Oregon Music News

Want to win tickets to Accept on Wednesday, April 27th plus an autographed poster? Or if you’re not in town, how about a CD bundle from Swedish power metal openers Sabaton? Leave a comment below for your chance.

German metal icons Accept reunited with frontman Udo Dirkschneider for the second time in 2004 playing a successful string of European shows including several festival appearances. Unfortunately, it was not meant to last beyond 2005 as Udo refused to return to the fold.

In 2009, Accept reconvened after an impromptu jam session with guitarist Wolf Hoffmann and bassist Peter Baltes and a session drummer. During the studio jam between Hoffman and Baltes, Mark Tornillo’s (former T.T. Quick singer) name came up. Tornillo was called in to sing on some Accept material and things moved quickly from there. The end result is the classic sounding Blood of the Nations produced by Andy Sneap and released in 2010 on Nuclear Blast Records.

Here’s an excerpt from a very lengthy interview with Wolf Hoffmann including a sweet moment where Wolf talks about his wife and manager, Gaby Hoffman. Wolf and Accept will return to Portland on April 27th at Peter‘s Room in the Roseland for an all-ages show.

First of all, congratulations on the fantastic new album Blood of the Nations.

Well, thank you very much. It’s been overwhelming, the response for Blood of the Nations.

The reviews have been very consistent, at least as far as I can tell. All that I have read have been favorable.

No kidding, I have read anything bad about the album. How often does that happen though?

Accept 2010 on the set of the "Teutonic Terror" video shoot

Not often at all. I’m a longtime fan. You guys reunited with Udo Dirkschneider from 2004 to 2005 and had a string of successful appearances at various European festivals. What’s the story behind Udo no longer being involved with the band? Was he not up to doing new music with Accept?

No he wasn’t; that’s really what it came down to. He wasn’t into it man. He basically gave a little bit of time to do the shows you mentioned and after that he wanted to go back and do his own thing again. In the end we have to live with that because he has been a solo artists for twenty-something years. We always felt that Accept was a stronger act so we assumed that he’d want to continue to do stuff with us. We thought that by having all the original players in the band it would have been enough of an incentive for him to work with us. He just didn’t want to do it. All the reviews for the festival appearances were favorable. If you get the critics and the fans agreeing, you’ve got something there. It was just strange that he didn’t want to be a part of it. We couldn’t force him to do it.

I thought it was nice of you guys, back when Udo went solo, that you, Peter and the rest of the band in essence launched Udo’s solo career by helping him with the Animal House album. You didn’t see Van Halen help Roth with his first solo album or Iron Maiden help Paul Di’Anno or Bruce Dickinson with their solo records.

Exactly, but you know that wouldn’t happen now. Our relationship is much different at this point.

Did you or anyone in Accept play on the album, because there has been some speculation that some of the Accept band members were featured but not credited.

To the best of my knowledge, neither I or anyone from Accept was ever featured on the Animal House record.

Call me crazy but there were some good songs on the Eat The Heat album. I liked David Reece’s voice on that album but obviously there was a consensus from most of your fans–they were very critical of the music and your choice of the vocalist. Thinking back now, would you say that you were invested in David for the long haul as the permanent singer in the band?

Well, the plan was to take things as far as we could. To be honest the thing was just doomed from the beginning. It was just something that we were so committed to that once we got going, it spiraled and we couldn’t pull the plug on it. It was just too late. We went so far into it there was no turning back. We realized in the process that our personalities and David’s personality just didn’t mesh yet we moved forward. I was hoping that the songs would be strong enough to make it work but they simply weren’t there. It was a different time, that was over twenty years ago and things were just so different then.

Right, one more question on the David Reece era and then I’ll let it go. As a fan, I have to ask: Would Eat The Heat fared better if you had not placed the Accept name on it?

[Long pause] I would say probably not because we were Accept then. The way I see it is that we were still the same guys in the band who wrote all the previous material we just had a different singer. I think it just wasn’t meant to be and there is no other way to put it. That leads into the present with the way things have gone with how Peter and I met Mark (Tornillo), how Andy Sneap got involved, or how the crew that shot our music video for “Teutonic Terror” got involved–it makes me think that this is meant to be. Everyone just crossed our path and worked out, like it was meant to be. This was the complete opposite of working with David Reece; we tried and tried and nothing happened.

At what point after Udo decided he didn’t want to come back did you begin to work on new music? Was it always going to be Accept?

I’ll tell you, there’s a neat little story behind how this whole thing began. I was visiting Peter (Baltes) in Philadelphia where he lives. We just wanted to blow off a little steam so we went into a studio with a local drummer and we played some old Accept tunes. It was at that time that someone mentioned that there was a singer near by that would probably be happy to join us for the day if we were interested. The guys said his name was Mark (Tornillo) and that he was very familiar with the classic stuff and that he was an incredible singer. Peter and I looked at each other and said, “Hey, why not?” Mark arrived and when he started to sing we knew we had something there. To be honest, before we heard Mark we had no intention to ever get Accept back together again. We didn’t know a guy like Mark existed, we weren’t looking for a guy to replace Udo but when we heard Mark he was just so perfect for the job.

So Wolf, you mean to tell me that there was no formal audition? You happened to be jamming with Peter and Mark was mentioned as a guy that knew the back catalog?

