"We recorded it concluded a point of two days at all different shows; each song's a different show," Collen said nearly the last tracks. "While we were doing it, our producer, who's actually our sound guy, would set off what ones where the interview was good. We are usually fairly consistent. He sort of ticked off the ones that sounded great. The poor list was probably two or three versions of each song.
"It wasn't as intimidating as you would think, but it nonetheless took a bit of time. He lives in Dublin, so he played it for Joe [Elliott, singer, who lives in Dublin], who was correct there. They used Joe's studio. That was it. For me it was somewhat a painless operation because all the real grunt work was done. I only had to go 'Yep' or 'No.' It was cool."
"Mirrorball" follows the band's 2008 studio release, "Live from the Sparkle Lounge," which debuted at No. 5 on The Billboard 200 album chart. It pronounced the group's highest chart position since 1992's "Adrenalized." In gain to the last album, Chronicle Books has released "Def Leppard: the Definitive Visual History," featuring photos of the isthmus by legendary rock photographer Ross Halfin. His fully authorized visual account of the circle follows them from the new wave of British heavy metal to their massive "Pyromania" and "Hysteria" albums to today.
Collen recently spoketo SoundSpike about "Mirrorball," his side project Manraze and appearance on "Celebrity Apprentice."
Are you look ahead to your turn with Heart?
Absolutely. Touring is the most fun part when you get in a band. With this album, more than any other album, we don't get to take any new songs. We're passing to do "Undefeated," obviously, because that's a new studio song and perhaps one of the early ones. It's great because we're passing to be representing a last album. Of all the material we give to take from, it's stuff we have already done. It's nothing too extravagant, really.
With "Mirrorball," the album sounds cohesive. It doesn't sound like each song was recorded in a different building.
It's only the audience, really, and how loudly you wish to put them in the mix. We're fairly consistent. I've been using the same amp for 15 years when we're playing live. We take the same blend. It sounds pretty similar every night.
What was the biggest challenge with recording live album?
Actually, there was none because it was most like we didn't even realize we'd done one. We'd recorded it during the 2008-2009 tours. We pretty much recorded every night. We had all this material we had already recorded. We didn't give to do much at all except mix it.
Def Leppard wrote three songs for "Mirrorball." What was the songwriting process like?
We really had through it quite different. Joe Elliott wrote one. I wrote one with my buddy CJ Vanston out in L.A. and [bassist] Rick Savage wrote one and we just played on each other's songs. That was it, really. We didn't sit around in a way and all sit in there together. Again, we do that with some of the early songs, anyway. A lot of the material in the past has been through in that kind of way. It's a really gentle process, that one.
Have you been writing any more new material for Def Leppard?
I've been writing dozens of material for my other band, Manraze. We just finished the final mix today. It got finished. Actually, I'm in London. But it was done in L.A. and they're mastering it this week. The one comes out the end of this month; "Over My Dead Body" it's called. The album comes out the instant of August and we're leaving to meet a demo in L.A. during a Def Leppard break. I write all the time. I also write with my buddy. We wrote "It's All About Believin'" together. We're only doing that all the time. I'm constantly, constantly writing.
It might not inevitably be for Def Leppard, then.
No. Again, when [we wrote] "It's All About Believin,'" we wrote this call and we were like, "Wow. That's absolutely a Def Leppard song." I played it for the guys and they all loved it, so we went on with it, you know?
So separate me around the Manraze project.
It's a three-piece band. It's me singing and playing guitar.Paul Cook, who plays for the Sex Pistols, on drums, and Simon Laffy, who used to work in my old band Girl, on bass. We actually just shot a television and a photo shoot this even as well. That's for the 2nd single. My wife, Helen, she's a keen photographer and she was shooting us. That was very cool. It's our second album - this is according to other people - [sounds like a hybrid between] The Law and the Foo Fighters. The low single - again, someone else's quotes - sounds a bit like the [Sex] Pistols and The [Rolling] Stones. It's got that sort of energy about it. It's a lot of fun.
It must be fun to play on something a little different.
It's a very different approach to it. We'd done the album in roughly two weeks. A lot of it was live, one return or two takes or something similar that. It's very dissimilar to Def Leppard, where we take a bit of meter and we're a bit more punctilious about it, everything in its proper place. Here with this, we go for the operation and the vibe straight off the bat. It's real good.
Back to Def Leppard, what's still your favourite song to play live?
I really like playing "Rocket." It, in a nutshell, sums up Def Leppard, I think. It's got all the heavy elements - big drums, big guitars, big hooks, big choruses. Even the subject matter; it's name checking a lot of the bands that have influenced us. I really like playing that one for many reasons. That's the chief one - the fact that that it's so representative of us.
You recently appeared on "Celebrity Apprentice." How was that?
It was great, actually. Again, I actually played on the Jimmy Fallon show["Late Night With Jimmy Fallon"] and packed with The Roots. That's when we filmed it, which was in December, I think. I had to support silence about it. It was great. It was a lot of fun, actually
Was it hard to support still for several months?
Yeah. You just sort of forgot about it, really, as farsighted as no one asked about it. There were a pair of people who got it out there, and we just sort of denied it. It was cool, actually. Again, it was sort of brief. John Rich was there doing the whole thing. He was very cool, actually. We went in for the day and that was it.
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