Def Leppard to Perform at The American Bank Center in Texas
A new Def Leppard album is fairly big news. Even when at its commercial peak, new music didn't exactly pour out of the band. Years passed between 1983's "Pyromania," 1987's "Hysteria" and 1992's "Adrenalize."
But what is more notable, according to guitarist Phil Collen, is the new album, a self-titled release, may be the purest representation of the kind of music Def Leppard wants to create.
"The great thing about this is we weren't after a sound," Collen said in a recent phone interview. "So there's a freedom ... that just allows you to be a true artist."
The band is coming to the Coastal Bend on Thursday, May 5, at the American Bank Center when it makes a stop along with Styx and Tesla. According to Collen, the show features video content, a set list packed with hits and a couple of tracks not part of Def Leppard's show for some time. And after resisting the temptation to play the new songs during the summer, the band is beginning to perform material from the self-titled album this winter.
Collen, in fact, said the band didn't realize it was making an album until the project was taking shape. The band simply went into the studio in February 2014 thinking it might want to record a song — perhaps an EP — to have something new for the live show.
"I think we were just trying to come up with a song. We should do something," Collen said. "We were just playing each other ideas. Instead of putting them into a bracket or a box, we just did the songs that sounded most exciting to us straight off the bat, and all of a sudden everything kind of had a fresh kind of vigor about it."
Two more recording sessions followed — one in May 2014 and a third session in January and February 2015 — and then got some finishing touches and was mixed on the road using a mobile studio setup) as Def Leppard toured during the summer.
Collen is fired up about Def Leppard's latest work.
"I think it's the best thing we've done since 'Hysteria,' " he said.
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