Phil Collen on new Def Leppard material: 'I love the direction of it'

Speaking to Detroit's WRIF 101.1 FM radio station, Phil says the band have three songs “on the go” and although the follow-up to 2015’s ‘Def Leppard’ is still in its embryonic stages, he’s excited by the direction they’re taking.

"We've got three (songs) on the go already. Joe's (Elliott) got one, Sav's (Rick Savage) got one, I've got another one,” Phil said (via Blabbermouth).

“We've actually started recording 'em You can do this stuff all the time; you can do it on your laptop now - you don't have to be in a studio, per se. So, yeah, you can actually get it moving and started already.

“We’ve actually started the next thing and I love the direction of it. When you do it over a period of time, you can actually get a bit more in it. When you cram it all in, it gets sometimes a little limited."

Elsewhere in his interview, Phil spoken about the songwriting process, saying: "Yesterday, I got this idea; I was sitting around with it. Actually, I'd (come up with the basic idea) last year when we were in South America. I just played it and I just pretty much finished the song off yesterday.

“So it just speaks to you. So it's different every single time. It can be a vocal, it can be a lyric, it can be a melody or a guitar or a drum pattern — it can be anything that kind of spurs you off, and that's what's exciting about songwriting.

“Unless you're a hack songwriter and you do it exactly the same every day. But I like that thing where you have a muse and it kind of inspires you and you just follow the inspiration. It's just a lovely way to do it."

Don’t forget, Def Leppard are performing their seminal album ‘Hysteria’ in its entirety on tour this coming December.

The tour will see them perform tracks including ‘Animal’, ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’, ‘Hysteria’, ‘Armageddon It’, ‘Love Bites’, ‘Woman’ and ‘Rocket’ from their 1987 tour-de-force alongside other songs from their incredible back catalogue.

Head to Planet Rock Tickets to check ticket availability. Def Leppard play:

DECEMBER 2018
Dublin 3 Arena – Sat 1st
Belfast The SSE Arena – Sun 2nd
Cardiff Motorpoint Arena – Tue 4th - SOLD OUT
London The O2 – Thu 6th - SOLD OUT
Nottingham Motorpoint Arena – Sat 8th - SOLD OUT
Newcastle Metro Radio Arena – Sun 9th
Glasgow The SSE Hydro Arena – Tue 11th
Manchester Arena – Wed 12th
Sheffield FlyDSA Arena – Fri 14th - SOLD OUT
Liverpool Echo Arena – Sat 15th
Birmingham Arena – Mon 17th
London SSE Arena Wembley - Tue 18th

* Tickets available from Ticketmaster.ie