The Iron Maidens – the world’s best (and only all-female) Iron Maiden tribute act – are bringing their intense and electrifying live shows to light up venues across Australia and New Zealand. These five adrenaline-charged women have The Number Of The Beast on speed-dial and possess the musical chops to deliver awesome renditions of all your favourite Iron Maiden classics. Guitarist Nikki “Davina Murray” Stringfield talks to us ahead of the shows about what fans can expect.
Andrew: So I hear that you just had a birthday recently so happy belated birthday!
Nikki: Thank you so much! Yeah had a great birthday weekend.
Andrew: What did you get up to on the weekend?
Nikki: Well I left nice, sunny California and went over to my boyfriend in Wisconsin where it was freezing cold and decided to snow the whole weekend. I froze to death but it was so fun!
Andrew: [laughs] Well that’s OK! So have you guys been doing a lot of shows lately on tour?
Nikki: April’s kind of slow and then it’s going to pick back up in May. We’re going to go do a few shows in Canada, we’re going to hit the east coast and then we’re going to come see you guys in Australia!
Andrew: Yeah we’re excited to be seeing you in Australia! I know you have only been in the band a few years but do you know if the band had been in Australia before?
Nikki: This is the first time! It’s so funny because Australia is one of the places that we really have been wanting to go and last year when we were touring in Europe, Linda [McDonald] the drummer and I were talking how New Zealand and Australia we were hoping to go there, like that’s on our bucket list and then later on that day Linda was like, ‘Did you see the email?’ And I was like, ‘No what?’ ‘We’re going to Australia!’ It was the same day so we’re so excited.
Andrew: It should be a good tour, it’s a pretty big tour too with a lot of shows going on with a few shows in New Zealand as well. First time in Australia obviously so is there anything you want to see and do if you have any off days at all?
Nikki: There’s so much we would love to do. Unfortunately since we are playing 5 shows back to back and we’re going to be flying in between cities so I’m not really sure how much free time we’re going to get but we’re going to try our best to make time to see some stuff, we’re going to take every opportunity we can.
Andrew: Yeah absolutely. When you come over to the west coast of Australia in Perth, I’m sure you’re aware of the Bon Scott memorial in Fremantle so maybe if you have time you can check that out for sure.
Nikki: Oh that would be awesome! That’s in Perth you say?
Andrew: Yeah that’s right and I believe Perth is the last show of the tour so maybe you’ll have a day off after the show. What’s your plans for the band after the tour in Australia? Do you have another tour to go to?
Nikki: I think some of us are flying back the next day, some of us are flying early and some of us are flying back a bit late depending on our work schedules and everything so I’ve got to check that all out.
Andrew: Yeah it’s just something that a lot of bands do where they find the Bon Scott memorial to at least have a look and check out, it’s one of the rock institutions of the world I suppose you could say.
Nikki: That’s awesome!
Andrew: So it will be great to see you in Australia, what can the fans expect? What will you guys bring out to us?
Nikki: Let’s see, well we’re going to make sure we play some of the hits, we’re going to play some of the deep cuts. We’re going to bring Edwina, Eddie is going to make a couple of appearances on stage, we’re going to bring a really high energy show and hopefully kick some ass.
Andrew: Mentioning deeper cuts, what are some of the songs we can expect from that side of things? Iron Maiden obviously have a lot of songs over the years and the deeper cuts is probably something that a lot of hardcore fans may be more interested in I guess.
Nikki: We try to change it up often, especially if we play the same place twice we’ll have a different setlist. So obviously we will play “Trooper” and “Wasted Years”, you gotta play those big hits. But sometimes we’ll play “The Duelist”, we’ll play stuff off the really old albums. A new one we just added was “Montsegur” which is a newer cut, we play “Alexander The Great” sometimes, it just depends on the show.
Andrew: Yeah and with a band that has such a massive catalogue with so many songs to pick, how do you guys select which ones you want to play and take out on the road?
