DEF LEPPARD Guitarist Says A Lot Of Older Band 'Lose Touch With What Actually Is Reality'

Jen Kajzer of The Aquarian Weekly recently conducted an interview with DEF LEPPARD guitarist Phil Collen. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Aquarian Weekly: How did you go about picking the songs out [for "Mirror Ball"]?

Collen: We recorded every show for the last two years and our "out front" guy is also our producer. So picking the songs was the easy part. It was just a matter of finding which ones sounded the best. Our producer would literally make a note on each of the songs of where the audience response was good or if something sounded really good. So when we did weed through we knew where to go for it. It wasn't the case of weeding through a million tapes. It's all digital and easy to find.

The Aquarian Weekly: Where did the title, "Mirror Ball", come from?

Collen: We didn't want to do DEF LEPPARD "Live" because there are three new tracks and a DVD, so we didn't want to get lumped into the "Oh it's just a live album" mentality. So we gave it a name and character. "Mirror Ball" gives it that live feel, and it was a nice follow up to our last album, "Songs From The Sparkle Lounge".

The Aquarian Weekly: What's the band's plan for the next five years?

Collen: We've done five years straight of touring. It's hard to do albums between that. What I really like about this album is we have three studio tracks. The way the industry is going, most people want to hear some new music just in general, that particular window. They have a short attention span and don't want to wait. It's a perfect situation for us. We would tour every year for the next five years and put an album out each year.

The Aquarian Weekly: You've been around for three decades and you mentioned how the industry is changing, how do you adapt and constant change?

Collen: We have to go with it; otherwise you end up like a black and white movie or a silent film. If you stand there and stamp your feet, you get bitter, you get left behind. You have to be aware of what's going on out there. I've always been a fan of all different types of music. If you get stuck in an ivory tower then you're kind of lost, and that's what happens with some of the older bands; they sort of lose touch with what actually is reality. We haven't done that. There were no CDs at one point, and now you can't even give them away. We've been through a lot.

Read the entire interview at The Aquarian Weekly.