We had the whole thing done in an afternoon. “You know he’s just writing away and just bouncing whole ideas. We were doing Highway Star and from the first rehearsal I was like ‘F**k, I’m gonna have to practice a lot’ Phil Collen When I did the G3 tour with Satriani and Petrucci. It was really inspiring working with him because he’s so quick firing. I was writing with Sam Hollander, who wrote High Hopes for Panic! At The Disco. The speed that they do things is a little intimidating sometimes but it’s just great to be around. Phil: “It really helps me as a songwriter to write with someone who’s better than me, or different to me. You’d say, ‘It has to be perfect.’ He’s like ‘F*ck no, I hate perfect!’ He said it just has to sound and feel right.”Ħ.
He was doing stuff in Dublin on his laptop with a little shitty mic that he does his radio show on, and that’s some of the stuff that ended up on the album. Grab a SM58 and just sing, like, ‘I’ll do it properly later on but this is how it goes.’ Ronan would go ‘That’s great! Just use that,’ and someone else would harmonise. I would do a guide vocal in my echoey front room. On this one, some of the stuff is just me doing eight tracks. “Normally we do 30 tracks of a vocal harmony. I’m like, ‘Fuck it, sounds great!’ I love it just the way it is, so we left it on. The solo was a total guide, mistakes all over the place. It’s the guitar just overloading and peaking. You can hear this ringing that sounds like someone hit a jar or something.
Phil: “The intro to Kick was from my demo. So tone is 100 per cent in your hands.” 5. You can hear because I forgot to turn the sustainer off and you can hear there’s one point where it goes into feedback. I’ve played solos before with his Jackson, like the solo in the song Paper Sun. Phil can pick up my Les Paul, and it sounds like Phil through my gear. Vivian: “Because your tone is in your hands it doesn’t really matter. There’s subtle differences obviously, but it all sounds like me – it sounds exactly the same!” Live we use Fractals, and whenever I do solo gigs I use a Blackstar Silverline. “Sometimes I’d send Ronan the unamped sound so he can reamp it, but with a lot of this stuff the main demo sound is what’s on the record.
#Def leppard pour some sugar on me update#
I made some presets for Guitar Rig 6 but I didn’t want to update my computer because I was scared it wouldn’t work anymore. I’ve been using the same main preset since 2011. Phil: “Everything is recorded with Guitar Rig. The rest is just shit to get in the way and shit that’s gonna go wrong.” How you play guitar begins and ends with your hands. Vivian: “Do I have any more signature gear planned? God no. And for the solo on Gimme A Kiss, I actually used a Squier Super-Sonic with a wah. It’s a Squier Starcaster at the beginning. It was just a standard thing I bought years ago in Dublin and it’s just great. Phil: “On this album, I used a Squier Tele Thinline on the solo of This Guitar. When it came time to do guitar solos I didn’t have the pressure of other people in the room. “The passion was reignited and I’ve definitely built upon it. I have a lot less anxiety about it, probably because I’m doing it so much since I started Last In Line (the group he formed in 2012 with fellow ex-members of Dio – the band in which he made his name in the early ‘80s). Vivian: “I do feel that my playing is better than ever and certainly more comfortable. How you play guitar begins and ends with your hands Vivian Campbell I’d send it to everyone then if no-one says, ‘That’s a bit over the top!’ then you’re fine.”ĭo I have any more signature gear planned? God no. I feel this should be like this,’ and go off. “With this one, I was like ‘Well, I’m going to experiment. You’re like, ‘I don’t want to tread on anything.’ With this one, because we recorded remotely and there was no-one else in the room it’s like, ‘Fuck it.’ You can overthink and play too safe. Phil: “The reason we’ve played safe in the past is because you’re respecting the song maybe too much.