On the occasion of releasing his 16th album with his band U.D.O., Udo Dirkschneider gives to Rock Overdose and to Zisis Petkanas the full details concerning their new album “Steelfactory”. He says many things about the concerts he would like to give in Greece, for the effort to bring another guitarist to the band, and also for his very bad relationships with the members of the ACCEPT band.
Rock Overdose: Hello mister Udo and welcome to Rock Overdose. It's a great honour. So, first of all tell us a few words about your brand new album ''Steelfactory'' which will be out on August 31st.
Udo Dirkschneider: Yes, what can I say about the new album... I'm really happy with it and so far we're getting really good reactions, it's let's say an easy going album we did it while touring and composed for it, so it was really easy and we had a lot of time to record it, so it was good.
Rock Overdose: Is it going to be a classic U.D.O. album with pure metal hymns I suppose?
Udo Dirkschneider: Yes, I guess it has classic metal songs, we tried to write good songs that people will remember and we took our time with this album.
Rock Overdose: Which song will be the next single?
Udo Dirkschneider: ''One Heart One Soul''. And we also did a lyric video about ''Rising High'' and we have a new lyric video coming soon for ''Make The Move''.
Rock Overdose: I also liked ''Blood On Fire'' which contains a classic music tune in it.
Udo Dirkschneider: Yeah, I know, it's one of the special tracks, what I like on the album is that it has a lot of different stuff, it's a good mix of everything.
Rock Overdose: Which one is your favourite song on the album? Maybe all the album?
Udo Dirkschneider: Oh, I can't say... Maybe the song I like the most is ''Rose In The Desert''.
Rock Overdose: Would you like to tell us the band's line-up?
Udo Dirkschneider: Yes, the line-up is waiting to add a new second guitar player soon, he's going to be from Germany and until September we will announce we have a new one. Then we start touring with U.D.O. at the end of October in Russia first, and we're going to have a European tour in the middle of January.
Rock Overdose: So, let's hope for Greece to be included...
Udo Dirkschneider: Yeah, I hope we can do some shows in Greece, it will be good.
Rock Overdose: You just finished your tour honoring the classic Accept songs. Are you planing to do something similar in the future again?
Udo Dirkschneider: No, Ι did this for nearly three years and I think now it's done! We did it with Dirkschneider and on the next tour with U.D.O. we don't play any Accept songs.
Rock Overdose: That was going to be the next question. You will play no classic Accept songs on the new tour...
Udo Dirkschneider: No, I did the Dirkschneider thing with only Accept songs and what can I say... If you want Accept classic songs, please go and see Accept while touring, it's only U.D.O. songs, I don't play Accept songs anymore and if they maybe split-up and I continue touring, then it's a possibility to play some Accept songs, but at the moment, they still play a lot of classic Accept songs on tour, I have to stick to the U.D.O. albums and we have enough songs to not include any Accept songs.
Rock Overdose: Talking about Accept, which is your relation with the band members, are you in contact with any of them?
Udo Dirkschneider: No, there is no contact anymore!
Rock Overdose: So I guess there are no thoughts of even performing with the band as a guest...
Udo Dirkschneider: No, there is no contact and too many bad things happened and I don't wanna be in contact with them anymore.
Rock Overdose: How would you describe metal with just one word?
Udo Dirkschneider: It's coming from the heart, coming from the inside. It's the true music!
Rock Overdose: Are you planning any guest appearance with any other musician?
Udo Dirkschneider: No, not at the moment, I mean I'm too busy at the moment, I have to concentrate to U.D.O. and there is no offer, nobody contacted me, so there are no plans to do something like that.
Rock Overdose: One last question about Accept, did anything bad happen and you don't want to talk about it?
Udo Dirkschneider: No, I mean everything changed you know, I had my own band and then we did the reunion after all that time and there are too many bad memories, I mean I'm with U.D.O. and touring with them as I did with Accept and I don't want any contact anymore. This is over.
Rock Overdose: Which are your memories from your visits in our country, Greece? Last summer you were in Crete.
Udo Dirkschneider: Yeah, I really liked the atmosphere, the crowd was very enthusiastic, I've been there 16 years ago when they did the first one (first festival), what can I say... Hopefully next tour, maybe next year we can come back to Greece and do some shows.
Rock Overdose: Would you like to leave a message to the readers of this interview, especially here in Greece?
Udo Dirkschneider: Yeah, I hope people will like the new album ''Steelfactory'', I hope we can do some shows in Greece.
Rock Overdose: We hope so. Is there anything else you'd like to say or reveal through this interview?
Udo Dirkschneider: At the moment there's no news, we just have to decide which guitar player will play with us and make an announcement on September. That's the only news at the moment and I still do interviews about the new album.
Rock Overdose: I suppose we're done with this interview, thank you very much. A last message to the people who love Udo.
Udo Dirkschneider: Stay heavy and hopefully you'll see us!
For Rock Overdose
Interview: Zisis Petkanas
Transcript: Dimitris Aloras
Translation: Stergios Goutsidis
Comments
