“Well I think it’s now confirmed, it’s Bob Ezrin who will produce the new Deep Purple album”... According to Steve Morse, they have asked Bob Ezrin to produce the new studio album. This as you might imagine is Quite A Big Deal and indicates the level of seriousness with which they seem to be approaching the project. Ezrin has worked with some of the biggest names around, Pink Floyd, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Peter Gabriel, etc. There are also links with Morse going back to the last Kansas album (which Ezrin co-produced and also helped write) and this may have influenced their decision.
Morse was giving the news to French magazine Rock Hard. Thanks to Mathieu Pinard for the story.
And anyone else spot the Kansas sleeve imitating the old Bent Out Of Shape one as I did when checking this story!?
Tags: bob ezrin, deep purple, deep purple news, producer
darker than blue 
April 30, 2012 at 8:49 pm |
It is a saddening sign that now we look for a producer to save Deep Purple’s face. COMPOSITION is not one of the biggest talent of this outfit. See Rogers latest outing on his own site on how difficult it is for him to come up with something worthwhile.
Not exactly encouraging.
Don Airey recently said in a interview that DOWN TO EARTH is his favourite album he’s been on. That’s telling, not?!
May 4, 2012 at 9:02 am |
You would kind of expect Don to fly the fly for his current employers true, but he didn’t chose his solo album either, so maybe it’s just more a period he really enjoyed in his musical career. And now I’ve got the DTE title track riff in my head all day!
May 5, 2012 at 11:36 am
Which DTE title track would that be? ;-) To be fair to Don, DTE was his favourite of eleven albums in the RC article. Rapture was also in there so current employers were not overlooked. I found it stranger that ALITS wasn’t there, though K2 and All Out were. Favourites – it’s a personal thing.
May 9, 2012 at 8:50 am
You know the one, “In thee ayeees of the world…” diddly de dum dum de dum (etc). Now I’m trying to work out what the acronym ALITS stands for!
April 30, 2012 at 7:21 pm |
One positive is Ezrin’s absolute willingness to tell a band that what they’re writing or playing isn’t working. With the strong egos in this band, expect some major league headbutting on this album. I’m honestly quite intrigued to see how Gillan and Ezrin work together and “get along”.
May 4, 2012 at 9:04 am |
Perhaps the BBC will be able to do a fly on the wall documentary about the making of?! But you’re right, the band need somebody they respect to push them. I think we’re all mostly agreed they can still cut the mustard, let’s just make sure it’s strong and English!
April 21, 2012 at 5:42 pm |
This may be a rather stupid question but why doesn’t Roger Glover produce the albums any more? Surely if there is a world class producer who knows what Deep Purple should sound like it is Roger.
April 19, 2012 at 9:16 pm |
Bob Ezrin is known as much for over-production, piling on sound effects and children’s choirs and horning in on as many co-writes as he can get as he is for meat-and-potatoes hard rock. Having him as producer could be beneficial or seriously detrimental to the project.
If they’d signed up someone with a consistent track record of getting a clear, powerful sound – like Max Norman, Peter Collins, or Ted Templeman (is he still working?) – that would be exciting!
Wondering what people have got against Michael Bradford’s production? In my view “Bananas” is easily the best-sounding post-Blackmore record. Full, energetic, pounding yet crystal-clear, and he even got Gillan to scream on record again.
Hopefully we can all agree that however the Ezrin thing pans out, at least it will be nice to have one more Purple record! (If it actually gets made…)
April 20, 2012 at 6:55 pm |
I would agree Bananas is a corker sound-wise, and even has a couple of stand-out tracks on it. I thought they’d found their George Martin with Bradford until I heard Rapture, possibly one of the worst sounding DP albums ever. So no idea what went wrong there. I personally think Abandon is the best post RB sounding album, really grungy, and Roger was helping twiddle the dials on that. You’ve got me worried about children’s choirs now though!
April 18, 2012 at 6:56 pm |
Should have gone the whole hog and got some harder ‘ummmph’ back in the music……Andy Sneap.
April 16, 2012 at 10:30 pm |
The album of Kansas looks like Rainbow Bent Out Of Shape!!
April 15, 2012 at 4:07 pm |
At this stage in the game, Purple have been there and done that, meaning it’s time for something different. This might just be the ticket. Taking the Production to this level is going to be a game changer and something long overdue. I am truly looking forward to this offering and the collaboration between Purple and Ezrin. Their musical talent and his overall gift for complete oversight should bring about an incredible record. It’s a ballsy move from these staples of Rock. Kudos to this decision.
April 14, 2012 at 11:43 pm |
Hope this works out. Sorry but could not stand the sound
of Rapture or Bananas with Bradford. The new Alice Cooper album with Ezrin is great. Really like all the KISS and Alice Cooper stuff with Ezrin. At least.. it would be very interesting.
April 14, 2012 at 8:15 pm |
The producer is ready…now I hope for a great songwriting by the band…
April 14, 2012 at 7:24 pm |
Ezrin was responsible for two of KISS’ best albums–Destroyer and Revenge–and also their worst album, The Elder. Interesting choice…I guess this means they might do a concept album?
April 13, 2012 at 9:10 am |
This could be real good considering Ezrin’s hands-on approach. He´s a prolific producer/arranger and has several great co-writes under his belt. Hope all the practical parts of this works out and the chemistry is there. I guess it´s a good sign that Morse already have the experience of working with him.