write, but these are things I think that Blaise Bailey is and that how a Blaise Bailey album sounds. And Chris and I listened through to our own particular favorites of songs from albums that I've done and started to get a vibe, you know, like, you know, yeah, this part of the blood and belief album when it does this is something that I'd really like to get involved with. And this part of man who would not die that that feels good. And this part of Silicon Messiah, you know, we haven't done anything like that for a while. And, you know, there's another place that that idea could go. And I think it was good. It gave us this common frame of reference. And then as we were writing and we were looking for parts, we go, you know, that bit on Silicon Messiah where it does this, we need something like that here to do this. And that was a really good part of the process. But again, we were very lucky that we had time, you know, we felt relaxed. The other thing was this is a very different way that I've recorded albums. I've done demos like this, but we took a decision. We're going to record this at home. We're going to do the vocals at home in the home studio because we had great success with my acoustic album, December Wind, which Chris recorded. And of course, then there was no way to get together with the drummer. So we were here. And the whole thing came together right. We need the drummer beats, send him the beats, get the beats in, add them in later. Then we were lucky we could get the bass player to come and play his parts. And my part of the production, I'm dominant in the arrangements. And right, where this riff should go with this, and then Chris starts to take over with the details. Right, this tiny bit here should go there. And then we go towards the mixing. So we complement each other. It's a headache sometimes. And sometimes it's almost a fist fight. But we do complement each other in our strength. And, you know, we give each other, I think, probably Chris doesn't think I'd give him any space whatsoever. But I think we do give each other that bit of latitude that he goes, some things you may not be convinced. And I'll go, no, this is how the song goes. And I'll go, all right, then. And then other things I'll say. And I've got, no, this is how we achieve this sound. And it's worked well. And another thing that we were able to do is we were able to find a drum sound very early on. And all the way through the process, we have the same kick and snare drum. We selected that. And as we were arranging it, we were going, yeah, this is, these are the drums, we won't need to change these sounds or anything. And that really helped us because on the previous three albums, we hadn't got that opportunity. And that really helped us on this one. I'll just go, I'll go through the few tracks you guys can throw out your comments. There, you know, War Within means a great track to start the album off with. Well, you know what? That was one of the last ones we did. Oh, wow. And yeah, it was one of the it's Chris had done a demo. He had the complete song, all the music with the solo, everything from start to finish. And, you know, he's one of the last ones he said, well, I've got this idea. I said, well, leave it with me. And I'll just take my time with it. And I was looking at some of my notes that I use for my meditation. And I thought, bro, I mean, I thought that's a lyric to go with this song of Chris's. I mean, it's a way that Ian Gillan works with Deep Purple, that, and he did it with Black Sabbath as well. He'll have a finished song musically. Then you'll take that away and find the lyric and the melody for it. And that's what I was able to do. It was quite a challenge because I hadn't done it for a while. But then I started to get the vibe of war within me and it started coming together lyrically and melodically. It was tough. And it was this self-destructive, negative, low dark side against this positive, pick yourself up, responsible, kind, go ahead side. And that came out. And I think it's a battle that many people have and have to get through is trying to get your better nature to be the dominant part of your personality instead of the negative, get blind drunk and destroy your life side of it. And it just came great for me. I sent it to Chris a very rough demo that I did on my phone of the lyric and he said, wow, these lyrics are really good. And it worked well. And gradually over time I thought, no, this is it. This is the name of the album and it's the first song. It just has to be. So Chris did a great job. This was just, this was in Chris's own vault. I dragged it out and it just works so well. Good job, Chris. Good job. I'm having deja vu blaze because I think, you know, this is an ongoing theme with a lot of your albums and you're saying the struggle between the negativity you have to overcome and remain positive. I mean, I think we had that conversation years ago where we met. Yeah, it is