The Greek Fan Club of Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden the Greek FC is pleased to present you a great interview we did with Thomas Zwijsen, the musician behind the project Nylon Maiden. Enjoy it below.
Hello Thomas and thanks for this interview! First of all I'd like to say on the
behalf of Iron Maiden the Greek FC that you're going a great job! So let's start
with the interview.
Cheers to everyone at the Greek Maiden FC!
-
How did the idea of Nylon Maiden came up?
It started when I was testing a
new nylon string guitar in 2007. I was (and still am) a huge maiden fan and I
played a part of Wasted Years on it. I then realised the whole song was very
suitable for a classical arrangement and so I finished the arrangement and
uploaded on YouTube. The amount of views and positive comments really surprised
me. People asked for more so I arranged Wasting Love and Aces High. The positive
feedback on YouTube convinced me to do a full album with Maiden arrangements; a
perfect way to combine my two greatest passions: classical guitar and Iron
Maiden.
- How many years are you playing the guitar?
I've been
"playing" guitars since I was born, my dad used to build guitars so they were
always laying around in the house. I think I took about 10 years of serious
guitar lessons up to now.
- Name your favorite Iron Maiden album and
why?
It's really depending on my mood. My favourite Maiden cd is Rock In
Rio. I'm a fan of the recent stuff with Janicks guitars.. My favourite song is
Dance Of Death.
- Is the band aware of Nylon Maiden?
Yes, some of
them are.
- What's your relationship with Blaze?
Blaze is a
special guest on The Clansman on my Nylon Maiden album. Besides that I've worked
together with Blaze on the King Of Metal album and tour, the Russian Holiday EP
and at the moment we are touring around the world with the Russian Holiday world
tour. (in fact he's sitting next to me now, driving the car)
- What's the
feeling of playing Blaze and Iron Maiden songs as the lead guitarist of
Blaze?
It's absolutely great, a dream came true for me! Playing those
Virtual XI and X Factor songs live with Blaze does make me feel a little bit
like being a part of Iron Maiden history. Also it was a nice challenge to learn
Janick and Dave's guitar solos. The same feeling goes for the Blaze songs,
especially the ones we've composed together.
- Personal opinion, Blaze's
voice on the self-titled song is at his best and your guitar playing superb, how
did you decide to make this release?
Thanks! After doing some acoustic
shows together and doing The Clansman for my album we both found that the
combination of his voice and my guitars was very interesting. We wanted to have
a go at some old songs and arrange them. Blaze came over to my house to rehearse
and we agreed we needed a new song to make the EP more credible. Blaze asked if
I had any ideas and I played some chords and melodies inspired by my one of my
favourite guitarists; Vicente Amigo. Blaze started making lyrics and we've
finished that song the same day.
- Tell your fans everything about
Russian Holiday EP
It's a classical EP featuring Blaze Bayley, Anne
Bakker on the violin and me on guitar. There are 4 very special arrangements of
previously released songs and one new song: Russian Holiday. It's a melancholic
song about missing home. The reviews have been great and we're very proud of
it!
- The release contains a full classical guitar arrangement of Iron
Maiden's Sign of the Cross, how did the tribute came up and how does it feel to
perform this song?
When we were preparing for our first acoustic UK tour
Blaze said "fans ask me a lot for Sign Of The Cross". I didn't expect it would
be possible to arrange the full song for classical guitar including all the
instrumental parts but after a few days of hard work it turned out great! Every
night it's one of the highlights of the show.
- Back to Nylon Maiden, how
can someone get Rainmaker and turn it into a melancholic classic track?
Hmm, I agree it wasn't an obvious choice! But the song has so many
interesting melodies and chords I just had to do it.. An important matter in
this arrangement (and others) was finding the right tuning. Still some songs
will never work on a classical guitar but this one definitely did! Also I'm very
happy with the recording and video we did in a cathedral, great sound.
-
Dance of Death? Blood Brothers? Those are two completely modern Iron Maiden
songs and I strongly believe the best tracks out of this release. What's really
your favorite song you covered?
Funny you mention those cause those are
(together with Rainmaker) my favourites too. I love the version of Dance Of
Death with Nathanael Taekema as a special guest on drums. To me it almost sounds
like an Irish folk song in some places and I love Irish folk (and
Guinness;))
In Blood Brothers I'm really happy with the middle section. That
slow guitar solo by Janick Gers is one of my all time favourite solo's. It was
the most challenging part to arrange on the whole album and also the most
difficult to play!
- What are your future plans?
First finishing
and surviving this tour;) then we go to Dubai, Australia and Brazil again. Also
I'm going to play solo festivals in summer and we're planning a crazy guitar
tour with two other amazing guitarists. I'm also working on video lessons and
tabs for all my arrangements. There will be a special "online conservatory"
section on my website in which we will release video lessons.
- Thank
you so much for this interview, cheers from Greece and we can't wait to see you
live!
Thanks for the interesting questions. I've got good news: this
summer I'm coming to Greece to play a solo show at a festival, more details
will be revealed on my website soon: www.thomaszwijsen.com
- Say
anything else you'd like to!
I hope you all enjoy reading this interview
and you check out my Nylon Maiden album. It's available on my website, www.thomaszwijsen.com, iTunes, Amazon,
etc. Thanks for your support!
