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Joe Elliott on the new Def Leppard album - 'We wanted to make a timeless record'
Virgin Radio
7 Jun 2022, 11:24
Credit: Getty
Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott joined the Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky to talk about why making their new album remotely was such a great experience.
The Sheffield band’s twelfth full-length record, Diamond Star Halos, is out now, and was recorded simultaneously in three different countries: Ireland, England and the United States. Joe told Chris: “We were going to get together to record some music, not necessarily make a record, as we were due out on tour in June of 2020. So we were going to get together… end of March, early April and just see what we had. But the day that everyone was due to fly out to Dublin to my studio… lockdown. So, quick phone call, ‘What shall we do? What shall we do?’ and we decided we’d go remote. We’ve done it before, we’ve dabbled, but we’d never done it 100 percent, but this particular record we did it 100 percent. We sent stuff to each other and glued it together.”
When Chris asked what the band learned from the experience, Joe responded: “Never go back to recording in a traditional way ever again!"
He continued: “It was really cool because that space away from ourselves physically actually added to the kind of artistic environment of it all, and it widened our horizons toward songwriting.
"Hence we’ve got Mike Garson on two tracks, who used to play with Bowie, and we’ve got Alison Krauss on two tracks, the bluegrass chanteuse, who’s an amazing singer. And then some classic, obvious Def Leppard-type stuff as well. We just had great fun doing it.”
Joe added: “We were forced into it, and then we realised what a great experience this is.”
The 15-track album is the band’s first new work since 2015’s chart-topping self-titled album. Of the new record, Joe said: “We just embraced songwriting. I wrote a couple of songs on the piano which would never have happened if we had five alpha males in the one room. The guys would have been going, ‘Okay, let’s just transpose that piano part into a guitar’, but once everybody heard my finished demo with it all on, they all went ‘Oh, we could do that.’
And even though the album was created in lockdown, there’s no sign of the pandemic in the subject-matter. Joe told Chris: “One of the first things we all said was, ‘This has to be a Covid-free album.’ We didn’t want people to put this on in the year 2024 and be reminded of all the crap times that they’ve just gone through. We wanted to make an album that’s going to sound great in the year 2034, the way Rumours did ten years after it came out, the way Hotel California did ten years after it came out. Or Led Zeppelin IV, or whatever it is.
"We wanted to make a timeless record, with great songs about whatever subject-matter. Some of it is dark, some of it is light-hearted."
The artist continued: “Our blueprint has always been Queen. They’re just the most amazing band, and when you think that Fred wrote Bo Rhap, and Brian wrote We Will Rock You, which we just saw all over the Jubilee show, and Roger wrote Radio Ga Ga, and John Deacon write Another One Bites The Dust; all vastly different people, all vastly different songs, all under the guise of Queen, and it works brilliantly, and that’s more where this album’s coming from, from a headspace point of view.”
Later this month, Def Leppard are co-headlining 36 US dates on The Stadium Tour with Mötley Crüe, joined by special guests Poison and Joan Jett. “We’re taking a festival on the road,” Joe said. “And hopefully you’ll be happy to know that we’re bringing it to the UK next year!”
Having formed in 1977, the band have sold 110 million records worldwide, and have accolades such as becoming one of only five rock bands with two original studio albums selling over 10 million copies in the US. “We push the boundaries. Otherwise we wouldn’t be in a band,” Joe said. “We push the boundaries for everything, whether it be recreational stuff or musical stuff, and then eventually you find your level and you come back. With us, you know the old cliché, been there done that, we actually have been there and done that so many times.
“We’ve been through the wilderness years and we’ve had success where we’re the biggest band in the world, and we’re back to headlining stadiums again, so it comes and goes."
Joe continued: “We’ve had a drummer lose an arm, we’ve had a guitarist die, we’ve had a guitarist survive cancer. I lost my voice, it came back. These are the things that, if you’re around, things happen to you over a 45-year period.
“Take any random five people off the street and ask them what’s happened for the last 45 years, I think the lows would be equivalent, I think the highs for us would be a lot higher, because we’ve achieved so much and, you know, you learn from your mistakes. We’ve learnt from going as low as you can get, and then when you come back up, you appreciate it so much more.”
Speaking about taking new songs on the road, along with their classic hits, the frontman told Chris: “Most of your career is behind you when you’ve been around as long as we have, so you’re just enjoying what you’ve got now, but to do it with a new record out, so that’s it’s real current, and not just the nostalgia circuit, it’s such an important feeling for the whole band, and just for the good of our sanity, more than anything else.”
Diamond Star Halos is out now.
For more great interviews listen to The Chris Evans Breakfast Show with Sky, weekdays from 6:30am on Virgin Radio, or catch up on-demand here.
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