Nikki: It is difficult and after every show you have people be like, ‘Why didn’t you play this song?’ and it’s like well we can only fit so much into an hour set. I guess like I said it depends on if we’ve been in the area before, we just try to pick what’s going to feel right.
Andrew: And playing in a new territory like Australia I suppose you stick to the classics and make sure everyone has a good time and gets to really check out what you guys have been doing. It’s been quite successful for you guys as you have been around for a few years now and you seem to get bigger and bigger as time goes on.
Nikki: We’re really fortunate to travel and play Iron Maiden’s music so thank you Iron Maiden! We’re just super fortunate to get to do it, so lucky. Bucket list to get to go and see your beautiful country and get to play shows while I’m doing it so it can’t be bad.
Andrew: So I know you only joined the band a few years ago, how did that whole thing plan out? Were you a fan or familiar with these guys and what they were doing before you joined the band?
Nikki: I honestly hadn’t heard of them, I just moved out to L.A. in January of 2012 and I actually played my first show in April of 2012 so I’ve actually been playing with them for 6 years off and on now. So I joined my old band ‘Before The Mourning and they were good friends with Courtney [Cox, guitars] and Nita [Strauss] and then they asked if I could fill in for Nita for a show because it was a rotating cast of guitar players at the time for the Dave Murray position. And so Nita was doing her own band and I was doing my own band and so it was a whole rotating door of Dave Murray guitar players and so once Nita was super busy with Alice Cooper, I took it on full time so we were just trading off here and there for a long time. I don’t know how many years I’ve been doing it full time, it seems like it’s been a long time now! But yeah it was just fun, it wasn’t something that I had planned, it just happened and it’s been a fun ride ever since.
Andrew: That’s amazing and what about Iron maiden, was that a band that had an impact on your influences and such when you were getting into music?
Nikki: They did. It’s funny I remember when I first did my first rehearsal with the girls, I remember Kirsten [Rosenburg, vocals] was like, ‘Do you really like Iron Maiden?’ I was like, ‘Yeah!’ [laughs] I wouldn’t be in a tribute band if I didn’t like them. I used to do Youtube videos a long time ago when I was 18 and you can see there’s a “Killers” poster on my wall, I think some of the first riffs I learned was “2 Minutes To Midnight”. My dad used to play Iron Maiden cover songs in his band a long time ago so I grew up listening to them and definitely a huge influence with all the harmonies and duel guitars and everything.
Andrew: Have you ever had a chance to see Iron Maiden live as well and ever met any of the guys in the band?
Nikki: I have not met them, all the other girls have met different members. I saw them for the first time either last year or the year before on the Book Of Souls tour, we actually played their pre-party show in Vegas and then we went and saw them the next night so it was really awesome.We all went together and finally got to see them!
Andrew: I’ve seen them a couple of times over the years and they are such a great live band, Bruce Dickinson sounds amazing still. It’s amazing how long they have been around and still doing what they do.
Nikki: It’s phenomenal, their energy, they still run around on stage and every song note for note, amazing, passionate. I would love to see the Legacy Of The Beast tour, I think that’s what it is? I would love that!
Andrew: Yeah I think so and yeah one of the classic bands and it’s great to see you paying tribute to such a legendary band. We are excited to see you in Australia in May so do you have any last words or messages for the Aussie fans before you come down to the country?
Nikki: We can’t wait! Definitely come out to the show, we’re going to give you a good time. Up The Irons!
The Iron Maidens Australian and New Zealand Tour Dates
Friday May 25th AUCKLAND – The Studio
Saturday 26th May CHRISTCHURCH – The Foundry
Sunday 27th May WELLINGTON – San Fran
Wednesday 30th May BRISBANE – The Zoo
Thursday 31st May SYDNEY – Manning Bar
Friday 1st June MELBOURNE – Corner Hotel
Saturday 2nd June ADELAIDE – Fowlers Live
Sunday 3rd June PERTH – Badlands
Tickets from: davidroywilliams.com/tours/the-iron-maidens
