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Before our albums are released I feel like we still own it, that we have control over our music. But once it's out there in the world it's no longer ours.

I think most bands probably peak on their first album. We peaked on our third album. On the first album, I feel like I wish the production was a little better. I'll always hear a song I don't like. I look for what I could have done to make it better. It's always difficult for me to listen.

I guess when we were up against it, we knew this album was going to be compared to all the classic early material, because it was going back to the original five.

I try to be careful to not just say it's a greatest hits show because we've also made efforts to keep people up to date so to speak because we continually write and record and put out albums.

I hope everybody thinks they've got the best album. I wouldn't have put mine out if I didn't think it was the best.

I always felt if we were going in to do an album, there should already be a lot of structure already made up so we could get on with that and see what else happened.

When you look at what we can call the golden era of concept albums, which starts in the mid or late '60s and ends maybe in the early '80s, it's an interesting time for music. You see all these very established and popular acts and bands and artists that were somehow on the top of their game but really trying to experiment.

At the moment we're trying to keep what we've learnt. Because we learnt a terrific amount with 'Deep Purple In Rock,' it took six months to make that album: we think it paid off, really. I can honestly say that it's the first album we've been 100 percent satisfied with; it gave us a hell of a lot of confidence.

I feel that my playing on the first album was probably some of my best.

Sadly, I've seen a lot of bands hit that sort of peak and then eventually start supporting again, you know, which we will never do. We always put a lot of thought into the way that we are going to go, and we always change.