The Deep Purple drummer presents the band’s new album, and talks about the meeting with the Japanese premier (drummer).
The vinyl records and CDs of are lined up on the table of the cocktail bar of a hotel in Milan Splat!, the new Deep Purple album. Freshly printed covers, special editions, the unmistakable scent of a record about to hit the shops. In the age of playlists and algorithms, those physical media almost seem like an act of cultural resistance. After all, Deep Purple have always been this: a band capable of crossing trends without being overwhelmed. Sitting next to those freshly printed copies is Ian Paice, 78, drummerthe only member present in every single chapter of the group’s history. All the albums, all the concerts. Since 1968…
When the discussion inevitably shifts to the passing of time, one of the most beautiful reflections of the interview arrives. «If you’ve been doing a job you hate for fifty years, when you hear the word pension you start counting the days until your last shift. You thank God and leave. For me, it’s not like that for us.” Then, find a picture that explains everything. «It’s not a job. We have two lives. One is the real one. Then we can escape to Disneyland, go on stage, go back to being a child. For two hours you don’t have to think about anything except music. It’s a wonderful gift” he explains “You have to be aware of having won a great privilege in the lottery of life: as if a big finger had come down from the sky saying: the lucky one is you” he says smiling and with a hint of emotion. «When I started, tomorrow seemed very far away…».
Sixty years later, surrounded by freshly pressed copies of Splat!, that tomorrow still seems interesting enough to him to still deserve a new song. Quitting is not an option, not even retiring: «As long as there are new songs there is life, In the Deep Purple It works like this: we meet in the studio and someone plays something. If no one reacts it means it wasn’t a great idea. But if everyone starts playing together a song is born. And then another and our story continues. Before you ask me if this is the last album, I’ll tell you that we are already working on the next one.”
He laughs satisfied before taking us into the government chambers of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi who a few weeks ago received the band enthusiastically as only a fan can be: «She’s a very intelligent woman. When he was at university he played in a Deep Purple cover band. First the keyboards and then the drums. When I entered her office, she approached with a pair of hand-signed Japanese drum sticks and he said to me in English: «You are my god». You are my God. And I’m like, “You’re a drummer. We’re friends.” Great, if I had problems in Japan, now I would know who to call” he says with subtle British humor. From Tokyo to Abbey Road Studios to play with Paul McCartney. «The incredible thing is that, despite being one of the most famous people on the planet, he tries to live without getting upset a life that can never be normal. Outside there were dozens and dozens of fans waiting for him, but there was only one security guy with him. So, very calmly, he said “ok let’s go out the back, I bought a house right in front of the secondary exit of Abbey Road”.
Sitting next to Paice is Simon McBride, the Northern Irish guitarist who recently joined the lineup after Steve Morse’s departure. Two different generations, two opposite perspectives. A legend who saw the birth of hard rock, and a musician who listened to those records as a boy and who today finds himself part of them: «When you join a band like this», he observes, «at the beginning you are inside and outside at the same time. The door is still half open. Then comes the moment when you close it behind you and say to yourself: it’s incredible, now I’m part of my favorite group.” Ian Paice’s amused and almost paternal gaze falls on him. The same blue eyes that have been observing the world from behind a drum kit for almost sixty years, framed by the inseparable round glasses that have become as much a part of his image as the drumsticks and snare drum.
Then he becomes serious again: «Today rock has become something else. It’s still here. But it’s not as mainstream as it once was. And the main reason is that today many, too many people watch music instead of listening to it.” Radios are afraid of being different. Once upon a time there was a Top 40. Then a Top 20. Now there is a single Top 10 that rotates continuously. The same songs, always the same, over and over again. On the radio as in streaming. They often ask me who the next Rolling Stones will be. Who will be the next Deep Purple. I think there won’t be any. Not because there is a lack of talent. It is the world that has changed. People don’t grow up with a band anymore. They listen to one song by one group, then move on to the next by another artist. We were born in an era where music accompanied your life. Today it accompanies your next click.”
