by Mark Kadzielawa

Accept returns with a new singer, Mark Tornillo, and an amazing new record titled "Blood of The Nations." This is the Accept everyone was waiting for, the band is just solid in every possible way. Mark Tornillo is an accomplished singer who can take the band into a very distinctive new direction without abandoning the path Accept started many moons ago.
Accept of course has a long history with vocalist Udo Dirkschneider, and a very short and unfortunate episode with singer David Reece. They made some hugely popular records in the 80s, had a fairly successful reunion in mid 90s, but vanished only to reform for some festival appearances back in 2005. Since then little was heard from the band members. Dirkschneider of course continued with U.D.O.. Others didn't do anything musically until now. Once Mark Tornillo entered the picture, Accept was re-born. Of course there was a lot of resistance from the fans, but once "Blood of The Nations" came out, the acceptance was widespread and obvious. And with producer, Andy Sneap, in the control room, Accept is making the heavy metal comeback of the year.
Currently Accept includes three alumni players, Wolf Hoffmann and Herman Frank on guitars, and Peter Baltes on bass. Completing the lineup is the new singer, Mark Tornillo, and the returning drummer Stefan Schwarzmann.
Guitarist, Wolf Hoffman, and singer Mark Tornillo, uncover the logistics behind the re-launching of Accept, and reflect on some past issues as well.
The original Accept did bunch of festival appearances back in 2005. How did it things go from there?
Wolf Hoffmann: We got to do these shows, but only for a limited amount of time. We all felt, it was a pity because we could’ve continued for quite some time. There was a big demand for the band then as there is now. We could’ve gone to South America, and continue touring for many more weeks, months, and what not. Udo said he didn’t want to do it, and that was it.
Was the 2005 experience enjoyable? Was the chemistry good?
Absolutely. It wasn’t as good as it is now, but it was OK. I think we got along pretty good. I strongly felt it could’ve kept it going. We should’ve done this regularly for the next few years, again and again. Udo always felt like he didn’t want to because he felt it was a direct competition to his band. And we always felt like why you couldn’t do both? You could’ve easily do U.D.O. and Accept. I had no problem with that, but he did. He didn’t want to. He said “nobody will want to see U.D.O. when I do Accept,” and he left it at that. But in any case, he wasn’t interested in continuing, and that’s why he never came back.
Since 2005 very little was heard from the other Accept members. What was going on throughout this time?
We didn’t do anything because we didn’t have a singer, and we never thought there was ever gonna be anymore activities under the name Accept. And then the big miracle happened that one day we walked into Mark Tornillo, met him. And we were like “where did this guy come from?” We’ve never heard of him, and we never auditioned people. We weren’t even looking for anyone. I mean the band was pretty much done at that point. But, since we’ve met him, it was almost too good to be true. So, we were like why not try it with him? If Udo doesn’t want to do it, why not try it with Mark Tornillo. He’s got as good of a voice, maybe even better, and he is a great guy, so what do we have to lose? Otherwise we have nothing.
How did you exactly meet Mark Tornillo?
I was visiting Peter Baltes in Philadelphia. You see I live in Nashville, and he lives in Philadelphia. I happened to be in the area, and I was visiting Peter. I was there on business, and we just spent a weekend together. I was like “why don’t I come to your house, we’ll have fun, let’s make some noise, and play some old stuff for old times' sake.” Somebody else suggested that Mark comes and jams with us. There was a sound engineer at the place where we were jamming, and he said “there is this guy who sings, and he’s name is Mark, why don’t you invite him? He sound a little bit like Udo, and he knows some of the old material, and he probably would be a good fit.” We said OK.
So when Mark got there, and you started to jam with him, when did it become obvious that you may have a future with him?
The light bulbs? They went on within 20 seconds. We started playing, and he started singing, and we were like “wow, this is incredible.” And it just continue to get better and better. We were impressed, and we knew we’ve had something here.

