Def Leppard Interview by Dixon Christie

Content - Interviews

Written by Dixon Christie

Wednesday, 05 November 2008 09:35

Def Leppard Interview with Phil Collen in Support of Songs From The Sparkle Lounge

By Dixon Christie

PunkTV.ca: I’ve got Phil Collen on the line from the Man-Raze and Def Leppard, how you doing?
Phil Collen:I’m great.

PunkTV.ca: Good, I bet you’re pretty excited right about now.
Phil Collen:I am, actually. I’m actually in New Castle, England and we’ve got the Def Leppard show tonight and that’s fun. Two weeks ago the Man-Raze album came out as well.

PunkTV.ca: So you’ve got two jobs, like some bands when they have a side project they’ll release one album one year and then one another year, but I know you have two albums actually coming out at the same time right now.
Phil Collen:Yeah.

PunkTV.ca: Just so kids know the new studio album by Def Leppard is called Songs From the Sparkle Lounge and the new side project with Paul Cook and Simon Laffy is called Man-Raze.
Phil Collen:Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to come out all at once but you knows how these things work. It’s great, it’s really cool

PunkTV.ca: They wouldn’t be more diverse, I know that the Man-Raze album took you about three years to work on, is that right?
Phil Collen:It did, it took about three years, but about two weeks to record. We ended up getting the songs together, doing a gig, rehearsing a bit more and then just played them. It actually turned out great, it’s a really good way of doing it, we’ve almost got the second album written.

PunkTV.ca: Now I understand that you’ve been friends with Paul Cook for quite some time, is that right?
Phil Collen:Yeah well, Simon and I used to be in a band together back before I was in Def Leppard. It must have been over twenty years ago, and Paul I just knew from being in London. The Pistols were all from London, and you just bump into each other and everyone just kind of knew everyone.

PunkTV.ca: You guys come from two completely different backgrounds, in that Paul did the Sex Pistols and you being in a metal band.
Phil Collen:Yeah, I always found that really interesting

PunkTV.ca: I heard Mark from T Rex was such an inspiration for so many different bands. And David Bowie obviously.
Phil Collen:Huge, I’m a huge Bowie freak.

PunkTV.ca: So what happened with Man-Raze, you just decided that there are things to do with Def Leppard and you can only play so many metal guitar riffs and do so much with the band. Is that what happened?
Phil Collen:Something like that, more so the fact that there was all this other stuff trying to get up. I’ve done reggae stuff and even more aggressive punk stuff, even lyrically things that we couldn’t do in Def Leppard, it just wouldn’t be appropriate and that’s really where it comes from. I was writing all these songs and they had to go somewhere, we actually put an album out in 1996 and it was a bit more left field and no one dug it. Def Leppard fans were like, “This sucks”, they got quite upset actually and we all thought it was great, so that was kind of a weird thing.

PunkTV.ca: People have come to expect a certain sound from Def Leppard
Phil Collen:Absolutely.

PunkTV.ca: So the loyalists are disappointed when you release something that you have actually evolved to as a musician.
Phil Collen:That’s exactly what it is, it’s a funny kind of tap dance we have to do. We have to be very open minded of that when you’re doing stuff. It’s actually pretty obvious what’s going to work and what’s not, there are a couple songs on the new album that are a change and we don’t really think so but there are a few that I think we got away with.

PunkTV.ca: You’ve been around since forever and you’ve seen almost 25 years of metal haven’t you?
Phil Collen:Yes, absolutely.

PunkTV.ca: So how do you keep it exciting, obviously your tenth studio album of Def Leppard. How do you keep it exciting and does the writing process work for you?
Phil Collen:I do think it evolves all the time. Just a few years ago you would have never had a band like Linkin Park, who is a complete hybrid. They sound like a cross between a bit of Rage and bit of Depeche Mode and a little bit of Metallica, which I thought was great. They were all over top forty radio, which is quite inspiring because someone somewhere has got it right. The thing with anything is that it does keep evolving, and it turns into something else after awhile, so you have got that on your side to a degree but when you go too far from what people expect, then some people will almost get upset with it. It’s bizarre.

