From: "Alex Mathews" (Vancouver, Canada) Date sent: Sun, 10 Jun 1999 19:57:57 -0500 Sav: Hi this is Rick Savage Joe: And this is Joe Elliott. We're from Def Leppard. And welcome to this one hour special World premiere for our new album Euphoria. Song bit for beginning of program. Spliced 5 sec bits of each songs put together in a string. "Do you wanna get Rocked?"Photograph/Foolin/Armageddon It/Sugar/Hysteria/Lets Get Rocked/MLLAM/2 steps Bruce Henny (narrator): Def Leppard are back in 1999 with a new album, Euphoria, in stores June 8th. I'm Bruce Henny.This past weekend I spent some time with singer Joe Elliott and bassist Rick Savage discussing the new record. We'll have that conversation plus a whole lot of Euphoria over the next 60 minutes. First up the brand new single Promises with Rick Savage. Sav: The one thing we did like about Promises is that for a four minute song it's instantly Def Leppard. It's got all the ingredients of how people remember Def Leppard and how I think how ppl want to hear Def Leppard. PROMISES is played. Henney: Euphoria will be out June 8th. To bring us up to speed here's Joe Elliott and Rick Savage. Sav: We started about just over a year ago. We started writing songs individually and just basically getting back to the feel of writing songs. Cause we were touring for the slang album on and off for about two years and then we got in touch with Pete Woodroffe, the co-producer who worked on the Slang record and indeed the Adrenalize album as well. And started work in May of last year. Joe: We finished recording it in the first week of March. Then it was mixed till about the mid of April. We delivered it in middle of it in April. So it's been a real quick turn over to think that we only gave it to the record company on April 15 and it's actually coming out like. . . uh today as it were. Sav: I think we caught them by surprise cause I think that when they knew what style of album we were trying to create I think they were seeing another four year project on the go (Joe giggles). We've got it down to a finner art. And also the fact we were recording in two studios most of the time cut the work down so we have the old classic Def Leppard album but in a shorter space of time to record. Joe: We did it in my house.This is Joe "hi." (Sav giggles) I had a studio built 10 years ago. After I saw the horrific bill we had for Hysteria. I um made a suggestion to the rest of the guys, I said, 'If I built a studio, you know, would you work in it?' And it's like (giggles) It's like Field of Dreams. (Joe in low voice)--->If you build it they will come. And they did. And we did most of the Adrenalize album there as well. Um we took a break out of it when we did Slang. It just seemed like the right thing to do on this record was to put all the gear back in and use the studio. Um we also used a spare bedroom as an offshoot like a kinda "studio 2" if you will. Um we had a spare mixing desk that we'd used from the Slang album and some outboard gear. And that enabled us, say I'd to do guitars or bass and drums downstairs and be doing vocals, backing vocals and maybe the odd guitar solos things upstairs. So where that came in handy, mostly, was just the time factor. Cause anything we'd talk about doing in studio 1, that we'd do after finishing that particular project that we were on at that time, we would go upstairs and actually do it. So we were running two studios at once. And that saved us probably about 6, 9, maybe 12 months. Sav: Easily, yeah. Joe: With this record we subconsciously just writing the classic Def Leppard songs with big hooks and cool melodies. But still in a very rock way. But like we've always been, commercial pop rock with the hooks and harmonies and a big production. The songs were leading in that style from day 1. And the first thing we did was to really convince Pete Woodroffe to do the album again because he wasn't really overly fussed about not being in London. And we sent him the first two songs we demoed with were Guilty and a very early version of 21st Century Sha La La La Girl. And he heard them and was raving and he was on board straight a way. Luckily by the time we started doing the record with him we had about 15 or 16 song ideas on tape. And literally made it up as we went along. We've never been a band whose gone into a room and wrote 10 songs and go into the studio and record them. We only had the two initially. We played them to the guys at the record company, played them to Pete and played them to management and they all said, 'this sounds like classic Def Leppard. This is what the world's been waiting for.' So everyone was telling us for the past year and a half. The song that hook Pete in was not the one that made the album. It's very similar but it was so full on. He actually liked the dynamics. And as much as it may have appealed to a Motorhead fan, the way it was, it just wasn't dynamic enough to what way the album progressed to by the time we got around to redoing that song when we got to the other 8 or 9 of the other ones written. As much as we like the original version was great as we liked it, it wasn't right anymore. But that is probably one of the few songs we've written where the song title came before the song. Sav: Actually, yeah. Joe: I'd written it down on a piece of paper and I'd just look at it and think, 'this would look good on the back of an album sleeve.' I said that to everyone else and basically everyone kinda agreed. And we literally said lets write a song around it. So you have to imagine lyrically the scenario is going to be, "what the hell is a 21st Century Sha La La La Girl is anyway?' (Sav agrees laughing). So my view of one would be a cross between Pamela Anderson and Tank Girl. 21ST CENTURY SHA LA LA LA GIRL