something. There are themes that I go back to. One is identity. Who are you? What makes you? What are the things in your life? The things that you do that you identify with and that make your character and your personality? What makes you you? And then the other one is the eternal struggle between light and dark. And many of my lyrics have featured an anti-suicide message to try and remind yourself that you have a choice. And part of every storm ends, the last track on the album, that's a true story of my own emotional journey when my relationship broke up and I had to come back from a tour to an empty home. And that was it. And that was tough, man. It was tough being on that tour and it was tough coming back and every storm ends is about that emotional journey. But I was lucky. I had support of incredible people and friends like Chris and I have wonderful fans that kept me going. And I was able to get through it. That was a storm. That was a horrible thing but it did end. It seemed like it never would but it did end. It is a valid like song so everybody knows it ends off. The album ends off with a nice beautiful piece. And Chris, that's my favorite solo on the album. You really touch into the emotion of that song with that solo. That's off. Thank you very much. It wasn't originally planned to be the last song on the album and when we were deciding the track order, Blaze made the suggestion, let's put every storm ends and tie in with the ending of the album because we just couldn't get it to fit anywhere else. And it just seemed to be a natural end to the whole thing as one piece of music if you're listening from start to finish, the ten tracks. So yeah, it's a perfect place for it. Alan, for me, when I see the power of Nikola Tesla, Blaze, I mean, it's like, he's a depressed man. Wasn't he depressed and poor and broke when he died? No. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. Like, I was the whole story. There's a lot of easy there. Do you know how he died? How did he die? He was run over by a taxi cub in New York City. Yeah, he was run over and he never recovered from his injuries. That's how he died. He was in his 80s but still as bright as he ever was. So I knew I had these three scientists that I had to write about because of the things that they'd achieved and perhaps things that they weren't so known for. And Nikola Tesla, he wanted to give the world everybody free electricity. Oh yes, I remember that. Yeah, of course. So that is the real story of Nikola Tesla. It is that, of course, no one is going to allow that to happen in the capitalist western world. You can't have free electricity. What will they do? We won't be able to get them to go to work. How can we enslave them if we give them free power? Why would they go to work? So that was the real story. And there's a bit of telepathy in his story as well in that when he was a child, he had a dream of a water wheel and Niagara Falls. Oh yes. Then years later, he designed and built the first hydroelectric power plant. And nobody knew if it would work because he refused to tell any of the other people on the project the whole thing. They knew that. And I think his Westerhouse was the boss, I think. He said, how does it work? And he said to the guys, will it work? And they said, we don't know. Nikola didn't tell us how it works. And Nikola Tesla himself turned the switches and then the electricity came out. It had never been done before. He's banging on the door trying to get in. Thomas Edison's banging on the door. Wasn't Thomas Edison his boss? Didn't he work with Thomas Edison? Yeah he did. In the early, one of his first things was when he went there to the USA, he had a great recommendation letter. And he worked for Thomas Edison for a while and then they parted ways. And they could never agree. Edison was entrenched in this DC production of electricity, which meant you had to have local stations transmitting it. Whereas Tesla had found a way to step up and down the power so you could have one big central power station and you could transmit that power for miles and miles without the need for these little power stations. So that was the real crux, I think, of their disagreements. Edison and Tesla remind me of you and Chris, you know what I'm saying? Well, I had to do Nikola Tesla and then Alan Turing, he's the godfather of modern computing and there is an argument to say that because he invented that computer and cracked the enigma code that World War II was much shorter because of his contribution and what he invented. And I wanted to celebrate Alan, I wanted to celebrate him because he dreamed, he was another person who dreamed, it was an actual dream, he dreamed of this artificial intelligence. And now here we are, here we are with Siri listening to every single word and recording it. And giving us ads. I can't, yeah, I can't have one of those speakers in my house because I would just swear at it. I'd be like, I'm such a