Charlotte County Florida Weekly

Rock the Fort

Phil Collen ready to create some ‘hysteria’



Def Leppard comes to Fort Rock April 29.

Def Leppard comes to Fort Rock April 29.

Def Leppard’s Phil Collen isn’t just getting older, he says he’s getting better.

“I can sing better now,” Collen said in an early April phone interview. “I can play guitar better. I think some bands don’t do this. You can put that down to health. They get old, they get sick. We don’t do that. We get older, you can’t help that, but we still feel like we’re young.”

Did Collen ever think he’d still be out playing guitar in a rock band when staring down 60?

“S*** no. I can remember when I was 29, I thought ‘I’ve got a couple years left,” Collen said. “I actually feel better at 59 than I did then.”

In large part, that’s because Collins, known for appearing barechested at shows showing off his toned physique, stopped drinking 30 years ago, has been a vegetarian for 34 years and is now a vegan — “I don’t put all that stuff in my body. You get a reward for it.”

Soundgarden comes to Fort Rock April 30.

Soundgarden comes to Fort Rock April 30.

Def Lepperd appears Saturday at approximately 9:30 at Fort Rock.

Collen, who’d played guitar early in his career for the glam band Girl, joined Def Leppard in 1982, when the band, one of the leaders of the new wave of British heavy metal, was in the middle of sonic turn that propelled it to international stardom.

That change involved adding elements of pop, glam and a little contemporary R&B with electronic drums and layers of harmonized vocals to its brand of metal — a sound that made its first definitive appearance on “Pyromania,” the 1983 album produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange and the first Def Leppard disc on which Collen played.

 

 

“Mutt Lange deserves all the credit for that,” Collen said of the signature Def Leppard sonic amalgam. “It was his idea and him pushing us that far. We didn’t’ stay in the genre, we didn’t just listen to rock bands and use rock influences. What we did was incorporate what was happening at the time, whether it was pop or hip-hop turning into rap It really comes down to that, that open-mindedness.”

Staying open to changes in style, approach and sound is critical for a band and, Collen said, for individual musicians.

Seether comes to Fort Rock April 29.

Seether comes to Fort Rock April 29.

“I think you have to as an artist, otherwise, you stop being an artist,” he said. “That’s the beauty of it, being inspired by so many different things and having it come out some way. One of my favorite artists of all time is James Brown. I work out to him all the time. Def Leppard doesn’t sound a bit like James Brown. But it has to have an influence on me in some way, and sneaks out in some way.”

Fueled by the hit single “Photograph,” on which Collen played the guitar solo, “Pyromania” exploded, lifting the band from opening for Billy Squire to headlining stadiums, eventually selling more than 10 million copies in the United States, earning a diamond certification.

Then came “Hysteria,” another Diamond album, released in 1987 after drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an automobile accident that forced another slight change in the band’s sound. That album generated seven singles as Def Leppard became one of the world’s biggest bands.

Def Leppard, Collen said, has continued with its open-minded approach, long after Lange left the production chair.

“We always have been fans of the hybrid, even with the show,” Collen said. “You hear Earth, Wind and Fire, or whoever, all these bands, you add a little bit of it. It’s the same with the show. You see Kiss and all the production and lights and then a punk band in a club and you combine them. You combine all these things.”

Def Leppard was gearing up for its 2017 tour when Collen was interviewed, finalizing up the arena-scale production and coming up with a set list — although the latter isn’t that hard.

“You have to play the hot chestnuts, it’s a given,” Collen said. “There’s a bunch of them that are absolute essentials. Then there are second tier ones. And there’s a little bit of wiggle room for a new song or fun ones. But you have to play certain things or people are going to be pissed.”

That means it’s a certainty that concert goers will hear “Hysteria,” “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak,” “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and “Photograph” whenever Def Leppard hits the stage.

On the 2017 tour, Def Leppard will be preceded by Poison and Tesla, a lineup that Collen enthusiastically embraced.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “We’ve toured with both bands before and love them. It’s almost like a celebration of integrity. We’ve got three band with original members, not like some bands where there are just one or two. All these guys have been going, pretty much, at it as long as we have.”

And he said, he’s got another connection with one of the opening acts.

