ACCEPT - Wolf Hoffman
\r\nRecently we had the chance of talking to Accept mainman and\r\nguitarist Wolf Hoffman. Wolf talked to www.metalzone.gr about his\r\nupcoming shows around Europe and maybe America as a part of a G3 tour\r\nwith Uli Roth and Michael Schenker , his upcoming solo project and his\r\nexperience with the Accept tour which got him fired up again.
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\r\nMetalzone: Hello Wolf this is metalzone calling. How are you?
\r\nWolf Hoffman: Hello metalzone, I am good how are you?\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone:\r\nWe’re fine and I would like to thank you in public, for your patience\r\nbecause we some technical problems in our previous talk.
\r\nWolf Hoffman: I know all about technical problems, I can tell you being a guitar player I know all about technical problems\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: So where do you want to begin from?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nI don’t know, I can tell you what I’ve been doing this year which was,\r\nplay a lot of festival shows with Accept, a one time reunion\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: How did it feel being back on the road?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nIt was great, I tell you, I felt like a little kid again. It was\r\namazing, I really didn’t expect it to be that much fun. You see we’ve\r\nall been away from each other for the last, I don’t know, 8, 9 years,\r\nand we really didn’t see each other much. I had not seen Udo in like\r\nalmost 8 years, because we just sort of separated and went different\r\nways, and nobody really knew what to expect. How it would feel when we\r\nwould be for the first time back on stage, or back in the rehearsal\r\nroom for that matter and I tell you, the feeling was just amazing.\r\nAfter all these years it felt like I was back at home. It was great. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: How was the cooperation with Udo?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nIt was great. Behind the scenes there was some things where he wasn’t\r\ncooperating because of course everybody always want’ s to know, that’s\r\nthe thing to talk about all the time but. You know Udo has his own band\r\nand he has other interests of course, and he’s fighting that kind of\r\ninner dilemma for his own band, he’s been out there trying to make his\r\nown band successful and now he comes back and play with the Accept band\r\nand we did all these huge shows and it was really so much more\r\nsuccessful of course. This was the original you know. That was good,\r\nbut other than that, I mean on stage it went really well and he was\r\nreally professional. So I think we had a great success. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone:\r\nIt’s always difficult dealing with the comparison between UDO and\r\nAccept, and of course the ghost of Accept, hovers around the new band.
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nThat’s the same with anybody, who keeps doing exactly the same thing,\r\nyou know? If one guy leaves the band and you keep doing the exact same\r\nthing as the band is known for, then what do you expect? Pour shows are\r\ngoing to be compared to the original. Especially if you play the old\r\ntunes. Nothing but the old stuff on the shows. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone:\r\nDo you want to tell me if there has been a moment in the tour that\r\nsticks out clearly and that will stay with you? The best thing that\r\nhappened on tour.
\r\nWolf Hoffman: A\r\nfew moments stick out. The first day that we ever played back again was\r\nin Russia, first night that we were on stage was just amazing. And\r\noverall we really had such a good time that it’s kind of hard for me to\r\npick out one of those moments. It was really all great the whole stuff.\r\nBut τhen maybe the first show in Germany was also especially\r\noverwhelming. That was the first time that a lot of friends and family\r\nand people that we all grew up with they all came. It was sort of like\r\na homecoming for a very very cool night.\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: How about the show in Greece?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nVery great of course. Greece has always been great for us. We’ve been\r\nback here in the nineties and the audience were just fanatics. It was\r\namazing \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: In an overall we’d say it was a great tour
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nI am so exited about playing again that I don’t wanna stop it. I’ve\r\nkind of been away for all these years and I kind of settled in my\r\nprivate life and I’ve become a photographer and I really haven’t been\r\naround music very much the last eight years or so. Apart from doing\r\nsome studio recordings we haven’t done much. Myself, personally I can\r\ntell you that I am all fired up now. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Hunger for music can’t be vanished.
\r\nWolf Hoffman: Maybe you can suppress it for a little while, and I have and I tell you I got the bug again now.