bully, I'm so evil. I would just be swearing at that. Big data, my friend. The unstoppable Stephen Hawking. I mean, there's a genius, there's another genius right there. Well, this song is about the man. I wanted to celebrate the man. Fantastic, a genius, discoveries, supermassive black holes, Hawking radiation, lots and lots of big scientific discoveries. But for me, the most important part, the most important story is the doctor said to Stephen Hawking, you have motor neuron disease and you have about three years to live. 49 years later, Stephen Hawking is on a world tour doing lectures and he can't even speak. He doesn't have a voice. But he's, so he's achieved the impossible. He did not accept this sentence, that death sentence that the doctor gave him. He refused it and he just carried on regardless. He had too much to do, too much to live for and there he was, this frail, wrecked, twisted frame with this incredible brain. I don't think I would have survived that. But for me, that is the thing I really wanted to celebrate. And when we came up with the chorus and Chris and I just looked at each other and go, wow, where did that come from? Maybe Stephen Hawking's looking down on us and he sent that to us. Sorry to cut you off, please. I would say, Chris, on that song, that is the maiden song of the album. Yeah, I think you're right. I wouldn't say the rest of the album is like maiden-ish, but this is definitely the maiden. The main parts of the music to unstoppable Stephen Hawking. I think that's been in the bank the longest. It's been the longest on the whole thing because I remember on the first tour I did with Blaze, it might have been the anniversary tour of Silicon Messiah, we did in 2015. And we were doing a lot of the writing sessions for the trilogy at any spare hour we got in a hotel or a day off. And the core roots and the main riffs for Unstoppable Stephen Hawking were from all those years ago. And we just never quite got the song or found the lyrics and the melodies to fit it into the trilogy because it all had to fit it correctly in the story. And I think we just pulled it pulled it out the bag in these writing sessions and we said, oh, what about this? And then Blaze had the idea, the hawk, and that became Unstoppable Stephen Hawking. Well, originally it was never meant to be this, you know, massive epic song. It just kind of developed into this massive thing that and it's like, oh, let's put another solo here. Let's do a midsection. And you're probably seeing yourself, Stephen Hawking, what does he have to do with metal, Blaze? What does he have to do with metal? It's been a common theme in my writing, you know, way back, you know, even to the Wolfsbane days. And, you know, with Future Real in Maiden, there, you know, there's quite a few things. Silicon Messiah has a strong science fiction theme that I have the 10th dimension, which is a concept album about a scientist. So I have these, I did a song about Galileo as well. I have this interest in science. And I think it's one of the good things about metal, you know, we don't always have to be fantasy. We don't always have to be Christian or Satanist. So, you know, we can do anything that we want really. And, well, I think that's what my fans enjoy. And Chris and I, we both like Queen. And one of the things that we like about it is there isn't a particular Queen style of song. There, the style of Queen is a great song that makes sense musically and lyrically. It's not in, like, not every Queen song feels like another version of Bohemian Rhapsody or Seven Seas of Rye, you know, when you've got crazy little thing called Love and Fat Button Girls, but they're all great songs and they all have their place. And I think for us, the most important thing, before we worry about any kind of detail, does the song work? Have we got the melodies we need to take the listener on the journey so that as we introduce the vocal, the listener is drawn to the vocal, and then as we introduce the instrumental, the listener is taken on the journey in the instrumental. It's not just right now, it's time for the solo and back to the verse. We never do that. If that's appropriate, we do it, but it rarely happens. It's, right, where do we go after this? How do we get to that part? Where do we go with this? And I think on this album, we've got just some magnificent solos from Chris. I mean, it's just great. And I think 18 days, 18 flights. That's a Saxon vibe. I got a Saxon vibe coming out. Yeah, and that's because it's a true story. It's an absolute true story. We were in Chile and the guys down there had a festival and called it Blaze Fest. Had the local bands, big indoor gig, fantastic lighting, wonderful stage, great sound system. Everything was going really, really well. And in the middle of the fifth song, Escape Velocity, we have this breakdown where it starts chugging. And the fans started running away. That's not good. And then the lights went