U.D.O. – The Tank Drives On (August 2018) | Features / Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine

U.D.O. – The Tank Drives On
Anthony Morgan
August 2018

U.D.O. (l-r): Sven Dirkschneider, Udo Dirkschneider, Andrey Smirnov and Fitty Wienhold

Writing sessions for August 2018 full-length Steelfactory – 16th studio album from German metal outfit U.D.O. – began in March 2017 during touring commitments for the Dirkschneider project, during U.D.O. rehearsal sessions, and during studio sessions. Ideas were jammed, with roughly 24 “good” ideas being authored for the platter. All the ideas in question which were jammed were fresh in nature.

“If we get the feeling that an idea just doesn’t really work, we stop with it,” explains Udo Dirkschneider, the namesake vocalist of U.D.O. “It’s like ‘Okay, bye bye,’ and also, we never use older stuff. Always when a new album comes up, we start with new stuff. If you put something aside when you are in the process of a new album, then there’s something wrong with it. We always come up with new stuff.

“The band come up with the music, in general. Sometimes I have an idea about a riff or whatever, but most of the time they come up with the music. I come up with the vocal lines; how my vocal ideas work, sometimes also I have ideas about the melody and will sing them in my microphone (laughs). Then I don’t forget the melody. In the end, everything comes together and fits together, but sometimes I come up with ideas about the music.

“We had 15 songs, and continued to work on all of that in-between the Dirkschneider tours. Jacob Hansen, the producer, also helped. When we had all of the ideas together, he said ‘Okay. These are the songs.’ Then he stepped in, and worked with us. He gave us advice, like about arranging and all of that stuff. And, there you go. There’s Steelfactory. I’m very happy with the album, and then in the end, we had 15 songs on the limited edition version.”

In authoring record, no specific past ventures are used as measuring sticks. “I never sit down and say that we have to do an album like say Faceless World (February 1990) or Man And Machine (July 2002) and Thunderball (March 2004), or something like that,” the singer divulges. “We always rehearse songs, and I never know what’s coming up. One album might be harder, the other one might have more melodies, and sometimes we use keyboards, so I never know what’s coming up. This time though, it’s timeless, and I think that we have a good mix. It has everything on it; it has a lot of melodies, big choirs, a lot of harmony solos. For me, it’s a timeless album. Going in this direction, like I said, there’s a lot of different stuff on this, like ballads, double-bass stuff, and so on. I think for me, it’s a good mix, and that’s the way I wanted this album to be. Everything sounds good, and I’m fine with everything.”

Touring under the Dirkschneider banner, where Udo solely performs tracks he cut during his time with Accept, has proved to be an inevitable influence on Steelfactory. “If you play only Accept songs for nearly three years and nearly 300 shows, you’re in that mood, and of course there will be some influence,” he acknowledges.

Albeit 16 full-lengths deep into a discography, penning musical ideas for U.D.O. isn’t a difficult task. “I would say that I’m lucky or whatever you want to call it, but we’ve never run out of ideas,” the frontman observes. “Also, as musicians we’re always coming up with new stuff, and that’s a good thing. On this album, there was a lot of team work. It wasn’t like what I did with Steelhammer (May 2013) or Decadent (January 2015), where I was only working with Stefan Kaufmann on Steelhammer, and then Decadent was written by only Fitty Wienhold and me. This time, everybody was involved in it. I think that was more creative, and a better way to do the album.”

Steelfactory ventures into a range of lyrical territories. “There’s different topics on every song, but let’s take ‘One Heart, One Soul’,” Udo cites. “For example, that’s about how we don’t need any borders. We’re living in one world; we’re all living together, and there are becoming more and more people on this planet. We can live wherever we want, and that’s the meaning. A lot of songs on this album, like let’s say ‘Make The Move’ and ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ are a little autobiographical, and then ‘Tongue Reaper’ is a little political if you will – about some of the presidents around at this time. In a way, that’s the whole meaning. There are a lot of different lyrics on there, about my career.”

Despite treading into political fare and the like, the mainman generally attempts to be positive in nature. “I always try to be positive, but if you talk a little bit about politics…,” he begins. “It’s not that you want to be a teacher, but you can tell about what’s going on in the world. If the people get it, it’s okay, but if they don’t get it then that’s also okay. I don’t want to be like ‘You have to do this, this, and this.’ It’s up to everybody what they want to do. If they want to go deeper, it’s okay, but if they don’t, then that’s also okay.”

Steelfactory was recorded with Jacob Hansen. “He already worked with us on Steelhammer, Decadent and Navy Metal Night (July 2015),” Udo lists. “Not as a producer, but he was doing the mastering. He would always say ‘I want to produce an U.D.O. album.’ The thing is, when he was listening to all of the songs that he heard, he said ‘Yeah, this is classic metal, and we’ll keep it like that.’ He wants to keep it classic metal, like we’ve always done with U.D.O., and also a little bit of what I did with Accept. He put a modern sound on it, and I think it worked out – he did a great job sound-wise.

“He’s also a guitar player; I think he was really helpful, also for Andrey (Smirnov) with the guitars, and with arranging stuff. The vocals, I did more on my own. I recorded my vocals with Stefan Kaufmann, but he wasn’t a producer. He was just recording my vocals, and then I did some stuff in Denmark in the studio. All of the guitar work was done in Denmark, in the studio. He was also involved with the bass and drum stuff. I think he did a great job, and also arranging, yes. Yeah, he was really, really helpful. He’s a really nice guy. We’ll see; maybe with the next album, I can see us using him again.”

