1. FIRST OF ALL, WHICH IS THE BEST MOMENT YOU REMEMBER FROM YOUR CAREER? 

• Ohhh... Definitely I can say when I was in ACCEPT, when we had this big success, cause no one expected to have all this success in the years between 1983-1986. That’s the best part of the career!

• The worst moment with Accept…this was definitely for me the second split after the reunion. There weren’t any bad thins going on, I was giving up a quite successful thing with U.D.O. for Accept and then after 3 albums, it’s hard to say, but it didn’t work! But we are still friends, there are no bad things going on, but musically we couldn’t work together and this was a bit frustrating for me you know! 

• These unreleased tracks were left out form some productions with U.D.O. and when we listened to these songs again we said “Ok! They are not so bad!”, so they might be interesting for the fans, they were unfinished songs.

• No! Now we are empty! Hahaha! Nothing left!

• Oh he DVD is more a history of U.D.O. from the beginning until the Holy tour, so we put older video clips that we had, there are 10 video clips with U.D.O. and believe me I didn’t know we had that much! Hahahahaha! So, there is one video clip very interesting for the fans when I did the co operation with Aria (note:I don’t know if I caught the name correctly!), I sing in Russian so this might be very interesting…So we also have nearly 60 minutes where you can see U.D.O. playing live on stage in Russia and then we have a section behind the scenes in Russia, behind the scenes in America and then you can see my hobby that I do for a long time now, it’s parachuting…

• Yeah, but I don’t do it alone with somebody together! I don’t want to do it alone! Hahahaha! And then we have a photo gallery, where you can see all the pictures, older ones and new, we have a biography for the present line up, then we have all the covers of all the U.D.O. albums and all the information when they were recorded, who was the producer, the line up and then we have all the lyrics of U.D.O., you can click on each song and you can listen a little bit of all our songs and we also have this audio section with unreleased tracks, so you can say that it’s nearly a 240 minutes long DVD… I think that in a way you can see the whole history of U.D.O. and lots of information for the fans! We also have this live album out, but this wasn’t planned…

• Yes, “Nailed To Metal” the missing tracks. The story behind this is…when we put the live in Russia out a lot of people were asking why they couldn’t find the classic Accept stuff in it, “Fast As A Shark”, “Princess Of The Dawn”…

• Yeah! Hahahaha! So, the idea was when we started thinking about a DVD to put on the audio section some Accept classic stuff, but we had so material, that there was no space left. Then we thought what could we do and we thought about putting out an EP, but you know with only 3-4 songs you can’t bring the atmosphere of a live show, you can fade in and fade out and I don’t like this. The we said to put more material and put out another live cd and complete the “Live In Russia” thing. That’s why the title says the missing tracks. I know in German they sell this cd for a very low price, around 9 Euros and I think this is a very good price. So, that’s why we decided to put out another live album.

• Yeah! At the moment the only information I can give you is that these last 2 weeks I started working on our new studio album and so at the moment we do the pre-production. We have nearly 50 song ideas for the album, so we haven’t listened to all the stuff and see which songs and what kind of songs we want to do. The release date will be the middle of February. It has to be out in the middle of February.

• Yeah! And then we start directly touring, we will go to South America, so it has to be out by then! Hahahaha!

• On the festival?

• It was a very interesting thing for us…I think it was the first time they did this festival over there?

• There were a lot of problems with the organization of the whole thing…

• Yeah! We got on stage very late, so that was a thing about organization and then somebody came up in the middle of the said and said “Ahhh you can not play anymore…You can’t complete the set…well maybe 2 more songs and then you have to finish” and then the police came and we had to stop after an hour I think…Of course, the fans weren’t really happy about this but the atmosphere and the reactions of the audience were great! It was nice to play there! I stayed for a whole week there! Hahahahaa!

• This is a good question…so,  we start in the middle of February in South America and then we are back in the beginning of March and then we start in Europe and I know that the European tour will go on during March, April and May, beginning of June, so I can’t really say when we are coming to Greece…

• Yeah! I don’t know the date! I know that we have some offers to come to Greece so at the moment we put the whole European tour together and I think we start in Europe from Poland and Belgium and then Scandinavia and after that we are going to Germany...I know that! And then we will have to see…maybe we will go for 3 weeks in Russia, come back and then do the rest of Europe or maybe we will go to Russia and the end, this is not sure yet, we are currently thinking about it. But definitely we are coming! 

• Vanize, my brother are working on the new album and it’s also coming out I think in the beginning of next year.

• I know! Hahahahaha!

• That’s right, but the only problem is that I don’t have the rights on the name of Accept! That’s the only problem but I think that the music is still the same! I don’t have the rights on the name!

