JOE ELLIOTT/PHIL COLLEN On DEF LEPPARD's DIAMOND STAR HALOS Album Sessions/Remote Recording

Wednesday, 13th April 2022

Def Leppard 2022

Def Leppard members Joe Elliott and Phil Collen discussed the remote recording sessions for new Diamond Star Halos album in a recent interview.

'Diamond Star Halos' is the band's 12th studio album.

As announced on 17h March it will be released on Friday 27th May 2022.

Joe and Phil spoke to Consequence's Heavy Consequence feature for a 21 minute interview promoting the Diamond Star Halos album and The Stadium Tour.

Consequence was formerly known as Consequence Of Sound.

Watch the full 21 minute interview video below.

Lockdown/Pandemic/Aborted 2020 Session

Joe recalled the aborted March 2020 studio session that was meant to be the start of the album recording process.

Recording Remotely/Ronan McHugh

They went on to talk about how the album was recorded remotely and the role of long time co-producer/engineer Ronan McHugh.

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).

Joe Elliott/Phil Collen - April 2022 Interview Quotes

How was the creation of Diamond Star Halos different or similar to previous Def Leppard albums?

Joe Elliott - "It's massively diifferent. It was gonna start off the same way that we've always done everything because up until lockdown/the pandemic that's what life was. You just did what you did. And what we always did was when we were deciding to record, if we thought we had material to record."

Joe Elliott - "We'd discuss how much we had. Figure out what we wanted to do. And then we would probably most, nine times out of ten, come to my studio in Dublin, because it's convenient you know. they don't even really have to bring anything other than a toothbrush because I've got a set of Phil's guitars and a set of Vivian's guitars."

Joe Elliott - "So everything's kind of all ready to go. But the day that everybody was due to fly in. The lockdown was introduced. So it was a case of circling the wagons. Cancelling the flights and then me and Phil got on the phone for about 30/40 minutes and bashed out 'OK what do we do now?' because truth is March of 2020 was what three months before the tour was due to start."

Joe Elliott - "So no matter what we got on with it was never gonna be an album. It was gonna be three or four songs that we would sit on over the summer and work on the rest after the tour finished 'cause nobody knew how long lockdown was gonna last you know."

Joe Elliott - "It could've been a week. A month or as it turns out best part of two years. So we kind of rapidly came up with this whole new plan of recording remotely. Because in the 40 minutes that me and Phil spoke, we'd figured out that he'd written two, he'd co-written two, that weren't even planned for a Def Leppard record but he'd just written them anyway."

Joe Elliott - "So I'd written three. And there was an old song of Phil's that I'd be dying for us to do. So I threw that into the pile. And I think because it was so uniquely different and like OK this is kind of exciting really. That we've opened up all our avenues of exploration if you like. And anything was open. It was a total - put it on the table and we'll make it work."

Joe Elliott - "So there was no peer pressure of, you know, when four guys, five guys are in a room together and you go 'I've got an idea'. You're always aware of the fact that everybody else is kind of focusing in on what you've just said. And it better be damn good."

Joe Elliott - "But doing it this way all the pressure was off because it didn't matter whether it was a success or a failure. We're just gonna try to do something that we'd dabbled in in the past. Which is remote recording. But we'd never gone 100 percent full on into making what turned out to be an album, because as lockdown kept getting moved from the week to the month to two months to three months."

Joe Elliott - "And we'd obviously figured out that the tour was not gonna happen. We were just constantly in contact with each other. Literally three, four, five times a day. More than we would have been if we'd probably been in the same building."

Joe Elliott - "And we just figured well we've got these songs. And that initial seven, once Sav got brought into the equation, became nine. And we thought OK well we're really on a good roll here. And as the album progressed. And the recording sessions progressed, me and Phil, we wrote five completely remotely."

Joe Elliott - "Not even this technology. We never used Zoom one did we."

Phil Collen - "No."

Co-Producer/Engineer Ronan McHugh

Joe Elliott - "We used the phone. We sent MP3s as emails and the most intriguing and important part of the whole process was Ronan McHugh our engineer and co-producer. He's got his own little studio and once we brought him into the equation and said 'Look this is how we're planning on doing it'. He literally just said 'Piece of piss, easy, no problem'."

Joe Elliott - "He's got his own studio. He built a session for you know, 2020 sessions. Or whatever it was called at the time. And literally as he got all song demos he would build a session. And we would send everything to him and he would glue it all together."

Phil Collen - "And what I think. Especially that with Ronan. The energy conservation. Like usually when you record a band. Especially for him, you know, he has to wait around. And it just takes so much energy. To deal with different musicians. Different ideas and everything. Different kind of emotions or whatever."

New Songs/Inspiration

Phil Collen - "With this one you didn't have to do that. It's like it came - it was inspiring. Me and Joe were so inspired sending these ideas. You know I'd send him something in the morning - my morning. Or my evening - my morning, it would be his evening."

Phil Collen - "The next morning I'd wake up and he'd got this whole song finished. You know that I'd started in the day. And we kept doing that. It was just the most inspiring way we've ever worked."

Phil Collen - "And then you put Ronan into it and you take out all of that donkey work and waiting around and all that stuff. You're just getting inspired stuff sent to him. And he's just creating this thing. So all round it was just total inspiration. We never would have had that."

Phil Collen - "We'd have been sitting in the studio. There was one thing. Sav played acoustic 12-string guitar on the song This Guitar. And his fingers were bleeding. So normally we'd all be waiting around for him and he's going 'Oh my fingers, I can't play bass' and that."

Phil Collen - "But in the meantime we didn't know that was happening 'cause, you know, I was doing guitars. Joe's doing vocals. We would send them in and no one actually saw Sav's fingers bleeding except for him."

Phil Collen - "So my point is, you know, everyone would put their 100 percent in and it would be a collective. It's almost like some spiritual thing. Just floating into this place and it would just get finished that way. So the whole thing was all based on inspiration. And none of the flow being stopped by waiting around or whatever would happen in the physical universe you know."

Joe Elliott - "And let's not forget as well. I mean it's great that I've got my own studio. It's been a boon for us for years you know. You haven't got to worry about the clock going round. Or paying how much it costs. But at the same time and as much fun as it is having the guys over, whenever I'm singing and they're waiting for me to finish so we can get on with the next song."

Joe Elliott - "They're sitting around in my house. Which is not really the greatest thing in the world for them. When you compare it now which we've never been able to do before. To sit around in their own house and getting on with spending time with their kids. Or spending time renovating or whatever people did in lockdown."

Buy 'Diamond Star Halos' Online

Amazon - Regular CD
Amazon - Deluxe CD
Amazon - Vinyl
Amazon - MP3

Diamond Star Halos - Tracklisting

01 - Take What You Want - 4:14
02 - Kick - 3:42 - (Collen) - Amazon - (MP3)
03 - Fire It Up - 3:19
04 - This Guitar [feat. Alison Krauss] - 3:50
05 - SOS Emergency - 3:25
06 - Liquid Dust - 4:01
07 - U Rok Mi - 3:33
08 - Goodbye For Good This Time - 4:27
09 - All We Need - 4:46
10 - Open Your Eyes - 4:19
11 - Gimme A Kiss - 3:12
12 - Angels (Can’t Help You Now) - 4:57
13 - Lifeless [feat. Alison Krauss] - 4:19 - (Collen/Elliott)
14 - Unbreakable - 3:46
15 - From Here To Eternity - 5:37