Renown for his work with some of rock and metal’s most famous acts over the years (Deep Purple, Ozzy, Judas Priest, among others), there’s probably few in the music circles who haven’t heard Don Airey’s work in some form. But in addition to a wide swath of bands he has worked with over the years, he has maintained a solo career as well. Pushed to the Edge is his latest solo work, which takes some soaring melodic wings and brings the music in a variety of directions from start to finish. We were able to talk with Don Airey about this latest album of material, the wealth of his experiences in the music industry, as well as his thoughts about the role of keyboards in music.
Dead Rhetoric: Pushed to the Edge is your newest solo album. What really strikes me is how it seems to blend modern and classical together. Was this something intentional?
Don Airey: I think when you are a keyboard player, classical music plays quite a part in your upbringing. If you want to be any good, you have to learn Bach and Chopin, it gives you technique. It’s always there, it comes out in one piece, “Out of Focus.” I play a Bach prelude (Prelude in A minor), and then launch into a ferocious solo. I hope Bach would be proud of that [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: This album was in the works for quite a bit of time during COVID. What’s it like to finally be able to get it released and out there?
Airey: We started it in 2019 and it was made really quickly. In five days, we had all of the backing tracks and a lot of the solos done. With lockdown, it wasn’t until 2021 that we had a space to put the vocals on. Then we finished the solos, then it was mixed in 2022. Then the guitars were done by Simon McBride, who has now joined Deep Purple when Steve Morse left. We had an album commitment to do with Purple. So Pushed to the Edge got pushed to the edge! It was quite a surprise when I found out we were going to release it this year. I was thinking they were going to release it after I was dead [laughs]! So it was a nice surprise that it was going to be coming out. I had almost forgotten about it!
Dead Rhetoric: You have Simon McBride on this solo effort, who is now with you in Deep Purple. How did you go about assembling the group for Pushed to the Edge?
Airey: I do a lot of different things. I do recording sessions, I play at festivals, and I have my own band. Every year I used to go out for three weeks, with a trailer and we would play clubs and theaters all over Europe, with whatever solo album I had, and the other songs we’d do, like the greatest hits. Any excuse to get out to play to people. I had met Simon ten years ago so he kind of joined the band and did whatever recording we needed. We got along well. Then we got Dave [Marks] involved. We also got Jon Finnigan and we have had him for a long time. And Carl Sentence as well. Mitch Eems was the only new guy really in the band. He’s a wonderful addition to the organization.
Dead Rhetoric: You have maintained a solo career along with work in bands for decades. Is it healthy to keep a mixture of both?
Airey: I think it’s good. It means you have to face the truth every so often. A solo project, it’s not Deep Purple or one of those big things. It’s down to business and the budget is tight. You have to be on your game. You have to really know what you are doing. It keeps you honest. I think about all the famous painters, like Rembrant and Goetz, they do self-portraits. Why would they do them? It’s when they aren’t working. They paint themselves. With Rembrant, you have this wonderful series of like 20 portraits from when he was a young painter. I think the last thing he ever painted was himself. There’s a wonderful progression of how he changed. It’s the same thing when you are a musician. ‘This is who I really am’ every so often. It’s good for you.
Dead Rhetoric: So do you ever go back and look at some of your solo stuff and compare to what you do now and do that same sort of self-evaluation?
Airey: I did it recently. I did an album back in the ‘80s called K2. It was about this disastrous expedition to the top of the mountain that claimed the lives of a lot of British climbers. It did alright, but they didn’t renew my deal. Recently, it came up on YouTube and there’s a tribute to Ayrton Senna, the race driver. The music that plays was a song from K2 called “Song for Al” and I had forgotten how beautiful it was. I played it to Roggie Love and asked what he thought of it. He said, “that’s great, who wrote it?” I said, “I did, Roggie.” But he wasn’t having it [laughs]. So it’s good to look back. Things are often better than you think. Especially things that were done quickly or under pressure. When you work with a big band, you have all the time in the world but if you are doing a smaller thing, you have to get it done. I like that side of the business very much.
