How Partizan helped bring Iron Maiden and Eddie to life on stage

When legendary heavy metal band Iron Maiden approached Partizan about working on its tour visuals, it was something of a step into the unknown, but an incredibly exciting one.

A band that has five decades of hits and a treasure trove of imagery behind it - including that of its beloved mascot, Eddie - it represented a massive opportunity to bring this cornucopia of content to life on screen in tandem with the songs themselves, while at the same time giving audiences - and the band - something they'd never seen before. 

Taking us through the process of creating an incredible stage show for 2025/26 Iron Maiden World Tour, Partizan director Pete Candeland, animation director Rick Thiele of Red Knuckles, and Iron Maiden's Creative Director Ben Smallwood discuss their disbelief at being offered such a gig, the process of bringing iconic songs and band imagery to life on stage and the potential pitfalls of having almost too much content.

What was the initial thought when Iron Maiden approached Partizan to be involved in this project?

PC: That this was a huge moment! I was so excited, and so keen to jump right in and get going. This was the perfect project for me to enjoy and spread wings on, as I've worked in the music and animation space ever since I cut my filmmaker teeth. This was the culmination of so many things that I love!

This was the culmination of so many things that I love!

RT: I couldn’t believe it. The band had such a huge impact on my friends and me growing up; they are massive in Brazil! They don’t only represent this symbol of rebellion, but also something dark, playful and theatrical all at once, everything we love; mixing the weird and the intense with massive world building through myth, imagery and music. So we obviously jumped at it headfirst, as these types of opportunities don’t present themselves very often.

How long did it take from agreeing to take on the project to delivery?

PC: Ha! That's a tricky one. It was quite some time as contracts and agreements really took a long time. Even while this was going on, I had my pencil out and working through some thoughts and ideas; I was too inspired not to get going. Once it was up and running, the schedule was generous in length, but as always, whenever you’re trying to pull off something special, you’ll find a way to use every day available. Rick [Thiele] and Mario [Ucci, animation director] and production, felt the scheduled days more than I did, but they pulled off a masterclass, even though we’d all like more time.

Once it was up and running, the schedule was generous in length, but as always, whenever you’re trying to pull off something special, you’ll find a way to use every day available.

RT: It took a while to get started, as the creative needed time to fully come together before we could kick off, time to breathe and incubate properly. But once we did, we had enough time to deliver something we could all be proud of. In all honesty, projects like these never really have enough time, because when everyone involved is excited, ideas keep evolving, improving, and multiplying, and the work never truly feels finished.

Why did the band want to move into animated visuals rather than the static images they've used up to now?

PC: This was a choice made by the band and conceived by Ben Smallwood, who saw the potential in what could be given their incredible visual world. The step to bring it to life, while brave and great, felt like a natural one, as so much had gone on before we had so much to play with.

BS: Moving to huge LED screens with animated sets really just felt like a natural evolution of what the band had already been doing visually for years. On tours like Legacy of the Beast, they’d already started building these quite immersive worlds on stage, and this was really about a desire to push that idea further. The band loved the idea of creating a different world for each song, rather than something physical that more or less thematically encompasses the whole show.

The screens are there to complement the band and the songs. The idea was always that they’d work with the stage and the performance, sometimes blurring the line between what’s physical and what’s visual, but always supporting what the band are doing. There are moments when the visuals really step forward in songs like Aces High or Iron Maiden, but there are also many moments when they sit back more like a traditional painted backdrop. Steve was really keen for even those moments to have a subtle bit of movement, so the stage always felt alive without the visuals becoming a distraction.

With Pete Candeland's background working on Gorillaz, was he always the obvious choice to get involved with this?

RT: To create something new or impactful you have to take chances and I feel Ben and the band wanted to really blow everyone's minds and subvert all expectations, taking all these decades of work from one medium, which their fans knew so well, whether it was album artwork, painted drapes, t-shirts or comic books, to a moving visual medium where we can now connect what we hear with what we see, feel and remember... their risk-taking really paid off, creating something everyone is craving these days; an unforgettable experience.

What were the main differences working with a band as opposed to a more traditional client?

PC: Bands and musicians know themselves, their style and world so very, very well, and they are the experts. What you need to do is study and listen very carefully so you can gain their trust and start making choices and decisions visually and creatively on their behalf, to suit and live within the world they’ve created. Other clients often need additional guidance and a more thorough approach, as they are searching for what established artists have been crafting for years.

Having new crazy ideas was always welcomed, and the challenge was to come up with something that hasn’t already been said and rebuked throughout these 50 years.

RT: This is a band that’s been around for decades and has built such an extensive and very well-known world and lore, so we always knew we’d have to dive into a massive trove of information and decisions that have been made across the years! Of course, having new crazy ideas was always welcomed, and the challenge was to come up with something that hasn’t already been said and rebuked throughout these 50 years - they know exactly what they want, and they know what their fans love, and they are extremely connected to the experience they want to provide to them.

The band has a huge back catalogue; did that make coming up with ideas and choosing specific visual approaches more or less difficult?

PC: It's a pleasure to play in a sandbox that's already created. The thing that you need to really get your head around is what is dynamic and original while still playing within the sandbox created. To start with, what you’re mostly doing is learning, listening and finding the right questions to ask, so you can also speak the language fluently. Once you’ve got a good handle on the mindset and their trust, you can start to creatively play together.

The thing that you need to really get your head around is what is dynamic and original while still playing within the sandbox created.

RT: Once you immerse yourself in the world they’ve built, what makes it challenging is navigating all of the choices that have been previously made, until you eventually stumble onto the unexplored, and that’s where you can get your tools out and develop things further, when you pull out a magnifying glass and discover all of these new unresolved or undiscovered lands that need to be revealed for the first time.

Iron Maiden has always had a very visual aesthetic - especially with their mascot, Eddie; did that help?

PC: Sure did! This was my entry point at first, way back when, that led me towards music! I love Eddie and felt a sense of responsibility knowing that the icon of Iron Maiden was so wonderfully powerful!

RT: After coming back from our first meeting with them, it didn’t even take one hour to spot someone wearing an Eddie Iron Maiden t-shirt in London, and it made me realise how well constructed Eddie is in people’s imaginarium and the responsibility we had in nailing his look. We wanted these versions of Eddie to encompass all that came before and all that is to come, including his most high-end look yet, this beautifully lit, ultra-panavision close-up of Eddie as you’ve never seen him animated before.

How much inspiration did you take from what went before?

PC: It all came from what went before. As I mentioned above, you really need to learn the language; then you can earn the trust to play and explore. That being said, you’re given so very much that it's a luxury to wander around the world and explore ideas.

Changes do happen, and it can be tricky, but the most important thing is to respond and find ways through the curveballs that come.

RT: The blueprints of Eddie were there in all his different forms, but how do you decide which version to use, modify or build upon? Those were extensive visual conversations and a lot of trial and error until we settled on what you see in the show.

There is obviously a huge catalogue of music, too; was the setlist nailed down before the tour so you could work on specific visuals for specific songs, or are the visuals more multi-purpose, usable across various tracks?

PC: No, it changed at times. It's a slightly fluid process, and while not totally fluid, the need to be flexible is super-important. The track list did change from time to time, but the fundamental spine remained the same, so we were able to target the tracks that were more set than others. That being said, changes do happen, and it can be tricky, but the most important thing is to respond and find ways through the curveballs that come.

RT: There were specific songs that we all knew were never going to go anywhere, so those are the ones we had the most amount of time to work on, but at the same time, they were the most important songs, so had the most amount of ideas and highest of expectations, while other songs came and went or ended up being simplified. It just goes to show the importance of staying flexible in how we work as a studio to accommodate all these changes. You need to stay nimble, avoid getting attached, and be ready to suggest solutions that work for everyone.

Creating a four-minute music video seems very different from a 90-minute live experience; did you immediately know how you wanted to approach it?

PC: Yes, for the most part, I’d put a lot of thought into the flow of longer projects, and this was the thing I loved the most in moulding and carving the show. It's about seeing the bigger picture all of the time and how to flow with the ups and downs, ebbs and flows of a concert. When to go big, when to hold back and how to keep it always engaging and in key with the mood of the set and the audience. It's an area I love working with deeply, and I always like keeping an eye on the flow and the big picture, and dealing with details when the time is right.

There’s a lot of trial and error and learnings, and everyone always leaned on the band and management, as they know this world inside out.

RT: Working with Pete on this meant having an incredibly talented person with a grand vision for the complete experience and how everything connects, not just small portions. Usually when you’re producing something shorter like a music video, which is only really going to be seen on a small screen, you define an idea and hit the ground running with assembling it, meaning you always sort of know how the pieces will fit together. 

But a 90-minute long live experience has ever-changing pieces and it doesn’t only touch your eyes, but it syncs with the music and sound FX, the heat and smell from the fire and smoke, the darkness, the crowds and so many other elements that needed to interconnect in different ways to bring about the best experience. There’s a lot of trial and error and learnings, and everyone always leaned on the band and management, as they know this world inside out.

Big live events have become even more important and culturally resonant over the last few years; why do you think that is, and is this sort of project something you'd look to do again?

PC: 100% I’d be looking to do more big-scale projects like this. It's absolutely my dream. People want more experiences and more unique, memorable moments. Entertainment for the most part is so accessible and easy to find right at home now, with streaming being the big player here, so for people to move away from an engrossing series, the live show needs to knock them off their feet and make every moment that day something special to remember that you simply can't find online or streaming.

We need BIG live experiences where we get up and out, get in long queues, eagerly await, hope and expect and then get hit with the unpredictable and the chaotic, flooding all of our senses.

RT: For sure, when dopamine can be so easily purchased it loses its impact, and what easy-access, no-struggle streaming services have shown us is that we can’t rely solely on experiencing the visual and auditory from the comfort of our homes at the press of a button. We need BIG live experiences where we get up and out, get in long queues, eagerly await, hope and expect and then get hit with the unpredictable and the chaotic, flooding all of our senses. I really hope we get to do more of it!

What was the most challenging element of this project?

PC: For the team, there were definitely some long, late nights at the end that will be remembered by them. For me, the most challenging part was crafting the thing I like the most - working with the ebb and flow of the show and seeing and imagining the show in full to make the best choices and decisions for the live experience. Sometimes you do have to give up and sacrifice things you’d normally like to focus on. Seeing the big picture is a privilege to run with, but it's also the hardest thing to find and get your head around.

RT: It’s a tough one to answer, because even though there were obvious difficulties with many changes and late nights and so on… it’s Iron Maiden! Most, if not all, of our crew were die-hard fans, so we did it with smiles on our faces and were excited to see the final results.

BS: One of the challenges with something like this is knowing when to stop refining it, as Da Vinci once said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” The good thing about this project is that the tour had to start, so you just have to commit and get the show out into the world, though we still made a few small tweaks on the road at the beginning.