“I literally just finished producing the new Tesla album,” Collen said. “It sounds like Zeppelin or Queen or The Beatles from minute to minute, but it still sounds like Tesla… I sat next to Mutt Lange for years, I learned some things. It’s pretty cool.”

SOUNDGARDEN

BY ALAN SCULLEY

Florida Weekly Correspondent

Soundgarden is working on a new studio album, but the group’s spring tour is shaping up to be more of a journey through the past than some of the band’s recent outings.

This tour follows a pair of reissue projects that had Soundgarden revisiting its early years as a band. In November, the group released a 25th anniversary edition of the band’s third full-length album, “Badmotorfinger.” The seven-disc super-deluxe version package included the original album, a disc of 16 outtakes, a complete 1992 concert on CD and video and a bonus DVD disc of videos.

Then in March, the group reissued its 1987 full-length debut album, “Ultramega OK,” with a fully remixed version of the original album and a half dozen unreleased early versions of songs from the project.

With those releases available, guitarist Kim Thayil said he and his bandmates (singer/guitarist Chris Cornell, bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron) plan to give those albums a healthy representation in their live set. Soundgarden plays Sunday at Fort Rock.

“It’s likely that we might emphasize more ‘Badmotorfinger’ and ‘Ultramega OK’ material,” Thayil said in a mid-April phone interview. “As a matter of fact, we did some rehearsal a couple of weeks back with just Matt, myself and Ben, and Ben and I, we kind of worked out a couple of songs from ‘Ultramega OK’ that we hadn’t played in a few years. So we’ll see what works out once we get Chris behind the mike.”

The reissues have kept Soundgarden in the public eye during a period when the group has been taking a back seat to outside projects.

Cornell released a solid solo album, “Higher Truth,” in fall 2015 and spent much of 2016 touring behind that release. Meanwhile, Cameron has had shows to play with his other band – Pearl Jam.

These activities played a role in the decision by the four musicians to do a Soundgarden tour this spring.

“I think it’s been almost two years since we played live,” Thayil said. “It makes sense to get some touring in.”

Work on the next album figures to intensify after the tour, with the band hoping to have the album ready for a fall release.

“We have a few things that have been demoed and a number of songs that have been written and rehearsed that we have rough studio recordings of,” Thayil said. “Let me clarify that. I don’t mean studio quality recordings. I mean, rehearsal studio recordings. We just kind of document what we’re working on. So we have some of that. Then we have some demos that are a little bit more further developed.”

The band hopes the next album will continue to show the kind of musical chemistry that has existed in the band from the day Thayil, Cornell (on drums and vocals) and original bassist Hiro Yamamoto formed the original edition of Soundgarden in 1984. Right away the trio knew something special was happening.

“We all looked at each other and thought ‘This is amazing. We haven’t heard anything that sounds like this and we’re making music that sounds fresh and is fun to play and it sounds unique. We’re doing something unique and we’re all enjoying it, and this is so different from every band we’ve been in before,’ Thayil said. “The process is natural and quick. So we knew we were onto something right away.”

The band went through a few personnel changes, with drummer Scott Sundquist and bassists Yamamoto and Jason Everman cycling through the lineup before Shepherd and Cameron joined, and released three studio albums before the 1994 album “Superunknown” gave Soundgarden its commercial breakthrough.

But despite reaching arena-filling popularity, Soundgarden lasted only one more album “Down on the Upside” before breaking up.

Cornell started a solo career and went on to join the supergroup Audioslave, while Cameron joined Pearl Jam. But the four musicians remained friends, and in 2010 officially restarted Soundgarden, releasing a new studio album, “King Animal,” in 2012.

SEETHER

BY ALAN SCULLEY

Florida Weekly Correspondent

Shaun Morgan, frontman of Seether, sounds more content, enthused — and maybe even self-assured — than at any time since the early years of his group’s 15-year recording history. He said as much in a mid-April phone interview.

“The whole thing is I was in a really bad place for about 10 years, and I came out of that about a year and a half ago, closing in on two years,” the singer/guitarist said. “So I’m in a different space, headspace, as a person and I’m in a different headspace just as a human being in general, and as a musician and as the guy that runs this whole show.”

