Lauren Harris: A
storm is brewing
August 1, 2008
When you’re the daughter of Iron Maiden founder Steve Harris, music is in your blood. It’s no surprise, then, that Lauren Harris has taken up the family business. She’s earned her stripes on the road, performing at some of Europe’s biggest festivals and touring the world supporting her father’s legendary band. Her hard work has culminated in the release of her debut album, Calm Before the Storm, which showcases a no-frills hard rock sound and an infectious, melodic songwriting sensibility. Harris recently called in from her home in England to talk to Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki about her break into the music industry, the album and more.
Live-Metal.Net: Congratulations on the release of your debut album.
Lauren Harris: Thank you.
How does it feel to finally have it out?
It feels really, really great. It feels really surreal, actually, to kind of have it out and to hold it—you know, “Oh my god, that’s my album!” It’s a great feeling. I’m really excited about it and I just hope everyone kind of likes it, and hopefully I’ll create a fan following—that kind of thing.
I would assume that you’ve been around music your whole life, so when did you decide that that was what you wanted to pursue as a career?
I think I was kind of working my way up to it all kind of throughout my youth, really. But I didn’t really know about it at the time. I started singing when I was 9 years old and I loved music in school. It was kind of the only thing that I really loved doing. I used to have singing lessons in school and then after school I had singing lessons outside of school with kind of a professional, if you like. And I used to sing in pubs and stuff like that with a friend of mine on the weekends. And then I happened to be in a pub and Russ Ballard, one of his friends asked me if I would be interested in singing on a demo. Of course, I said, “Yes,” and I went to his house and did the demo and everything and got back and said to my dad about it and he was like, “What was his name?” I said, “Russ Ballard,” and he was like, “Oh my god. Do you know who he is?” And I didn’t realize at the time. That kind of pushed me to do my own demo and kind of get things rolling and that’s how I met Tommy [McWilliams], through a friend of my dad’s.
So I was always kind of interested in music and loved doing it and growing up around it, obviously, but I never kind of had, really, the confidence to actually get out there and do it. I never sang with a band before up until about three years ago. I was always quite shy as a kid, but I really enjoyed it and I loved doing it. I just never had the kind of confidence or that push in me to actually go in and be kind of the number one in the musicals and stuff like that. I would always go for the lead roles and never actually get them, but be the next one down kind of a thing, if that makes sense.
I read that Russ Ballard, when he first saw you or heard you, he wasn’t even aware of who your father was.
No, no. I didn’t know who he was. He didn’t know who I was. I still don’t actually know if he knows that now.
So was your father encouraging of you getting into this?
Yeah, definitely. He’s been behind me 100 percent the whole time. He always came and watched me even when I was singing in pubs and stuff like that. He was always behind me, so it’s a plus.
Over the last couple years, you’ve played a lot of shows with Iron Maiden, all over the world, I guess, right?
Yeah, pretty much now. It’s getting to be that way. It’s been incredible. Playing to their audience is a tough—I said to myself, “Oh god, we’re gonna go down so badly,” because obviously we’re a lot more commercial than they are. I was just really, really worried about it. He was just like, “You know, Maiden fans love melody and you’ve really got great melody in your songs.” So I was like, “OK.” I’ve heard some horror stories, obviously, about bands supporting them. But we’ve been going down really well everywhere across the board, really. It’s been fantastic.
You just finished up a U.S. tour with them.
Yeah, yeah. We did five weeks in the U.S.
How did that go?
Yeah, it was brilliant. It was amazing, actually. I’ve never been to any of the places in North America before. I’ve played in L.A. and New York before, but across the board you see different types of people and people react differently. So it’s really nice to kind of get that sense of how it is.
Do you know when you might be coming back over here?
Hopefully, towards the end of the year I’m gonna be doing some more touring, supporting another band and hopefully headlining some of my own shows in Europe and in England. Hopefully, I’ll be headlining some of my own shows in the U.S., as well, maybe like the early part of next year, going back and doing smaller clubs and stuff like that.
You’ve gotten to play the big, huge arenas and amphitheaters and smaller places. What do you prefer? What’s more fun for you to play?
I don’t know. They’ve all kind of got their differences that I like. Playing the indoor arenas are great because you really have that feeling of putting on a big show. The lights are all going and it’s completely dark, but then again you can’t see as many of the people. You can only see the kind of first five rows. So in a festival or in an amphitheater, you can kind of see everyone, which is great because you can totally see them getting into it or if they’re not getting into it [laughs], whatever the case may be sometimes. So I don’t know. I really like both.
After you did your demo, how did you go about putting together the band?
I met [drummer/producer] Tommy McWilliams through a friend of my dad’s. He was buying some furniture, actually, in Florida at the time and he hadn’t seen this friend of his for like 20 years or something. And he said to him, “What are your kids up to nowadays?” My dad said, “Oh, Lauren’s singing,” and he gave him a demo of me, and Steve was like, “You really should put her in contact with Tommy. He’s a great writer. He’s really looking to do another project, this kind of stuff.” So I met him and he came over to England and we talked about material and what I liked, what I listened to—that kind of stuff—the direction I wanted to go into. Then I went over to Miami with him and we started writing stuff and I started learning how to perform on stage because I had never done that before. I kind of did things backward, really, because I kind of recorded stuff and got all that down, and then I learned to play with a band afterwards, really. Just doing those big shows and learning how to do everything got me the experience I needed to do the stuff I’m doing now.
[Bassist] Randy [Gregg] came in a year or so later, and we met him through management because he used to play in Angel. And then [guitarist] Richie [Faulkner], my dad knows because he used to play in a band called Dirty Deeds and Voodoo Six, as well. So my dad’s kind of known him for years.
Had you been writing songs for a while before all this started happening?
I always kind of mucked around as a kid and I’d write stuff down and I’d do stupid little songs and stuff like that with my cousins and friends. I kept a lot of it. I’ve always had melodies and stuff like that in my head, and that kind of came easy to me to kind of do stuff like that. But doing actual musical parts, I could never do because I never picked up an instrument, which I regret now. So when I met Tommy, and Richie as well, we kind of sat around and they would do the musical bit, and then I would kind of sit there and help them come up with melodies and lyrics and stuff like that.
What are some of your biggest musical influences?
Stuff I kind of grew up listening to. When I was a kid, I listened to Belinda Carlisle. I really liked Shakespeare’s Sister. Alanis Morissette, as well. Heart is probably one of my favorite bands. I absolutely love them. I really like Def Leppard, as well. I love the Foo Fighters, as well. God, you can go on and on and on, can’t you? I really like the old classic rock stuff.
How did you end up covering the UFO [“Natural Thing”] song on the album?
It was my dad’s suggestion, actually. He’s a massive, massive UFO fan and he suggested that we play it live. We did and we ended up loving it so much that we put it on there as a bonus track.
I’m sure every interview you do you get questions about your dad and Iron Maiden. Do you ever get tired of those?
Not really. Only if they keep going on and on and on about him. I’ve had some people just ask stuff about not only him but the band, as well. I’m just like, “Well, you need to go through the right people and ask them if you want to know about that.” But when it comes to my dad, it’s gonna happen because he’s who I am, so I don’t mind answering stuff like that.
What long-term goals do you have for yourself and your music, if any?
I would really like to just build a really strong fan base and just people kind of really get into my music and to follow me. Just to be headlining my own shows and have people come and be a fan of me and come to see me would be great.
Related Links:
www.myspace.com/laurenharrisuk - Official Myspace Page of Lauren Harris
www.ironmaiden.com - Official Site of Iron Maiden
Additional Photos by Julie Strain |
