Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen says that a new album from the band will be with us “in the not-too-distant future.”
Back in May, when questioned about progress on a possible new studio album from the band, who haven’t released new music since their self-titled 2015 set, Leppard frontman Joe Elliott declared "there's a lot of work to be done" but promised “we have not let the year go to waste.”
And in a new interview with Canadian podcast The Metal Voice, promoting his current art exhibition, Allen has backed up the singer’s words.
“There's always new music on the go,” Allen told podcast hosts Jimmy Kay and Alan Dixon. “And I'm happy to announce that in the not-too-distant future we'll be able to present that.”
"I think that's one of the nice things about technology these days is that we can be all over the planet and still sharing ideas or coming up with new songs.”
"So, yes, that's a given [that there will be a new Leppard album],” Allen continued. “It's always something that we pride ourselves in, is the fact that we come up with new music and we don't try and rest on Christmas past.”
According to guitarist Phil Collen, the band actually began recording new songs back in 2018. “We've actually started the next thing and I love the direction of it,” Collen said at the time.
Speaking recently to Forbes about songwriting during the pandemic, Joe Elliott said, “We said, ‘We’re gonna do this at our leisure. There is no end game here. There’s no delivery time, no one is expecting us to make a new record. But we’re gonna write so we’re prepared.’ So that’s what we did. That’s what we’ve been doing for the past year is writing. And enjoying our time at home with our families. And archiving stuff and doing other things. We’ve got so many irons in the fire at the moment.”
You can watch the full The Metal Voice interview with Rick Allen below: