Robert Cavuoto recently caught up with Tesla guitarist Dave Rude for Metal Rules. Rude discussed working with Def Leppard's Phil Collen as producer for the band's new album, Shock. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Rude: "We created this CD different than before; we treated it more like a pop record, in terms of the production. Many of the songs were written by individual band members sending their ideas to Phil. I wrote 'The Mission' with Phil, its super old school heavy metal (laughing). I did that song in my home studio and sent Phil the demo. He liked it, made some suggestions lyrically and musically, and then sent it back to me. We would go back and forth like that until we were both in a place where we were really happy with it. We then pieced everything together while recording on the road with Def Leppard. We always had an extra dressing room backstage in arenas where we would record the guitars and bass before sound check. It was an efficient use of our time being on tour and making this CD. I did the acoustic guitar on 'The Mission' while we were in Cleveland. I wasn’t able to sleep the night the prior to recording that song, so I was a bit worried how it would sound when we did record it. We plugged the acoustic/electric to get the idea going, and it had such a unique sound we kept it for the CD.

I would say 60%-70% was recorded on the road with a large amount of that being guitars and bass. Almost all the writing was done on the road as well. We did some recording at Brian’s studio in Sacramento for vocals using a booth and really nice microphone when we had touring breaks. Obviously, the drums were recorded in a studio as you need a big live room. We recorded the drums and vocals after the bass and guitars plus any extra bits of candy like overdubs."

Read the complete interview here.

Tesla is set to release their eighth studio album, Shock, on March 8th via UMe. The album track, "Taste Like", is available for streaming below.

Produced and co-written by Phil Collen (Def Leppard), Shock is Tesla's eighth studio album. "Tesla had a blast recording Shock with Phil Collen," says the group. "The band were on point and the songs evolved with all of us having creative input. “Taste Like” is a driving rock song that made (guitarist) Dave Rude’s fingers bleed during the recording process!”

Pre-order now on CD, digital, black vinyl, and limited edition translucent blue vinyl formats, as well as other unique merchandise bundles, here.

Tracklisting:

"You Won’t Take Me Alive"
"Taste Like"
"We Can Rule The World"
"Shock"
"Love Is A Fire"
"California Summer Song"
"Forever Loving You"
"The Mission"
"Tied To The Tracks"
"Afterlife"
"I Want Everything"
"Comfort Zone"

"Shock":

Trailer:

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