Deep Purple has shared that their next album is tentatively set to arrive in June.
The band’s frontman, Ian Gillan, disclosed during an interview with Songwriting for Songwriters that the hard rock legends are in the late stages of working on the record, though he didn’t share a title for the upcoming set. It’s welcome news, considering some of the recent health issues that the singer has been dealing with.
READ MORE: Ian Gillan Considers Deep Purple Retirement Over Health Issue
What Fans Can Expect From the Next Deep Purple Album
It will mark the group’s 24th album and their first one since 2024’s =1. “It’s basically very optimistic,” Gillan said, noting that he wasn’t comfortable with letting out too much information. “Let’s say there’s a general theme. It’s a fairly loose conceptual idea of the end of humanity, but not as grim as it sounds. In fact, it’s very optimistic. It’s about the metamorphosis of humanity into a metaphysical state, our next incarnation.”
Deep Purple Needed a Break
During an August 2025 conversation with UCR, bassist Roger Glover confirmed that their productive partnership with legendary producer Bob Ezrin has been fruitful, but they were happy to take a beat when the opportunity arrived. They’ve turned out a total of five albums from 2013’s Now What?! all of the way through 2024’s =1 a little more than a decade later.
“Well, we’ve not been idle. We’ve been working on and there’ll probably be an album [in 2026],” he said. “This has been a welcome break, because we’ve been hard at it for several years. I think it was good to actually take a break. We did one concert in Brazil, a festival in June or something. And I think [there’s] three in Eastern Europe at the end of the year. But that’s it for touring. So [2026]I will [also] be a touring year.”
Bob Ezrin’s ‘Magic Touch’
The band continues to relish the working relationship they enjoy with Ezrin, known for his work with Kiss, Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper and many others. Glover feels it’s been a good match. “I know I trust Bob,” he explained. “I don’t think I always say, ‘Well, I disagree with it.’ H’s got a somehow magic touch.”
“But, you know, I want this next album to be….it’s hard to say what, because I can’t pinpoint things, but a bit beefier. Not quite so compressed, not quite such high vocals. A better drum sound. You know, lots of things like that. I pick holes in the albums all of the time. I’m a fan. I start from being a fan — what do I want to hear and what am I hearing? Sometimes they match.”
Deep Purple’s most recent release, an expanded box set for their legendary Made in Japan live set, arrived last August, featuring new stereo and Dolby ATMOS mixes of the original album by Steven Wilson, plus freshly remixed audio of all three of the Japanese concerts that were recorded for the live record at the time.
Watch Ian Gillan’s Interview on ‘Songwriting for Songwriters’
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
