Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice has revealed that the band is already discussing the possibility of recording a new album in 2027. He made the comments in an interview on the Rockonteurs podcast.
The comments came as Paice spoke about the band’s busy touring schedule in 2026 and what lies ahead. The upcoming album Splat! is set to arrive on July 3. He explained why next year could be the right time to get back into the studio.
“Well, that’s already being discussed for… This [2026] is a heavy touring year — it’s almost 100 shows or something — so next year [2027] won’t be the same,” Paice said. “You can’t keep doing it that way.”
Paice went on to describe the band’s approach to songwriting and what makes the creative process work.
“So if you have any ideas, making a record’s easy. If you don’t have ideas, making a record’s impossible,” he continued. “So getting together, and if we find we have some ideas we all like, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t put together another record sometime next year. It’s the nature of things. It’s all about ideas. You can be an actor, but if the guy hasn’t written a screenplay, you’ve got nothing to say.”
He also offered a candid look at how the band’s collaborative sessions unfold in the studio.
“Everybody comes in with a couple of basic notions of something that they probably woke up in the middle of the night and said, ‘Oh, that sounds good,'” Paice explained. “And one person will start something. Now, if it’s interesting, the other guys will join in. If it’s not interesting, there’s a deathly silence and somebody else starts something. The amazing thing with the whole process is you go in in the morning and you’ve got nothing, and you come out after five, six hours’ work and you got two or three really nice somethings.”
Paice acknowledged that inspiration doesn’t flow at the same rate every day. He noted that the process tends to yield more than enough material over time.
“And that’s what keeps it working for the next day. ‘Okay, that was a really good day.’ But you don’t get three good ideas every day,” he said. “The first day, all these things you’ve had loitering in your mind, they come to the fore. So next day, there aren’t that many ideas, so it becomes a little more difficult as you go through. But after 10 days, you’ve probably got a lot more than you can put on an album in the way of ideas, but you gotta then separate the wheat from the chaff.”
The 2027 album talk arrives at a moment when Deep Purple are showing no signs of slowing down. Splat! represents the band’s latest creative statement, and a packed world tour is already underway.
Splat! is set for release on July 3 via earMUSIC. The single “Diablo” serves as the most recent preview of the record. The album marks another chapter in the band’s remarkably sustained run of studio output. It continues a creative momentum that has seen them release multiple albums well into their sixth decade as a band.
Paice has been candid about the urgency that drives the band’s work ethic. He noted: “We don’t have six, seven, 10 years, everybody knows that.” The remark lends added weight to the discussions around a 2027 follow-up — not as a distant ambition, but as a genuine near-term priority.
Deep Purple have also announced a 2026–2027 world tour. The run includes Southern California stops in September 2026, reflecting the band’s continued commitment to reaching audiences across the globe while balancing the demands of studio work.
The combination of a new album dropping in July, a world tour in motion, and early conversations about yet another studio record paints a picture of a band operating with rare purpose and productivity. For Deep Purple, the question of what comes next appears to have a clear answer — and they are already working on it.
