Ian Gillan talks about Deep Purple’s new album “=1”

Released on 20 July 2024 “=1” is Deep Purple’s first album with guitarist Simon McBride. According to the band's official website, the intriguing title ‘=1’ “symbolises the idea that in a world growing ever more complex, everything eventually simplifies down to a single, unified essence. Everything equals one.”

The legendary voice of the band, Ian Gillan, spoke with The Portugal News all about their latest album, which is sure to leave rock fans inspired.

Ian Gillan revealed that when Simon McBride came along it was good timing, “because it put the band back into simpler arrangements. Now, I learned something a long time ago that simplicity is the platform of virtuosity. Now we put back the body rhythms into Deep Purple, which is what we had in the 60s, 70s and 80s. It was basically joyous Rock and Roll again and it was more the kind of rock and roll that I grew up with than the stuff where Steve was coming from. I don’t want any misunderstandings, I absolutely and totally respect Steve Morse and he is a fantastic guitar player but I found the route he took with song construction was much easier, probably, instrumentally than it was for laying a song on top of it.”

Lyrically Strong

We shared with Ian the thought that the weight of the lyrics, the vocals and melodies got stronger in the new album. Ian responded “never thought about it until afterwards. I'd never heard it as a spectator or a listener until it was finished. I was so engrossed in enjoying myself and having a good time. It wasn't work. It was just pure joy.”

Ian Gillan went on to explain more about the band’s songwriting process, “First I try to make the voice fit. In Deep Purple's case, it's quite difficult because they write the music first, what we call the backing track first. It isn't really a backing track. It's really a piece of music. Because Purple is primarily an instrumental band. So, all this stuff is coming together. And I'm sitting there thinking, somehow, I've got to make this sound as if the melody comes first. The melody hasn't even been invented yet.

Adding, “When we didn't know what we were doing in the early days, there was this kind of overlap because everyone would say: “well, why don't you sing this and sing this and sing this?” And I'd go, “well, that's not from me. And it doesn't feel natural”. We agreed that everyone should write their own part.”

Vocals

When asked the secret behind keeping his voice so fresh, Ian Gillan replied “You've got to keep on top of it, really. I think there's an old saying, use it or lose it. This is why classical performers practice so much. It's to keep speed of mind, speed of thought, and muscle memory. Your body has to be prepared at all times for what your mind is going to demand of it. It has to be absolutely ready to do that. And you need a lot of core strength for a singer. I need power from here so I do a lot of diaphragm exercises.”

“A Bit on The Side”

Ian Gillan went on to share more about a few of the album’s tracks, with “A Bit on The Side” being described by the lead singer as “a confluence of two ideas that become one song. “A Bit on the Side” is a song about journalists veering into politics and I said, “if you ask me to answer your questions about politics on this or that issue you have to assume that I lean towards the left or lean towards the right or somewhere in the middle because that's how you see how you understand my reply”. I grew up with my mother and father being slightly left and slightly right and arguing all the time, never agreeing on anything even if the other person had a solution to a problem that was correct, they wouldn't agree because it came from the other side. This is bigotry, this is dogma, its tribal politics, I don't believe in that and I said at the time as I said 20, 30 years ago my politics are not left or right, my politics are more up and down, in and out, back and front and a bit on the side or nearby and so that always was interesting and it comes across in the song as sexual not political.

“It is also a celebration of the Nightlife, I absolutely love people who work through the night, people who work to entertain us, people who work to save our lives, you know, doctors and nurses, policemen, taxi drivers, actors, waiters, people who I used to meet in the beer kellers at two o'clock in the morning when we finished work and we'd sit there and smoke and play blues songs on our guitars back in the 60s. It made a fantastic impression on me to be drawn out of the night to be drawn out of the rather post-Victorian proper behaviour life where everything was set in place and you behaved in a certain way, you dressed in a certain way, you were expected to follow education and do what was expected of you and so I learnt to appreciate, I learnt to see that there was a creative side to life. I saw this as where all the joy and the energy came from, and that the rest of the world was grey from politics to education to the establishment. “

“If I were you”

That was very spontaneous. Five minutes written as I sang it. I had nothing planned for that. There were three songs that came out very quickly. There was the one you just mentioned, which was “Sharpshooter”. And then “If I Were You” and “I’ll Catch You”. They were written in the studio in five minutes. I mean, it was just pretty much a stream of consciousness. They were refined and tidied up over the days, obviously, but the main bulk of the song was written in no time at all.”

The track is a typical story of love and betrayal, you’ve got somebody you love and somebody who's betrayed you at the same time. And you're trying to consolidate the two because it's such a shock and so difficult because these are happening outside your circumstances and you haven't seen it coming. You haven't seen what's going on. You've just been so blindly in love. It's complex and you can make of it what you will, really.”

Ian Gillan concluded on a positive note, telling The Portugal News “Luckily the new stuff has worked out absolutely brilliantly and it's actually getting better. We've just come back from South America and we're going back into Europe on an arena tour. The audiences have been amazing. So young and with such enthusiasm for the new material!”.

For Deep Purple updates and tour dates, please visit https://deeppurple.com/.