Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott said the process of recording the band’s new album Diamond Star Halos while observing pandemic lockdown rules was “joyful.”
While some artists found it difficult to work around social distancing, Elliott said that, for his band, the experience was positive and even educational. He’s based in Ireland, while bassist Rick Savage is in England. Guitarists Phil Collen and Vivian Campbell and drummer Rick Allen are all based in the United States.
“It was joyful to do,” Elliott told Billboard in a new interview. “[A]t any one time there were possibly four songs getting worked on at once. And everybody was at home, so you didn’t have to work on it constantly or be sitting around waiting to do your bit if we were all in the studio together or something. You could get on with doing other stuff.
“So it was a leisurely way of recording, but we could concentrate wholly on the record when we were actually recording,” he continued. “What we learned was it’s not where your body is, it’s where your mind’s at. We were in three different countries, but we were all on the same page.”
Collen went further, predicting Def Leppard probably won’t “go back to whatever that standard way was that we did before.” He explained: “There was so much more energy by not having to go to a studio or a situation where you were waiting on anything. I’d finish something, send it to Joe in Ireland and he’d send it to Sav and… we’d just be back and forth, and when I’d wake up in the morning there’d be something new in my mailbox. It was constantly exciting.”
Diamond Star Halos — an LP based on the band members’ early inspirations — will be released on May 27, just ahead of the band’s Stadium Tour that also features Motley Crue, Poison and Joan Jett. Def Leppard previewed the album this week with lead single “Kick.”
Def Leppard Albums Ranked
From their metal-edged debut to their pop breakthrough to the recent records, we rank every single LP.