Dead Rhetoric: It’s nice, I feel a lot of groups I talk to when you discuss their earlier years tend to not necessarily be embarrassed by it, but sort of shy away from it sometimes. So it’s nice to hear a perspective where someone looks back and is really pleased by something they wrote.
Airey: I was doing a solo gig in Italy, with a sort of cover band doing a gig at a festival and the promoter picked me up this tape of some fusion band. Great guitar player, great drummer, and the keyboard player was really good. I was like, who is this, it’s really good? He was like, “It’s you!” It was some bootleg tape of a band I was in with Gary Moore and Jon Hiseman back in the ‘70s that is now selling like wildfire in Italy. But I didn’t recognize the song. It was a revelation to me. We had a wonderful musician called Mo Foster, who was a bass player and on every session. He played with Jeff Beck. He had a wonderful thing he used to say, “The older I get the better I was.” And it’s true. You kind of improve as a player but you lose something as well. You lose the spontaneity and inspiration to do something that hasn’t been done before.
Dead Rhetoric: Is there a difference in your approach to playing and implementing keyboards for a solo album such as this compared to working with a group?
Airey: It means I’m the boss, so I can tell the other people what to do and when to do it. You have to take responsibility for the writing. In a group like Purple, it’s very much a democratic thing. On my solo projects, we roll up our sleeves and we get down to business and work to get it done. You crack the whip a bit. It keeps you energized. You hope you don’t frighten the players away to do the work too much [laughs]. Simon told me that during the recordings for Pushed to the Edge, the guys would go out and be like, ‘well we got through that, I wonder what the old boy has for us tomorrow’ [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: Having worked with so many different people in different groups and outlets over the years, what do you feel helped you in being successful, in terms of your personality?
Airey: Being on the road sounds like a wonderful lifestyle, and it can be, but it’s basically tough going. You have to be resilient and tough. You have to be able to have a sense of yourself, to keep that sense of self so you can get through the day, no matter what it holds when you get on that stage. That’s the important thing. The rest doesn’t matter. The airplane or the bus or the arguments going on. The important thing is that you wear a pair of blinkers, then get on stage and take them off and do your thing. But you have to be resilient to do that and have a feel for your fellow human beings, especially other musicians.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you feel has been key in being able to be a part of the music world for so long and be passionate about it?
Airey: I once gave a lecture to some students and I said, what is the one five letter word that sums up the music business? Someone put their hand up and said, “grief.” I said, “well you are right actually, but the proper answer is songs.” So you want to be in the music industry you have to write songs. It’s as simple as that. The music business is beautifully named. It’s 50% music and 50% business. It’s where the two collide. As a musician, you have to be ready with the songs. You have to be able to deliver the goods and be professional so that you are ready for whatever comes. A lot of it will be unexpected and terra nova. You will find yourself in circumstances you never thought possible.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s your take on the role of keyboards in music? What do you say about the space they occupy?
Airey: Sometimes it’s just the icing on the cake. I have so many albums where you go in when they have nearly finished it and you just do a few bits and pieces. You just have to come up with something that makes a difference, that adds something that no one thought of. Recently, in the last 20 years it has become different for me. The keyboards have a much different function in Deep Purple. They are very much part of the riffing process. They are very much a part of what drives the band along. On Pushed to the Edge, the keyboards really rock. It’s not like I just put a few strings over it. We have a Hammond in there, and a roaring guitarist to go with it. I think we have made a bit of a mark with it. That’s what we were trying to do.
Dead Rhetoric: I think there is something to be said for that. Like you said, there’s a lot of ‘sprinkling’ of keyboards. It’s always interesting to hear that more prominent sound, like you have in Purple as well, being a major factor.
