Def Leppard News - JOE ELLIOTT On More DOWN 'N' OUTZ Music/THIS IS HOW WE ROLL Album

Tuesday, 7th January 2020

JOE ELLIOTT On More DOWN 'N' OUTZ Music/THIS IS HOW WE ROLL Album

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Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was recently interviewed for a podcast and mentioned the Down 'n' Outz album and their future.

Joe spoke to Mitch Lafon recently for his Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon podcast to promote the new Down 'n' Outz This Is How We Roll album.

Joe talked about the Down 'n' Outz This Is How We Roll album, making stripped down songs, solo work, Down 'n' Outz Future, Hello America, On Through The Night 40th Anniversary In March 2020, 2020 setlist, High 'n' Dry Album, Mutt Lange Production, Band Relationship With Montreal and expanding The Stadium Tour into 2021.

This Is How We Roll Album

He talked about the making of the latest album and how it was recorded over a five year period.

Down 'n' Outz Future

Joe says the band will make new music at some point but that it could take five years again before another album comes out.

Listen to the full 26 minute interview below.

Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

Visit the Album News section for more news on new music (based on band member quotes).

Rock Talk With Mitch Lafon - Joe Elliott Interview Quotes - (Transcribed by dltourhistory)

Down 'n' Outz This Is How We Roll

"Well the original idea of the whole band was only to be 45 minutes. One live performance."

"So when it came to doing a third album I kind of figured the well was dry with doing Mott related covers and we were kind of over it you know. And I said well why don't we try some other people's songs. And then after about ten minutes I said why don't we just try writing some instead. And they were all like 'Yeah cool!'."

"But it just turned out that I was kind of very fertile in the song writing department for the next five years. So I ended up writing all the material save for one cover. We did decide way back in the early days of this project to do White Punks On Dope. The Tubes song."

"But other than that I came to the table with a bunch of songs. I'd written 90 percent of them on a piano. So that I knew that there wouldn't be any conflict of interest with Def Leppard. So it just kind of made sense. I was writing on the piano in a very different way to anything I've ever contributed towards a Def Leppard project. So I was very comfortable that there was a reason to do this. And like I said it wasn't gonna conflict with anything I would be doing with the Leps."

"So I was really happy with the way it turned out. The guys loved it. They were on board with me just writing it all. And I love the way it turned out. I'm very very happy with the album."

More Stripped Down Songs/Solo Work

"It is a lot more basic than Def Leppard, but we need to understand one thing here. Def Leppard doesn't, we're not forced to write a certain way. We choose to write kind of, you know, bombastic arena rock type stuff. That's what we do and it's what we love doing. But at the same time, you know, everybody in a band has an individuality to them that doesn't always come out unless they make solo records."

"So all you ever know about certain bands. Like say for example The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. You wouldn't have known their individual influences until they split and started solo material. And then what you'll get is when it's say Paul McCartney or John Lennon you'll hear a little bit of overspill of Beatles sound. But then they'll be the individuality of it because it doesn't have McCartney on the Lennon stuff. It doesn't have Lennon on the McCartney stuff. And same thing with say Zeppelin when Robert Plant went solo. He was no longer writing with Jimmy Page. So there was gonna be a twist."

"And it's the same thing with this really. The twist is that I'm writing. The same way that I would write in my mind but I'm writing on a piano instead of a guitar. When it came to lyrics I was writing with a different head space 'cause it was a bit more introspective."

"So I'm scratching an itch for sure you know. But it's not one that I was so desperate to do that it would make me wanna quit Def Leppard or something like that. This is just a side thing. It's like stepping out of a long running soap opera to act in an indie movie for a couple of times you know. And then go back."

"The process was no different really. I'd sit and I would labour over these songs until I was happy with them. They didn't get written in three minutes. They may appear that way. But they were as much love and attention spent on them as any Def Leppard contribution I've made. It just comes from a different angle that's all. You know it's just like loaning yourself out to a different team. You're still playing the same game really."

"So it was fun to do and I think that the biggest difference was that I didn't have anybody. I didn't have a sound board. I wasn't bouncing ideas off somebody else. I wasn't being, I didn't have the weight of expectation because there is no expectation with Down 'n' Outz. So that again was a slightly different approach I suppose, because there's a freedom to that for sure. And I didn't have to worry about what everybody else thought because I was doing this for me."

"The guys in Down 'n' Outz obviously care. And the guys in Def Leppard were probably just interested. But I was left to my own devices to create this record. But it was a team effort to record it. And it was recorded in the same studio Def Leppard have recorded for the last 25 years. With the same engineer that we've used for the last 20. So there's a certain familiarity in the way it's recorded."

"But it was always gonna sound different 'cause it's completely different people. ."

Down 'n' Outz Future

"No I mean it's an ongoing thing. But it's ongoing the same way that Class Reunion's are you know. It's not always the same every year. And not everybody turns up at the same time. We've got a situation where every body in the Down 'n' Outz has got a mothership that's insanely busy."

"When I call them up and say 'Are you free?'. The chances of all five of the other people saying 'Yes we're free'. For x amount of time is extremely thin. The chances, you know, it's highly unlikely."

Making The Album

"That's why this record took the best part of five years to complete. It only took about three or four months to record. But I had to do it in two or three days at a time and grab them, sometimes two of them. You know we recorded the drums in London. We recorded the bass in Florida. We recorded all the rhythm guitars, backing vocals and solos and lead vocals in my studio. But not all at once."

"So it was done very much like the way The Rolling Stones did Exile On Main Street. It was an album that started off in three or four different studios and was mixed in one. And, you know, it was a joy to do 'cause I'd read all the history and the stories of like Exile On Main Street for example, being recorded the way it was and it's often regarded as The Rolling Stones' best album."

"So the fact that it was piece meal didn't really bother me at all. I had the vision of the songs. And that's all that really mattered to me. So how we achieved the final output if you like was really irrelevant. It was a case of just get on with it until it's done."

"We will make more music given the opportunity but it's not, we're not signed to a label. We don't have an A and R man saying, you know, tapping his watch saying you gotta do this, you gotta do that. We'll make a record. It maybe another five years before we get the chance to make another one."

"I'm constantly writing all the time. For Def Leppard. For anybody that wants to hear a song that might not fit the format of Def Leppard. And in that case I have this great other outlet for those type of songs."