Def Leppard News - Phil Collen Says Band Respected Themselves On New Def Leppard Album

Phil Collen Says Band Respected Themselves On New Def Leppard Album

Wednesday, 13th April 2016

Phil Collen 2014.
Phil Collen Auburn 2014

Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen was interviewed in May 2015 by Rodney Holder and mentioned the new studio album.

Phil talked about the European tour, touring with Live/Australian tour, support acts, the live shows/real vocals, working with Mutt Lange, the new studio album (before its release), Delta Deep, being perfectionists, how the band write songs, music copyrights and how he would start again in the business if he could.

The interview was conducted on the phone from Prague on 24th May 2015. And if this interview had been spotted at the time it would have revealed one of the song titles a few months before the tracklisting was fully unveiled in September 2015.

Listen to the full 15 minute interview below. Phil's part starts at 5:10mins and goes to 20:15mins.

Visit the Album News section. For more news on new music (based on band member quotes) dating back to January 2011.

Music Business Facts - Phil Collen Interview Quotes

Live Show/Real Vocals

"We always sing our own vocals. We see so many bands out there (and) they can't be bothered. They can't really sing. They don't out the effort in. And I think all the stuff that we're experiencing now is kind of a reward for putting all that effort in. You know we worked really hard on the records. I remember when we was doing stuff with Mutt Lange. He'd say guys we can be a good band, on OK band. If you wanna be a great band we gotta work a bit harder. And that means playing, singing and even the songwriting."

"You know when you think you've got a great chorus. That's not great that's OK. That'll be the pre chorus or something and then you've gotta get something better for that. So that was really our motivation with being surrounded by people like that. Like Mutt Lange and that kind of inspired us to keep going and get it better all the time. And I think we are seeing a reward for that. And I love the fact that you know my playing gets better every year and I can sing better."

"Joe's singing the best I've ever heard him sing. And with most artists they stop doing that. They don't put the effort in. They kind of get a bit creaky and it doesn't happen. I think that if you keep trying to get better. Keep trying to improve like I said you're rewarded and then the audience sees it as well. Especially in the live show."

The New Def Leppard Album

"It's really funny. We've got a new album coming out in October and it's called Def Leppard. And it's - we went in to write like one song or do a kind of EP or something. And we wrote 12 songs which was unbelievable - we were shocked. But I think we didn't have any pressure. We didn't have any record company or an executive saying guys you know you've gotta do all this and we need some filler songs and all this stuff. We wrote the songs - and again it wasn't for the fans. It was for us. You know we actually wanted to get these songs out. And that was so much fun that - you'll hear it on the album when it comes out."

Style Of The Album/Classic Def Leppard With Organic Vibe?

"Yeah. There's more to it than that. I think you know our blueprint has always been a cross between AC/DC and Queen. That's really what we try and set out to do initially. And I think with this one it's even a bit more open. There's stuff on there that's like the hardest rocking guitar stuff we've ever done on a record. And at the same time you know there's a couple of tracks that sound totally at home on a Top 40 station. I think the great thing is like we said not to restrict. Not to put kind of boundaries and that and a lot of the time artists have to do that because there's a label or they have to respect the audience."

"And with this one we actually just started respecting ourselves and it just felt really good."

Def Leppard Songwriting Process/All Together?

"Not really. I mean how it usually works is someone comes in with say a chorus. Or a verse or a riff or something. It starts off and then other people kind of infiltrate it. Unless, you know we got a song on the new Def Leppard album called Broke 'n' Brokenhearted. And me and Joe wrote it in ten minutes. And it was the quickest song I think we've ever written in Def Leppard. And Joe said I've got this verse that kind of goes like this and it's kind of got a Faces, Sex Pistols thing. And I said wow I've got a song - I've got a chorus that kind of goes like that. He sung me the thing and it was in the absolute right key and I sung the chorus to him and before you knew it we literally wrote the whole song in ten minutes and demoed it and it sounds killer. On the record it's like just so much fun."