We know that Iron Maiden's forthcoming new album Senjutsu was recorded in early 2019, and vocalist Bruce Dickinson has revealed that in order to not have their latest leak online ahead of an official release, the completed material was quite literally "locked up in a vault."
Dickinson revealed the band's strategy in conversation with Metal Hammer, adding that not even band members had copies of the 10-song set by the time tracking was finished.
"At the ending of the recording, everybody else had fucked off home, so it was basically me, [bassist Steve Harris] and [producer Kevin Shirley] in the studio," Dickinson shared. "We played it back a couple of times, said, 'Yeah, that's alright then!' and then that was the last time I heard it or nearly two years. All of us! Nobody in the band had a copy!
"Steve, in particular, was so paranoid that someone would leak it onto the internet, and probably with some justification, it was locked up in a vault."
The frontman added that he only heard the completed album a second time while working on last year's live release, Nights of the Dead. "I went round to Steve's, and I said, 'You haven't got a copy of the album, have you?' and he said, 'I think it's on my laptop!' And he had only played it a couple of times. He hadn't heard it for ages either, so we said, 'Fuck it, put it on the big speakers!' That was when I was thinking, 'Shit a brick, this is good!'"
You can read Dickinson's interview with Metal Hammer here.
Thankfully, the new music will not be kept locked away for 1000 years, with Senjutsu due to arrive September 3 via Parlophone. The album follows Iron Maiden's 2015 double album outing, The Book of Souls.
Dickinson revealed the band's strategy in conversation with Metal Hammer, adding that not even band members had copies of the 10-song set by the time tracking was finished.
"At the ending of the recording, everybody else had fucked off home, so it was basically me, [bassist Steve Harris] and [producer Kevin Shirley] in the studio," Dickinson shared. "We played it back a couple of times, said, 'Yeah, that's alright then!' and then that was the last time I heard it or nearly two years. All of us! Nobody in the band had a copy!
"Steve, in particular, was so paranoid that someone would leak it onto the internet, and probably with some justification, it was locked up in a vault."
The frontman added that he only heard the completed album a second time while working on last year's live release, Nights of the Dead. "I went round to Steve's, and I said, 'You haven't got a copy of the album, have you?' and he said, 'I think it's on my laptop!' And he had only played it a couple of times. He hadn't heard it for ages either, so we said, 'Fuck it, put it on the big speakers!' That was when I was thinking, 'Shit a brick, this is good!'"
You can read Dickinson's interview with Metal Hammer here.
Thankfully, the new music will not be kept locked away for 1000 years, with Senjutsu due to arrive September 3 via Parlophone. The album follows Iron Maiden's 2015 double album outing, The Book of Souls.
