Deep Purple to release 20th album in February & plot two-year tour

Back in June, keyboardist Don Airey said the follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed ‘Now What?!’ was in the final mixing stages and “on the tender mercies” of producer Bob Ezrin.

Now, in a fresh interview with Antihero, Ian said he “heard it’s coming out in February” and once it sees the light of day “we’ll be on the road for two years as we normally are.”

Ian also shed some light on the band’s song-writing process: "Deep Purple was different than any other kind of writing I do with other people. Deep Purple is primarily an instrumental band, and the routine is we book in a studio somewhere, and the guys come in at noon.

“They start jamming and they work 'till six o'clock, take a break at three for a cup of tea and then do that every day. Roger (Glover) and I listen to the music and clock out the occasional bit and think that might be okay for a tune on the album or something.

“Then we start refocusing on making arrangements and how to develop the song. Then when it is all tucked away, I start thinking about the lyrics and the tunes.

“There is no point before they get literally torn up every day because everything changes every day. There's no shortage of things to write about lyrically. There is no point trying to create a tune on something that's going to change in a couple of hours.

“That's how it worked with Purple. This is primarily an instrumental band. I just climb on board and write it along."

Ian also said he’s more than confident he can cope with the rigours of another two years on the road.

“No, I don’t find any stress touring,” he said. “In fact, I was going for a check-up the other day and I was telling my doctor that’s when I feel best, on the road.

“Actually singing every day and traveling it’s this crazy kind of thing because there’s a routine to it, although it changes every day. That’s a contradiction but you go on stage about the same time every night. We do five cities a week and played in 48 countries last year. It keeps you right on top of things.”

Housing all five of the Gillan’s studio albums, Gillan: The Vinyl Collection 1979-1982 is released via Demon Records on 21st October 2016. You can order it on Amazon here.