At last month’s San Diego Comic-Con, IRON MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson spoke to VSX about “The Mandrake Project”, his cross-media multimedia concept, combining a heavy metal solo album and a 12-issue quarterly adult comic book series published by Z2 Comics. The narrative and music share conceptual roots exploring science, the occult and human souls.
Regarding how the idea for the album and accompanying adult-oriented comic series came together, Bruce said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It started out 14, 15, 16, nearly 17 years ago. I was writing material for a solo album. I was thinking about a comic as a way of promoting it, effectively. ‘Cause, to me, it struck me that a lot of people that like the kind of music that I do probably dig comics as well. So I thought I’d come up with a very simple story, and it would just be one comic. And so I wrote the characters into some of the songs. 14 years later, ‘The Mandrake Project’ comes out, but in the intervening period, it had turned from one comic to two to 12. We have this structure of three four-part episodes. So book one was last year, book two is now done, and book three will be the conclusion of the story. So that’s how the music got involved. I’ve got a new record coming out next year, new solo album. It’s kind of standalone. There’s one song that has a bit of something to do with ‘Mandrake’. Now, the album is heavy as shit. I’m not digging into ‘Mandrake’. I think ‘Mandrake’ has a life now on a comic book level, so it can just go on the basis of story and everything else. I don’t need to associate music with it unless it’s a really good idea.”
Asked if he thinks about his previous solo albums when he is working on new music, Dickinson said: “I try to not repeat — not because it’s bad. You want to move on and put different nuance on things. It’s like, I would say, if you have an amazing girlfriend and you start thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m getting a little bit bored,’ or something else like that, just turn the lights down and turn it a different way, and you see a side that you think, ‘Oh, my God, she’s absolutely incredible.’ Just the red light there or the green or whatever, and you see, you see the same person in a different day, in a different light.”
Bruce added: “Music is something which you try not to stick too much of a format, but you are still within a particular… I’m within a particular style, for sure. But I try and vary it as much as I can.”
Dickinson’s new solo album is tentatively due in early 2027
Most of Bruce‘s eighth solo album was recorded this past January and February at Dave Grohl‘s Studio 606 in Northridge, California with producer Brendan Duffey, who previously helmed the partly re-recorded, remixed and newly mastered version of Bruce‘s second solo album “Balls To Picasso”, now titled “More Balls To Picasso”, which was made available in July 2025.
Dickinson‘s follow-up to “The Mandrake Project” is being mixed by Brendan at his Brendan Duffey Audio high-end mixing and mastering studio in Jupiter, Florida.
Dickinson recently told Steve Harkins of TalkShopLive that his upcoming solo album will include a collaboration with his son Austin. Bruce‘s oldest son, the 35-year-old Austin is a musician best known as the former frontman for the metal bands RISE TO REMAIN and AS LIONS. Dickinson went on to say that tracks from the LP “will be out this year, a little bit, so people can hear a little bit of it. At some point this month, I’m shooting four or maybe five videos for it.” He added: “I’m pretty busy in ’27. And I think everybody’s gonna be very happy with what I’m busy with —in every sense of the word.”
This past April, Bruce revealed that he recorded 16 songs for his new solo album over a three-week period earlier this year. He told Rolling Stone magazine: [We did it] all 100 percent live. It’s like the anti-A.I. generation.”
Dickinson‘s upcoming album was recorded with his touring band, consisting of keyboardist Mistheria, drummer Dave Moreno, bassist Tanya O’Callaghan, and guitarists Chris Declercq and Philip Näslund.
In February, SEPULTURA guitarist Andreas Kisser shared photos of him with Bruce at Studio 606 and revealed that he plays percussion on Dickinson‘s new LP.
Bruce and his long-term co-writer and producer Roy “Z” Ramirez recorded “The Mandrake Project” largely at Los Angeles’s Doom Room, with Roy Z doubling up as both guitarist and bassist. The recording lineup for “The Mandrake Project” was rounded out by Mistheria and Moreno, both of whom also featured on Bruce‘s previous solo studio album, “Tyranny Of Souls”, in 2005.
Joining the IRON MAIDEN singer on the “The Mandrake Project Live 2025” North American tour was once again his 2024 backing band, featuring Moreno,Mistheria and O’Callaghan (bass),alongside the group’s latest additions, Swedish guitarist, songwriter and multi-platinum-credited producer Philip Näslund and Swiss session and touring guitarist Chris Declercq (who played on Dickinson‘s “Rain On The Graves” single). Roy is not part of the touring lineup.
Dickinson made his recording debut with IRON MAIDEN on the “Number Of The Beast” album in 1982. He quit the band in 1993 in order to pursue his solo career and was replaced by Blaze Bayley, who had previously been the lead singer of the metal band WOLFSBANE. After releasing two traditional metal albums with former MAIDEN guitarist Adrian Smith, Dickinson rejoined the band in 1999 along with Smith.
