IAN GILLAN:
Yeah, yeah, back in the UK, but just packing for … where are we going tomorrow? Going to Prague, I think, opening the winter games up in the mountains there and then going down to South America for a bit of sunshine for a couple of weeks … and a bit of work, of course!
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
Yeah, dress warmly for Prague and the winter games …
IAN GILLAN:
It’s actually great fun to put on a small kilt and a Hawaiian shirt when you get up in the blizzards at the top of the mountains there. [laughs] That what I normally do!
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
So, you’re getting packed and everything all ready to go. This is Purple or is it solo?
IAN GILLAN:
No, it’s Purple … I’m back I’ve had my naughty weekend [laughs]. Yes, I’m back with Purple until the end of the year. I’ve just got the schedule through until the 12th of December actually [with] a few little breaks here and there.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
It’s been about 25 years now, isn’t it, with Deep Purple?
IAN GILLAN:
Well you know it’s almost like a house. It’s where we belong, it’s where we live. People come and go, you redecorate it from time to time, repair the roof, replant the garden and it’s still standing and it feels very good. The last four years have been the best period since, say, ’69 to ’73, really.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
Is there anything you wish you’d done differently?
IAN GILLAN:
I’ve thought about all this a few times now and all I can really come up with is there’s a few punches I wish hadn’t been thrown in the early years. I think if things hadn’t gone well then I’d have still been in music. I was born into music, my granddad was an opera singer, my uncle was a jazz pianist, I was a boy soprano in the church choir. The joy of being able to write as well as perform has made it more fulfilling really.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
So, let’s talk about your new solo album, One Eye To Morocco.
IAN GILLAN:
Well all the songs generally were written over a four or five year period with [co-writer] Steve Morris. He used to come down from Liverpool and we’d spend a few days writing the stuff and drinking some beer and then he’d go home and we’d have more songs to put in the library and they were all written for pleasure [not] for any specific project.
But in the end I had about 38 songs with no home to go to and there was no time to make a record until [DP bassist] Roger Glover’s mother got very ill and, sadly, died last year. We canceled a couple of tours and I went off to Buffalo, New York and we set about selecting material and got a short list down to 25 and then down to 15 and then I rehearsed all the guys until everyone was really comfortable with all the songs.
The song, “One Eye To Morocco” was the template, the pivotal track by which all the others were judged. I particularly loved the mood of this record. It didn’t have a title at the time and so, you know, if the track went with it mood-wise, if it felt right, we’d want it on the same record. If you felt you could groove to it the same way, it was [included]. If not, it was back in the library.
ABOUT.COM CLASSIC ROCK:
Did you try to make it different from what you would write for Deep Purple?
IAN GILLAN:
Well, it’s just Purple without Purple! I would say that the way I write here is exactly what could end up on a Purple record. The only thing is, it’s written outside of the band instead of inside.
Any one of these songs … could’ve worked with Purple, it’s just that if you take Purple stuff and take Purple out of it and take a different production approach you’re going to get completely different sounds.
