British heavy metal forefathers Deep Purple transcend nostalgia with their brand new album '=1'.
'=1' is heralded by first single 'Portable Door' and features the six-string mastery of recently initiated lead guitarist Simon McBride.Irish-born McBride stepped into the role of lead guitarist in 2022, replacing Steve Morse who had been Deep Purple's longest-serving guitarist, joining in 1994. "It's been a mad experience to be honest," Simon says of his time thus far in the band.
"It's a little bit of an overwhelming experience because it's not every day you get asked by one of the biggest, iconic rock bands in the world, Deep Purple, to be part of their band. It took a while for it to sink in, put it that way, but it's been great fun."
Now an official highway star as part of one of the world's hardest touring bands, Simon has spent more time on the road than off it lately.
He has been bequeathed the great honour of performing the timeless riffs and solos of Deep Purple classics as foretold by predecessors in greats such as Ritchie Blackmore, Tommy Bolin, Steve Morse and Joe Satriani.
"When you join a band like that, as you mentioned all the iconic players, there's always that little bit of expectation from the fans I believe," he says.
"They all want you to play like they want you to play. Some of them want you to play like Ritchie, some of them want you to play like Steve or Tommy or Joe."
The best advice Simon got was from Deep Purple keyboardist and longtime colleague Don Airey at their first rehearsal.
"I said to him, 'I don't know what to play. I don't know whether to play like Ritchie or play this or do this'," he recalls, "and Don says: 'Just play. Be yourself. Don't worry about anything that Steve did or anything that Ritchie did. That's history, this is a new thing. Just be yourself and just play.'
"I try not to think about if it's Ritchie or Steve Morse or Satriani, who was one of my childhood heroes. Once you get past that stage it's fine, you just learn to be yourself and have a bit of craic and just play.
"Because you have to have an inner confidence. You have to believe: 'Okay, I'm here for a reason, so do what you do.' And once you get into that all you're doing is having fun and playing music then."
Joining Simon in the Deep Purple Mark IX line-up is vocalist Ian Gillam, bassist Roger Glover, Don Airey and drummer Ian Paice, who is also the last original member of the band.
"The problem is, when you're in a band like Deep Purple and you have so many hit songs, you have to do them all or else people get angry," he says.
"When you have 'Highway Star', 'Space Truckin', 'Pictures Of Home', 'Smoke On The Water', 'Black Night' and all those big hit songs, it's like, how can we not do that?"
With a body of work spanning more than half a century, Deep Purple are one of the most influential bands in the history of rock and remain esteemed progenitors of the form.
"The new album will reflect what the five of us create in the rehearsal room," Simon says. "Many of the songs, like 'Portable Door', were written in the first sessions and literally came together in five or ten minutes. It all was so easy and natural."
'=1' is released 19 July. Pre-order it.
