✪ Players
RICK SAVAGE, DEF LEPPARD ew rock bass players have embraced their unique position within a band as well as Def Leppard's Rick 'Sav' Savage. But then again, he's a lot more than a bass player, contributing to the songs' often-grandiose harmonies live on stage, co-writing many of their biggest tracks and even going as far as tracking some of the guitars-something which bass players are rarely afforded the opportunity to do-over a career spanning four and a half decades.
It's this vantage point that gives him a greater understanding of his instrument's role in the context of a group, acting almost as the mediator between melody and rhythm. That's as apparent now, on this year's twelfth studio album Diamond Star Halos, as it was on 1987's best-seller Hysteria.
"The bass player is the glue and has an observation point that encompasses all sides of the band," he explains. "You're the bridge between the rhythm and the melody. From that viewpoint, you can see things a lot clearer and without you the whole thing will fall apart. Certainly not in our band, but I do get the impression that in a lot of groups the guitar players are mainly focused on guitars and don't really venture beyond that, because... well, they're guitar players and all about playing guitar! Singers can be very much the same way: They front the band
ROAR
Masters of arena-conquering anthems, Def Leppard have returned with a new album, Diamond Star Halos. Bassist Rick Savage tells BP about his love for Sting, why playing with a pick isn't always best practice-and how the perennial rockers pieced together one of their finest albums since Hysteria.
Interview: Amit Sharma Photography: Getty and mainly focus on lyrics and melodies. And actually, some of my favorite bass players are the ones who sing, like Sting, who totally gets it. His bass parts will be in sympathy with his vocal lines, because he's the one doing both. I love that-it's always about the song."
If there's a quality to his own playing, continues Savage, it's centered around his awareness of what he's there to do. And in Def Leppard, his job is to ensure that the twin guitars and big vocal harmonies are portrayed in their best light, while also locking in with Rick Allen's drums.
"The bass player tends to have the view of everybody in equal measure, including the drummer. I always feel like I'm the fulcrum in our band—the balancing act who can hear every side of the argument. Normally, the compromise is me. That's my role. Usually they say, 'Well, if Sav thinks so, then fuck it, go with what he says!""
The new music feels like Def Leppard's finest for quite some time. The opening track 'Take What You Want'-one of Savage's main co-writes carries all the flair of their biggest anthems, treated with a hard-hitting modern edge. As ever, it's the juxtaposition between their mellifluous Beatles-indebted melodies and driving rock riffs that takes the music to its limits, proving yet again just why Def Leppard were destined for greater things than the New
Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement into which they were lumped early on.
"""Take What You Want' started on acoustic, and yeah, the descending line is quite Beatlesy," says Savage. "Later on, I decided to take that acoustic riff onto a proper electric and it sounded huge. One of the best things about recording this album was the fact we were sat in our own little studios, doing our own bits. You start experimenting because nobody else has to listen. You've got nothing to lose. I came up with things I wouldn't normally come up with if I was with the band in the studio, because people start looking at the clocks and wondering when they get to solo... We used the extra time from the pandemic to solidify things and make an album that we'd never have been able to finish until 2024."
Other highlights on the album include mid-tempo rocker 'Kick' ("a groovy and fun song influenced by T-Rex and the early Seventies"), the octave-layered 'Fire It Up' ("We double-tracked my bass with a dirty Moog sound for extra thickness") and country ballad 'This Guitar', which saw Savage ditching the pick for a fingerstyle approach. Though he's predominantly stuck with a plectrum over the years, the new track- featuring guest vocals from the bluegrass singer Alison Krauss-involved some high slides that called for more warmth in delivery.
"I'm the fulcrum in our band-the balancing act who can hear every side of the argument"