”Listen to as many people as possible, and don’t try and stylise yourself on one person”: Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris gives advice to young musicians and songwriters

Iron Maiden‘s Steve Harris has shared advice to young songwriters and fellow bassists, outlining the importance of carving out your own sound.

While speaking on the Scars and Guitars podcast, the legendary bass-slinger was asked if there was a “compelling event” in his life that changed or shaped the way he approaches songwriting. 

In response, Harris notes how he tends to not reflect on his songs, nor the reason why he might have written them. He says, (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar): “I’ve never really analyzed it like that or thought like that. I just write as I feel at the time. That’s why any album that we do, Maiden or whatever, it’s just a statement of where you are at that point in time.”

“I don’t tend to look back on it and analyse it or anything. It’s only when you sort of do interviews like this that you sort of sort of think about stuff like that, really.”

Speaking of how life experiences inform his songs, the musician also states the importance of letting your natural intuition guide the songwriting process: “When you’re doing new stuff, you just do stuff that you think feels right. 

“Sounds very fundamental, but really, you don’t want to be trying too hard to not repeat yourself. You just write with feel and write whatever you think is best at the time.”

He continues, “It’s tough. It’s hard to explain, I think, to anyone who has maybe not written a song yet or has only written one or two songs, perhaps. I mean, obviously, Maiden’s been around a long time, and all the different experiences that you experience, and everything, all that goes into your limits of how you write and where you are at any particular time.”

When asked if he has any advice to share to young bassists trying to hone their own sound, Harris replies: “Well, I’ll just say to people, listen to as many people as possible, and don’t try and stylize yourself on one person. A lot of people say to me, ‘Oh, I wanna play just like…’ You shouldn’t do that.

“You should just listen to lots of different people, and eventually, hopefully, you’ll come up with your own style and sounds, otherwise, you’re just gonna get people saying, ‘Oh, you just sound like someone else.'”

Listen to the podcast episode below:

Last night (September 1), Iron Maiden kicked off the Australian leg of their The Future Past tour in Perth.

Across the evening, they performed a number of songs from their most recent studio album Senjutsu, tracks from 1986’s seminal album Somewhere In Time, and other fan favourites, including Fear Of The Dark, The Writing On The Wall, Can I Play With Madness and more.