Yeah! Can you believe it? We simply wanted to spend a few hour together jamming. Within minutes of hearing Mark singing Peter and I looked at one another and said, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” And it was right there and then that we decided to ask him to join the band, then we contacted the rest of the band, then management and then shortly after that we announced it to the world. Then a few weeks later we started writing the songs. At the time of the jam we had nothing.

Has the fellow that pointed you in Mark’s direction asked for a finder’s fee at this point?

[Laughs] No, but he could though. [Laughs]

Blood of the Nations has kept true to the classic Accept sound.

I totally agree with you; it’s what felt right to us. Now, it might seem simple but I can tell you it’s not. Just look at Eat The Heat? That didn’t turn out so well. Obviously having a guy like Mark that can write and the fact that he has voice that suits Accept well helps tremendously

Blood of the Nations was slated for release in the spring of 2010 but instead pushed back to the fall. In that time you released a pair of killer cuts from the album: “The Abyss” and “Teutonic Terror.” What was the delay in getting the album released?

We finished the album in February or early March of 2010. So we had the album recorded, then we shopped for a label. Negotiations took a few more weeks and by then it was May. Our label Nuclear Blast encouraged us to wait until the fall, they didn’t feel there was a need to rush things. We agreed and here we are. I’ll tell I was very concerned that the album was going to leak as many things do these days with the internet.

Did you guys do anything special to keep Blood of the Nations under wraps?

Yeah. We didn’t send it to anyone! [Laughs]

It would have been an easy call to get your friend (producer) Michael Wagener on board for this album. He lives in Nashville too so why is he not involved?

Michael and I have a long history together. In fact, he had been renting space from me on my farm for about ten years or so. I helped him build the studio there on the farm. And you’re right, Michael would have been an obvious choice but he didn’t believe it. But when we met Andy Sneap there was no other consideration. Andy was just what we were looking for and that is the God honest truth. We weren’t even thinking about a producer because we were deep in the songwriting process. Andy got involved when he got word that we were regrouping and he contacted us. We met and we hit it off and here we are.

And he’s a guitarist too so I imagine you and he really hit it off.

That’s right. He’s a guitarist, a producer and an Accept fan. He was the guy destined to produce this album. What more do you what, right? He’s perfect. I’ve got to tell you things have gone so amazingly well that everything was just meant to be this time.

Sounds like you’re blessed. Did you ever pinch yourself and think you were dreaming?

[Laughs] No, but I light a candle at the church of Heavy Metal as a thank you. [Laughs]

Accept will kicked off the first leg of your North American tour at 2010’s Progpower USA Festival and then you headed out with King’s X supporting. You’ve announced some additional dates along with a date in Portland, Oregon in April.

We’d really like to tour as much as possible behind Blood of the Nations. We’re looking at this initial tour as a meet and greet. We want to get out there, playing in intimate venues, meeting the fans, meeting the journalists, signing autographs, shaking their hands, and reintroducing ourselves to them. We did something in spring 2010 in Europe and it went over very, very well. It opened the door for other stuff in Europe. We got a chance to open two shows for AC/DC in front of 80,000 people there. We were asked to play Sonisphere in Istanbul, Turkey and Romania.

Did you guys have anything left over from the Blood of the Nations sessions? And if so, what will you be doing with those songs?

Yeah, we wrote about 30 to 40 songs for the album, but we didn’t record them properly. We thrown down some ideas and the ones that sound like we can work into a complete song get the full treatment and get recorded. The ones that don’t get recorded will lay dormant, though I have to tell you a lot of those songs or ideas will get revisited again I think, because there was so much potential there.

We talked years ago, it was around 2000. At that time Accept was on hiatus or disbanded and you were concentrating on photography. How did you do in that career and is it something that you’ll continue to do after Accept?

That must have been around 1999 or 2000. I am quite successful as a photographer; I don’t do any of the landscape photography because frankly it’s not very lucrative. I got into the corporate end of things and would shoot things for corporations, whatever they needed. I’d shoot people in the boardrooms and stuff like that. You’d be surprised how many of these guys in the boardrooms are or were metal heads in the day. They were surprised when they found out who I was before I became a photographer. I never set out to tell them, if it came up it came up you know. One of the questions that always comes up is if I shoot music. I don’t, I haven’t been interested in it. I wanted to shoot things that were far removed from metal or music. It just never appealed to me at all. I’ll definitely continue with photography in the future.

Lastly, you did something very cool in the liners to Blood of the Nations. You said a few things about your wife, Gaby Hoffman. Would you like to take some time to explain to the readers what I’m talking about?

Sure, my wife has been with Peter and I since the beginning. She has managed us, she helped us with wardrobe, our stage moves, she has helped us as a lyricist, she has been the sixth member of the band. Peter and I felt that it was time that we showed her our gratitude for all the years she has invested in us and it was time to put it in words and that is what you’ll read in the liners of the album. I can’t thank Gaby enough for all of her support throughout the years.

Accept will play Portland on Wednesday, April 27th at Peter‘s Room in the Roseland. It‘s an all ages show with power metal act Sabaton opening. Tickets are $22.50 general admission with $65 V.I.P. packages through Ticketswest. Doors open at 7pm, show 8pm.

Leave a comment for your chance to win an autographed Accept poster and two passes the Portland show. Not in town? Then we’ve still got copies of Sabaton’s re-released back-catalogue (a total of four discs). You know what to do.