Louder has published online their Whoosh feature that originally appeared in Classic Rock magazine issue 278. All five members of the band have been interviewed for the article.

Ian Gillan:

When somebody suggests you make a new Deep Purple album, do you think: “Oh God, not again?”

No, no, no. Quite the reverse. We went through a time years ago when everyone seemed under the weather for whatever reason, then everyone felt a bit better and the energy came back, When that’s there, you’ve just got to find an outlet for it.

Whoosh! is like the last two Purple records in that it sounds like a bunch of mates having a good time.

Absolutely right. Everything is done together. We write the songs together, we arrange them together, we record them together. Hopefully that joy and immediacy comes across. You can’t recreate it artificially.

Ian Paice:

Have you ever thought: “Oh no, not again”, when someone has suggested recording a new album?

I used to. Hanging around in the studio and doing nothing is soul destroying. Especially when you hear it and it doesn’t sound very good. I don’t think any of us have enjoyed it like this for a long, long time.

That title, Whoosh!, is that what Purple’s career has felt like? That the past fifty-plus years have gone by in a flash.

Domestically, yes. When it comes to family stuff, it’s flown by. But in terms of the band, no. I can remember all the times, good and bad. But there are other ways to look at that title: the things we’ve been going through for the last couple of months, the problems we’re creating on this glorious little ball we live on. We could be here and gone that quickly.

Steve Morse:

Whoosh! is the seventh album you’ve done with Deep Purple. Is it still fun?

Oh yeah. There’s nothing about it that’s too serious – listen to songs like And The Address and What The What. I feel like the Ians and Roger don’t feel right unless we’re getting near a recording/touring cycle again. I remember asking Rog: “Why don’t we just do a song every few months and release it on the website. Why does it have to be such a big production?” And Roger says: “Because that’s what we do.”

I’m guessing that Purple are a band steeped in traditions.

Yeah. There are some things you just don’t do. Like making a change in the set-list, or inviting somebody to ride in the van. And you don’t keep people waiting. If you’re on time in Deep Purple, you’re late. I’m not joking.

Don Airey:

Were you surprised when the band decided to make this new album?

We didn’t expect to go back in the studio, but everybody was ready for it. We had a lot of material, everybody was up for it.

And you had Bob Ezrin.

He doesn’t brook any delay, there’s no excuses. The job gets done no matter what. He’s brilliant at corralling you all together and setting you on the same path. I don’t understand how he does it. He’s at least two steps ahead of me.

Was that discipline missing before?

When I came in they were in total shock that Jon had left. But I think the band was at quite a lazy stage in its life as well. It’s funny, I came in for three dates and here I am eighteen years later.

Roger Glover:

What was better about being in Deep Purple in 1970 compared to being in Deep Purple now?

Women [laughs]. You’re basically asking me what I enjoyed about being twenty. Being in a big hit band in the seventies, it was every schoolboy’s dream. But it’s all a whirl now.

What’s better about being in Deep Purple now compared to being in Deep Purple in 1970?

[Thinks] I don’t know, really. As things change, some things remain. The attitude towards our music is the same, but you get a different view of things. Certainly songwriting. We don’t write as naïve twenty-year-olds. There’s more of an ease to what we do. We’re not so desperate. But you’re putting something out there for people to judge, so you’re still vulnerable. Even after all this time.

Read more in Louder Sound.

Thanks to Gary Poronovich for the info.

And just to brighten your day, here is a guitar shredding cover of Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming by Damian Salazar.
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This is all highly theoretical now, but nevertheless…

Now that the new album has been out for a month, everybody had a chance to listen to it and make up their minds, but impressions are still fresh. What tracks from Whoosh would you like to hear live when the band resumes touring? You can choose up to 4 (yeah, we know, we know, but let’s be realistic). The poll closes in a week, on September 15, just before midnight UTC.

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This is from our trainspotting department. September 6 stage of Tour de France was won by a gentleman whose jersey was adorned by a logo that reads WHOOSH. Turns out the winner rides for Team Emirates which is sponsored this season by eponymous piece of spyware fitness app. No relation to the recent Deep Purple album. As far as we can tell.

[Update Sep 9] There is also a whole line of computer screen cleaning products out from Canada that is branded as WHOOSH!

No relation (as far as we can tell) either. Tip: save your money and make your own screen and lens cleaner for a fraction of the cost.

Thanks to Tobias Janaschke and Dicu for the heads up.

The record company has released another video for another track from Whoosh! This time it’s Nothing at All that got the Russian Stig themed treatment.
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Another long form interview courtesy of the dreaded lurgy. Eddie Trunk did a “double dip” on his latest (September 2) podcast by talking to Graham Bonnet and Roger Glover. Roger’s segment starts at around 7’00” into the podcast, and Graham’s at 48’25”.
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An objet d’art called Musicians’ Bench was spotted in Russian city of Pskov. Sharp eyes quickly recognized that music notation on the bench is not random, but represents the opening chords of nothing else but Smoke on the Water. The bench is installed in a recently reconstructed Square of the Arts and is the work of local artist Yevgeny Vagin.
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Metal Express Radio has a fresh interview with Don Airey. They spoke about the effects of the pandemic, the new album, Bob Ezrin, replacing Jon Lord, Don’s years in Rainbow, and his home town of Sunderland. They also paid tribute to the late Martin Birch:

Deep Purple and Rainbow too worked extensively with Martin Birch over the years and he sadly died a few weeks ago. Did you ever work with Martin?

I worked with him on Cozy Powell’s Over The Top and on Bernie Marsden’s first solo album. You didn’t really notice him in the studio. He was very quiet and the opposite to Bob Ezrin. He was very firm and ready for the take and when it came, he’d get it. I remember when we did Over The Top, Cozy and I decided to get Jack Bruce from Cream to come and play bass and he’s such an incredible player. He’d been having a lot trouble with a couple of producers in the studio who said his bass playing wasn’t good and his sound was too old fashioned and he came to us a bit nervous. Jack came in and Martin asked him to play a few notes which he did and Martin just said “OK, thanks” and Jack went “Was that it?” and by doing that Martin was able to reassure Jack and in 10 seconds he gave him his confidence back. He did another wonderful thing as Cozy wanted to use an orchestra but it was going to cost ten grand. I offered to do it for the price of a pint on a synthesizer. So, me and Martin worked over night on the “1812 Overture” and we put the orchestration onto the album and it sounded fantastic.

Read more in Metal Express Radio.

Thanks to BraveWords for the info.

Somebody went into all the trouble of artificially colourizing the complete Copenhagen 1972 video and the result is now available on youtube.
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Paicey reminisces about some guitar players he’d been working with and who are no longer with us — Randy California, Tommy Bolin, and Gary Moore.
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