out. And then the electric went off. The power went off. And the promoter, organiser, came over and said, Blaze, it's an earthquake. We've got to leave the building. And I thought, wow. And there's Martin McNeigh, and this is in the song, going like this. It's still going. It's still going through. I'm still going, go, Martin, stop. It's an earthquake. And then the message came on the phone. I mean, this is one of the scariest messages disconcerting that I've ever had. A tsunami warning, go to higher ground. And then you're 50 meters from the ocean. Right? So it's like, wow, this is a, it could be a, so we have to get up to some higher ground. Oh, it's like he had a great song, right? The guy, the guy, the promoter Omar, I think he's saying is, we came down and there's bits of building in the streets and all of this. And and he said, wow. He said, do you think you'd write a song? You're going to write a song about this. And I thought, you know what, this would be, so that was on the list then. It's like, oh, we've got to write a song about that. You know, when you think of deep up all and smoke on the water, we've got to write a song about that. Bedlam in Belgium. Bedlam in Belgium. Faxon, Long Arm of the Law. You know, there's a great history of the tradition in what we, in rock and metal of these story songs about, you know, some event that happened when you were on the road. And I said to Chris, how many flights was it? And he said it was 18 flights in 15 days. And I thought, that's the lyric. That's the lyric. And we built the song around that. Just, just everybody, Mark, I'm going to tell you all the people from all around the world that are watching. Okay. You got Marco in Italy, Sandra in Switzerland, Josh in the UK, in Maine, you have Manchester, UK, you have Lancashire, you have Montreal, Canada, you have the UK, Germany, Newfoundland in Canada, Ohio, Scotland, France, more Canada, more Italy. And I mean, and I guess my question is, is you've become a global force to be reckoned with. This is not just the UK. A global tsunami. A global tsunami. It's incredible that you've, you've, with all your struggles, you've, you've broken globally. I mean, I guess that's your touring, right? Rape plays at that. Well, I'm very lucky. I'm very, very lucky. I have wonderful loyal fans that have stayed with me for years through thick and thin. They've bought every album, come to every tour. And sometimes I haven't been, you know, that good hand on heart. And people have stuck with me and they've made it possible for me to continue. So I'm very, very lucky. And we have tried to tour with every single thing that we've done, you know, so we've kept going. But the main thing is I'm just lucky to have the support of these wonderful people that make it possible for me to live my dream and live as a professional heavy metal singer, a songwriter and make the album that I want to make. And no compromise about artwork, the music, anything. The only person that has any say in the music is Chris. We're working out together. As you know, that's it. Yeah, that's it. So I'm very, very lucky to have such incredible support. First time me and Alan interviewed you was the king of metal. Yeah, that's how long it's been. And that was a long time ago now. What is that, 15 years? Yeah, it is. Yeah, got to be maybe like 12 years somewhere around there. I mean, wow, it's Well, I just like to add to that, Jim, one of the things that Blaze told us at the time is, and Paul DeAnno told him, he says, there's no way you can ever have your own band to tour anymore. And now look with the Absolver, that's exactly what you're doing. Well, Chris is his own band. You know, he makes his own albums with Absolver. They're a wonderful band. They make great music. They have a particular sound that is British heavy metal. And they do their own thing. So it's not my band. If I don't do anything, those guys are on the road themselves. They're making albums. They're going on to doing their own thing. They're a great band in their own right. So what's good for me is I'm able to get those guys, okay, right, come and do my stuff with me. And we've developed a really great work in relationship. And then they can go and do their thing that they do. Well, you know, those Absolver albums are really good and Chris produces those. They sound great. Luke is on there. Luke Appleton. He's also been playing with Eister as well. So they are, they're really great albums. And many of my fans have also become Absolver fans as well. So speak to us about Absolver. Sorry, Chris, you know, we don't want to leave you guys out. And, and, you know, you do so much for Blaze, you know, backing them up, then doing your own tour. So what's going on there just quickly? Yeah, well, we've been busy as well. We released a new album last year. And it was it was already planned and we released it during the lockdown. And then through through 2020, we released a new live album live