In Part 2 of Victoria Anderson’s interview with Wolf Hoffman of Accept, the legendary rocker discusses the bands first foray into making a live concert DVD, more details about the making of Blind Rage (Nuclear Blast), Wolf’s signature guitar, the challenges of touring and travel as a veteran band and detail about the next Accept album due n 2017. The band plays The Badlands Club, in Sioux Falls SD on March 3rd as part of their “Blind Rage World Tour”.
You are extremely busy because you have your very first live DVD and CD coming out. Why have you waited so long for Accept to put out a live DVD?
“When we first started we didn’t want to come out with one right away. We felt we didn’t have enough new material. We didn’t want to do something where we had five new songs on the DVD and the rest of it is old material. We wanted to wait until we had at least two new albums under out belts, so that’s kind of what we did. For Blind Rage there is a bonus edition with a complete live DVD available. So we actually did release a complete live show. It was filmed in Chile two or three years ago and that is part of the bonus, deluxe packaging of Blind Rage. So it is available, but we’ve never really had a stand alone DVD of just DVD concert footage. That is correct. And we have something in the can that might be released later on this year. We’re actually looking at the material right now and waiting for it to be edited. Then we’ll see whether or not we like it enough so that it is going to get released. But, in all likelihood, yeah, something is going to happen here.”
And then you have the documentary as well.
“Yeah, that’s been a long on-going project that still might be going for a few years. It’s really a, not so much documentary that’s going to be filmed, it’s more of a holding pen for everybody who has memorabilia, or any footage, or live tapes from whatever time. We’re just collecting that and one day we will release something; a history of Accept. I don’t know, something. It’s just because people always send us stuff and we never really knew what to do with it. Well all have a certain amount of stuff individually, but we wanted one central location where all this gets collected for all eternity.”
Speaking of eternity, your first album came out way back in that mythical time of 1979. How has recording and playing changed in thirty odd years?
“Well the technology has changed dramatically. The business, of course, has changed as we all know dramatically from the days of vinyl and cassettes and now it’s download and god knows what else next. But one thing really never has changed, the song writing aspect of it. It’s identical. A good song is still a good song. You can’t really ever change that with the technology. You can’t make that part any easier. The other part is the touring aspect is exactly like it was thirty years ago. You still have to go from A to B. You’re on a tour bus or on a plane. Set up your gear and play a show, just like you did back then. There are a few things that make life more easy but others get more difficult. Like traveling gets harder and harder. Air travel is not as much fun as it used to be.”
Really? Why is that?
“It’s a hassle with all the security checks. You can’t do this. You can’t do that. The room on the plane gets smaller and smaller. They don’t allow you to take your gear. Just ten, fifteen years ago you could take road cases or anything on a plane. Now a days you can’t. It was a lot easier to ship gear around the world and take your instruments and all your stuff. Now it’s harder and harder with all the security threats. Touring doesn’t get any easier. But the core principal is exactly as it was thirty years ago. You want to entertain people. You want to have fun on stage. You want to put on a good show.”
Part of a good Accept show is your guitar playing. I read you have a signature guitar through Framus. This guitar has a carbon fiber finish. What made you go with a carbon fiber finish?
“It’s just another cool idea that we worked on together. You know Framus is a German company. They not only make amazing instruments but they are really really good at finishing. The first one they made for me is reminiscent of a WWII bomber. It has an aluminum finish with rivets. It looks pretty authentic. They put one of those lady decals on there like the WWII bombers had. It’s mind blowing. It’s really really well done. This time around they just thought what else can we do. They came up with this idea to do a carbon fiber look. It looks amazing. You should see it up close. Way, way cool. So I’m very excited to work with Framus. They are the best guitar company I know.”
So when you aren’t doing music, and videos, and touring around the world, what do you do to occupy your time?
“I don’t really have any free time. As shitty as it sounds, it’s actually true. We work on this stuff pretty much nonstop. I either work on this classical stuff or work on Accept’s new songs. Now we’re writing songs for the new album everyday when we’re are not touring. I don’t have time for any hobbies or anything. I’m a photographer. If I had to name something, I still do quite a bit of photography. Even that I don’t have that much time for any more.”
CHECKOUT PART 1 OF OUR INTERVIEW HERE:
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