DEEP PURPLE Completes Recording New Album

Legendary British hard rockers DEEP PURPLE have finished tracking their new album, the band's keyboardist Don Airey said in a phone interview with TASS ahead of the band’s concerts in Russia.

"As far as I know, it's all recorded and now," he said. "It's on the tender mercies of [producer] Bob Ezrin; he's going to mix it. I haven't been given a release date. I know nothing about that as yet. If I knew, I'd tell you, but I don't."

DEEP PURPLE's new CD was recorded earlier this year at a studio in Nashville, Tennesse. The follow-up to 2013's "Now What?!" album is once again being helmed by Bob Ezrin, who has previously worked with KISS, PINK FLOYD, PETER GABRIEL, ALICE COOPER and KANSAS, among others.

DEEP PURPLE bassist Roger Glover recently talked about the band's writing process, telling Ultimate Classic Rock: "We jam and jam and jam, and if we find something that we like to play or that works well or inspires us, then we'll try to knock it into some kind of arrangement. Then, once we've got that, Ian [Gillan, vocals] and I will figure out what the song's really all about, and write the lyrics and all of that stuff."

DEEP PURPLE's first new album in eight years, "Now What?!", topped charts in Germany, Norway and Austria and peaked at No. 19 in Britain.

"Now What?!" sold 4,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 115 on The Billboard 200 chart. The album was released in North America in April 2013 via earMUSIC, the Hamburg, Germany-based international rock label which is part of Edel Group.

DEEP PURPLE — which has been eligible for induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame for two decades now — finally entered the Rock Hall as part of the class of 2016. The band's first three lineups were inducted, including drummer Ian Paice, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, late keyboardist Jon Lord, and various singers and bassists — Rod Evans; Ian Gillan and Roger Glover; and David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes.