| Artist: Steve Harris |
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| Discography: Steve Harris |
| Wikipedia: Steve Harris (musician) |
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This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2007) (Find sources: Steve Harris (musician) – news, books, scholar) |
| Steve Harris | |
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 Steve Harris performing in Mansfield, Massachusetts, 20 June 2008
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Stephen Percy Harris |
| Born | 12 March 1956 Leytonstone, London, England |
| Genres | Heavy metal |
| Occupations | Bassist, songwriter |
| Instruments | Bass, keyboards, vocals |
| Years active | 1974 – present |
| Labels | EMI |
| Associated acts | Iron Maiden Smiler Gypsy's Kiss |
| Notable instruments | |
| Fender Precision Bass | |
Steve Harris (born Stephen Percy Harris, 12 March 1956, Leytonstone, London, England) is the bassist, band leader and primary composer of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. In addition, he plays keyboards, and sings backing vocals. He founded the band as a teenager in 1975. He and Dave Murray are the only members of the band to have appeared on all of the band's albums, and as Murray left the band for a few months prior to the first album to join Urchin, Harris is the only member to have remained in the band throughout its duration. He used to work as an architectural draftsman in the East End of London but gave up his job upon forming Iron Maiden. During the mid 1970s he was a youth team footballer for West Ham United. He still is a talented amateur football player and often has the crest of West Ham on his bass,[1][2] and he has stated his first ambition in life before music was to become a professional footballer.[3]
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Originally Harris wanted to play drums or be a professional football player; however he did not have much space for a drum kit in his house so he started to play bass and write songs[citation needed]. Harris is a self-taught bass player[2]. His first bass was a copy of a Fender Precision Bass that cost him £40 when he was 17 years old. He went on to use a signature Lado "Unicorn" model and an early 1970s Fender Precision with RotoSound strings. He now uses his own signature RotoSound flatwound bass strings. The strings that Harris uses, SH77, have a brightness not usually associated with flatwound strings. The bass has no tone control and Harris taps his head or body to cue the technician for treble or bass adjustments.
Harris' first band was named first Influence then Gypsy's Kiss. He later joined Smiler, of which all the band members were several years older than he was. He ended up leaving, as the members of the band made it clear that they did not care for a bassist who leapt around the stage and wrote songs, also his songs were too complicated for the band members, with the result that they did not want to play them.[citation needed] After Smiler, Harris went on to create Iron Maiden, getting the name from seeing an iron maiden, a type of torture instrument, in the movie The Man in the Iron Mask.
Harris is Maiden's principal composer and lyricist. His song writing typically showcases his trademark galloping bass patterns and features long songs with epic lyrics that feature many tempo changes. Harris frequently writes lyrics about mythology, history or topics inspired from books and films.
Harris is often considered among the best and most influential heavy metal bassists.[4] He is most known for his "galloping" bass lines - usually an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes at fast tempo (e.g., "The Trooper") or eighth note triplets – which he plays with two fingers. Before playing, Harris often chalks his fingers, to make these fast patterns easier to play, as shown on the bonus DVD for the A Matter of Life and Death album. Besides this he is very adventurous on the bass and plays intricate accompaniment in many of Maiden's songs. He also uses power chords, which are unusual on bass, on several songs. Harris has also stated that he never uses a pick and that he never warms up before a show.
He plays a specially-painted bass guitar which has been featured on every Iron Maiden album. The guitar has gone through four colour changes since construction. Originally white, then black, it was then changed to blue sparkle, then white with claret and blue pinstriping and the West Ham Utd crest.
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This biographical section of a needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009) (Find sources: Steve Harris (musician) – news, books, scholar) |
Harris has been seen with different bass guitars during his career, mostly Fender P-Basses. This list may not contain every bass, and most of them are retired, and the first ones in this list are from his earliest days from his career as a musician.
white, then black, then blue sparkle), mirror pickguard (formerly black), maple neck.
In addition to bass playing and writing music/lyrics for Iron Maiden, Steve Harris has taken on numerous other roles to support the running of the band such as:
Steve Harris has been Iron Maiden's principal keyboardist (other than at live shows and on a few songs where the work has been done by Michael Kenney who doubles as his bass technician) since keyboards were first used by the band on the album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. Though since that album keyboards have played less of a role in Iron Maiden (usually), the complexity and speed of the playing has increased as Harris has improved. Initially he was not even credited for it in the band credits, just the album ones.
For the album Somewhere in Time, Harris made his first experimentation with synthesised sounds, playing the bass synth (later on the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album referred to as 'string synth'). He has also done so on subsequent albums, although it has not featured as much as it did on Somewhere in Time because of the band's less synthesised sounds and also the use of keyboards.
Steve Harris is also known for playing an increasing role in mixing Iron Maiden's albums as well as producing them, and has done the work himself since Fear of the Dark. Harris also directs and edits many of the band's music videos, particularly live ones. He also owns a farm with music recording facilities. Harris' land has been used to write Maiden's albums on numerous occasions it was also used to film the music video for the song Holy Smoke.
Harris has also contributed backing vocals on Iron Maiden records and concerts since the band's inception, though he is not always credited on the sleeves.
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