is played. GUILTY is played Joe: Hi this is Joe Elliott Sav: And this is Rick Savage of Def Leppard and you can hear more from our new album after this. Henny: Album title are by no means easy to choose. Well naturally we asked, "why Euphoria?" Joe: There was a song on the Slang album called Pearl of Euphoria. And somebody mentioned that Euphoria was a cool word. And it got banded around for awhile. We went cold on it towards the end of the year specifically because there was a dance record called Euphoria that had been released in Britain. But once it had been pointed out to us that it was only in Britain where it had been released, and it was kinda meaningless in lets say America, Canada, Europe, whatever, it kinda became popular again. And all the ppl involved with the band, record company, management, ecetera; they all said this was a cool word. Once we all got over the initial barrier of, "you know what they all are gonna say, It ends in IA'" like Pyromania and Hysteria. Once we got over that little thing, we all thought it sounded good as well. Just phonetically it's a very simple word to say. And it does sum up the whole feeling of the album. Henny: Back In Your Face could easily have been one of the titles under consideration for this record. As Def Leppard return with a sound familiar to fans of their work in the 80's which, oddly enough, finds it's roots in 70's glam rock. Rick Savage explains. Sav: It's kinda where we started really. I think that combined with more harder rock bands of that period was the pop music of the early 70's. It wasn't a spin off of the pop music or a little branch of it. It basically was that. Any particular week or anytime you put your radio on, it was T-Rex or it was Gary Glitter or it was The Sweet or Slade. And as a 12 year-old growing up in that environment, it was absolutely brilliant because guitars were allowed provided they were fun and there was melody there. And that is what we've grown up on. At that age in your life, whether your conscience or not, the older your get and the more songs you write, there is this subconscience link to learning at how songs sound. And I think that has been with us ever since. Joe: Phil had this chorus and title and Back In Your Face was the lead line and was pretty much all that he had. And we've been messin' around with it for a couple of days. And we weren't really gettin' anywhere. And one day, I don't know, had a vision and said, "I know what this song should be. I got a feelin' what this song should be like." We literally went up to the second studio and did a demo. And it all fell into place, literally, in a day. It didn't take all that convincing since specifically it was so a glam rock song. And it was very humorous as well. It had to pass the "Lep Test" a little bit. There were a few people that need convincing that it was the right way to go. But to try to get that glitter band drum sound and get a bit of humor back into music, the simplicity of guitars and the verses and the way the dynamics build up, which is basically what everybody else brought to it, so it builds all the way up into the chorus. It was, for me, the kinda of record I would like to hear in the charts; I would go and buy myself. Anybody my age may be reminded of what it was like to be 16 again. And anyone whose 16 hopefully hears it and thinks "I've never heard anything like this before." So it kinda covers both ends of the scale. The whole idea of it, three or three and a half minutes of it just being FUN!" BACK IN YOUR FACE is played Joe: Yeah we name-checked a bunch of things; Leader of the Pack, Jumping' Jack Flash, and all that. We kinda done that at the end of Rocket. So it was a fun element right at the end. Let's just nail a few little phrases that are so familiar with people who know them before they hear em' Sav: We've always had a saying in this band: "If your going to be a bear, be a Grizzly." There is no point in trying to do something and then try and sneak it in or hide it. It's gotta be ten outta ten. There is no problem in doing something like that. We're not trying to cash in on any glam sound and try to make it look as if it's an accident. No. It's not the way we are. We're honest about it and we wanted to make a record like that. It was cool at the end to have a tip of the hat to the people that started it off in the first place. Joe: It's so much in your DNA. You have to remember in like North America, where every town has two rock stations that play 24 hours a day rock n' roll. We used to get an hour or two hours a week where we'd get to hear your Sabbath's, your Purple's or your Zepplin's, ecetera. There was one National Top 40 station in Britain. So between 72' and 74' when you heard Come and Feel the Noise or Mamma We're All Crazy by Slade, and they were played on guitars, that was our music, you see. So it was like there. So at the same time Def Leppard has evolved from that and we couldn't make a 10 track record that sounded like Back In Your Face. But it was one little element of our DNA. We can move from Back In Your Face straight into Goodbye. . . Sav: We did! (Laughs) Joe: which would be a blistering ballad Def Leppard are known and loved for basically. Sav: Actually getting that on to the record was like giving birth to an elephant. Joe: (Wheeze and a hearty laugh into the air) Sav: Cause it seemed like I lived with that song for so long in demo form and then it goes through the various wheel Def Leppard have and quite rightly so to improve it. Joe: The ringer Sav: Yeah and even then, it was recorded in a few different ways. And it really had a long birth, we can say, to end up in the way that it did. GOODBYE is played. Henny: Goodbye as the Euphoria World album premiere continues. During the writing