Part One: The Making Of 'Def Leppard
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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
01:22And we thought you know what
01:24We're going to make an album
01:25For us
01:26For you know the fact that we love music
01:28And we like writing songs
01:30And making deaf leather music
01:32I'm addicted to your poison
01:36I'm never about to think
01:38It was kind of done in stages
01:42Essentially three periods of a month long
01:46Of building the album
01:48And it was kind of nice to do that
01:50There was no pressure
01:52You could learn to live with the ideas
01:54As they were progressing
01:56You weren't losing any perspective
01:58By having to
02:00Day after day after day after month after month
02:02Go through the same sort of songs
02:04So it was a really nice sort of
02:08Way of letting the album grow
02:10In a natural way
02:12We were able to go away
02:14And listen to the songs
02:16Really listen to them
02:18And then with that hindsight
02:20Be able to you know
02:22Come up with the best part
02:24That we could possibly come up with
02:26Whether that was drums, vocals, guitar, whatever
02:30So that's been the process
02:32And we go away, listen
02:34And then the second time we got together
02:37We were able to just modify
02:40And just focus in
02:42On what was really important
02:44So that we liked the songs
02:46As much as we possibly could
02:48And actually be fans of the music that we made
03:00We'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
03:13One guy at a time
03:15And 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 rock ideas
03:33And we managed to bang about
03:35Five or six rock song ideas
03:37In the first couple of weeks
03:39Which was great
03:40And that was really easy
03:41And we kind of knew that
03:42That would be the easy part of the record
03:43But then after that
03:45We thought
03:47Well
03:49We're not really just
03:51That kind of band anymore
03:53So we're not looking for a straight up rock record
03:55To kind of embrace
03:56Some of the more
03:57More diverse elements
03:59That the band's known for
04:00The production elements
04:01The
04:02Kind of
04:03Pop scene
04:04Big production thing
04:05And so that's
04:07When we started scratching our head a lot
04:09And thinking okay well what
04:11What kind of song do we need next
04:13Now that inevitably happens
04:14With every Def Leppard record
04:15And that's when it starts getting
04:17A little bit more painstaking
04:31One thing that I think we were really conscious of
04:33Is making something that is a little more diverse
04:37Than some of the records and albums we've done in the past
04:41We all knew that once by 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
05:06You know indicative of Def Leppard
05:09But we also wanted to just not be confined
05:13To specific songwriting things
05:17That 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 was worked on
05:30To get to a point where
05:32It was good enough to get on the album
05:36Even if it was just starting off with an acoustic guitar idea
05:41It was progressed
05:43And from that point of view
05:44It was great to not really be confined to like going
05:48Well 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 so it kind of gets left
05:55In fact the first track on the album
05:59Let's Go
06:00Is a combination of three completely different ideas
06:04That I had from years back
06:06That every so often
06:08It just so happens that
06:10You put them together and 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 to his friends in California
06:23And I'd be playing to my friends in Dublin
06:25And Sam would be playing to his friends in Sheffield
06:27And you know before you put the tape on
06:30Somebody would say
06:31So you know you've got some new songs
06:32What does it sound like?
06:34And we all ended up saying
06:35It sounds like Def Leppard
06:37And I think when we all realised
06:39That that's what we'd been saying out loud
06:41Phil said
06:42Why don't we just call the album Def Leppard
06:44Because we've never done it
06:45So it was pretty simple really
06:47Why we did it
06:48I said let's call it Def Leppard
06:49Because we're making it for us
06:51And no one else
06:52Plus we've never had a self-titled album
06:54So that's pretty much how that came about
06:56Yeah it was an EP
06:57And it ended up an album
06:58For the right reasons
06:59You know
07:00Because we wanted to make music
07:07I think it played a part
07:08You know Viv's illness
07:10You know
07:11It played a part in
07:13That's pretty much how we approach things
07:15After we've done the Viva Hysteria thing in Vegas
07:18Because we found out there
07:20It's like oh right
07:21Yeah I've been dealing with lymphoma
07:23For the last almost three years
07:26I did three rounds of chemo
07:29And that didn't take care of it
07:32And then exactly a year ago
07:35I went into hospital for about three and a half weeks
07:37To do a stem cell transplant
07:53Well I'd have to go with Let's Go first
07:54Because it's so classically Leppard
07:57That again it came very naturally
08:01You know a lot of people might think
08:02That we just sat down to try and rewrite Sugar
08:04But we didn't
08:05That's a song that was very close to my heart
08:08It was something that was
08:09And here's my favorite part
08:11Not this part of the year
08:12Against growing up
08:13As you guys
08:18Missing hisKing call
08:19We are using it
08:20We are going to get inunding
08:21We are going to
08:22Oh God
08:23That's going dobre
08:27As you guys
08:27But I'm going to get out a few maintenaches
08:28Number six
08:29We're going to push
08:29At least
08:29And get inunding
08:32I think the transcript
08:33That we watched
08:35And get inundating
08:36The cabinets
08:37Are going to take you