DEF LEPPARD DRUMMER RICK ALLEN DISCUSSES THE BAND’S NEW SONGS AND AN INTEREST TO WORK WITH PRODUCER “MUTT” LANGE AGAIN
Def Leppard’s Rick Allen says their latest material is a “wonderful mixture” of styles.
They’re currently working on the follow-up to 2008’s Songs From The Sparkle Lounge and hope to release their 11th album later this year.
The drummer reveals the new songs encapsulate everything they’ve done before while still paying tribute to their musical influences.
Discussing the new album, he tells Talking Metal Digital, “We continue to pay homage to our roots – a lot of the bands we grew up listening to during the 70s. I think it’s a wonderful mixture of everything that inspired us and everything we’ve done. I think people will hear many different influences.”
Allen says the majority of the 16 tracks they’ve been working on are almost finished and reveals some are “just about ready to present.”
He continues, “We’ve carved out three good long sessions where we all got together. And within those time periods we were able to put about 16 songs together and as of right now, they’re more or less about 85-90% finished – some of them even more so. Some are just about ready to present, so we’re really excited about it. It’s been a really nice project.
It’s been good getting together the way that we did in the studio. Over the years we tended to rely more on technology, sending files to one another for the other person to finish off. Actually getting together in a room and all being together in that way is incredibly valuable and really creative.”
While the band are in the studio with co-producer Ronan McHugh, Allen says he’d like to work with producer Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange again at some point in the future, although he thinks it might be a long shot. Lange was at the helm for some of Leppard’s most successful albums, including: High ’N’ Dry, Pyromania and Hysteria.
Allen adds, “I’d love to work with Mutt again but I’m not sure we could spend the amount of time in the studio that we’ve spent in the past with Mutt. We like to work in a quicker way. It would be fantastic to do a few songs with him but I’m not sure we could actually do a full record with him.”
Earlier this week, guitarist Vivian Campbell said he was cautious but confident about his current cancer status. Leppard will take to the road across Canada starting April before they head to Europe for a run of shows in May.
additional source: classicrock.teamrock.com
Leppard still sounds great live. I’d like to know what kind of vitamins Phil Collen is mainlining because the dude looks unreal.
Kudos to them all.
“We like to work in a quicker way”
Huh?
6 to 7 years between albums.
The wait for Hysteria was brutal, but worth it in the end.
Note to Rick Allen: GET WITH MUTT. ASAP. We all need a good Def Leppard album again and Mutt is just the guy to help you guys put one together.
AGREE!
If working with Mutt Lange again means a return to High N’ Dry and Pyromania style rock albums, it can’t happen fast enough. If it means another pop album like Hysteria and most everything else they’ve put out since then (with some notable exceptions)… I couldn’t care less. I’m not exactly excited for a new Def Leppard album that is a “wonderful mixture of styles” and “many different influences”. Maybe that sounds closed minded, and perhaps I am, but to me that means there will be one or two up tempo “rock” songs, a few gooey ballads (probably more of those than rockers), some techno beat bubble pop, a country song or two, etc. I supposed I should congratulate Def Leppard for being able to pull off songs that can cross genres and audiences. Clearly they have had massive worldwide success doing so. But the only Def Leppard albums I listen to are the first 3, because they are damned good rock albums and that’s what got my attention. I might be able to pull a dozen tracks together out of everything else they’ve released that I like enough to listen to again. I want them to crank up the amps, put some big guitar riffs together, and put together 8-10 ripping tracks and then I’ll concede to a couple of ballads. I don’t mind ballads, at least good ones, but I don’t want half an album of them. I don’t want to hear songs by Def Leppard that they could duet with Taylor Swift. I want my rock bands to rock, most of the time. Vivian Campbell played Guitar on the first 3 Dio albums. Rifftastic shredding guitar rock. Please bring some of that, and a little angst from having to battle cancer, to new Def Leppard material. If Phil Collen could put as much muscle into his song writing as he does to his body building, I’d be a happy old school Def Leppard fan again.
I’m a HUGE Def Leppard fan from the first album.
However, they haven’t made a solid album since Steve Clark died.
Vivian may have shred in Dio, but he hasn’t lifted the Leps.
Mutt, help these guys out!