phase of the album, the band called on long-time collaborator and Super-producer Mutt Lange for some assistance. Joe Elliott: Joe: As we were plowing on into the album, we got a couple of songs on the go that we pretty much met a dead-end with. Collectively the five of us and Pete, had dried up. We'd get them to a certain level and then hit a brick wall. No matter how many times we tried to drive around this thing, it was always in the way. So we did what was the best thing to do which was get Mutt involved again. Because he understands and knows how to draw out the best out of us. And he also knows what a song needs if we can't actually find the bit ourselves. And you know, he co-wrote alot of the past material with us. And there's no better person to work with. So we gave him a ring and asked him if he'd like to get involved. And he said he'd love to. He was actually busy at the time but he freed himself up a couple of weeks after the first initial phone call. We sent him a tape of what was the backing track of Promises and he played with it over at his studio. And over the phone and fax he came up with these great melody and lyrical ideas. And that was how Promises was done then. We actually asked whether he'd like to physically come over and hang with us in the studio for a few days. And he did a month later. He came over to Dublin for an extremely long weekend. We normally work from 12 till 12. When Mutt was there we were working from 11 to 5 four days in a row. It was like reuniting the Dream Team (Sav laughs). It was also like reuniting the Nightmare Team because it's hard work and he really pushes ya. He wants the best performance and the best ideas you can get. He encourages you to do it and makes your realize to are capable of more if you pushed a bit harder. We all work better under order. We just don't like to admit it, basically. During that four-day period, we came up with that song All Night. Sav: Appropriately enough. Joe: Indeed. Cause we had been up All Night four-nights in a row. We were working on a third song which actually never got really started properly. Which would of been a nice little round up for four days to have done three songs and it would have giving us a 13 track album which, at the time, was a 12 track record. The song never really materialized but we did pull out a song that we had put on a shelf which we recorded, 6,7,8 months earlier which was the song It's Only Love. And he heard it and said, "your mad if you don't put this on the record. This is a really good song." I suggested that I thought the lyrics weren't strong enough. So he went home and for the next four days we re-tweaked it. The original backing track made the album. I went into the studio and sang a new lyric which Mutt and me did over the phone over about two or three days. So it is an unusual way of working. With Mutt, you can do it over the phone and do it in a room. We did both with these three songs. The are three very important songs for sure. IT'S ONLY LOVE is played. Joe: We are one of the few rock bands that aren't actually no afraid to write a song about falling in love with a woman. The word "love" is so like holding a cross to a vampire to most rock bands. You look back through out our career, songs like Love Bites, which is our one and only international number 1 hit. And Have You Ever needed Someone So Bad, When Love and Hate Collide, things like that. We've never been afraid of writing or touching on human emotion. Initially alot of girls go for these kinda songs and guys reluctantly get into them. There are very few men that admit to ever liking one of these songs but their girlfriends do. And consequently they say, " Well, yeah well It's all right I suppose. Prefer the rockers! But I like em'" Nothing's easy. But for every one song we write, they are the ones that comes naturally. Because there is more room to go off in different little tangents. Because the slower they are the more room there is to put more chords and progressions. The faster the song is the less you can actually do with it. You have to get everywhere twice as quick. And consequently all fast songs all sound the same. With ballads, you can hone in on the emotion of it because you have more space. Commercial Henny: An unusual guest make an appearance on Euphoria's opening track Demolition Man. Joe Elliott fills us in. Joe: Me and Sav live in Dublin which is a very social town. I was thinking it was a Christmas party but apparently it was sometime in July. Sav: It was the summer. (Giggles). Joe: It was a Christmas party because they start real early in Dublin. (Sav laughs). We were at this party. And there's an area on the outskirts of Dublin where, lets say, famous people live. From U2 to Simple Minds to. . . Sav: And Me! (Laughs) Joe: And Sav, (Joe giggles)Damon Hill and Eddie Irvine the Formula 1 racing car drivers. Sav: I'm the leader. Joe: You tend to go to these parties and it tends to be the similar crowds in Dublin. We'd seen and known Damon for awhile. We were aware of the fact that he likes to think of himself as a guitar player. In fact, in many occasions in most post-race parties, he gets up and plays guitar. The band were all there and Pete, the producer, were there. And we were having a jolly good Sunday afternoon BBQ situation and it started to rain. So everyone starts talking more and drinking more. And by the end of the evening, Damon got himself an invite to come to the studio to have a jam with the band. And of course nobody thought it would happen. But about 5 weeks later he phoned and said, "I haven't forgotten what you said. Can I come up and have a goof off." I think it was Phil who said, "Get him up now!" So he was up to my house quicker than he'd get around one circuit. We