\r\nIt gets in your blood somehow. Back in the nineties I was sort of\r\ndiscussed with the whole music business and I didn’t really want to\r\nhave anything to do with it anymore.\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: What made you feel that way.. I know it was a bad era for metal but what made you get sick of it?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nI can’t really say that it was anybody else’s fault. Something\r\nparticular. I can’t really put my finger on it. I was sort of over it.\r\nI was burnt out and I felt I had given it my all and things weren’t\r\ngoing in the right direction and generally speaking I wasn’t in to it\r\nanymore. So it thought it was best thing in everybody’s interest to\r\njust stop and do something else completely. Cause as an artist you have\r\nto be true to yourself, and be honest. If you’re not feeling it\r\nanymore, you should stop. The worst sin in my life is as an artist is\r\nif you do something that you don’t stand by just because you’re used to\r\nit, you know how it works, the same stuff you do all your life, that’s\r\nnot a life. If you turn it into a job, that you’re not enthusiastic\r\nabout anymore. that’s how I felt at the time. I see it so many times\r\naround me when people, artists, they don’t question themselves anymore,\r\nthey don’t challenge themselves anymore, they just keep doing what they\r\nalways done because they know it works and that’s not right to me.\r\nThat’s not how you make progress an honestly when we made those classic\r\nrecords, with Accept that’s exactly what we did. We challenged\r\nourselves, we were, like all fired up about what we did. That slowly\r\nover the years can fade away, and before you know it you just do what\r\nyou know people wanna hear from you and the same thing again and again\r\nand that’s wrong. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Do you feel that there can be bands as groundbreaking as you?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nYeah, I am sure there are. People are innovative still. There are bands\r\nout there all the time that I say they are great. Don’t ask me who they\r\nare cause I don’t really listen to that stuff anymore but I don’t see\r\nwhy it should really have changed that much. One thing is of course\r\ndifferent. The market is so flooded and it gets harder and harder for\r\nbands to actually become established before it’s all over again. We had\r\nan advantage twenty years ago when we got started that there weren’t\r\nmany bands out there. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Since you’re all fired up with the tour you’ve got many plans. Do you want to tell me about them?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nNow I don’t wanna stop anymore and all these things sort of come my\r\nway. One of my big passions in life has been classical music. And I\r\nalways dreamed about it and have done it in the past, to combine\r\nclassical music with metal guitar. I’ve done it on a few occasions on\r\nAccept songs by using some samples. Maybe a little solo part, but a few\r\nyears back, I made a full record with it, it’s called Classical, just a\r\nsolo project Wolf Hoffman, Classical, and it’s just a studio recording\r\nthat I did in my own studio as a labor of love, without really having\r\nany plans. but now, that’s what I want to bring on the road and the\r\norchestration behind it. That’s what I’ve been working on for the last\r\nfew months and hopefully some time late next year early 2007 I will get\r\nit out there on the road. It’s a long term project.\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Are you going to cooperate with any artists we know?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nIt’s early to say. I am currently talking to a lot of people about it\r\nand getting great response from everybody, but it’s way to early to\r\nknow. To me this is a project that’s way big for my shoulders and I am\r\ntotally aware that I have to get a few people involved and talk to\r\narrangers and conductors and it’s a big deal to me. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: How are you planning on performing this new project?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nAll I have at this point is some sort of a vision, there’s going to be\r\na lot of visual, it’s going to be a sort of a multimedia show. In a\r\ntypical classical show you don’t really have any light show you don’t\r\nhave a pa. This is what I want. I want the production values of regular\r\nmetal show and I want the beauty of the classical show and combine the\r\ntwo in a metal.\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Metal opera?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nYeap but only instrumental. There’s not going to be any singing on it.\r\nSo I don’t know there’s lots of things that need to be worked out and\r\nthat’s why it’s going to take a little while for all the things to be\r\nworked out. This is what I am scheming on. This is my big project for\r\nnext year and the year after. But there’s other plans too. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Like?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nLike, in the immediate future I am going to be a guest guitar player\r\nwith Sebastian Bach the guy from Skid Row gonna play a show with him at\r\nthe end of the month (November), here at the States and maybe do some\r\nmore shows after that, if it all goes well, we’ll see. Another plan we\r\nhave for next year is that I am going to go on the road as part of a\r\nGerman G3 tour, it’s not going to be called G3 but it’s sort of the\r\nsame thing\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: It’s not going to be recorded and released?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nNot sure if they’re going to record it. At this point we’re only\r\ntalking live shows, going to be with Michael Schenker and Uli Roth.\r\nThat would be an absolute honor if I could be a part of that tour. And\r\nI hope the hole tour is coming together really nicely and the interest\r\nhopefully is going to go off the grounds. It all looks that way, that\r\nshould be next spring around March, starting in March. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: 2006?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nYes, pretty soon rehearsals will have to start for that and we’re\r\nputting together a touring band . Part of the deal there is that we’re\r\nall trying to share the same band and that’s where it gets a little\r\ncomplicated. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Cause everybody has his own.
\r\nWolf Hoffman: Yeah of course everybody wants their own people and I am just pleased to be with those guys\r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: It’s their honor too having you on board,
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nThank you so much but Uli Roth, I was hugely influenced by him and\r\nMichael Schenker is also one of the best guitar players out there and\r\nit would be awesome if we could pull it off. I am really looking\r\nforward to it. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Where is the tour going to go?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nAll around Europe and hopefully America too. There’s interest from\r\neverywhere. We’re putting it together right now so I am not sure it’s\r\ngoing to be just Germany. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Are you coming to Greece too?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nYeah, I hope so. If we could make it down there I’d love to come. In\r\nother words you’re going to see more of me next year. I’ve really been\r\nhiding for so long but this is over now. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: All that change came from this tour?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nYes. I didn’t think it would be possible to do this reunion tour. And I\r\nwas very skeptic about it at first. I wanted to do it right away, as a\r\nmatter of fact we had planned it for the previous year 2004, and Udo\r\ndidn’t want to do it then. So I didn’t know what to expect to be able\r\nto do it one more time and discover that this is all over really. But\r\njust the opposite was true. I turned a full circle, and I am as exited\r\nas I was when I was starting out. \r\n
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\r\nMetalzone: Do you want to sent out a message to the metalzone fans?
\r\nWolf Hoffman:\r\nDear metal fans down there in Greece, I’d love to come back hopefully\r\nsometime soon and it was an honor to be there this year with Accept for\r\na final show and I hope to see you in the future. It’d be great. \r\n
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\r\nΕλÎνη "Blackie" Μιχαηλίδου
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