in Europe, which was really cool because I managed to find a lot of concerts from Absolver gigs over the past few years and managed to make a live album with a lot of different gigs from different countries. So it was quite similar to ACDC if you want blood. So it was, you know, each gig, each track on the album was from a different concert. So the live album got a lot of good response. And it was great because obviously with the restrictions with COVID, we couldn't really get together and write songs. There's a lot of work happening remotely. So I could mix the live album because it's all, it's all recorded, it's all there. So it was a great, great thing to put together, very, very exciting. And we've just started writing a new album, a new studio album. So we've got to got the first early ideas for that, that myself and Luke are working on. And we hope to get that ready for later on in 2021. Good news. Yeah, well, you know, I got to say, you guys do a phenomenal job blaze like always. And when I look and I listen to this album and I had the pleasure of listening to the promo, I was really impressed. And you know, like I love all the blaze albums, I'll be honest, right? I don't think there's an album I don't like, but this is one of the better ones of the ones that I like. How's that? You have great tastes. And when I wear your shirt, I'm better looking. You feel better. That's why I wore the shirt. But again, if we, if we could just, you know, sort of reiterate the positive messages. I mean, for me, the unstoppable Stephen Hawking, that's just using his character to talk about the strength within, or you can decide how to live, right? Warrior, the courage to rise up again, right? Yeah, well yourself up. Hey, by the way, is life preordained, blaze? Life is not my philosophy in my philosophy. Your future is in your own hands. Life is not preordained. That's why I was so happy when I found that lyric. And I've got that word to fit that preordained word. It's not preordained. That's what they tell you. That's what people want you to believe in my philosophy. Your future is in your own hand. And whatever journey that you're going on, it's a series of small steps, small decisions, little decisions that you make, and taking responsibility for the things that you do, not abdicating your own personal responsibility for yourself and society, then this is what's important. For me, the future is in your own hand. And it's like a ripple on a pond. Your idea, your dream is a rock, a stone that you throw into the lake, and you see the ripples go, right? And you've started. That's it. And then you follow, and you ride those ripples and you keep going. So for me, that's the future. It's it's in your own hand. That doesn't suit everybody. Some people want destiny. They want things written. But no, not for me. It's you start from the shore, you look across the lake, and you go, well, it must be a way to get there. Yeah, you know, I've always wanted, and I think we probably talked about this like 20 times, that blaze opening up for Mayden, that tour. I mean, that would be the, I think every Mayden fan would agree with this, right, Chris? Every Mayden fan would agree with this. How can we make this happen? Who do we have to call here? I mean, who do we have to call? I don't know, but it would be a lot of fun. And, you know, obviously, I've been in the band, so I know that they really do have good catering. Okay. So we'd be well fed on that tour, and we struggle to eat healthy on our tours normally. So that would be one advantage. Certainly, I would love to see the guys, you know, I spoke to Steve a couple of months ago about what he's doing, you know, and how we're coping with COVID and everything. So it would be a really fun thing to do. But, you know, I think the food would be a big attraction. That would be the incentive to get a good rider. Healthy food, healthy food, every day. Let me just see this. All right, somebody's got a, I want a cool question, something we never thought of asking, and just throw it out there. If somebody's out there who wants to throw it a great question, all ears, and I'll ask it as long as, of course, it's appropriate. In the meantime, live streams, I mean, is this an option for the Blaze Bailey live streaming, doing a show as you're waiting to play the live gig? Here's the problem. We don't live together. So we live in different places in different parts of the country. So it's difficult for us to get together. At the moment, there are restrictions on where you can go and what you can do. We're in a lockdown situation. In the early days, in Wolfsbane, we all lived in the same house. So we can do it. And, you know, when I did, Manor would not die. We were living in the same house. When I did Promise and Terror, we're all in the same house. When Chris and I got together, I think we had the guys staying here and then going into the studio. I think for most of entanglement and