"The Leppard is ready to roar," Def Leppard's lead vocalist Joe Elliott exclaimed as he stood in one of the small recording rooms in London's Battery Studios. "I can't begin to tell you exactly how excited we are about the new album," he said. "It really rocks! The songs are better, the musicianship is stronger, and with Mutt Lange producing (best known for his work with AC/DC) even the record's sound is improved. Believe it or not, I think that this album is two hundred times better than the first one."
The band has yet to reach superstar status on this side of the Atlantic, but on the strength of one album, last year's On Through the Night and a reputation as energetic performers, over the last eighteen months these five teen-aged Britons have risen from virtual obscurity to become a major catalyst in the international heavy metal resurgence. Elliott, along with bassist Rick Savage, drummer Rick Allen and guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis, have melded traditional English hard rock with their own attitudes to emerge as perhaps the first "new wave" heavy-metal band. Now, with the release of their second album, High 'n' Dry, it seems that the Leppard is, indeed, ready to roar.
"I like to think that we're actually a 'light alloy' band rather than a heavy-metal act," Elliott said with a laugh. "We've always loved bands like UFO and Thin Lizzy, groups that rock but who also have some sense of melody. But we've always been very conscious about doing something that's original rather than just mimicking them. We understand the traditions of rock and roll, if that's what you want to call them, because we're still fans as well as musicians.
"What we've tried to do is create music that's powerful, but that also has melodic hooks. We're really not out there to blow people away like Motorhead is. We want to perform songs that people will appreciate for their musical quality as well as for their energy."
It was only three years ago that the band performed their first show at Sheffield Auditorium on the outskirts of London. Their fiery stage theatrics and powerhouse sound quickly attracted the attention of the British press, one of whom hailed Def Leppard as "the most promising metal band that England's produced in years." Due to this virtually unprecedented press support, Leppard's first major British tour became an overnight sell-out, and the first single Rock Brigade emerged as one of the most heavily played numbers on the BBC.
"Sometimes it is a little scary to look back and see how fast things have happened," Elliott explained. "We always had confidence in ourselves, but, I must admit, ever we were a little surprised by the degree of attention we received. We always felt we'd eventually be successful because we're not scared to work hard, but of course, it's been very pleasing to see the reception we've gotten. We're not against putting our heads down and really working to achieve what we want. If that means opening for other bands in the States, well, that's just fine with us.
"We've always had a plan for success," he continued. "From the very start we've known what we've wanted to accomplish, and while we were sidetracked by some very bad management at the beginning of our career, once we got that straightened out everything's progressed amazingly close to our expectations. The first album was immediately successful here in England and while it took a little time to build up momentum in the States, both our record company and ourselves were quite pleased by its reception. Now all we want is for High 'n' Dry to be more successful than our first album, and for our next one to be more successful than that."
On the strength of songs such as Switch 625, Hit and Run and the no-holds-barred rocker No, No, No, High 'n' Dry may bring Def Leppard worldwide recognition. elsewhere, the metallic On Through the Night and the tender acoustic ballad Bringin' on the Heartbreak shows an ability to diversify the rock and roll format expertly.
"We never want to get pinched into a single musical classification," Elliott explained. "Every once in a while we like to come up with something that's unexpected and out of the ordinary. That's why we've included a song like Heartbreak on the album. Most people just don't expect us to do love songs, but we feel we're just as capable of doing that as playing a three-chord rocker. We never worry about having to drop the hard-rock facade for long enough to do a song that we really like.
"By the way," he added with a chuckle, "I don't want people getting confused by the song On Through the Night. No, it's not left over from our first album, it's just that Steve Clark had been getting on me to finish a song I had been working on, and the lyric 'on through the night' just seemed to fit perfectly. In reality, we have two 'title' songs on this album."
Upon listening to High 'n' Dry, one will immediately not a striking difference between Leppard and a majority of their hard-rocking compatriots. Unlike so many other metal acts, Leppard prefers to utilize what Elliott referred to as "a minimalist approach to making music." By stripping their sound down to the bare essentials and keeping their solos to a meager few, the band's style is lean, sparse, and powerful.
"It's always been a band decision to keep the instrumental extras to a minimum," Elliott said. "We don't want to be another Rainbow or Zeppelin where half-hour-long drum solos or monotonous guitar breaks always seem to break up the momentum of every song. We try to keep a certain continuity to our live performance and the only way we know to do that is to not get bogged down in unnecessary frills. We may let somebody step out for a minute or two, but our goal is too keep the music moving along at top speed.
"We'd rather be able to play twenty different songs in an hour on stage than find ourselves playing only five or six because everybody want to take a solo. You can't indulge yourself like that. To us, the audience always comes first."
And audiences do come to see the Leppard. With Clark and Willis tearing across the stage like a pair of whirling dervishes, and Elliott nimbly twirling his microphone stand amid a series of Townshendesque leaps, the Leppard 'live' delivers a performance that reflects the energy of their music.
"We've always enjoyed playing live more than working in the studio," Elliott related. "There's really nothing in the world that can match the sensation of a curtain going up to reveal three thousand screaming people on their feet cheering you on. You feel an energy and a freedom that's just impossible to match in the studio.
"What you have to do when you record is try and take some of that energy and channel it into making a 'perfect' record. We tend to be perfectionists, and that's something that Mutt Lange has used to his advantage when producing the album.
"I imagine that there are certain bands who feel they might lose some of their energy if they keep playing a song over and over. We think that's the only way to get it right! If you believe in your material enough, nothing, no matter how many 'takes' you do, will take away from the finished product.
"We're not looking for shortcuts in this group," he continued. "We know that people are going to be taking a very careful look at us with this album, and some may be hoping that we fall flat on our face. That, I can assure you, won't happen. We're professionals in this group. All we ask is that people treat us that way."