Deep Purple recently released their new album, Whoosh!, and in an exclusive interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, drummer Ian Paice reveals that this might not be the band's final album after all.

“There was every chance when we went in to start recording the Whoosh! album that it would probably be the last record,” Paice explains. “(Producer Bob Ezrin's) idea was to do a musical full circle, to take the first track off the first record and then end it with the last track on what would have been, in our minds, probably the last record."

Then the pandemic created the potential for another chapter in the Deep Purple story.

“It might not be the last record,” Paice says now, with a chuckle. “We’ve got all of this dead time. We know we can’t do any concerts until sometime next year. Now, 10 or 11 months, is a long time for musicians to sit around doing nothing when they could do something.

"So, it wouldn’t surprise me - and I know there’s little mutterings going on - that we might get together towards the end of this year and see if we can write some more stuff," Paice adds. "If we can, if we’ve got some ideas that we like, then there’s no reason at all why there shouldn’t be another record.”

Read the complete interview with Ian Paice at Ultimate Classic Rock.

Whoosh! is available as a Standard CD, a Digital Album, a Limited Edition CD+DVD Mediabook (including the 1 hour feature “Roger Glover And Bob Ezrin In Conversation” and, for the first time, the full live performance at Hellfest 2017 video), and a Vinyl 2LP+DVD edition (earMUSIC). Order here.

Whoosh! marks Deep Purple’s third album produced by Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd). The first - 2013’s Now What?! - charted at #1 in five European countries, as well as Top 10 in over 15 countries worldwide. Cementing itself as one of their most successful albums, inFinite, released in 2017, broke chart records the band accumulated over their 50+year history. With chemistry this electric, it only made sense for Deep Purple and Ezrin to collaborate a third time.

Whoosh! tracklisting:

"Throw My Bones"
"Drop The Weapon"
"We're All The Same In The Dark"
"Nothing At All"
"No Need To Shout"
"Step By Step"
"What The What"
"The Long Way Around"
"The Power Of The Moon"
"Remission Possible"
"Man Alive"
"And The Address"
"Dancing In My Sleep"

"Man Alive" video:

"Throw My Bones" video:

(Photo - Ben Wolf)