LINDA MCDONALD of THE IRON MAIDENS: Playing With An Accent
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
They’re American, they’re kick ass and they are soon going to rock New Zealand in the best way possible!
The Iron Maidens were formed in 2001 in none other than Los Angeles, California. Bonded together over their love of the British Heavy Metal stalwarts Iron Maiden, the original five piece set out with only one mission in mind; to be the best and only all-female Iron Maiden tribute band in the world! Since releasing their debut album simply titled The Iron Maidens: World’s Only Female Tribute to Iron Maiden they have developed a bit of a cult status following, travelling the globe and entertaining thousands.
Now on their way to New Zealand for the very first time, the current Iron Maidens line-up couldn’t be more excited. Chatting with original member and drummer Linda McDonald (formally of Phantom Blue) we discuss shoulder injuries, favourite Iron Maidens tracks and the intricacies of emulating Nicko McBrain’s drumming techniques!
First off if you don’t mind I would like to address the shoulder injury that you suffered and of course I sincerely hope that it is healing up!
“Oh my gosh. I am as close to 100% as I am going to be and that’s probably about 99% and I’m doing great with that [laughs] It was a rotator cuff and slap tear injury that was caused by a car accident so it happened rather unexpectedly and very quickly. You know I went on for about six months with playing and it hurt like hell but I had to do some shows and then I went and I had surgery and I was off another six months and that was the worst six months ever! It was so difficult not being able to play! I never thought it would be so difficult but it really was and that’s all over with thank god!” [laughs]
That’s wonderful to hear – I can imagine that for any musician an injury would be hard but for a drummer – who basically uses their entire body, it would be particularly difficult!
“Oh absolutely! And when the doctor said it would be ok to start playing he wanted me to start as in one song sit in, and then the next week I can up it to two songs you know as long as it didn’t hurt I can keep adding. Oh Man, I have never been so excited to sit in and play one song. The first song I played was sitting in at a benefit – we played for a friend’s wife who was dealing with cancer – and they had a bunch of the Maidens girls playing on other instruments and they had me sit in on ‘Big Balls’ [raucous laughter] So that was my first song back!”
Nice, how appropriate [mutual laughter]
Now a bit of the basics first – who or what first inspired you to become a drummer?
“The drums was the last instrument that I decided to start playing. The first instrument I learned was piano, basically I was following in my sister’s footsteps. She started playing piano so I started piano, she started violin so I did violin – only for like a semester in school so that doesn’t really count – and just tinkering on a little acoustic guitar.
And then you enter your teens and all the pretty stuff is really great and you learn all that, you get a solid foundation and then you wanna start getting a little more aggressive! [laughs] Yeah my brother started playing electric guitar and I decided that I was either going to get a bass or a drum set so that we could jam and you know play along together and I ended up getting drums first… and I’m so happy that was my choice. I think I’m better slappin’ drums than I am at bass.”
You’ve been with the Iron Maidens since 2001, which is a significant amount of time! How do you look back at the last seventeen years?
“Yeah you know it’s really hard to believe that it’s like our sixteenth year together…or seventeenth …let’s do the math here… it’s been a long time! I mean that’s longer than most original bands and stuff last. I think they say the average is three to five years but you know it’s just a statistic. I don’t know, maybe the secret is because we’re not writing original material in this band so there’s really no room for any argument? You just learn the masterpiece song from Iron Maiden and you get out and you play it for other Maiden fans. I cannot believe again that it’s been going since 2001 and I’m so grateful…we’re all so very grateful!”
Yes it’s a pretty impressive tenure when you look at it – as you said that’s longer than most orginal band projects last these days…
“Yeah! I mean if I had a kid when this band first started that kid would already be sixteen or seventeen [laughs] and they could actually come and watch us play.”
They could be your stand-in when you need a break! [mutual laughter]
Technically Iron Maidens’ last album was The Root of All Evil in 2008, but in reality most fans will have Route 666 which was released in 2007. Are there any plans for a new album of Iron Maiden tracks?
“Actually we’re going in to lay down bass and drum tracks and stuff soon, so we’re heading into the studio and we’re gonna get that sucker out there cause a lot of people have been asking for it and even though we released an album in the oh so distant past.
And you know it’s a whole different line-up now except for Wanda and myself. People wanna hear the stuff with the current line-up, and we get asked about it a lot so we’re just going to go in and cut some tracks.”
I think that comes about sometimes because despite the fact you are a tribute band every musician has their own particular nuances in their playing.
“Exactly. That’s totally true.”
Yeah and fans appreciate that.
“We’re trying to decide which songs to record, because if we went ahead and recorded Maiden songs that we haven’t recorded yet then people may not like it.
We asked people at the shows and we asked people online what they wanted to hear and they want to hear a lot of the classics that we have already recorded but they don’t care because they don’t have those old recordings and they want to hear the current line-up doing these songs.”
Originally you used to be in a project called Phantom Blue – do you personally have any current side projects that you are working on?
“Nothing original at the moment, which is kinda sad, but it’s ok. I’m keeping pretty busy with The Maidens right now and when I get involved with an original project it absorbs so much of your time and your focus. If I found the right one I would be more than happy to jump in at first – for now The Maidens is the main thing and a few side things here and there.”
That’s fair enough – I can imagine that orginal work would take up a huge chunk of personal time…
“Not for the guitar players – Courtney and Nikki are both working on orginal stuff of their own so I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about that this year! Nikki has released a few singles already on line and Courtney is working on a full Cd which what I have heard of it is pretty amazing – so stay tuned!”
Do you find that due to the fact the Iron Maidens are indeed a tribute band that you are sometimes not taken seriously?
“Well you know – we get this statement a lot; on line people say that we’re not real musicians because we’re not in an original band, we can’t write our own music because we’re in a tribute band etc. And that’s completely untrue because every single one of us are currently or have been in original bands throughout each of our personal paths of our musical history. We all didn’t learn how to play and just jump into a tribute band because that was all we ever wanted to do!”
Exactly – to me to be in a tribute band you have to be a ‘real musician’ because how else would you have the knowledge to understand and then play all of the elements of the tracks you are meant to be playing!
“You know it’s funny you say that, our bass player Wanda plays in Symphonies, she plays upright bass and she always says that ‘I guess every Orchestra is like a tribute band too. Because they are all playing covers too…but nobody ever says that they’re not real musicians…” [mutual laughter]
That’s a very good point… When you do come up against that kind of feedback – how do you combat it?
“Even with original bands, writing material is one talent; there is a lot of talent too in learning other people’s material and emulating it as closely as possible. You just can’t let it bother you, because no matter what you’re doing whether it’s original or in a tribute band or whatever you are doing, there’s always somebody who wants to you know say ‘Blegh’ because that’s just human nature and you just have to ignore it. It doesn’t matter, we’re having fun. Everyone who is playing in a tribute band is doing it for the fun and a love of the music.”
How many times have you yourself seen Iron Maiden play live?
“I will try and do a rough count…way back I saw the ‘Live After Death’ show, I was there! I would say at least ten times!”
Wow, that’s pretty impressive!
“I know that’s not a very high number as some of the Iron Maiden fans who travel all over the place to see them. And wow, I am in awe of those people, they are just so devoted! But yeah I think I am up to about ten… maybe twelve.”
With your career with the Iron Maidens so far – who do you find as the most receptive audience? Which country really goes to town when you guys come out to play?
“Oh gosh, you know I do have to say they weren’t kidding – everything you hear about the South American country being so emotionally into it and over the top is true [laughs]. Really, really into it. Same as parts of Europe; Germany they love their metal. I’m probably leaving out a bunch of really, really cool places but I’m kinda blank right now.” [laughs]
Yes I have heard that from several bands that South America really embrace the metal and the punk bands…
“Yeah, oh my gosh they do and they LOVE their Maiden, oh my god!”
