Wolf Hoffmann of Accept

by Alexandra Mrozowska
— Senior Columnist —

Every musical career starts with big dreams and bold plans to conquer the world, but certainly no one can predict how long it will last. Longevity is something difficult to attain, especially within the business as fickle as the music industry.

Yet, there are those who survived all the odds, changes and hiatuses and returned in glory. One of the bands whose characteristic logo we see adorning battle vests of a few generations of metalheads now is Accept. The German act returns early next year with what is the sixteenth studio album in their history – strong as ever and, as the title suggests, too mean to die.

We caught up with Accept’s guitarist, songwriter and the last original member on board – Wolf Hoffmann – to discuss not only the band’s new offering Too Mean To Die, out via Nuclear Blast in January, but also the ever-present Classical influences in his music, plans for continuation of his solo career and his passion for photography. And on top of that, obviously, the twists and turns of pursuing a career in the recording industry for over four decades…

Hardrock Haven: It’s probably a question you’ve been asked a million times already, but when Accept started, have you expected it to actually continue for so long in spite of all the line-up changes and changes within the music industry?

Wolf Hoffmann: No, of course not. Nobody could expect anything. I mean, when we started and when I joined the band, I didn’t have a clue if this is going to last one year or five years. Nobody knew that. And surely I wouldn’t expect to be talking about a new album forty four years later, of course not. It’s ‘cause the music industry was so young back then that nobody had anything to even compare it to. You know, when I joined Accept, imagine that The Rolling Stones were in their late twenties and there was nobody older than the Stones, ever – and still isn’t, but it’s because they’re still going. It’s just that the whole industry has just got started back then.

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. The new Accept album coming out in just a few weeks, did the current situation with the pandemic have any impact on the recording process?

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, there was an impact [on the album], because we couldn’t get together when we wanted to because of travel restrictions. I mean, we recorded about half an album in a traditional way – all of us in the studio – but then, when we wanted to record the second half in the summer, the borders were closed and our producer could not come in from England into the United States. So we found the way to have him being present online during the recording, and the rest of us were working alone in Nashville. So it was a little bit strange, but it was what we had to do and it worked out okay.

Hardrock Haven: The first single off the new album was “The Undertaker”, illustrated with a memorable video filmed partially in my homeland Poland. Is there any message behind this video?

Wolf Hoffmann: A message… I don’t think there is a message, to be honest. It’s not supposed to have a message. It’s really showing a creepy undertaker figure and it’s more or less an invented scenario with no message, just a bit of fun and playing around the idea of a character of an undertaker. The whole song started as a poem by Mark Tornillo. He sent me the lyrics first and I wrote the music to the words and I think he had an old-timey undertaker in mind – at least it’s the way how I read the lyrics. It wasn’t really about a modern undertaker that could live today, it was more or less a guy that we know from the Western movies. And the production company for the video thought of him more as this Joker-looking guy. Somebody creepy, in any case. I think he did a fantastic job in the video… By the way, being Polish, do you know where this castle is?

Hardrock Haven: Unfortunately not.

Wolf Hoffmann: I thought so. But it’s awesome. Really nice.

Hardrock Haven: It is. Fans commenting upon this particular single noticed that your penchant for Classical music influences all you do, even if you don’t necessarily intend to utilize it at the particular moment. Do you agree that’s how your influences intertwine all the time?

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, I think they always have. I mean, that’s the way I write music and that’s the way I like to play. It’s just in me, whether I think about it or not. And sometimes it’s intentional, but very often it’s not. Especially with “The Undertaker” or “Too Mean To Die” I wasn’t thinking about anything Classical. Those are just regular Metal compositions. But of course, when I play and when I write stuff, there’s always that underlying influence in there, whether I want it or not.

Hardrock Haven: Do you feel any pressure when starting to work on a new material because of what Accept fans may potentially expect from it, especially as the last original member of the band?

Wolf Hoffmann: I wouldn’t call it pressure. I would call it anticipation or expectation, but it’s not really a pressure. I think pressure is something I put on myself more than anything; it’s just the standard you set for yourself. But to be honest, I never feel any pressure from anybody. We can pretty much do what we want, but of course we have to live with the consequences, so you make sure you do the best you can. And I’m always very careful to think of the legacy of Accept and the history and the band’s style. So if you call that pressure, then I guess it’s there, but it’s really more for myself.

Hardrock Haven: Speaking of what fans may expect, what’s the band’s secret of keeping the balance between what you’d define as the legacy of Accept and more current sound?

Wolf Hoffmann: I don’t know if there’s a secret. I mean, the way that I write songs and the way we’ve written [them] for all these years has never changed that much. We’re just using today’s technology and we’re working with a great producer whose name’s Andy Sneap. He brings a bunch of ideas to the table – he brings us a sound, so to speak. We just write the songs and we just perform them, but he makes them sound the way they are, so I guess, between all of us, we have a great team that likes what they do and it shows.

Hardrock Haven: So maybe that’s the secret.

Wolf Hoffmann: Maybe it is, but a secret always sounds like you have something that you keep. “Can’t tell you or else anybody would do it!” (laughs) But it’s really nothing that I would call a secret.

