Deep Purple have had plenty of opportunities to fall silent, if you will, over the years.
The London-formed hard rock troupe has gone through lineup changes over its 46 years that would have exhausted most bands. With Irish guitarist Simon McBride joining two years ago to replace Steve Morse after an 18-year stint, the Purple Gang are in the Mark IXth line-up. Only drummer Ian Paice has played since 1968.
But bassist Roger Glover, who along with frontman Ian Glover was part of the famed Mark II — ie. Head of the machine and “Smoke on the Water” — says there was never any thought of giving Purple away before.
“We can't stop,” Glover says Advertising sign via Zoom from his home in Switzerland. “We love what we do. that's the point. And we had the opportunity to continue. Most bands don't get that opportunity… Well, I don't follow bands that much, but definitely for us it's happened.
“I'm in my late 70s (78) – we all are except the new guitarist, who's in his forties. He has imbued the band with a lot of energy. We may have missed a little — but not by much, I don't think.'
Glover says it was Deep Purple's live shows with McBride that sparked the idea to do it =1which is expected to be released on July 19. It is Deep Purple's 23rd studio album and the next set of 2021 covers Turn to crime. McBride played with Purple keyboardist Don Airey in his own band for many years, with whom Glover and frontman Ian Gillan had performed in recent years. “It seemed like the only option,” Glover says. “We didn't even consider anyone else.
“When Simon came in, the tour went really well,” adds Glover. “At the beginning of the tour we said, 'Hey, we need to make an album as soon as possible.' So that's what we did last year.” Like its four predecessors, the 13-song set was produced by Bob Ezrin, and the songs were shaped through the band coming together in Nashville rather than coming with ready-made material.
“That's the way we work,” Glover explains. “It's like a blank canvas when you go into the studio, all you have to do is fill it with noises. The songs are not written. they evolve from personalities and ideas. Someone starts a riff or something and we're like, 'That's good. How about going to an F here… or a B apartment?' Once we have the instrumental part, then Ian Gillan and I figure out what's going on at the top, the words and the melodies. Obviously, they don't just appear for no reason. We're working on it.”
Glover adds that the method has been a Deep Purple tradition since he and Gillan joined the band in 1969. “In the early days, before Deep Purple in Rock (1970), we realized that the music came from the playing, not from the head, so we would have to share the credits and that's what we did from the early days, we shared everything, regardless of who had the idea. It was liberating in a way — no puns, no, “I like my idea better than yours,” no jealousy. It was very healthy.”
The approach changed only once, says Glover, who is in the process of writing a memoir. “When we had the reunion (in 1984) he didn't go back to it – maybe he couldn't, you know?” he remembers. “But once Steve Morse joined the band (in 1994), guess what? He came back to it, which was great. For a band like us, that's the only way it works.”
The process continues to be a welcome kind of “challenge,” according to Glover, who points out =1 tracks like “Bleeding Obvious” which closed the album as particularly demanding and required “a lot of work” to get right. Meanwhile, the opening track, “Show Me,” had a particularly interesting gestation that sounds like a rock n' roll warrior story that could have taken place during the 70s as well as the 2020s.
“We were all invited to Alice Cooper's 75th birthday party with (Ezrin),” Glover recalls. “We finished early and Simon and Don (Airey) and I went to a bar and hit the tequila pretty hard and I fell and really hurt my thumb. The next morning was the last day of writing and my thumb was swollen and I couldn't play anything. I said, “Excuse me guys, I've got to get it checked out at a hospital or something,” which I did. Meanwhile, the idea of 'Show Me' had started, but it was later when we worked on it. I couldn't imagine what Ian was going to sing until I was with him in Portugal and he just attacked it and found the right melody and everything, and we had the song.”
=1 Three singles and videos have preceded it, starting with “Portable Door” in April, “Pictures of You” in June and “Lazy Sod” in early July. =1Its release puts the quintet back on the road next month in North America, joining British veterans Yes, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame a year after Deep Purple. The 19-date co-bill begins Aug. 14 in Hollywood, Fla., and runs through Sept. 8 in Scranton, Pa.
“We worked with them years ago in the '70s,” says Glover. “We did a few festivals together — one in particular was called the Plumpton Jazz and Blues festival in '71. Ian Gillan and I had only been in the band for a couple of months at the time. There was a dispute about who would close the show, and they won the argument and closed the show. Ritchie (Blackmore, Purple's original guitarist) fired up his amps and made them explode on stage. So they were very late and they weren't very happy about it.”
But, Glover says, bygones are bygones and he expects nothing but friendly relations this summer. “We've known them ever since. It's a great band. We saw (Yes guitarist) Steve Howe a few years ago. We moved on, no hard feelings. I don't know what state they're in now, what mix of musicians they have, so I'll be pleasantly surprised.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/deep-purple-tour-new-album-1235733679/