U.D.O.
Few hours before I see
one of the best live shows in my life, I made an interview with UDO the
leader of U.D.O. A very friendly person who replied to all of my questions
with an enthusiasm. So here it is the result of the questions I did...
1.HELLO! YOU ARE HERE ONCE AGAIN FOR A LIVE SHOW.
SO, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT THIS TIME?
-
What do I expect? I know that Greek fans are a
great audience. So we will have great time. The last time I've been in
Greece was foe the festival in Crete.
-WILL THE PLAYLIST SATISFY THE GREEK FANS?
-
We play 4 songs from the new album and a mix of
old U.D.O. and ACCEPT songs.
2.YOU COME IN A PERIOD THAT MANY GREAT BANDS COME
TO GREECE LIKE FOR INSTANCE ALICE COOPER, SCORPIONS, RUNNING WILD AND W.A.S.P..
AREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT THIS SPECIFIC PERIOD MIGHT NOT BE THAT GOOD FOR
U.D.O TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THAT SOME OF THE ABOVE MENTIONED BANDS VISIT
GREECE FOR THE FIRST TIME.
-
I don't know we will see how many people will
come. The last time I came in Thessaloniki was in 1998 in the "No Limit"
album.
3.NOW, LET'S TALK A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE "THUNDERBALL"
ALBUM, WHICH I FIND TO BE MORE MELODIC.CAN YOU TELL US THE DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN THE PREVIEW ALBUM AND THIS ONE?
-
Yes In a way is more melodic,but harder than "Man
and Machine". A lot of diiferent atmosphere in this album. A lot
people say that is by far the best U.D.O. album we ever did.
- I NOTICED THAT YOU TEND IN SONGS LIKE "THUNDERBALL"
AND "THE ARBITER" TO RETURN TO YOUR ACCEPT ROOTS. DO YOU AGREE?
-
Yep, I agree with you, cause it has the feeling
of "Balls To the wall" album etc.
4.NOW THE COVER ARTWORK IS A LITTLE BIT APOCALYTPIC.
IT SHOWS AN EARTH MADE OF STEEL AND THE CONTINENTS SET ON FIRE. DOES IT
HAVE A SECRET MEANING? IS IT PERHAPS INSPIRED BY ALL THE DESTRUCTION MADE
BY HUMANS?
-
The most songs in the album are against terrorism.
I think that we live in dangerous times. We have a war at Iraq and these
things have set a lot of things on fire. This is the main meaning of
"Thunderball".
5.WELL, RUSSIA MUST HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN YOUR
HEART, SINCE YOU HAVE RECORDED THERE YOUR LIVE ALBUM AND YOU ALSO HAVE
A SONG ON YOUR NEW ALBUM ENTITLED "TRAINRIDE IN RUSSIA". WHERE EXACTLY
DOES IT REFER TO? WHAT IS IT THAT YOU LIKE IN THIS COUNTRY?
-
Of course we like Russia a lot, but we didn't
plan to do this album. In this album we wrote firtstly the lyrics and then
the music, because usually we do the otherway. So we think why not to write
about are own experience and the funny things that happened to us in Russia.
It is a tribute to the country and the people. So after finishing the lyrics
about Russia, we think what kind of music we write about them and we say
let's give to the song a Russian atmosphere and we put an accordeon .Also
because is for Russia, we decided to sing in the Russian language. But
I think that still is Rock Music.
6.A WHILE BEFORE RELEASING YOUR NEW ALBUM, YOUR
LABEL RELEASED "THUNDERVISION". WHAT EXACTLY HAS THIS RELEASE? WHAT NEW
DOES IT HAVE TO OFFER TO THE U.D.O. FANS IN COMPARISON TO THE GREAT DVD
YOU RELEASED LATELY?
-
"Thundervision" was released 2 weeks before the
album. It has 4 video clips on it, an interview and the making of (videoclips).
So it has a lot of stuff for the fans. I think that it was realy important
to do this time video clips, because lot of countries asking for U.D.O.
videos.
7.THE NEW ALBUM IS RELEASED BY AFM RECORDS. WHAT
MADE YOU CHANGE LABEL AND SIGN WITH A NEW ONE? ARE YOU SATISFIED FROM THEM
TILL NOW?
-
Normally I release my albums from my own label,
but this time I was so busy and I didn't have the time to do it. AFM, I
believe is the best choice we did. At the moment is the best label in Germany.
-I WANT TO ASK YOU SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR LABEL
: WHAT'S THE NEWS FROM THE VANIZE CAMP?
-
Yeah, a good question. I don't know what my brothers
plans are. The only thing I know is that he works on the new album. The
guitar and bass player of VANZIE have left and now are playing to MAJESTY.
My brother took back the old guitarist and a new drummer and bass player.
- WILL THE NEW VANZIE ALBUM WILL BE RELEASED FROM
YOUR KABEL?
-
Well, I don't know, we will see haha...
8.ARE THERE ANY PLANS TO RE-RELEASE IN REMASTERED
VERSIONS THE PREVIOUS U.D.O. ALBUMS LIKE YOU DID WITH ACCEPT?
-
I did this when I was working together with NUCLEAR
BLAST. I did 4 U.D.O. albums.
9.IN EVERY LIVE SHOW YOU PLAY A LOT OF ACCEPT
CLASSICS, DESPITE THE FACT THAT U.D.O. HAVE MANY GREAT COMPOSITIONS. AREN'T
YOU AFRAID THAT SOME OF YOUR FANS MIGHT MISTAKE THAT AND MIGHT SAY THAT
THE ACCEPT SONGS ARE MUCH BETTER THAN U.D.O.'S?
-
No haha. I mean this is a hard thing for us. We
are 50% of ACCEPT on stage and of course I mean it's always a problem to
choose which song we will play. We will play for 2 hours and 15 minutes
and we do 22 songs on stage. You can't play everything.
- TO MAKE IT CLEARER WHAT DO YOU PREFER THE MOST?
U.D.O. OR ACCEPT?
-
As for me it's not a big difference. What I do
with U.D.O in a way it's the same that I did with ACCEPT. It's only a different
name. hahah... I don't sing in U.D.O. in any different way.
10.WELL, TO BE HONEST I AM A BIG FAN OF THE GERMAN
HEAVY METAL SOUND AND I WOULD LIKE TO SEE A PROJECT FROM BANDS LIKE YOU,
RUNNING WILD, HELLOWEEN, GRAVE DIGGER AND RAGE. BANDS THAT ACTUALLY FORMED
THIS SOUND. HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF DOING SOMETHING LIKE THAT OR DO YOU
THINK IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO HAPPEN? WHY?
-
I tried to do it a couple of years ago with Kai
Hansen and it didn't work out. The problem was who was more famous and
blalblabla. We tried to work on this project for a couple of months, but
then we say "forget it"...
11.THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME! THESE LAST
LINES BELONG TO YOU...
-
Oh Welcome haha. What I can say? I am happy that
I am back to Greece and we will see what's coming up today and tomorrow.
The fans will see a good show (note: it was an excellent show, one of the
best I have seen).
Nikos "William_Kidd" Parastatidis
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