• Breaker records has been opened up just for U.D.O. and then…I mean I take some bands like my brother’s band, Vanize and I had for one year Rough Silk and an Italian band White Skull, but the singer and the girl left… That’s what I have at the moment. The main thing why I did Breaker records was for U.D.O. 

• Yeah! At the moment I do the distribution for Breaker records with SPV, but the DVD with U.D.O. and the live album are from AFM, so maybe I will do the next studio album together with AFM. The reason is that U.D.O. will be very busy next year

• Yeah! South America and then Europe and then we have the summer festivals all over Europe, then we go to America and then we go to Asia or perhaps the other way around. I don’t know yet! But you know this tour goes on until the beginning of 2005. Breaker records is an one man company. This means that I have to do all the stuff! Hahahaha! I mean if U.D.O. is that busy then I won’t have the time to work really well on the next studio album. I think the best way is to concentrate on U.D.O. as a musician only and the best thing will be to give the next studio album to AFM.

• Lately…? When I am in the process of songwriting and producing an album I don’t listen to anything. That makes you confused! Normally I put the radio on and when something new is coming out, you have to listen to it when it’s bands like Iron Maiden, but I didn’t yet listen to their new album. I don’t want to hear it at the moment and then also Ozzy’s album, Saxon and Motorhead and all that stuff you have to listen to what they are doing! It’s important to listen to their albums! Do they do something new or do they still sound the same? We are very interested in the production of the albums, blah blah blah You have to be always informed!

• Newcomers…?Phewww…Hmmm the only band I really like at the moment is from Germany, Edguy. They are a very good band, but Masterplan is not new, they are 2 members of Helloween. There are good bands out there, but don’t ask me names! I don’t remember! Hahahaha! 

• Noooo!Not really, not really! Hahahhaa My daughter listens to very extreme stuff…

• Yeaahhhh! She listens to Linkin Park and Korn and all that stuff…This is not my kind of music really! Hahahahaha!

• Well, she is not very young… She is 15

• Hahahaha! Definitely not a baby!

• Yeah! I mean also sometimes I hear my daughter listening to these stuff and I hear some interesting stuff in those songs, some nice melodies and great things. Music is a matter of taste as I always say!

• GRAVE DIGGER: Yeah! Very old German band. I think they still do a good job with their concept albums…

• RAGE: Hmm…a good band but sometimes not my kind of music.

• Yeah! I like what they did with Lingua Mortis, it was a good thing, but music is a matter of taste, as I said earlier. I know Peavy very well and they are successful here in Europe. 

• No, not yet.

• So, they went back to the old days? That’s great! Here we go again!!! Hahaha

• SACRED STEEL: I know the band, but never heard any of their stuff… 

• RUNNING WILD: Yeah! He has developed his own style and he is a hard working man! He is always there, sometimes with more success, some others with less success.

• Yeah! But he is still in the business! So, he did a very good job and he does good traditional metal stuff!

• Pfff..Hmm…You can say that we always try through our music to make people have a good time.

• A painting!?! Ohhh…A good question!!!! If it were a painting, it would be a very modern one.

• Oh! This is a very hard question I think. I believe that some bands do it for money. I KNOW this for sure! Hahaha! But there are also some bands that do it because they want to go back to what they are. Some times some guy leaves the band and this usually is the singer, so this band is not the same anymore and so some bands do it for real and some others for money!

• Yeah, Sebastian Back is not with them anymore…

• This is always wrong! I mean I would never try to do this. Maybe one more reason why we are still in the business is because we want to say in a way “Don’t change your style!”. It doesn’t matter if metal is popular at the moment or not, stay for what you are! Always the best thing you can do!

• Hmmm…movie, movie, movie! I like watching movies! Definitely I think it would be good to write music for a movie like Terminator or something like that.

• No, the last one! I found it a bit funny, but it was a good action movie! Lot’s of things on!

• World without music? I can not imagine this! But, I think I would try to live a good life. You can do a lot of things, but a world without music could never happen.

• Hmm… I would like to see the world from a different angle.

• Ohhh…The craziest, which in a way was funny, but in another way wasn’t, was when we came out with Accept with the “Balls To The Wall” album, some people asked if I am gay…In a way it was funny, hilarious, but in another way wasn’t funny at all!

• Yeah! It’s frustrating exactly!

• No! I think we talked about Greece, coming back to Greece and all the things that are on the DVD, why we put on another live album…No! I think we covered it all!

• Yeah! It was a good and very interesting interview!

• You too and hopefully we will meet in Greece! Ok! Bye bye!