Hardrock Haven: The last few years were marked by another changes in the Accept line-up. How do you think it influences the band and especially the sound of the new album?

Wolf Hoffmann: I don’t know. The fans will be the judges… Peter [Baltes, the band’s original bass player] left us two years ago and he was the oldest member alongside myself… I think it’s super tragic and I’m very sad that he did leave. I’m still a little bit heartbroken about it, but really there’s nothing I can do to change his mind. He just made up his mind and you could tell that he wasn’t happy in the band anymore. Now we have two guys that are totally excited to be in the band and that in itself brings a lot of fresh blood and energy. There’s nothing worse than trying to make music with somebody who doesn’t really enjoy it anymore, so I can totally understand that it’s actually dragging everybody down, not just the guy who doesn’t like to be in the band. The rest of the guys also feel it and we definitely felt that he [Peter] wasn’t happy anymore. So now we’ve got two guys that are totally excited to be there and for them it’s a huge deal, so that reflects on everything, I believe. As I’ve said, it brings fresh blood, fresh energy and in some cases even fresh song ideas. Like the new bass player that we have right now, Martin Motnik [who previously collaborated and toured with the likes of Uli John Roth, Don Dokken or Alex Skolnick]. He actually started to write some songs for the new album right away. He’s just been in the band very briefly, but he immediately contributed some song ideas which I thought was fantastic. So it’s like that with line-up changes – you never want them and I didn’t want them. If I had my choice, I’d still be together with the original line-up with 1979, but that’s just not realistic. So as sad as these line-up changes are, there’s also something good coming out of them sometimes.

Hardrock Haven: It is. So how do you interpret the album title – Too Mean To Die – personally or perhaps in relation to the band’s history?

Wolf Hoffmann: Well, we’ve been around so long we seem to be immortal by now (laughs). But you know, in all honesty it was meant to be as a lighthearted statement in these dark times because we wanted to make a Metal statement and we’ve just claimed we’re “too mean to die,” we’re the Metal warriors, the Metal machine from Germany and it’s gonna run forever. And of course it’s not meant to be serious, but it sounded like something that’s fitting in these days.

Hardrock Haven: The snake has been one of the most popular creatures to be utilized in Heavy Metal, so is there any concept behind putting it on the new Accept album cover?

Wolf Hoffmann: No, there isn’t… of course not. It’s just something that visually represents Too Mean To Die – we were looking for something symbolic and mean, so the snake came to mind. And then, of course, we didn’t want it to be a regular, ordinary snake; we wanted it to be some sort of a Metal creature. And I think the designer’s done a great job. Everybody seems to like the cover and I like it too.

Hardrock Haven: As you’ve already mentioned, you renewed your collaboration with a producer and mixing engineer Andy Sneap for the new album. Why?

Wolf Hoffmann: Why not…? He’s great. He’s perfect. Andy Sneap is a perfect man for the job, and if it’s not broken – don’t fix it!

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. Too Mean To Die is the fifth album with Mark Tornillo on vocals, so it’s no wonder fans already talk about and compare the “Dirkschneider era” and the “Tornillo era”. However, there’s one Accept album not every fan of your classic sound is happy about – 1989’s Eat The Heat. Looking back, what do you think about this particular record?

Wolf Hoffmann: Well… it was a dark time in our history of Accept. I would say that all of the ‘90s were very difficult and very dark in a way, and I don’t even like to think about it so much. If only you journalist guys didn’t constantly ask me about it, I would never even think about it (laughs). ‘Cause it was just a time when Heavy Metal was going through a very dark period. The traditional sound was out of style and nobody wanted to listen to it, so it was sort of searching for a new direction – especially in the ‘90s. Eat The Heat came out at the beginning of that era and it was meant to be a new chapter, but it’s just never panned out because basically everything went wrong with that album. And it’s just something you go through in life. I don’t see why I still have to defend myself in a way… People always ask me this question almost in a provocative way, as if I have to defend myself about this album. It’s ridiculous.

Hardrock Haven: Well, actually my reason for asking about Eat The Heat is quite different. It’s what I started listening to Accept from and in spite of all that’s been said and written about this album, I have to admit I still like it…

Wolf Hoffmann: No, I didn’t mean you in particular, but look what you’ve just said yourself – you have to “admit” that you like it. It’s almost like people have to apologize that they like it. There’s something about this album that rubs a lot of people the wrong way and they have such a strong opinion about it… It’s sometimes laughable. In my mind, it had some fantastic songs but it was just never executed properly and it was not meant to be. But over the years I’ve met so many fans who said exactly the same thing, “Man, I really wanna apologize, but I really like this album… I know nobody likes it, but I think it’s great.” And I think that’s so bizarre. If you like it, you like it. It’s so strange that people are so opinionated about it.

Hardrock Haven: People are almost trained to think that they’d better not say aloud that they like this album.

Wolf Hoffmann: It’s just music. You can like it or not, but it’s not more than that. In any case, it wasn’t the period of time that I like to even think about much, ‘cause it was very difficult.

