Steve Harris

Stephen Percy Harris (born 12 March 1956) is an English musician, best known as the bassist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, primary songwriter and founder/leader of heavy metal band Iron Maiden.

Harris was born on 12 March 1956 at Whipps Cross University Hospital, in Leytonstone, then part of Essex, where he grew up aspiring to be a professional footballer.

Scouted by Wally St Pier, Harris was asked to train for West Ham United.

After gaining an interest in rock music in his early teens, he realised that he no longer desired to play football professionally.

In particular, he was greatly influenced by the Beatles.

Harris attended Leyton Senior High School for Boys (now Leyton Sixth Form College) where he studied architecture.

Initially Harris wanted to play drums, but did not have enough space for a drum kit in his house and so decided on the bass instead.

Harris was influenced by the progressive rock bands of the 1970s, as well as early hard rock and heavy metal bands.

His influences include Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Golden Earring, Pink Floyd, Thin Lizzy, UFO, Uriah Heep, Wishbone Ash, and Yes.

Speaking about the early Iron Maiden sound, Steve Harris described the band as using twin-guitar harmonies inspired by Wishbone Ash and Thin Lizzy, complex time and mood changes from Genesis and Jethro Tull, and the dark melodic elements of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Led Zeppelin.

Harris' bass playing was influenced by Yes's Chris Squire and UFO's Pete Way, among others.

Since Iron Maiden's beginning to the present day, Harris plays a specially-painted Fender Precision Bass, featured on every Iron Maiden album, which has gone through a total of four colour changes since he began using it.

Originally white, it was then changed to black prior to the band's first album, followed by blue sparkle and finally white with claret and blue pinstriping with the West Ham United F.C. crest.

Entirely self-taught, his first bass was a copy of a Fender Precision model which cost him £40 in 1971.

Just ten months after he bought his first bass, Harris joined a band, initially known as Influence and later Gypsy's Kiss, featuring Bob Verscoyle (lead vocals), Dave Smith (guitar) and drummer Paul Sears.

After a short number of gigs at the Cart and Horses pub in Maryland Point, Stratford and the Bridgehouse in Canning Town, the band split up and Harris auditioned for a band called Smiler in February 1974.

In this outfit, Harris began writing his own songs and worked with future Iron Maiden members Dennis Wilcock and Doug Sampson, but left the band after they refused to play his material, claiming it was too complicated.

He has been the band's only constant member since their inception in 1975 and, along with guitarist Dave Murray, the only member to appear on every album.

Harris has a recognisable and popular style of bass playing, particularly the "gallop" which can be found on many Iron Maiden recordings, such as the singles "Run to the Hills" and "The Trooper".

In addition to his role as the band's bass player, writer and backing vocalist, he has undertaken many other roles for the group, such as producing and co-producing their albums, directing and editing their live videos and performing studio keyboards and synthesizers.

He has been cited as one of the greatest heavy metal bassists ever.

Upon leaving Smiler, Harris went on to create Iron Maiden on Christmas Day 1975, with the band's name being inspired by the film The Man in the Iron Mask.

Before Iron Maiden signed their contract with EMI in 1979, Harris worked as an architectural draughtsman in the East End of London until he was made redundant, at which point he undertook a job as a street sweeper.

Since their inception, Harris has been the band's principal composer and lyricist.

His songwriting typically showcases his trademark galloping bass patterns, which features heavily in songs such as "The Trooper" and "Run to the Hills", and his progressive rock-influenced time changes.

Later, Harris' songs became more progressive, and guitarist Adrian Smith has commented that Harris now prefers contributing "lyrics and melodies and arranging" to other member's songs over writing alone.

Harris frequently writes lyrics about mythology, history or topics inspired from books and films, reflecting his interests and progressive rock influences.

Originating with a band, named British Lion, which he managed and wrote with in the early 1990s, Harris kept in touch with its vocalist, Richard Taylor, and guitarist, Graham Leslie, and the album, consisting of 1970s influenced hard rock songs, was written and recorded over a number of years around Iron Maiden's tour schedule.

In 2012, Harris released his debut solo album, British Lion, which was followed by The Burning in 2020.

In September 2012, Harris released his first solo album, British Lion.

Speaking to Kerrang! in September 2012, Harris stated that he considers the record to be "more of a side-project" than a solo album, as he is more "comfortable in a band environment."

In an interview with Classic Rock in August, Harris stated that he will be releasing more solo albums and hopes to tour with the band in the future.

Harris has taken the outfit on two separate European club tours in 2013 and 2014, with an additional tour taking place in 2016.

On 2 September 2016, Harris announced that he intends to issue a live album recorded at shows from across the three tours.

Their second album, titled The Burning, was released on 17 January 2020.

Harris is often considered among the best and most influential heavy metal bassists.

He is most known for his "galloping" playing style: usually an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes at fast tempo (e.g., "The Trooper" and "Run to the Hills") or eighth note triplets, which he plays with two fingers, rather than using a plectrum.

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.

Harris's playing is often unusually prominent in the mix on Iron Maiden's recordings; he generally uses a tone with a treble-heavy EQ and compression to accentuate the attack on the strings.

Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers has commented that "Steve taught himself in a way that nobody can really copy it. People say it's like a lead guitar, but it's not. It gives the band a basis and it moves around quite a lot, but it's the tone that he has. Steve has a way of hearing things and a tone that isn't normally associated with a bass, it's more like a rhythm guitar."