Steve Harris’ galloping grooves have come to define heavy metal bass playing. Canonical Iron Maiden songs like “Run to the Hills,” “The Trooper,” and “Aces High” feature his fleet, two-fingered right-hand technique and unconventional trebly tone, a combination that immediately identifies Harris and helped elevate him to the upper echelon of rock bass. As Maiden’s founding member and chief songwriter, he also wrote the book on the power metal sub-genre of heavy metal. Records like The Number of the Beast [1982], Piece of Mind [1983] and Powerslave [1984, all on Capitol] forged a powerful template that continues to influence metal bands to this day. Now, more than 30 years later, Harris’ songwriting and bass playing continue to evolve — and although he may be more apt to choose solid grooves over the wildly kinetic bass lines of his youth, his clanky tone remains remarkably unchanged. In 2012, Harris released British Lion [UME], his first-ever solo album, which was really more of a side-project than solo endeavor. But the record was a bit disjointed, musically speaking and production-wise. It seemed to leave many folks wondering why Iron Maiden’s leader and main songwriter would need a side project. After all, Maiden was his band, wasn’t it? In January 2020, he answered such questions with The Burning [Parlophone], the incendiary debut of Harris's four-piece band British Lion. The Burning quickly put to rest any misconceptions about the validity of the band and the musical direction they intend to forge. The production is tight and coherent, the songwriting terse and focused, and the performances simply electrifying. Harris, though unmistakable in tone and attack, is not the songwriting engine in British Lion: He leaves the bulk of those duties to singer Richard Taylor and guitarist David Hawkins (British Lion also includes guitarist Grahame Leslie and drummer Simon Dawson), which results in songs that are more classic rock than phantom of the opera. The Burning bursts out of the gate with opening cut “City of Fallen Angels,” a tune driven by Harris’ unrelenting eighth-note clank. Later, on “Lightning,” we get a taste of Harris’ familiar pedal tones, reminding us of the legendary bassist undergirding the music. And while these songs’ melodic structure and musical arrangements are a world away from his home base in Iron Maiden, the songcraft on The Burning provides a surprisingly complementary foil for the galloping groove-meister’s unique style. We caught up with Harris, who was candid, affable, and as usual, a bit self-deprecating. Harris getting up close and personal. Photo by John McMurtrie Why does Steve Harris need another band besides Iron Maiden? I wouldn’t say there’s a need for it, really. I just felt that the songs that were worked on before, back in the ’90s, had to see the light of day. And the only way to really make that happen was to take it by the scruff of the neck and be