endurance survive, we were all here together for a while, recording. But when we're not recording, and we're not touring, we're not together. I think that's how we actually survive and we haven't killed each other. Because when we do get together, we've got something to talk about. So, yeah, so it's more difficult for us to do a live stream because we just, we don't live together. We're not all local. So there's some traveling involved. And I'm very aware of the rules and why they are there. So we were very careful on this album. We got a long distance between us. We spent 15-day sections together in our writing and recording. So we were in quarantine, kind of self-imposed quarantine together. Right, we'll do this. Then we'll do, you know, we'd spend 15 days away from each other and all of that. So we were careful doing that. And when we had, we were lucky enough to get Carl here to do his bass. We were distanced, safe distance. We had different chairs, different things to eat from as well. So, you know, we were careful during the whole thing. Martin did his stuff remotely. We sent him, said, right, we want something like this. Make it human, make it you. And he would send it back. And then Chris would stick it in the recording. You know, the album is possible because of the technology and the advances that have been made and because of broadband. Then that's how the album was possible. But for a streaming thing, it would mean that we would all have to get on the Zoom together. And then we'd all been separate places and so would the audience. We're part of the magic he's been in the same room. All right, here's some quick questions before we end. Favorite song to play live? I think it's got to be virus. Chris? You know, I like them all. For me, Judgment of Heaven is a big one. Yeah, that's big, isn't it? You know, it's it comes from nowhere, starts different. And then it's off into this big chorus and big instrumental. And that's one of my favorites. Allen? What's up? The Klansman. I've never performed with the ladies. I don't know which ones. The book. Will the book ever be released on the trilogy? Good question. Good question. All right, that's a bad question. I've got a big whiteboard, you know, it's the same size that you'd find in a classroom at a high school or something. So I've got a really big whiteboard. Chris and I put it up and we mapped out the album on it. And now the book is mapped out on it. And each chapter has its own small piece of paper with roughly what should be in it. There are 34 songs on the Infinite Entanglement Trilogy. And so there are 34 pieces of paper up there on the whiteboard. And so far, three of those have actually been finished and gone into the book. So it leaves me 31 to do. Okay, good. Yeah, I don't know. I am solid on it now in between these days, but it's a lot of work, man. Five years ago, I started writing it. Five years ago, I started writing it. And then I used the ideas and the words for lyrics. And that turned into the albums and everything. And then the story developed on the albums. And now there's more story on the albums than I had written. And it's a massive job, man. Massive. I feel like I'm writing Game of Thrones. So that's it for me, you know, like, this is my typing or even this. Oh, get this one in. But I learned this, this special thing where you get your thumb for the spacebar. That's increased my speed by about one word an hour. Yeah, I'm working on it. I'm working on the book. I'm full time on it. I've got about 70 pages that I think are really good. I've got another chunk of stuff that has to be sorted out, put in, and then it's very much the same creative process that we use for an album. But it's like writing 10 albums at once. So that's the thing. It's get it out, get the rough idea out there, go back, polish it, leave it, come back to it later. How does it feel? Oh, yeah, this bit needs polishing. Do the next bit. So it's like that. All right. Here's another question from Messiah of Pigs. What was it like performing with Paul Diano? We've interviewed Paul Diano many times. It's such a lot. I mean, so much fun. It's had so many great times together. It's been so much fun touring with Paul over the years, you know, and that was part of my comeback was when we did all of these shows with Paul, and I did a lot of touring with Paul in Russia, so different festivals and different things around Europe. What a great laugh. What a great personality. Would you consider like going again and doing a small little tour with Paul again when he gets better? I just don't have the time. Yeah. I mean, my manager, it's one thing after another. Oh, do an album, write a book, you know, and then I've been in touch with the Wolfsbane guys and we want to make another album together as well. So in between writing the book, I've got to try and write the Wolfsbane lyrics and get some songs together, you know, and Jase, Ed would send me some great music through