PunkTV.ca: So you’re walking kind of a tight rope then?
Phil Collen:To a degree yes, you can’t go completely off. Like with Def Leppard, we could never do a reggae song, and even though we did do a song with Tim McGraw, it wasn’t really country but it was more like a blues kind of AC/DC kind of thing. You just have to follow a few little guidelines and bend them as much as you can really.

PunkTV.ca: And with Man-Raze, can you tell us about how the writing process works between you guys?
Phil Collen:Again, some of the songs have evolved and they start off a certain way and they didn’t really have a direction and it wasn’t until we played our first gig. Then we went into the studio and some of the songs just took on a different light, and it was more of how it was played live type of thing. It was a thing of just setting the songs to feel right, and some of the songs just didn’t feel right at all then bang, that’s exactly how it should sound.

PunkTV.ca: So how many tracks finally made it onto the album?
Phil Collen:There are 12 tracks, and there were a few more we were working on that never got quite finished.

PunkTV.ca: And because this band is so steeped in your live performing jibe, did you record it live off the floor?
Phil Collen:The actual recording part we did back in 2006, and it was between tours and right now we actually just finished up doing a TV documentary, and hopefully we’re going to get something out in September.

PunkTV.ca: You guys are going to be releasing a film, called Man-Raze the Film and people can check it out on Youtube right now. So tell us about that.
Phil Collen:A friend of ours, Mark Stoffer in London, he actually does videos and he has a TV station basically. He does mainly rock, metal, alternative stuff and they filmed it in this little place where they have actually done about four videos in just about an hour or so. They turned out great and said I should come over and see you rehearsing and make a show, so he came over and it was great and just flawless. We’ve got a lot of stuff we have recorded with Mark, a live acoustic session that was on this TV show in London and that turned out really good as well.

PunkTV.ca: Well I’ve got to say I’ve just been doing my research here and I’ve been looking at Def Leppard and some of the liv shows and out of the lot of the band it seems like you’ve made some kind of deal with someone because you really haven’t aged much. You’re still the shirtless one I guess.
Phil Collen:Yeah.

PunkTV.ca: You’re certainly an advocate of healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle. Living down in Los Angeles, tell us about the lifestyle that has helped you out.
Phil Collen:I’m not a hippie or anything, but I am a vegetarian and I think the main thing is not drinking and not smoking; I’ve seen it mess people up straight away and that will take all the moisture out of your skin and God knows what. I work out all the time, and do kickboxing. I’ve got training out on tour, and it’s pretty much all of that stuff, its more about the non-boozing non-drug non-smoking kind of thing that helps you keep young.

PunkTV.ca: Are you able to pass any good habits onto your band mates?
Phil Collen:Yeah, absolutely. In fact Vivian Campbell works out everyday as well; the same deal so we just do that. Our trainer John gets everyone during the day, some members twice a day and it really does make a huge difference. It makes it so much easier to tour as well.

PunkTV.ca: No doubt, it must keep your energy up from show to show. So the two bands of course, well you can find Def Leppard everywhere but the new band called Man-Raze you can check out on Myspace at Myspace.com/manraze.
Phil Collen:Thanks, right.

PunkTV.ca: We’ve got two questions that we ask everyone. The first question is which of the following experience have you had, have you seen the face of God, had an alien encounter or have you seen a ghost?
Phil Collen:Um, still waiting I think. So no, still waiting for any of those unfortunately.

PunkTV.ca: Do you have any kind of supernatural experience that’s happened within your life?
Phil Collen:No not really, but I’m really open to it and I genuinely am. I’m not skeptical or anything about it, they have just ignored me for some reason.

PunkTV.ca: I want to believe.
Phil Collen:Exactly.

PunkTV.ca: And the last question is what would surprise people most to learn about your band or yourself?
Phil Collen:The one everyone would be surprised about would probably be the drinking thing, because people assume it’s supposed to be a certain way or something and they just don’t quite get that.