Yeah, but who doesn’t love Maiden? [mutual laughter]
“How could you not like Maiden? What’s not to like, what’s not to love??” [laughs]
Exactly!
So I have to ask – and this is going to be a very hard question but… what’s your favourite Iron Maiden track?
“It does change you know, but I would have to say one of my standard favourites… I really enjoy playing Phantom of The Opera and recently I’ve come to really like playing Powerslave too. I like playing Genghis Khan too … ok I picked more than one” [laughs]
That’s alright you can have more than one [mutual laughter] I don’t think I could separate one track out that would be my all-time favourite!
Now you of course being the drummer in the band you are emulating Iron Maiden drummer Nicko McBrain – what would you say is unique about his particular style of drumming? What have you learnt over the last seventeen years about how he plays?
“He’s unpredictable! He won’t just do … when you sense that a fill might be coming up it’s not going to be what you’re expecting to come up. I think he is very much ad libbed, his vocabulary is different; I guess he plays with an accent. I don’t know if that makes any sense …”
No, I like that; it’s a wonderful way of describing his playing…
“It’s just not what you expect, the way he phrases it; it’s not typical I guess and he’s got a very quick right foot and the way he uses it, sometimes you don’t hear it right away but – and you have to listen really, really close to learn these things – you hear it, he’s comfortably thumping some of the times and then he’s just pounding away on it almost like a double bass and it’s just one pedal! I just like the way he … voices his phrases; sometimes it may drive me crazy when I’m trying to learn them exactly and if I can’t do it exactly then I just have to come up with something that feels the same.
You do your best to play what he’s playing; I mean of course everyone has their own style of playing so it’s never going to sound exactly like it. It’s ok to incorporate your style too, as long as you keep the main vibe the same and the overall feel the same then it’s ok!”
I have to ask because you have been touring for so long; do you happen to have any amusing anecdotes or fan stories that have stuck with you over the years?
[laughs] “Well there was a really funny episode in Europe where our singer…I think it was during Number of The Beast…she came out and she did a really deep squat and her pants ripped [raucous laughter] and during the song she ran to the back and our tech gave her her jacket and she tied it around her waist and she went back and finished the song like that. And then after that they had to use black tape to tape up her pants which were fortunately black. It worked! That was pretty funny”
[mutual laughter]
“It was definitely a Spinal Tap moment.”
When you perform live, do you try as a band to emulate the same tours that Iron Maiden have done? I.e. Do you have some of the same stage props etc – obviously on a much smaller scale…
“We have our own stage show; I wish we could afford to change our stage show and have the kind of stuff they do – but that’s just a little beyond our budget and our realm of possibility when we travel because we would need a lot of suitcases to bring that stuff! But we do have some Eddies that come with us and some little effects and that kind of stuff. It’s like we try to emulate their stage show on a smaller more intimate kind of venue level.”
Does Charlotte make an appearance? Because your second album cover featured her – obviously named after the track Charlotte the Harlot I assume…
“No. We did have Edina but she hasn’t been out for a little while, but we do have Eddie and the Devil and sometimes the Grim Reaper shows up … you never know who we’ve got … but we do have some Eddies.”
So have any of you visited New Zealand before, even for just a holiday?
“No. None of us! It’s been on the bucket list for many of us, for most of us actually either personally or with the band and now we get to do both! Well there’s not going to be a lot of personal time, some of us are actually contemplating going out and spending a little time either before or after the tour, and just having a couple of days on our own out there. You know, you’re going out there you might as well have a little fun right!?”
Iron Maidens perform this Friday night (25th May 2018) at Studio The Venue in Auckland, before hitting Christchurch’s The Foundry on the 26th May and Wellington’s San Fran on the 27th May. Tickets are still available from DavidRoyWilliams.com, but get in quick as these gigs are going to be super fun and are sure to sell out!
