Deep Purple emerged from a writing session in Portugal with about a dozen sketches for new music in an effort to quickly follow up 2013’s well-received Now What?! comeback recording.
“It was eight years between albums,” Roger Glover said at Hellfest, “and we can’t wait that long.” Another writing session is planned later in 2014, with the hopes of issuing finished music in ’15. “I don’t know when,” Glover adds, “but sometime next year, there will be another album.”
Already, the group has begun to put Now What?! into perspective, judging it as one of the very best in a long and varied Deep Purple catalog. As for their favorites, well, that becomes a more involved dialogue …
“Depends which day you ask,” admits Glover, whose been part of Deep Purple since 1969. “I suppose I always come back to Deep Purple In Rock, because that’s where we kind of found ourselves. There’s been a lot of highlights and lowlights since then — but, actually, the last album we did Now What?! is one of my favorites. But, we all have different favorites.”
Don Airey adds: “I like Who Do We Think We Are,” an album that predates his early-2000s joining of Deep Purple. “I think that’s a brilliant album. It’s so laid back, and yet it’s so intense. Great songs, as well.”
Steve Morse, with the band since 1994, jumps in then: “I think Who Do We Think We Are is the best title, but Roger’s right — Machine Head was the best classic. [Laughs uproariously, while pointing at a disagreeing Glover.] But Now What?! is the best contemporary one.”
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