Daisy
12-08-2001, 12:28am
Def Leppard just released this about the producers on their next album, Mutt is not going to be the producer but he will be a part of it...Mutt is mentioned alot in the article....
1. Let's start with the producers. This time, you're using more than one producer for one album. Which ones, and how did they get involved?
JOE: Well, first of all, we have Pete Woodroffe again. We have been working with Pete since 1988. During the middle of the HYSTERIA tour, we went to the Wisseloord studios in Hilversum, Holland, with the idea of auditioning Mike Shipley as a producer, rather than an engineer. Come the end of 1988, when the tour would have been finished, we were gonna be starting what turned out to be ADRENALIZE. Mutt wasn't gonna be available, and we kinda knew that. He just committed to writing some songs with us, and executive producing the album. So, Mike Shipley had been Mutt's engineer, and so we'd been working with him since HIGH 'N' DRY. Mike engineered that one, and Nigel Green mixed it with Mutt. PYROMANIA: Nigel engineered, Mike mixed. And then, HYSTERIA. Mutt did a lot of the engineering himself, working in different studios, and Shipley was involved in it, specifically the mixing of it as well. So Mike knew the history of the band, knew how we worked, knew the kind of sound we wanted, from a producer's point of view. Now, an engineer is normally just told which knobs to twiddle and how far to twiddle them. So, you need to find out with an engineer who's actually capable of taking that next step up to become a real producer.
So, we chose Mike to be the producer for ADRENALIZE, and then of course, he needed an assistant engineer -- and at that time, that was Pete Woodroffe. Basically, we worked three years on and off, with the Mike/Pete team. We've also recorded a bunch of B-sides with Pete, which turned out to be RETRO ACTIVE. We've recorded WHEN LOVE AND HATE COLLIDE with Pete, in the middle of recording the SLANG album, which we did with him. He also worked with us on the last album, EUPHORIA. So we've worked with him for more than a decade now, and that's why we also use him for this album.
The reason we're not using him as the only producer, is that we want to do a kind of "mix 'n' match" this time, rather than having it all come from the same production line, as it were.
So we decided, that when the opportunity arose, and Marti Fredericksen made it obvious that he wanted to work with us, we'd go for it. For everybody who doesn't know who he is; he was the second lead singer in Bonham, and he's done a lot of TV-stuff and soundtracks that I'm not overly familiar with. But he was the man behind the music of the ALMOST FAMOUS movie, like the voice of that band Stillwater. And, of course, he was the man behind the new Aerosmith album, JUST PUSH PLAY, and he's just wrapping up his contribution to the new Mick Jagger solo album.
And then we have Andreas Carlsson and Per Aldeheim from Sweden, who also wanted to work with us. They've worked with the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync, and although that may sound strange to a lot of you out there; Mutt has worked with Britney Spears, and people still ask us why we don't work with him. Mutt works with The Corrs, has worked with Billy Ocean, so he doesn't just do rock -- in fact, he doesn't even do rock anymore, he's moved on. Now as for Andreas and Per; these guys worked with Celine Dion, Britney Spears, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, but..... They are the biggest DIO fans on the planet! Big rockheads! And so, we got this message that they wanted to do a song with us, so we accepted that. And you know, it was comical; we were at [Abba's] Polar Studios in Stockholm, early August, doing this song with them, and they kept asking Vivian to play [Dio's] THE LAST IN LINE! I got a bit of that on video, actually! I have been filming in the studio on and off, and I see no reason why, when all this footage is compliled, we can't put it on the web site in the future. But anyways, as much as Andreas and Per work in the pop field, they're huge rock fans, which is only a good thing.
Now, if a lot of people are wondering why we don't work with Mutt anymore; it's not that simple! It's not a case of a guy who will drop everything he's doing, just to work with Def Leppard. See, when we were in our early/mid 20s, it wasn't a problem for us to wait for Mutt to be available again. But, at this stage in our career, we haven't got the time, or the patience, or the opportunities, to sit around for three years, waiting for Mutt to be available, who then wouldn't necessarily be interested in doing it anyway!
And, he's working on Shania's new album, and he worked on her album last time. So Mutt really doesn't just sit around and wait to produce Def Leppard - he has loads of different things on his mind. He also moved into songwriting territory, so it would be a case of him writing with us, rather than him producing us. On EUPHORIA, although Pete produced them, we co-wrote three songs with him.
So, all in all, it's not a case of not wanting to work with Mutt again. The opportunities don't just always arise.
So that's about the producers' story! We are currently recording in two studios at once: I'm working with Pete here, in Dublin, and Vivian and Phil are back in LA, working with Marti.