from him and Jeff. So, you know, we're busy really, man. I don't have time to go on tour. No, really. Marco is saying, are you still in contact with Steve Harris? Okay, you already answered that. And would you consider him playing maybe as a guest on an album? I guess if Steve wanted to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Definitely. It's just the toughest thing about that is the logistics. It's Chris and I having a song and saying, right, we've got this. Let's send that to Steve and ask him to come up with a base part for it. It's just the logistics, you know, where is Steve at that time? Has he got time to do it? Is he on the road with Maiden or with White Liar, you know, with the British Lion? So it's just a logistical, it's just a logistical thing, really. All right. So on that note, Chris, you want to tell us what, if you buy the album, if you pre-order the album today, what different versions are there and what can you expect to get your name on it? You get a shirt, like what are the different bundles? Maybe you could just give a quick summary of that. Yeah, there's lots of different options. And great thing about this pre-order is we're doing the CD and the vinyl. And the vinyl. And the vinyl. And the artwork looks great. And there's all sorts of different options. And there's the premium packages up at the moment. I think some of the options are actually running out because it's sold really well with the pre-order already. So if anybody does want to pre-order it and you want some of the deluxe options, get in there quick on blazebailey.co.uk or blazebailey.net. So yeah, but it's looking great. The artwork is looking really fantastic. I can actually put that up for everybody as we speak, if I can get to it here. The artwork is beautiful. Who did that? Aki, who did the last one as well. And I sent him the rough demos that we had and told him the song titles and what they were about. And I said, I really want to see the elements of the songs. I see a black hole. There's a black hole, right? There's a black hole. Yeah, he took the December wind for me. And every song, he got a little illustration about it on the cover. I said, I wanted it here. So Stephen Hawking, his chair is disappearing into a black hole. And there is a little tiny Nikola Tesla with some lightning. And then there is the enigma words as well. And there's some hurricanes flying across because that's the 303 squadron. So it's good. And of course, the main illustration is the giant, magnificent blaze head with two blazes fighting inside for to own the mind of Blaze. And that's the war with him. So he's done a fantastic job there. Yeah, no, it's beautiful. And that's pretty much it, guys. Unless, Alan, you have something else you want to add? No, again, positive messages, great guitar solos, great production, like you said, Jim. And just a pleasure to listen to. Congratulations, guys. It's really something. Thank you very much, Frank. Thank you. You're there and you hope that people will understand it. You think you have the vibe. We look at each other and go, yeah, I think it's good, but you never know until you let it out. And I would just say to you guys, please tell everybody about the new album, War Within Me. And if you hate it, please lie about it. It's a good sales technique. Buy it, regardless. Purchase it, regardless. Actually, I know one last... Make an informed decision is by purchasing it and then deciding for yourself. Yeah, this is a way to end it, OK? And I think it's a good way to end it. And Matthew says, does it bother you to be more known as the ex-singer of Iron Maiden rather than just Blaze Bailey? Well, that depends who you talk to. It really depends. It really depends who you talk to. Being in Maiden, it was the top job in the world that a heavy metal singer could have. And I had it. And I wrote songs, had top 10 hits, did huge concerts. And I have a lot of fans from the Iron Maiden days. But it's five years out of a career of 35 years. It's two albums out of a career of 20 albums. I have 11 solo album studio. And I think it's three or four live albums. So it's important. But it's not the whole story of Blaze Bailey. And there are fans that like Blaze Bailey. And Maiden is a second band. So for me, it's a wonderful time. It's a great thing that Maiden is so known. And I'm associated with something. And I'm very proud of the work that we did. And if somebody comes and investigates and finds out about Blaze Bailey, because they listened to Iron Maiden, that's great. There's still a few fans there of Maiden that hate me. So I'm doing something right. All right, guys. The hardest working man in metal, Blaze Bailey, and a new absolve album coming out in 2021. So for Chris, congratulations and looking forward to it. Thank you very much. Cheers. And guys, this was fun. And we'll see you when you come to Canada. Yeah. Cheers, guys. Stay safe. Stay safe, everybody. Have yourself a good night.