Mark, when did you realize jamming with these guys could go places?
Mark Tornillo: We just jammed that one day, and I had no idea what was going to happen, neither did they I think. I didn't really think they were looking for somebody. But, it was too good to be true for all of us, we just really enjoyed each other's company. We've had good time playing that day. We worked around some new ideas, recorded some stuff. Next thing you know we're playing "Flash Rockin' Man," and "Balls To The Wall." I'm screaming my head off, and having fun. I went home that night and thought nothing of it. Couple of days later I got a phone call from Peter (Baltes) asking me for another meeting, and he's telling me about the plans for Accept doing another record and tour with me as the singer. I was like: "what?, really!"
Did you believe the idea right away, or did it take a while to sink in?
Mark: It took a while to sink in. By the time I got back to them with an answer, which wasn't long, it took me only a couple of days. I had to get my ducks in a row, talk to the wife, the rest of the band, and everybody else too. I'm not just gonna leave everything, and do stuff, but it worked out well. I think it wall worked out for the best. We wrote a killer record, and we're out here having a good time.
What do you think attracted you to Accept?
Mark: I was listening to those guys since 1980. "Breaker" was the album I really started to take serious interest in Accept. My band (TT Quick) was actually covering a lot of these songs. We didn't have a record deal back then, and we covered a lot of these songs. People would go like: "that's great, did you write that? Oh Yeah! (laughter)" I think we've turned a lot of people onto them by playing their stuff.
Were there any worries going into this? After all, the previous experience with David Reece back in 1989 was not a good one.
Right, we did. No, we weren't because it was a completely different starting point this time. Everybody else was skeptic, that's for sure. The whole world was skeptic. Everybody said: "They've tried it before and it can't be done, no Udo, no Accept," and all this kind of stuff. And now all of those people are quiet because it's such a big success, and people are really seeing how good this is, and they love the new record. There are a lot of people coming back to us saying they were wrong. People say to us now: "I should've at least listen to it." And really in retrospect, that's all I ask for everybody in the future to do. Just give stuff a chance, wait until you hear something. You can't just judge something by the idea.
So the reactions now are very contrasting to all of those internet posts, aren't they?
Oh yeah, everybody loves it. It's overwhelmingly positive. We've played all over Europe, we've played Eastern Europe. We've gone to a lot of places, and we get a great response everywhere we go. We've played some huge festivals, and people were singing along even to the new songs. It was incredible. The response was fantastic.
Mark, you've certainly had big shoes to fill, and met with a lot of that opposition we just spoke of. How did you deal with that?
Mark: We just needed to write a good record, that's the only fight we've had. We needed to go out and prove them wrong. That's all you can do. After it was all done, we've converted a lot of the nay sayers, let's put it this way. I think so, I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when we went to Europe. I wasn't sure if I should be wearing some protective outfit, but it was not like that at all. The people were just so happy to see the band, and I don't think they cared who was singing at that point.
And how are you doing vocally with the Accept classics?
Mark: I'm putting my own little spin on them. We try to make them sound as close to the records as possible. I mean that's what I want to hear when I go and see bands. I wanna a hear the classic sound the way it was supposed to be.
The new songs certainly have a lot of great hooks, and will be considered classics years from now.
Well, that's what I hope for. That's always been our goal, and I'm honestly surprised how quickly the new songs are catching on. Usually it took a while for nay new songs to catch on, an slowly but surely the good ones will filter themselves out. In the past tours you could definitely tell a difference from a song from "Breaker" or a newer tracks, but in case of this tour it's almost the same. It's bizarre. There is little bit of a difference because not everybody who comes to the shows knows the new record, but the majority of the people we have coming to the shows enjoy the new material very much. It's crazy!

