Part One: The Making Of 'Def Leppard
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MusicTranscript
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00:26The beginnings of the new record
00:28We decided to just
00:32Get together for one month
00:34And some of us have got some songs written
00:36Some of us have got just ideas
00:38And we just thought
00:40We're not going to finish an album in a month
00:42But let's get together in the studio
00:44See what comes out of it
00:46But don't go beyond the month
00:48Let's try and do as much as we can
00:50And it was great
00:52We all got together
00:54And
00:56Listened to everybody's ideas
00:58And then just pick them off
01:00One at a time
01:02The ones that we wanted to go in and start working on
01:04We all got in one room together
01:06And
01:08You know just
01:10Just laid them down as a band
01:12We just flowed
01:14And within like two days we had
01:16Pretty much five or six songs
01:18And at the end of the week we had like
01:20Twelve songs on the go
01:22So we thought you know what
01:24It was a big problem
01:26For us
01:28For you know the fact that we love music
01:30And we like writing songs
01:32And making Def Leather music
01:34It was kind of done in stages
01:40Essentially three periods of a month long
01:44Of building the album
01:46And it was kind of nice to do that
01:48There was no pressure
01:50You could learn to live with the ideas
01:52As they were progressing
01:54You weren't losing any perspective
01:56By having to
01:58Day after day after day
02:00After month after month
02:02Go through the same sort of songs
02:04So it was a really nice sort of
02:06Way of letting the album grow
02:08In a natural way
02:10We were able to go away
02:12And listen to the songs
02:14Really listen to them
02:16And then with that hindsight
02:18Be able to
02:20You know come up with
02:22The best part
02:24That we could possibly come up with
02:26Whether that was drums, vocals, guitar, whatever
02:28So that's been the process
02:30And we go away, listen
02:32And then the second time
02:34We got together
02:36We were able to just modify
02:38And just focus in
02:40On what was really important
02:42So that we liked the songs
02:44As much as we possibly could
02:46And actually be fans of the music
02:48That we made
02:50We're actually a really really good live band
03:02But we're not very good usually
03:04At capturing that in the studio
03:06And the reason for that is that
03:07Normally the way the band works
03:09Is very methodical
03:11Very piecemeal
03:12One guy at a time
03:14And it's very difficult to capture
03:17The subtle nuanced dynamics
03:19That a live band has
03:21When you're doing it one guy at a time
03:23So we set up in the studio
03:25The five of us in one room
03:27So we could all make eye contact
03:29And we started playing some
03:31Some rock ideas
03:33And we managed to bang
03:35About five or six rock song ideas
03:38In the first couple of weeks
03:39Which was great
03:40And that was really easy
03:41And we kind of knew
03:42That that would be the easy part
03:43Of the record
03:44And then after that
03:47We thought
03:48Well
03:49We're not really just
03:51That kind of band anymore
03:53So we're not looking for
03:54A straight up rock record
03:55We need to kind of embrace
03:56Some of the more
03:58More diverse elements
04:00That the band is known for
04:01The production elements
04:02The
04:03Kind of
04:04Pop scene
04:05Big production thing
04:06And so that's
04:08When we started scratching our head a lot
04:10And thinking
04:11What kind of song do we need next
04:13But that inevitably happens
04:14With every Def Leppard record
04:15And that's when it starts getting
04:17A little bit more painstaking
04:30One thing that I think
04:31We were really conscious of
04:32Is making something that
04:35Is a little more diverse
04:37Than some of the records
04:39And albums we've done in the past
04:41Are
04:42We all knew
04:43That once
04:44By this stage
04:45We have a certain style anyway
04:47Our sound is very much based in the fact
04:51That the way that we orchestrate our guitar parts
04:54The way that our backing vocals blend together
04:58There's a sound
04:59So those ingredients are never going to go away
05:02So that we knew that whatever we do
05:04It's essentially going to end up sounding
05:07You know
05:08Indicative of Def Leppard
05:10But we also wanted to just
05:12Not be confined to specific songwriting
05:16Things that we've done in the past
05:19Basically anything that sounded good
05:23Regardless of how it came about
05:25Or what it represented
05:27Was put forward and
05:29And was worked on
05:31To get to a point where
05:33It was good enough to get on the album
05:36Even if it was just starting off
05:39With an acoustic guitar idea
05:41It was progressed
05:43And from that point of view
05:44It was great
05:45To not really be confined
05:48To like going
05:49Well we can't really do this
05:50Because it doesn't really sound like a Def Leppard song
05:52At this point in time
05:53You know
05:54So it kind of gets left
05:55In fact
05:57The first track on the album
05:59Let's Go
06:00Is a combination of three
06:03Completely different ideas that I had
06:05From years back
06:06That every so often
06:08It just so happens that
06:10You put them together
06:11And it all kind of works
06:12In the right environment
06:14And a lot of things happen like that
06:16On the new album
06:17We'd work for a month
06:19And we'd take the tapes home
06:20And Phil would play them
06:21To his friends in
06:22In California
06:23And I'd be playing
06:24To my friends in Dublin
06:25And Sam would be playing
06:26To his friends in Sheffield
06:27And you know
06:29Before you put the tape on
06:30Somebody would say
06:31So you know
06:32You've got some new songs
06:33What does it sound like
06:34And we all ended up
06:35Saying
06:36Sounds like Def Leppard
06:37And I think
06:38When we all realised
06:39That that's what we'd been
06:40Saying out loud
06:41Phil said
06:42Why don't we just call
06:43The album Def Leppard
06:44Because we've never done it
06:45You know
06:46So it was pretty simple
06:47Really
06:48I said
06:49Let's call it Def Leppard
06:50Because we're making it for us
06:51And no one else
06:52Plus we've never had
06:53A self-titled album
06:54So that's pretty much
06:55How that came about
06:56Yeah it was an EP
06:57And it ended up
06:58An album
06:59For the right reasons
07:00You know
07:01Because we wanted to make music
07:02I think it played a part
07:08You know
07:09Viv's illness
07:10You know
07:11It played a part
07:12In pretty much
07:13How we approach things
07:15After we've done the
07:16Vive Hysteria thing
07:17In Vegas
07:18Because we found out there
07:19It's like
07:20Oh crap
07:21Yeah I've been dealing with
07:22Lymphoma
07:23For the last
07:25Almost three years
07:26I did three rounds of chemo
07:29And that didn't take care of it
07:31And then
07:32Exactly a year ago
07:34I went into hospital
07:35For about three and a half weeks
07:36To do a stem cell transplant
07:38Well I'd have to go with
07:53Let's go first
07:54Because it's
07:55So classically leopard
07:57That
07:58It
07:59Again
08:00It came very naturally
08:01You know
08:02A lot of people might think
08:03That we just sat down
08:04To try and rewrite Sugar
08:05But we didn't
08:06That's a song
08:07Close to my heart
08:08It was something that
08:09Has
08:10It
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