The cutting of vocals was largely a solitary affair for the composer. “Jacob was also involved a little bit in the arranging of the vocals, but this time, I was sending the demo stuff of the vocals,” he shares. “He said ‘Okay, perfect.’ I also produced the last two U.D.O. albums, and so I think it was easy-going for me to record my own vocals. Okay, Stefan Kaufmann sat there and recorded the whole thing and he took care of that, but I knew to sing the right notes. He wasn’t coming up with any suggestions on how to sing.

“I don’t know. It’s a little crazy. I know a lot of vocalists who have problems, but for me, I can do more now in the lower range. I feel like I can do a lot of things in the higher range, as well. My whole range is growing wider. I don’t know. My voice is working really well. For example, there’s ‘The Way’, which is the ballad. Ten years ago, I couldn’t have sung a song like that. The range wasn’t there. The more and more I’m getting older, it’s becoming more and more deeper, and it’s getting better and better. Don’t ask me why (laughs). On every album, I think the singing shows I can do a lot of different stuff. I’m really looking forward to the next album, so we will see what else I can do. It’s interesting, with my vocals.”

Steelfactory’s title was inspired by a specific reference to Udo. “They always call me the German tank, and then the music is like steel,” he reckons. “Therefore, instead of having a song as the album title, we have something on top. We were talking and talking about it, and then in the end, the idea was born to call the album Steelfactory. In a way, we produce music with steel, if you like.

“We had an artwork idea for the Steelfactory title as well, of course. We found a guy in Argentina (Diego Verhagen), and he came up with the idea. For us, it fit with the title.”

A music video was filmed for the track ‘One Heart, One Soul’. “We had help from my girlfriend and a video company in St. Petersburg,” the lyricist discloses. “She’s working in the movie business; she came up with the whole idea, the whole story of it. It worked perfectly, and it looks like everybody likes the video. We did it in St. Petersburg, and yeah, everything worked. If you watch the video, I think the video shows the meaning of the lyrics, and explains them; that it doesn’t matter what religion you follow, or whether you’re black, white or yellow – however you put it.”

‘One Heart, One Soul’ is a traditional offering from the U.D.O. camp. “It’s a classic metal song, an easy-going song,” Udo describes. “You can sing along, and there’s a big choir in there. What can I tell you about the music? I think it’s a classic metal song.”

Udo Dirkschneider

Between the respective issues of predecessor Decadent and Steelfactory, a number of line-up changes have taken place. “Both of the guitar players, Kasperi Heikkinen from Finland and also Bill Hudson, they were not team players,” the performer submits. “I’m not a solo artist; we work in the band as a team. They were definitely not team players, and that’s the reason why they are not in the band any more. Andrey did all of the guitars on this album. At the moment, we’re looking for a new guitar player. I think in two or three weeks, I can announce a new guitar player. He’ll be from Germany, and very young.”

Whether the pair left of their own volition or were fired is a source of contention. “I don’t want to use the word ‘fired’,” Udo replies. “I said ‘Okay, this is not working.’ In a way, if you want to call it fired, then you can say they were fired, but there was a normal talk where I said ‘How you are working isn’t possible for us.’ Then we had to say goodbye to each other.”

Such comments will cause readers to wonder how Kasperi Heikkinen and Bill Hudson ‘were not team players’. “There was too much ego,” the vocalist elaborates. “They were not willing to work on songs together, let’s say. For example, Kasperi, he came up with an idea, and we said ‘Okay, maybe we can do it like this and this.’ Then he said ‘Nobody changes my songs or ideas, thank you very much,’ and that was it (laughs). With Bill Hudson for example, he wasn’t really interested in composing anything and wasn’t really interested in playing on the album. He was working on something. Yeah, I don’t know, and he never really became a member of the band. He was always away, and doing some different stuff. Sometimes there was the feeling that he was doing the Bill Hudson show, and not a Dirkschneider show. It isn’t possible for us to work with people like this.”

Also having left since the release of Decadent is drummer Francesco Jovino, whose exit was confirmed in late December 2014 – shortly prior to that album’s emergence. “He told us he wanted to be more with his family, blah blah,” Udo recalls. “I think that was a lie, because now he’s the drummer in Primal Fear. I don’t know (laughs). He said he wanted to do more with his own studio, and like a drum school, and be more with his family. Then after a while, I saw that he was the drummer in Primal Fear. We don’t have a bad relationship, though. Sometimes when I see Primal Fear and I see him, I say ’Hello. How’s it going?’ I don’t know, though. Don’t ask me.”

Stepping behind the drumkit nowadays is Sven Dirkschneider, the singer’s son. “My son has now been in the band for two years, and this was his first album,” he tells. “He took two weeks to record, and did a great job. When I was looking for a new drummer, I never thought that he could be the drummer in U.D.O.. Saxon were playing in Berlin though, and my son replaced the drummer (Nigel Glockner) because he was ill. I asked Biff (Byford, vocals) ‘Do you know for a drummer for U.D.O.?’ He said ‘Yeah, your son.’ I asked him ‘Do you think you can do that?’ I think he thought about it for nearly a month, and then he said ‘Okay, I will do this.’ So, there you go. He’s getting better and better, and I think that on the new album, he did a great job.”

Udo views the father and son dynamic to be different, as far as it relates U.D.O. “I would say that it’s more of a friendship than being father and son,” he muses. “He’s a member of the band and everything. Of course, he’s young. He’s 24 years old, and of course he does more partying than his father, but I think he knows how far he can go and everything is looking well. He gets nothing extra, let’s say that. He’s just a member of the band, and everything works. We have a really good relationship with the other musicians, and everything’s fine.”

Steelfactory was released on August 31st, 2018 via AFM Records.

Interview published in August 2018. All promotional photographs by Aleksander Grigorev.

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