ROGER GLOVER Interview
In a career spanning almost 50 years, Roger Glover has found success at just about everything he has tried.
The head scarf-sporting bassist joined Deep Purple just as the band hit mega stardom with classic albums In Rock and Machine Head, he then forged a career as a producer, working with the likes of Judas Priest and Rory Gallagher, he has mixed records for gargantuan bands such as Dream Theater and he’s also a master songwriter.
Oh, and now he’s back with Purple’s first brand new album in eight years. As Now What!? hits the shelves we spoke to Roger about his golden career...
“We’re not very good at planning things to be honest. We’re a democratic band and it’s difficult to get an agreement going. After [2005 album] Raptures of the Deep, which came out eight years ago…the thing is we tour all the tour whether we have an album out or not, so it wasn’t the Rapture of the Deep tour, it was just another tour.
Doing an album didn’t really surface until three or four years after that one. We couldn’t figure out where, when, who with or even if to do a new album, because albums aren’t what they used to be, they used to be real signposts, but then maybe this album is another signpost. Albums seem to be old fashioned though, but then again we’ve never been in fashion.
We didn’t have much of an idea until three years ago when we had a writing session.
We don’t write on the road or in sound checks or anything like that, so we had a writing session for nine days. By writing session I mean we just jam. Out of those jams songs sometimes appear.
We finished those sessions with ten or 12 ideas but it wasn’t until a year ago when Bob Ezrin came to see us in Toronto that things started moving.
We had a meeting and it was a match very well made, he liked us and we liked him. At that point a way ahead appeared and we had another writing session in which most of the songs were formed.
We went into the studio and it was very easy. We had a bit of time to refine the arrangements so by the time we got to the studio we played it pretty much live. That gives it a fresh feeling. It helps to get it in the first few takes, you should not think, just play.
We were very concerned that it should sound good, I’ve been disappointed with some of the albums we’ve done before in terms of sound. When you play live you’re in front of an audience and you’ve got the adrenaline. In the studio it is more clinical, but we brought the experiences of being on the road into the studio.”
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