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I can't wait till their new album!!!! :D :D :D
1. Let's start with the producers. This time, you're using more than one producer for one album. Which ones, and how did they get involved?
JOE: Well, first of all, we have Pete Woodroffe again. We have been working with Pete since 1988. During the middle of the HYSTERIA tour, we went to the Wisseloord studios in Hilversum, Holland, with the idea of auditioning Mike Shipley as a producer, rather than an engineer. Come the end of 1988, when the tour would have been finished, we were gonna be starting what turned out to be ADRENALIZE. Mutt wasn't gonna be available, and we kinda knew that. He just committed to writing some songs with us, and executive producing the album. So, Mike Shipley had been Mutt's engineer, and so we'd been working with him since HIGH 'N' DRY. Mike engineered that one, and Nigel Green mixed it with Mutt. PYROMANIA: Nigel engineered, Mike mixed. And then, HYSTERIA. Mutt did a lot of the engineering himself, working in different studios, and Shipley was involved in it, specifically the mixing of it as well. So Mike knew the history of the band, knew how we worked, knew the kind of sound we wanted, from a producer's point of view. Now, an engineer is normally just told which knobs to twiddle and how far to twiddle them. So, you need to find out with an engineer who's actually capable of taking that next step up to become a real producer.
So, we chose Mike to be the producer for ADRENALIZE, and then of course, he needed an assistant engineer -- and at that time, that was Pete Woodroffe. Basically, we worked three years on and off, with the Mike/Pete team. We've also recorded a bunch of B-sides with Pete, which turned out to be RETRO ACTIVE. We've recorded WHEN LOVE AND HATE COLLIDE with Pete, in the middle of recording the SLANG album, which we did with him. He also worked with us on the last album, EUPHORIA. So we've worked with him for more than a decade now, and that's why we also use him for this album.
The reason we're not using him as the only producer, is that we want to do a kind of "mix 'n' match" this time, rather than having it all come from the same production line, as it were.
So we decided, that when the opportunity arose, and Marti Fredericksen made it obvious that he wanted to work with us, we'd go for it. For everybody who doesn't know who he is; he was the second lead singer in Bonham, and he's done a lot of TV-stuff and soundtracks that I'm not overly familiar with. But he was the man behind the music of the ALMOST FAMOUS movie, like the voice of that band Stillwater. And, of course, he was the man behind the new Aerosmith album, JUST PUSH PLAY, and he's just wrapping up his contribution to the new Mick Jagger solo album.
And then we have Andreas Carlsson and Per Aldeheim from Sweden, who also wanted to work with us. They've worked with the Backstreet Boys and N'Sync, and although that may sound strange to a lot of you out there; Mutt has worked with Britney Spears, and people still ask us why we don't work with him. Mutt works with The Corrs, has worked with Billy Ocean, so he doesn't just do rock -- in fact, he doesn't even do rock anymore, he's moved on. Now as for Andreas and Per; these guys worked with Celine Dion, Britney Spears, N'Sync, Backstreet Boys, but..... They are the biggest DIO fans on the planet! Big rockheads! And so, we got this message that they wanted to do a song with us, so we accepted that. And you know, it was comical; we were at [Abba's] Polar Studios in Stockholm, early August, doing this song with them, and they kept asking Vivian to play [Dio's] THE LAST IN LINE! I got a bit of that on video, actually! I have been filming in the studio on and off, and I see no reason why, when all this footage is compliled, we can't put it on the web site in the future. But anyways, as much as Andreas and Per work in the pop field, they're huge rock fans, which is only a good thing.
Now, if a lot of people are wondering why we don't work with Mutt anymore; it's not that simple! It's not a case of a guy who will drop everything he's doing, just to work with Def Leppard. See, when we were in our early/mid 20s, it wasn't a problem for us to wait for Mutt to be available again. But, at this stage in our career, we haven't got the time, or the patience, or the opportunities, to sit around for three years, waiting for Mutt to be available, who then wouldn't necessarily be interested in doing it anyway!
And, he's working on Shania's new album, and he worked on her album last time. So Mutt really doesn't just sit around and wait to produce Def Leppard - he has loads of different things on his mind. He also moved into songwriting territory, so it would be a case of him writing with us, rather than him producing us. On EUPHORIA, although Pete produced them, we co-wrote three songs with him.
So, all in all, it's not a case of not wanting to work with Mutt again. The opportunities don't just always arise.
So that's about the producers' story! We are currently recording in two studios at once: I'm working with Pete here, in Dublin, and Vivian and Phil are back in LA, working with Marti.
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I can't wait till their new album!!!! :D :D :D