Interview With Keyboard Maestro Danny Peyronel - Page 9

How did you get back with the HMK?

Ronno was visiting with us in Milan, and I took him to the studio, DiddeStudio, where we had started foolin’ around with Marco Barusso and my boys, Max, Luca and Mario. Right there and then, Marco asked if we felt like doing a new HMK album. Yes, was the answer.

Were you pleased with how Hit The Right Button came out?

Easily, and without the slightest doubt in any of our heads, it was the best album we ever did with the band. It was the album we had always wanted to do, and couldn’t manage to in ‘them’ days. Our regret had always been that we could not seem to translate the power and fun of our live show onto record.

Perhaps it was a producer problem, or a technology thing, who knows? But with Hit The Right Button, we finally felt that’s what we always wanted in a record.

What can we expect from the next HMK album?

Even more of the above, from frantically intense rockers to really moving, (whilst always dripping in sarcasm and irony and/or tongue in cheek) ballads and mid-tempos.

You’ve been in the news a lot recently, receiving awards at last. It must be very pleasing?

I’m feeling a bit like a really down-sized version of those people who get ‘Lifetime Achievement’ awards, when they’re about to kick the bucket. For that reason, I have now ordered all buckets removed indefinitely from my sight.

Thanks Danny. It’s an amazing story. Can I write your biography? I wrote one of David Byron the Uriah Heep singer, did you ever meet him?

Of course! We used to tour with Heep a lot in the early seventies, and yes, sure, you can write my biography, as long as it’s wildly embellished and you remember to wax lyrical on all my missionary work in Africa.

Who knows we might finally get to that football match! Which brings me to my last question, why Juventus? I thought, having lived in Milan, you would be more of an AC or an Inter chap?

Not funny. If you do your homework, you might find that Peyronel is a name that comes ONLY from the valleys west of Turin, in Turin province. Not funny at all! Ok, a little bit funny, but not much. Besides, I have a natural rejection for football teams with a lot of red in their strip. With cars it’s different of course. I like a lot of red there.

Here’s one final funny anecdote that you might wish to include. I have always been one who believes that speaking negatively of people you’ve worked with only reflects badly on you and not them. I mean, what kind of an idiot are you, if you chose to work with people that, now, you think were rubbish, right? I’ve tried to live by that philosophy, if you can call it that. However, it’s sad when, after so many years, now that we’re all grown-up, you come across things like this:

Article Author: Jeff Perkins

Jeff is a writer who lives in France. He writes CD/DVD box sets, music reviews and has had a book published about David Byron of Uriah Heep. He is 'busy' exploring the music of Europe with his wife Debbie and dog Dylan. It's Dylan that does the writing of course. …

Visit Jeff Perkins's author page — Jeff Perkins's Blog