Rolling, scrambling and flying, Sydney-based Iron Maiden tribute band Aces High will soon leave the tarmac on their first voyage out of the hangar.
Few bands command the souls of their fans quite like Iron Maiden, and Aces High vocalist Sonja Aleksandrova gave hers over willingly years ago. “I grew up with them,” she says.
“They've taken the journey of life with me. Every, single moment in my life has been like 'put the headphones on, turn the world off, let's go with Iron Maiden'.”
Iron Maiden formed 25 December, 1975, giving the world even more reason to celebrate Christmas. Over 40 years and 16 studio albums later, the band are one of the most revered on the planet. Sonja recalls her first-ever experience of hearing Iron Maiden as a young woman.
“The first song for me, and for a lot of people I was hanging around with at the time, was 'Number Of The Beast',” she says.
“It was this powerful song, just one of those songs that came on... there's some songs that take me a while to build up to liking, but the first instance I heard 'Number Of The Beast' I was like 'who is this band?'”
It was the start of a lifelong love affair that sent her hurtling back through the band's extensive catalogue somewhere in time to Iron Maiden's 1980 self-titled debut album and 1981 sophomore 'Killers', both of which featured initial vocalist Paul Di'Anno who had been replaced by the long-serving Bruce Dickinson for 'Number Of The Beast' in 1982.
“The musical ability was just amazing, the technical aspect, the words, the songs they came up with, the stories and meanings. Slowly, but surely I went back from 'Number Of The Beast' and bought 'Iron Maiden' and 'Killers',” Sonja says.
“It was really funny going back from Bruce Dickinson, having listened to this powerhouse, and then going back to Phil Di'Anno whose voice, while powerful, is more on the punk side.
“At first I had problems correlating Iron Maiden with Paul Di'Anno because to me Iron Maiden was Bruce Dickinson, but the more I listened to Paul Di'Anno I thought he had an amazing voice too, it's just different.”
Whether it's Di'Anno or Dickinson, or even Blaze Bayley who took over as lead singer for Iron Maiden 1994-99 before Dickinson's return, Sonja reckons she's got the vocals covered.
In the mist of Dicey Riley's (Wollongong) dark figures will move and twist with hell and fire spawned to be released when Aces High play their first show ever next month. “I have to say all of us are running on adrenaline at the moment,” Sonja says.
“We're so pumped and each day that passes is a day closer to our first show. We've been working so hard from a music perspective.”