How long did this material take to be put together?
It took us about four months. When the decision was made to re-launch Accept with Mark, that was in May 2009, and by August we had half of the album written already. By September, October it was all written. Over the summer Peter and I sat down together, we probably wrote like 30 or 40 songs, out of which Andy Sneap picked his favorite ones. We had more material than we needed. It seems like we were on a run. We've had so many ideas, it was incredible.
Also, this time around it's the double axe attack. You've brought back Herman Frank into the lineup. That's a big change from the 90s where you were the only guitar player.
In 2005 we worked so well with Stefan (Schwarzmann) and Herman, so we knew if we wanted to do continue with Accept, we may as well use those two guys again. We tried as original as we can, and those were the members of the original line up that were available to us. Stefan (Kaufmann, the original drummer, now a guitar player in U.D.O.) obviously doesn't play drums anymore, so he was out of the picture. Jorg Fischer, our other guitar player disappeared from the face of the earth. We haven't been in touch with him for about 20 years, we don't know what he does, or if he even plays guitar anymore. And since Herman played with us in the 80s, he's as much part of the family as Jorg is. All these guys we know very well, and we've figured this is the best line up for this rebirth of the band.
In the past you've mentioned you were the one who tracked most of the guitars on the old records. Did you do things differently this time?
We do have both guitar players play on the record, but I still play the majority of the material in the studio. I think the record is sounding very balanced, and a lot of it has to do with Andy Sneap. When we recorded, it was just good time, and everything fell into the right place. I've been talking about this with other people too. And sometimes it's really hard as a band to get things right. In the 90s, by the "Death Row" time nothing seemed to work for us. We were trying too many things, and nothing was really going quite right. The chemistry wasn't quite there anymore. Sometimes you fight it and fight it, and it still doesn't go right. Other times, like with the current project, everything just happens amazingly good. I mean, we found Mark, we got along great, we wrote a lot of songs, we got Andy to produce, got a great guy to do our video. All of these things lined up really well for us.
You've mentioned Andy Sneap several times now, so when did he enter the picture?
He came in August last year. He had heard online that Accept is getting back together, and he's a huge Accept fan. So he contacted us, came over to America, met with us and introduced himself. After speaking with him for few hours, and meeting with him, it was obvious, just like it was with Mark, he was a Godsend. He was one of those people who walked into our lives, and we didn't talk to anybody else after. We had not really given the whole producer question a lot of thought at that point. A lot of people asked us why didn't we use Michael Wagener. And at that point, Andy Sneap came and got the job right away because he was the perfect fit.
In all honesty, "Blood of The Nations" appears to be the most focused album since "Russian Roulette" in the 80s.
Thanks, we tried to write songs that we could've written in the 80s. That was out goal, you know. Every time the question came up, do you use this, or do you use that? We're always going with that because that's what we would've done back then. We tried to have a modern sound, and modern ideas, but at the same time stylistically we tried to stay true to the core as much as possible. We've had a lot of other ideas that were great, but they were not 100% on the money. They were little bit removed from the Accept sound. So, we let go of a lot of stuff, and decided to focus only on material that's only in the Accept's path.

I felt your latter output toward the end of the 90s ("Death Row," "Predator") was losing the focus, and started to sound a little bit disjointed. By the time you've released "Predator," the identity of the band was in serious question.
Yes, we were losing that focus. Absolutely, we felt that too. I wouldn't go that far, but I know what you mean. But those were different times, and we weren't just trying to do just the same traditional stuff people were used to. We've tried to go with the times, and we tried to find a new identity in a way. We were sort of lost there for a while. Heavy metal as it was in the 90s was dead, and nobody showed much interest in it. It was a weird time, and everybody was fishing. The 80s were just behind us, and nobody wanted to acknowledge that decade anymore. People were moving on to something new, there was a new direction in music. You had all these grunge bands, and we were just trying to find our way in this world back then, and didn't quite get there.
Did you go through any difficulties trying to re-launch the band?
Not really. Logistically, Accept is just a big machine that needs to be started. And it's not as easy as you think it might be. After 15 years lot of things had happened, and the world is a different place too. You got the Internet and all. We've learned a very interesting lesson quite from the get go. When we've released those demo songs on-line initially, we got a lot of backlash, and a lot of negative publicity. That was just our naiveté to sort of put these out, because we were excited about them. We were excited about Mark, and we thought everyone would love him as much as we did, but that wasn't the case. But, all in all, we're doing really well. I think we got the whole internet presence under control, and we got pretty good publicity going on. It's a big operation, but everything is going on really well.

Links:
http://www.acceptworldwide.com/