Morgan didn’t delve into the sources of his problems — although a few difficult events are public knowledge, including the suicide of his brother, his breakup with Evanescence singer Amy Lee, a stint in alcohol rehab in 2006 and some inner-band and music industry disagreements. Morgan said there was no specific thing that got him out of his doldrums.

“You know, you just wake up one day and decide enough is enough,” Morgan said. “And it’s as simple as that. It’s about wanting to make a change, and that’s kind of what I did.”

Morgan’s improved outlook is worth noting because it had direct effects on “Poison The Parish,” the new Seether studio album that will be released on May 12. Seether plays Fort Rock on Saturday.

It allowed Morgan to be more focused in his songwriting, gave him the clarity to know the type of music he wanted to create and to feel comfortable with taking the helm for the first time as producer on the new album.

“I wanted to produce the album because I felt I had learned enough from the four producers we had used in the past, learned from one in particular, Brendan O’Brien, on all the things that I wanted to do. And then I learned from the other guys what sort of things I didn’t want to do,” Morgan said. “That’s in no way meant to sound arrogant or conceited. It was just that I had learned enough.”

What Morgan knew well before he got to the studio with the other members of Seether—bassist Dale Stewart and drummer John Humphrey—was that he wanted to make an album that would be loud, rock hard and capture the sound he’d always envisioned for Seether, but had not quite realized on the band’s five previous studio albums.

“I had found with the past few albums (I was) quite frustrated with the mixes and with the way we had been portrayed on the sonic side of it,” Morgan said. “I didn’t feel like we’d actually ever really been able to make an album that was really, truly guitar heavy, that got that the rock heaviness of our band. And I also wanted it to be a little bit more chaotic.”

While the melodic sensibilities that have helped make Seether’s albums accessible is still present, “Poison The Parish” delivers more of a sonic wallop, especially on songs like “Something Else,” “Stoke The Fire” and “Saviours,” which come with thundering drums, thick guitars and plenty of intense energy. The songs that dial back on the tempo are still plenty taut.

If the process of making “Poison The Parish” was overwhelmingly positive, the same can’t be said for the lyrics on the album, some of which take sharp aim at the rise of the celebrity culture in the internet age. Morgan didn’t hold back in expressing his extreme dislike about the situation.

“The ‘Poison The Parish’ title comes basically from my view that the preachers of society these days are the Kardashians and the real housewives of this and that and ‘16 and Pregnant’ and all of that crap,” Morgan said. “I think that they preach to the youth that it’s OK to be like that and it’s OK to be a vapid contribute-nothing-to-society celebrity, and that’s basically where it started… A lot of the lyrics are about that.”

Morgan hopes Seether has proven its worth by making music throughout its career that’s been honest and has had lyrical substance. Certainly, the group’s music has spoken to a sizable audience.

Beginning with the 2002 debut album, “Disclaimer,” Seether has been one of the most consistent hit-making acts in hard rock, reeling off some 15 rock radio hits over the course of five previous albums, including “Broken” which featured Evanescence’s Lee (Morgan’s girlfriend at the time) adding vocals, and a cover of Wham!’s “Careless Whisper”).

Seether is doing its part to make sure “Poison The Parish” becomes another successful album, with a full five months of concerts already booked. The shows, Morgan said, will feature improved visual production and a notable addition to the touring lineup – guitarist Clint Lowery of Sevendust.

“He (Lowery) is going to bring a whole different energy and a whole different level of enthusiasm, I think. He’s just such a positive guy,” Morgan said. “I think overall we are really excited to be touring. I think we’re really excited to play this new music and get out there.” ¦

Fort Rock

>> The fifth annual Fort Rock — an all-day, hard rock and metal fest, is Saturday and Sunday, April 29 and 30 at Jetblue Park, 11581 Daniels Parkway. Gates will open at 11 a.m. each day. Ticket prices range from $70 to $360. For more information, see fortrockfestival.com

>> Saturday Lineup: Def Leppard Chevelle Papa Roach Alter Bridge Seether Three Days Grace In This Moment Motionless In White Nothing More Beartooth Cover Your Tracks

>> Sunday Lineup: Soundgarden A Perfect Circle The Offspring Mastodon Highly Suspect The Pretty Reckless In Flames Eagles of Death Metal All That Remains Starset I Prevail Dinosaur Pile Up Goodbye June


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