VOXVENDOR
New member
Here is another quote from discussing the recording of Def Leppard
This is from Jim Steinman... As I understand it, he was the first producer of Hysteria, who either quit or got fired, and then Mutt moved in....
It was a total eclipse of the charts, and Jim Steinman, the hotshot hitmaker reborn, was
chosen to produce Def Leppard's follow-up to their multi-platinum 'Mutt' Lange-produced
monster 'Pyromania.'
"It was a weird time," says Steinman. "Mutt Lange is totally insane. He has nervous
breakdowns as part of his process of making records! He mixes, remixes and has a nervous
breakdown. That's why they're always finished up by his engineers, Nigel Green or Mike
Shipley.
"I went to Dublin to meet the band, where they were living in tax exile. They're great kids,
but they were like little boys lost."
"While I was talking to them, Rick Allen came up behind me and said, 'I really want to be on
this record.'
"I said, 'Hey! You're the drummer, you'll be on the record!' And then I found out he isn't
even on 'Pyromania', it's all machines. He isn't on 'Hysteria' either.
"So we get the drum machine out, like Mutt says, and program it. Rick starts to play along,
and he's really good! He was as good as any rock 'n' roll drummer I've ever worked with.
So we use all live drums.
"Mutt comes down two weeks into recording, (He had helped the band during
pre-production but originally opted out of producing. - Ed.) listens to a little of the drums,
which sound perfect to me. And he goes, 'What are you doing? You're gonna throw these
poor kids careers' in the toilet!' This was with the drummer right there! So we had to erase them and do the
drums his way....With drum machines.
"Joe Elliot was the hardest to get along with. He's got a great really low voice, and a great
high voice, but he has a real problem in the middle registers. So we start on a verse, and it's
in the middle registers and he's having trouble."
"So I said, 'Let's skip onto the chorus to get you going,' because that was higher. It was
good, so I say, 'Lets do another track,' and after a while he comes storming in the control
room and says 'What the f**k are you doing?'
"It turns out that when Mutt does vocals, he uses one track and he won't let him go on to the
second line of the song until he has the first line right! And he keeps erasing the first line till
it's right! Joe was going, 'How am I supposed to feel the song if I'm jumping to the chorus!'
"It's a very bizarre set-up there. I got sick of it after about four months. Mutt did almost
everything. He created them, and they were lost without him."
This is from Jim Steinman... As I understand it, he was the first producer of Hysteria, who either quit or got fired, and then Mutt moved in....
It was a total eclipse of the charts, and Jim Steinman, the hotshot hitmaker reborn, was
chosen to produce Def Leppard's follow-up to their multi-platinum 'Mutt' Lange-produced
monster 'Pyromania.'
"It was a weird time," says Steinman. "Mutt Lange is totally insane. He has nervous
breakdowns as part of his process of making records! He mixes, remixes and has a nervous
breakdown. That's why they're always finished up by his engineers, Nigel Green or Mike
Shipley.
"I went to Dublin to meet the band, where they were living in tax exile. They're great kids,
but they were like little boys lost."
"While I was talking to them, Rick Allen came up behind me and said, 'I really want to be on
this record.'
"I said, 'Hey! You're the drummer, you'll be on the record!' And then I found out he isn't
even on 'Pyromania', it's all machines. He isn't on 'Hysteria' either.
"So we get the drum machine out, like Mutt says, and program it. Rick starts to play along,
and he's really good! He was as good as any rock 'n' roll drummer I've ever worked with.
So we use all live drums.
"Mutt comes down two weeks into recording, (He had helped the band during
pre-production but originally opted out of producing. - Ed.) listens to a little of the drums,
which sound perfect to me. And he goes, 'What are you doing? You're gonna throw these
poor kids careers' in the toilet!' This was with the drummer right there! So we had to erase them and do the
drums his way....With drum machines.
"Joe Elliot was the hardest to get along with. He's got a great really low voice, and a great
high voice, but he has a real problem in the middle registers. So we start on a verse, and it's
in the middle registers and he's having trouble."
"So I said, 'Let's skip onto the chorus to get you going,' because that was higher. It was
good, so I say, 'Lets do another track,' and after a while he comes storming in the control
room and says 'What the f**k are you doing?'
"It turns out that when Mutt does vocals, he uses one track and he won't let him go on to the
second line of the song until he has the first line right! And he keeps erasing the first line till
it's right! Joe was going, 'How am I supposed to feel the song if I'm jumping to the chorus!'
"It's a very bizarre set-up there. I got sick of it after about four months. Mutt did almost
everything. He created them, and they were lost without him."
