Another Viv interview
This is the 2nd one I've come to in a week.
Def Leppard Even though Def Leppard released a Greatest Hits album, Vault, in 1995, they've already prepared a second retrospective disc. Best Of Def Leppard (which is offered in Europe in both one CD and two CD versions) was set for release, shelved, then set for release with conditions, for North America in December. It seems the label wants a fresh original to uses as a single for the album, and that the European single, a cover of The Kinks’ "Waterloo Sunset," will not fly with the suits over here. "They've heard a few songs from the covers record," offers Leps guitarist Vivian Campbell. "I'm not sure how many. But 'Waterloo Sunset' was probably the most single-potential and they obviously don't feel that it is — I don't know why. Maybe it's the song or our version of it. But of the covers record, we cut 14 tracks, of which 'Waterloo Sunset' is one. And 'Waterloo Sunset' is far and away the most Def Leppard-sounding of all 14 songs. I mean, if you didn't know it was a cover, you'd swear it was a Def Leppard song. It just sounds so Leppard; it's got a lot of Leppard cues to it." The covers record of which Viv speaks is "in the can," and its reverberations should be felt clear through to the next Def Leppard studio album proper, currently sitting at ground zero — no work done — due to what is basically a year off, with three of the guys recently getting married. "We cut that covers record last January and February. And the songs that we cut for that were songs from our youth, songs that we grew up listening to on the radio in England and Ireland, a lot of glam rock," he says. "And it was obviously a very different and more innocent era for music. And I think we're going to allow ourselves to be carried along that particular way, for the next record, have that try to influence our writing a bit, be a bit more innocent and to be perhaps a little less methodical." Of course, that "methodical" approach is one of the main things Campbell is hoping to get away from next time out. "Def Leppard is a very, very unique band," he says. "Within any genre, but especially within hard rock. It's very crafted and very song-oriented and very methodical. And my one complaint about Def Leppard — not to take anything away from the band — but my one complaint is that they don't rely enough on instinct. Or, maybe not that, but more so maybe that they are unwilling to experiment with it, see where it leads them, you know?" One way to bust out of that meticulousness would be to revisit their early, early days when they were heavier. Is that going to happen? "It might be heavier in sonic terms, but I think it's going to be poppier in terms of arrangements and overall layout," he says. "There is certainly a concerted effort to get away from ballads also. Because we are always ballads-heavy — we always have been. And that's partly because that's what really gets you on the radio. Unfortunately." —Martin Popoff
posted by ES84 @ 10:53 PM |
<< Home