{"id":69038,"date":"2020-12-17T19:25:56","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T00:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=69038"},"modified":"2020-12-17T19:25:58","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T00:25:58","slug":"interview-with-wolf-hoffmann-of-accept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2020\/interview-with-wolf-hoffmann-of-accept\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolf Hoffmann of Accept"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Alexandra Mrozowska
\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 strong as ever and, as the title suggests, too mean to die<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We caught up with Accept\u2019s guitarist, songwriter and the last original member on board \u2013 Wolf Hoffmann \u2013 to discuss not only the band\u2019s new offering Too Mean To Die<\/em>, 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…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hardrock Haven: It\u2019s probably a question you\u2019ve 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: No, of course not. Nobody could expect anything. I mean, when we started and when I joined the band, I didn\u2019t have a clue if this is going to last one year or five years. Nobody knew that. And surely I wouldn\u2019t expect to be talking about a new album forty four years later, of course not. It\u2019s \u2018cause 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 \u2013 and still isn\u2019t, but it\u2019s because they\u2019re still going. It\u2019s just that the whole industry has just got started back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, there was an impact [on the album], because we couldn\u2019t get together when we wanted to because of travel restrictions. I mean, we recorded about half an album in a traditional way \u2013 all of us in the studio \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: The first single off the new album was \u201cThe Undertaker\u201d, illustrated with a memorable video filmed partially in my homeland Poland. Is there any message behind this video?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: A message… I don\u2019t think there is a message, to be honest. It\u2019s not supposed to have a message. It\u2019s really showing a creepy undertaker figure and it\u2019s 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 \u2013 at least it\u2019s the way how I read the lyrics. It wasn\u2019t 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Unfortunately not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: I thought so. But it\u2019s awesome. Really nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019t necessarily intend to utilize it at the particular moment. Do you agree that\u2019s how your influences intertwine all the time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, I think they always have. I mean, that\u2019s the way I write music and that\u2019s the way I like to play. It\u2019s just in me, whether I think about it or not. And sometimes it\u2019s intentional, but very often it\u2019s not. Especially with \u201cThe Undertaker\u201d or \u201cToo Mean To Die\u201d I wasn\u2019t thinking about anything Classical. Those are just regular Metal compositions. But of course, when I play and when I write stuff, there\u2019s always that underlying influence in there, whether I want it or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: I wouldn\u2019t call it pressure. I would call it anticipation or expectation, but it\u2019s not really a pressure. I think pressure is something I put on myself more than anything; it\u2019s 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\u2019m always very careful to think of the legacy of Accept and the history and the band\u2019s style. So if you call that pressure, then I guess it\u2019s there, but it\u2019s really more for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Speaking of what fans may expect, what\u2019s the band\u2019s secret of keeping the balance between what you\u2019d define as the legacy of Accept and more current sound?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s a secret. I mean, the way that I write songs and the way we\u2019ve written [them] for all these years has never changed that much. We\u2019re just using today\u2019s technology and we\u2019re working with a great producer whose name\u2019s Andy Sneap. He brings a bunch of ideas to the table \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So maybe that\u2019s the secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Maybe it is, but a secret always sounds like you have something that you keep. \u201cCan\u2019t tell you or else anybody would do it!\u201d (laughs) But it\u2019s really nothing that I would call a secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: I don\u2019t know. The fans will be the judges… Peter [Baltes, the band\u2019s original bass player] left us two years ago and he was the oldest member alongside myself… I think it\u2019s super tragic and I\u2019m very sad that he did leave. I\u2019m still a little bit heartbroken about it, but really there\u2019s nothing I can do to change his mind. He just made up his mind and you could tell that he wasn\u2019t 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\u2019s nothing worse than trying to make music with somebody who doesn\u2019t really enjoy it anymore, so I can totally understand that it\u2019s actually dragging everybody down, not just the guy who doesn\u2019t like to be in the band. The rest of the guys also feel it and we definitely felt that he [Peter] wasn\u2019t happy anymore. So now we\u2019ve got two guys that are totally excited to be there and for them it\u2019s a huge deal, so that reflects on everything, I believe. As I\u2019ve 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\u2019s just been in the band very briefly, but he immediately contributed some song ideas which I thought was fantastic. So it\u2019s like that with line-up changes \u2013 you never want them and I didn\u2019t want them. If I had my choice, I\u2019d still be together with the original line-up with 1979, but that\u2019s just not realistic. So as sad as these line-up changes are, there\u2019s also something good coming out of them sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: It is. So how do you interpret the album title \u2013 Too Mean To Die <\/em>\u2013 personally or perhaps in relation to the band\u2019s history?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Well, we\u2019ve 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\u2019ve just claimed we\u2019re \u201ctoo mean to die,\u201d we\u2019re the Metal warriors, the Metal machine from Germany and it\u2019s gonna run forever. And of course it\u2019s not meant to be serious, but it sounded like something that\u2019s fitting in these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: No, there isn\u2019t… of course not. It\u2019s just something that visually represents Too Mean To Die <\/em>\u2013 we were looking for something symbolic and mean, so the snake came to mind. And then, of course, we didn\u2019t want it to be a regular, ordinary snake; we wanted it to be some sort of a Metal creature. And I think the designer\u2019s done a great job. Everybody seems to like the cover and I like it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: As you\u2019ve already mentioned, you renewed your collaboration with a producer and mixing engineer Andy Sneap for the new album. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Why not…? He\u2019s great. He\u2019s perfect. Andy Sneap is a perfect man for the job, and if it\u2019s not broken \u2013 don\u2019t fix it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Absolutely. Too Mean To Die<\/em> is the fifth album with Mark Tornillo on vocals, so it\u2019s no wonder fans already talk about and compare the \u201cDirkschneider era\u201d and the \u201cTornillo era\u201d. However, there\u2019s one Accept album not every fan of your classic sound is happy about \u2013 1989\u2019s Eat The Heat<\/em>. Looking back, what do you think about this particular record?