tuned him up a guitar and stuck it on his lap. He'd never been in a studio before so this could of been a potentially an intimidating situation for him. Sav: And he's never heard the song before either. Joe: He's never heard the song. We played him Demolition Man and he started playing with the end of it which is what we wanted him to do. Like the ride-out solo licks. We didn't know how really good he was. So it was really a blind situation for all of us. But it was a bit of fun if nothing else. But in fairness he actually did a good enough job to make it onto the record. So well, we thought, why not. We were at that stage of the album were we thought it was a bit of a laugh to do something like that for other reason that we made him a promise (Joe laughs)about six months earlier. He came up with the goods towards the end. In fairness to him, it nice little blues licks he plays there. DEMOLITION MAN is played. Henny: Def Leppard meets the Godfather of Soul on the track All Night. Joe Elliott explains. Joe: Once the James Brown lick, the guitar line that goes right along through it, once that's in there and you don't have and melody or lyrics written. Because you are in happy working environment; it is exciting when your creating new music, you get all these guys dancing all over the room pretending to be James Brown or Prince. Making all the little screamee sounds "heahhhhhhhhhhhhiiiii. " It's all of a sudden, why can't a band like Def Leppard do a song that sounds like James Brown. And that is the one thing Mutt always encouraged with us. Going way back to Pyromania or Hysteria, is to try to break down barriers. Try to do things that other rock bands wouldn't have the nerve to do. And that's how that whole song developed. People will hear that lyric and say, "You can't sing that lyric in the 90's." Mutt would turn around and say . . . Joe and Sav together: Why not!!?? Joe: Because Prince would and no one would say anything. James Brown would and no one would say anything. To clear the air you'd say, "well, they are solo artists and they get away with more than a band." Say "well okay, let's challenge that whole stereotype then and let's see if a band can get away with it." And he encourages you to do things you wouldn't necessarily go along with." And then once you get onboard with the idea you think, "you know what? He's right. We can do this. There's absolutely no reason why we can't." So it's the whole encouragement thing. It's a boys club. There is no outsiders allowed in. Just locked in a room, goofing off, till we get it right. ALL NIGHT is played. Henny: Where does Def Leppard see themselves fitting in, in 1999? Joe: It's kinda exciting not knowing where we fit in. We kinda think we can fit. It's seven years since we last did an album that was like the classic Def Leppard type, you know. Other than the fact that our Greatest Hits package came out 4 years ago which just really, reconfirmed who we were. We have a feeling, a gut reaction within the band from what we read, from what we hear, the 90's, I hate to using the word grunge, but the alternative thing is really coming to an end. And it's getting mediocre and as passe as say the end of the 80's did. And something new is going to come along. Now we're not suggestion for one minute, that we're it. But I think we can possible slide back in where we were. And I think more people are more open-minded about rock music now. It's a whole circle. It goes round. In 96,' we could barely get arrested in certain parts of the world, but it seems to come around again. I think that if you stick at it, you hang in there and make the best record you can, sooner or later it will come around. People who weren't buying records 4 years ago, for whatever reasons are buying them again. And concert tickets and all sorts of things. It happens with alot of bands. They become uncool and then all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, they become cool again. With us it was the case of making the best record we can and just testing the water. From what we've gathered so far, with rock radio in North America, it's been received very well so far. So it's just fingers crossed for us. We're realists. We're not expecting anything other than just be given a chance and we'll see what happens. We got some selected dates as we're calling it, starting on the 16th of July all through out North America of which some of them are within Canada. Sav: I believe so, yeah." Joe: We got a British show lined up for September/October. And then after that, if the album is a success, and there is a call for the band to go anywhere, we'll go. What we'd like to think we can do is go indoors when the weather is turned abit and play specifically North America after we've done the British tour. But we're basically 8 weeks in N.A. July/August/September. Henny: And finally as we put the wraps on the Euphoria World album premiere, I asked the guys if they had any words for their Canadian fans. Sav: First and formost. It was no lie when I said that Toronto in particular and Canada in general have been the "Nicest" people/the "Best" place we've ever played. We've always done more records per head and been more well-received in Canada and we can't thank them enough. We've thanked them many times but it's really genuine. We hope to get out there soon and we hope everyone loves the new album. Joe: I'd say to that, I agree with him (Sav snickers). I'll also say from my experience, and you can imagine we've been to alot of places and played infront of alot people, but without a shadow of a doubt for me, the loudest crowds that we've ever played consistently is Montreal. Sav: Yep! Absolutely. Joe: Unbelievable! May it go on forever. End interview with credits over Disintegrate.