DEF LEPPARD's JOE ELLIOTT On Lockdown Recording/PYROMANIA 40 Box Set Origin

Thursday, 2nd May 2024

Def Leppard 2024

Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott was recently interviewed and mentioned the Pyromania 40 box set and recording in lockdown.

The 40th anniversary 'Pyromania 40 Super Deluxe Edition' is released on Friday 26th April 2024 via Universal Music Recordings.

The release follows a year of band celebrations on social media using the #pyromania40 hashtag and recent video teasers.

Joe Elliott On Life In The Stocks

Joe recently appeared on the latest episode of the Life In The Stocks podcast with host Matt Stocks.

He talked about - "stadiums tours with Motley Crue and the shenanigans that went down on the road to the working class roots of Def Leppard and what's held the band together over all these years." and the Pyromania album.

Pyromania 40 Box Set Origin

Joe explained that looking through his archives during lockdown inspired the Pyromania 40 box set.

Old tapes were found which led to the box set being put together.

Lockdown Recording/Diamond Star Halos

Joe also talked about recording during lockdown in 2020/2021 for what would become the Diamond Star Halos album.

And preparing for the Drastic Symphonies album release in 2023.

Read Joe's quotes below and listen to the full interview via Spotify and Apple Music.

Visit the Tour News section. For more news on future tour plans.

Visit the Album News section for more news on new music (based on band member quotes).

Def Leppard 2024.

Life In The Stocks/Joe Elliott - 28th April 2024 Interview Quotes

Matt Stocks

"How did you spend your time Joe Elliott in the lockdowns? What did you do to stay busy?."

Joe Elliott on lockdown/Pyromania 40

"It was probably the most productive time this century in fairness a different way but needs must really you know you have to isolate."

"I'm at home and what's in my home my studio my archives my tape library and at some point I you know I'm gonna go in there and sort it out."

"And I've got these box full of cassettes that there's nothing even written on them so one by one you ship from in the machine it play and see what's on it and if you feel wow really they write down what it is."

"And so that's how the bonus material off the Pyromania 40 box half of that is."

"I wouldn't have found it without lockdown."

"I found it a very productive time."

Joe Elliott on Remote Recording/Diamond Star Halos

"We wrote we wrote and recorded Diamond Star Halos independently of each other like in three different countries and made it glued it together to sound like it'd been recorded in Abbey Road."

"And so we learned a lot about hey we can do this we can record without having to go somewhere away from our homes to or drag them to my studio so they have to be away from home and I've got people in every bedroom in the house."

"Yeah we had so much fun doing Diamond Star Halos."

"I think we've actually sworn that that's going to be how we record from now on because why do we need to be in the same room we kind of write independently the way Queen used to do."

"These days so we trust each other if somebody says I've got this great song they mean it and they're probably right you know and we're happy to go that route."

"So we did so much stuff like I said it was tidy up you know domestically we were renovating until we weren't allowed to but we were secretly doing it anyway."

"I was doing all the tidy up stuff of my tape library and writing and we were recording and just enjoying life from a different perspective because I could shut off because I had to shut off."

"So okay well the telly still works and Netflix still works and the garden's fine to be in but if it's summertime I'm gonna be out there with the kids and we're ]gonna have fun and I'm gonna use that trampoline instead of looking at it you know."

Diamond Star Halos/Drastic Symphonies

"But musically we were on fire we had the new album we were playing 25 percent the set was a new record so we were making a point like we're not here for a nostalgia trip."

"We're promoting Diamond Star Halos which we'd made through you know made it in 2020, we've pretty much finished it early 21."

"And we said we're not releasing this in a pandemic we're not going to do what we'd seen other bands do where you can't promote the thing."

"Se we held on to it and while we were holding on to it and getting it ready for the following year Universal, who'd taken up the option to put the album out, suggested why don't you do a classical album on Decca Records with the London Philharmonic."

"And we went okay we've got this year now we're not touring again in 21 so we we could drip feed so by the time we released."

"When we went over to do promo in 22 to make the videos for Fire It Up and and Kick we went to abbey road to record the strings during that week."

"We were there so we had the album kind of ready to mix we just released diamond star halos and now we're sitting on Drastic Symphonies."

"So we know that's coming out in a year's time so we're putting two records out and lo and behold Drastic Symphonies actually charted higher than Diamond Star Halos did."

"And you know doing the new version of Sugar with Emm."

"And you know then we did the BBC Piano Rooms which is really big for us doing Life On Mars and stuff."

"We were just in a really good place because that two years away we didn't sit there going oh okay we're okay what can we do."

Diamond Star Halos Recording

"When we first the lockdown thing happened in March they were literally a day away from flying over to my house to work for a month to see what we had."

"We weren't going to get a record done but we'd get some demos done."

"And then come April early May we're going to go into rehearsals for this tour starting in June."

"But by the time March comes along we know underneath the radar this tour is not happening because this thing's getting worse."

"So it's like I got on the phone to Phil and said okay now what why don't we try doing it over the Internet, make an album over the Internet."

"So we got on to Ronan our engineer says yeah it's easy it's actually dead easy um he glued it all together and got in this thing called Bounce Boss."

"He sent all the stems out Phil records his guitars sends them to Ronan they come up on the desk as though he's recorded the guitars in the next room same with the vocals."

Matt Stocks

"For a band like you guys that method suits your style dead easy."

Joe Elliott

"It was relaxed and there was no end game there was no it's got to be finished by April no it doesn't you have to be finished we don't even have a record deal."

"Only when the album was finished did universal got the catalogue say yeah we want to put it out so we could go in and negotiations with this finished record they could hear and have no influence on because it's like look we are our own A&R man."

"So if you don't hear a single there isn't one but we know that there's like three because that's what we do we write pop rock songs you know so we use our time really well during lockdown and coming out the gate firing."

Def Leppard 2024.

Def Leppard / Latest Release

Photograph (Rough Mix Version) - (Digital Single)
Pyromania 40 Box Set - (Album - April 2024)

Def Leppard / Latest Tour

Def Leppard The Summer Stadium Tour 2024

Def Leppard - Discography
Previous News - 27th April 2024
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