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Well… it was a dark time in our history of Accept. I would say that all of the \u201890s were very difficult and very dark in a way, and I don\u2019t even like to think about it so much. If only you journalist guys didn\u2019t constantly ask me about it, I would never even think about it (laughs). \u2018Cause 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 \u2013 especially in the \u201890s. Eat The Heat <\/em>came out at the beginning of that era and it was meant to be a new chapter, but it\u2019s just never panned out because basically everything went wrong with that album. And it\u2019s just something you go through in life. I don\u2019t 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\u2019s ridiculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Well, actually my reason for asking about Eat The Heat<\/em> is quite different. It\u2019s what I started listening to Accept from and in spite of all that\u2019s been said and written about this album, I have to admit I still like it…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: No, I didn\u2019t mean you in particular, but look what you\u2019ve just said yourself \u2013 you have to \u201cadmit\u201d that you like it. It\u2019s almost like people have to apologize that they like it. There\u2019s something about this album that rubs a lot of people the wrong way and they have such a strong opinion about it… It\u2019s 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\u2019ve met so many fans who said exactly the same thing, \u201cMan, I really wanna apologize, but I really like this album… I know nobody likes it, but I think it\u2019s great.\u201d And I think that\u2019s so bizarre. If you like it, you like it. It\u2019s so strange that people are so opinionated about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: People are almost trained to think that they\u2019d better not say aloud that they like this album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: It\u2019s just music. You can like it or not, but it\u2019s not more than that. In any case, it wasn\u2019t the period of time that I like to even think about much, \u2018cause it was very difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: So with the \u201890s 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\u2019s not mainstream perhaps, but the bands are doing much better. What do you think caused this revival?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: That\u2019s an interesting question! I don\u2019t think anybody\u2019s ever asked me about that and sometimes I wonder [about it] myself, because in the \u201890s I honestly thought Heavy Metal was over. I thought we had a great time while it lasted, but it\u2019s 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\u2019s actually becoming almost mainstream when eighty thousand people come and they\u2019re of different generations, like whole families, coming to these festivals and enjoying Heavy Metal. That\u2019s incredible. But what made all that happen…? I really don\u2019t know, to be honest. What caused that, I don\u2019t know. But I noticed that it\u2019s way more in Europe than, for instance, in America where everything is more trend-oriented and it\u2019s 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\u2019t know, but I\u2019m glad it is so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Definitely. You\u2019ve also got two solo albums under your belt. When do you think we can expect a follow-up to 2016\u2019s Headbangers Symphony<\/em>? And what about the style of the potential album number three?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah \u2013 but I\u2019ve just made a new Accept album, so give me a little bit of a break and then I\u2019ll 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\u2019ll start to gather some ideas and think about a follow-up album. There\u2019s actually a distinct possibility now, depending on when the touring kicks back in. I\u2019m still hoping we can start touring in the summer, for some of the festivals. But if that\u2019s 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 \u2013 what else would I do? That\u2019s a kind of my side project and it always will be. See, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever make a solo album that\u2019s supposed to compete with Accept, because let\u2019s face it \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: You\u2019re 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?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, of course they are \u2013 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\u2019s both a composition anyway… Oftentimes, they talk about composition of the photo, where it\u2019s like where you place the elements and how you group the stuff in a picture \u2013 and that\u2019s what you do in a kind of a similar way when writing a song, if you think about it. So it\u2019s 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\u2019s really good, and it\u2019s very similar with photography. Or even worse, if sometimes you take hundreds of pictures just to have one really good image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: And how did it start for you \u2013 first, I suppose, as a hobby, and then professionally?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah. It started when I was touring so much with Accept back in the \u201880s and I just started documenting things backstage and touristic things along the way. And my wife always encouraged me by saying, \u201cThese pictures are great, you should keep doing it…\u201d So I stuck with it over the years. And when Accept came to a standstill in the late \u201890s, I didn\u2019t see any point in continuing music and I thought, \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a better idea to start something fresh.\u201d 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\u2019s so easy now to take good pictures and it\u2019s 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 \u2013 and now it\u2019s laughable. It\u2019s so easy that you just look through your iPhone and in just one click it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: No challenge in that indeed… Back to Accept, perhaps it\u2019s 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\u2019ve mentioned some festival performances postponed until next year…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Yeah, we have the whole festival season scheduled. It\u2019s actually a repeat from this year \u2013 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\u2019m hoping they can happen as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardrock Haven: Let\u2019s hope so. And is there anything you\u2019d like to add in the end?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann: Well, stay safe and enjoy the new album until we can see each other in person \u2013 that\u2019s definitely a worthwhile message, I think. Thank you!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accept Concert Photo Gallery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n[ngg src=”galleries” ids=”377″ display=”basic_thumbnail” images_per_page=”14″ number_of_columns=”7″]\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credits:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wolf Hoffmann and Mark Tornillo \u2013 Scott Duissa<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accept photo gallery images appear courtesy of Elsie Roymans<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska\u2014 Senior Columnist \u2014 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 […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":69042,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[9085,203,13657],"class_list":{"0":"post-69038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews-recent","8":"tag-accept","9":"tag-interview","10":"tag-wolf-hoffmann"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}