Airey: When you are a keyboard player in most bands, you play with the idea of looking at the setlist and in four numbers time, I better be ready. I have that bit. With Purple, it’s like every song, oh my god! It’s full on! Playing with them, it’s like going on stage and someone goes up behind you with a plank of wood and hits you on the back of the head, you don’t know what hit you [laughs]. There’s a certain force at work that’s quite rare. I think we have carried it through on Pushed to the Edge. Songs like “Tell Me.” That’s a real hard-driving song. The riff sounds like a guitar but it’s the Hammond…no wait, it’s both of them together. That’s what we are trying to do. If you can get that synergy when they play together, that’s the secret of rock and roll. It’s not the volume, it’s the power. That’s where the power comes from. It’s not always easy to hear. Very few bands achieve it.
When we made Pushed to the Edge, we were all in the same room. The amps were in different cupboards, but we were all in the same room. We could all see each other. We played in a small studio and there was a talented engineer called Piers Mortimer. It was thrilling. When you can see the whites of the other musicians’ eyes and you can see the worried look on their face, that’s always a good one. “Are you ready?” “Hit it!” And then you are off. It’s exciting. I think it comes across on the record. You can feel something in the air that we have managed to capture.
Dead Rhetoric: Yeah, to circle back to where we started, it’s such a nice blend. You can’t listen to it and say it’s going in one direction. There’s a lot going on between the different songs.
Airey: You have to have some fast numbers, some heavy numbers, some ballads, which is what we have done. I’m very fond of one of the ballads, “Girl from Highland Park.” It came at the end of the session. Dave Marks had to go because he had a show in London. So it was just me, Jon Finnigan, and Simon left. I was feeling a bit nostalgic. It was the end of the week and we were nearly done. We decided to write this wistful ballad called “Girl from Highland Park.” Simon drops out in the middle, because he doesn’t know what I’m playing. I didn’t know what I was playing! I was just making it up. He put a solo on at the end, an acoustic solo. It was very beautiful. At 6 o’clock we were all done. We had another track. It’s nice when that happens. It makes the job worthwhile. You think that you have done a good day’s work when you do something like that.
Dead Rhetoric: Have you found you have had other moments like that throughout your career? Those little spontaneous moments?
Airey: That’s the essence of it, yeah. When you are recording, you have to be alert and ready. To come up with something unique, that’s the job. Thats why it can be a bit weary and can get to people and damage them mentally if they are subject to that sort of pressure for a long time. Being in a band helps, if you are all together. It can be devastating when you leave that band, to your mental health, if you get used to it. It’s a funny life, being in a band. But if you get to play some music here and there, that’s the thing!
Dead Rhetoric: Music is sometimes full circle. What’s something in music or the industry that you wish would return/make a comeback?
Airey: Tape machines. Vinyl is coming back, and I believe tape machines are coming back. There’s nothing better than hearing a 16 track tape machine. You didn’t have to think about what you were playing, it seemed to sort itself out. It doesn’t do that digitally. It doesn’t seem quite the same when you record digitally.
Dead Rhetoric: You have more of a preference to a more analog recording then?
Airey: Yeah, I do like the new technology, like ProTools. It has made recording not more simple, but more friendly to the musician. You can jam a lot more and you can stretch out. You don’t have to drop in so much. It freed up the process, but I do miss the tape.
Dead Rhetoric: What do you feel are your biggest takeaways in living a life that has been full of music?
Airey: You get to travel. You get to see a lot of the world, if you want to look. You get to meet a lot of interesting people. With Deep Purple, we were talking last night over Zoom to see how everyone was. We were playing in Russia and they took us out on this troutsteamer and caught a lot of fish and cooked them for us. We all had to drink this quarter pint of Vodka off a cossack sword, before we could eat. So you hold the sword and you have to drink the vodka down. It wouldn’t happen in say Cambridge where I live [laughs].
Dead Rhetoric: Pushed to the Edge comes out in a few weeks, where does the road take you from there?
Airey: We have a bit of time off with Deep Purple so I am waiting to see what happens there. We are still working on promotion for the album, and will probably tour in Europe in September or so. I am just playing it by ear for the moment. It was an unexpected turn of events when they told me they were bringing the album out. I think I was the last to know!