Maiden Guitarist Hopes For Shorter Songs

Adrian Smith says that the next album may not feature so many long songs as recent efforts

Published 26th Apr 2012

Classic Rock Magazine reports that Smith was being interviewed on VH1’s That Metal Show when he revealed that the band's songwriting process had changed on recent albums, which may have resulted in the songs becoming more ambitious. On the Final Frontier, for example, the average song length was 7.49

"On the last couple of albums Steve, Bruce and me have written together, which is a new thing. Steve used to bringing three, four, five completed songs. But now he’s doing more arranging, production, overseeing. We sit down and write, and that’s reflected in the slightly different stuff. We’ve been writing longer for some reason. Maybe next time we’ll do some shorter stuff – but it’s difficult to look into the future too far.”

Smith paid tribute to artists such as Hendrix, Free and Thin Lizzy who mastered the art of short songs. "They did some great singles - put things into three minutes, which is a difficult thing to do, but it can be done.”

Maiden are out on the road in North America this summer for their Maiden England tour. 

The shows will see the band largely recreate their 1988 Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son tour, including the stage set and the setlist.

(Classic Rock Magazine)