Guitarist Phil Collen is a busy man this year: Def Leppard recently released their first official live album and are touring this summer with Heart. Separately, Collen is preparing to release ‘punkfunkrootsrock,’ the second album from his band Manraze on Aug. 2, a collaboration with former Girl bandmate Simon Laffy and Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook.

Drawing inspiration from the great power trios across time, from Cream to Nirvana, Manraze features some of the heaviest riffs that Collen has laid down on record in a long time, particularly on the album’s first single, ‘Over My Dead Body,’ but it also features moments of reggae, blues and punk, all sewn together with impressively diverse vocals from Collen.

We spent a few moments talking with Phil about the new Manraze album, the latest release from Def Leppard and his thoughts on Def Lep’s overall legacy

UCR: Well, I want to dig into the Manraze stuff – the band is finally playing its first U.S. show [which was originally set for July 31 and now has been rescheduled for Oct. 2, due to show cancellations on the current Def Leppard tour], which is a great opportunity to set up the new album. You’ve played some dates overseas … what took so long to bring it here to the States?

PC: With Def Leppard, they go: why don’t you come to Colombia, why don’t you come to Lithuania. You’ve got to be invited there, you can’t just show up. It’s really that, really – if we’d have come, it would have just been for no reason, there would have been no promotion, no nothing, so you’ve always got to tie it in with something else. Now we’ve got this new release with Rocket Science, a record label, so that makes all of the difference, really, with the marketing, interviews and all of that stuff, so it makes it valid and worthwhile coming, otherwise there’s no point at all.

Read the rest of the interview at ultimateclassicrock.com

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