PHIL COLLEN On New DEF LEPPARD Music: 'I Love The Direction Of It'

June 21, 2018

DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen has told Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF 101.1 FM radio station that the band has begun compiling ideas for the follow-up to 2015's self-titled album. "[We're] always working on stuff," he said (hear audio below). "We've got three [songs] on the go already. Joe's [Elliott, vocals] got one, Sav's [Rick Savage, bass] got one, I've got another one. We've actually started recording 'em. You can do this stuff all the time; you can do it on your laptop now — you don't have to be in a studio, per se. So, yeah, you can actually get it moving and started already. So, yeah, we've actually started the next thing and I love the direction of it. When you do it over a period of time, you can actually get a bit more in it. When you cram it all in, it gets sometimes a little limited."

Collen spoke in more detail about the songwriting process, saying: "Yesterday, I got this idea; I was sitting around with it. Actually, I'd [come up with the basic idea] last year when we were in South America. I just played it and I just pretty much finished the song off yesterday. So it just speaks to you. So it's different every single time. It can be a vocal, it can be a lyric, it can be a melody or a guitar or a drum pattern — it can be anything that kind of spurs you off, and that's what's exciting about songwriting. Unless you're a hack songwriter and you do it exactly the same every day. But I like that thing where you have a muse and it kind of inspires you and you just follow the inspiration. It's just a lovely way to do it."

Asked what inspires him to write music at this point in his life, Collen said: "Everything. It could be a movie, it could be a book, it could be… you meet someone or you hear other music — any kind of music; it could be some Indian classical thing, it could be just jamming with Joe Satriani and John Petrucci. Things like that would definitely get some inspiration flowing. So it's always something different, and I think that's the beauty of it — your receptors are open, and all this other stuff comes in at different times. It's really cool."

"Def Leppard" was the group's first studio effort since "Songs From the Sparkle Lounge" in 2008.

The disc entered The Billboard 200 chart at position No. 10 with first-week sales of just over 30,000 units — nearly all from pure album sales.

DEF LEPPARD's 58-city tour with JOURNEY kicked off on May 21 in Hartford, Connecticut and will run through October 6 in Los Angeles.

Interview (audio):

Find more on Def leppard
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • reddit
  • email

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).