Hardrock Haven: So with the ‘90s being this very dark period not only for Accept as such but the whole traditional Heavy Metal scene, as you say, now in the 2020s we could say we have the revival of the genre. It’s not mainstream perhaps, but the bands are doing much better. What do you think caused this revival?

Wolf Hoffmann: That’s an interesting question! I don’t think anybody’s ever asked me about that and sometimes I wonder [about it] myself, because in the ‘90s I honestly thought Heavy Metal was over. I thought we had a great time while it lasted, but it’s time to move on and this is why I stopped playing music altogether. And then, I discovered that all these big festivals happen in Europe, and that there is a whole generation of fans still clinging on to the traditional Metal. And now it’s actually becoming almost mainstream when eighty thousand people come and they’re of different generations, like whole families, coming to these festivals and enjoying Heavy Metal. That’s incredible. But what made all that happen…? I really don’t know, to be honest. What caused that, I don’t know. But I noticed that it’s way more in Europe than, for instance, in America where everything is more trend-oriented and it’s more about Hip Hop and Country… Heavy Metal is still somewhat popular here, but not as near as popular as for instance in Europe or South America. And why did it come up in Europe again…? I think it maybe has something to do with these festivals that people really enjoy. All these festivals like Wacken [Open Air] or Sweden Rock… it seems as if they had something to do with it maybe. I really don’t know, but I’m glad it is so.

Hardrock Haven: Definitely. You’ve also got two solo albums under your belt. When do you think we can expect a follow-up to 2016’s Headbangers Symphony? And what about the style of the potential album number three?

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah – but I’ve just made a new Accept album, so give me a little bit of a break and then I’ll make a new Classical album. Right now I need a little bit of time and it looks like I would have a little bit of time with no touring currently, so… Probably at some point in the near future I’ll start to gather some ideas and think about a follow-up album. There’s actually a distinct possibility now, depending on when the touring kicks back in. I’m still hoping we can start touring in the summer, for some of the festivals. But if that’s not the case, then I have no excuse and I really have to start to work on the follow-up album (laughs). And I will! And about the style – what else would I do? That’s a kind of my side project and it always will be. See, I don’t think I’ll ever make a solo album that’s supposed to compete with Accept, because let’s face it – all my ideas can go into Accept. In other words, if I wanna write the song, I can use it for Accept. But the stuff that I do on my solo albums is instrumental music, so yeah, of course I would follow that kind of tradition thing.

Hardrock Haven: You’re also a photographer. Even though it seems to be so different from what you do as a musician, do you think these two forms of artistic expression are actually similar in certain respect?

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, of course they are – in many respects, as a matter of fact. You know, just being creative and expressing yourself with the different medium. And writing a song is not that much different from taking a photo. It’s both a composition anyway… Oftentimes, they talk about composition of the photo, where it’s like where you place the elements and how you group the stuff in a picture – and that’s what you do in a kind of a similar way when writing a song, if you think about it. So it’s definitely comparable and you have to be selective at what you do. I say very often that songwriting is really almost like taking pictures, because you have to write fifty or a hundred songs in order to have one that’s really good, and it’s very similar with photography. Or even worse, if sometimes you take hundreds of pictures just to have one really good image.

Hardrock Haven: And how did it start for you – first, I suppose, as a hobby, and then professionally?

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah. It started when I was touring so much with Accept back in the ‘80s and I just started documenting things backstage and touristic things along the way. And my wife always encouraged me by saying, “These pictures are great, you should keep doing it…” So I stuck with it over the years. And when Accept came to a standstill in the late ‘90s, I didn’t see any point in continuing music and I thought, “Maybe it’s a better idea to start something fresh.” And photography was always a passion number two in my life. But I have to admit that photography kind of fell out of favor in my life recently. And it might be due to the fact that it’s so easy now to take good pictures and it’s almost no fun anymore. It used to be pretty challenging and I liked that challenge. I liked the dark room, I liked developing the film and the craft and the experience you needed – and now it’s laughable. It’s so easy that you just look through your iPhone and in just one click it’s perfect.

Hardrock Haven: No challenge in that indeed… Back to Accept, perhaps it’s a bit risky to ask about the future plans these days, but assuming the music industry returns to its normal state at some point in 2021, what does the future hold in store for you and Accept? You’ve mentioned some festival performances postponed until next year…

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, we have the whole festival season scheduled. It’s actually a repeat from this year – we were supposed to play all these festivals this year but all of them were postponed exactly one year, which is coming up the next summer… So I’m hoping they can happen as planned.

Hardrock Haven: Let’s hope so. And is there anything you’d like to add in the end?

Wolf Hoffmann: Well, stay safe and enjoy the new album until we can see each other in person – that’s definitely a worthwhile message, I think. Thank you!

Accept Concert Photo Gallery

[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”377″ display=”basic_thumbnail” images_per_page=”14″ number_of_columns=”7″]

Photo credits:

Wolf Hoffmann and Mark Tornillo – Scott Duissa

Accept photo gallery images appear courtesy of Elsie Roymans