U.D.O. Out For World Domination

Udo Dirkschneider, the former lead vocalist of Accept, and present lead vocalist of the German heavy metal band U.D.O has just finished touring with their new album Dominator that was released earlier this year on August 21. Dominator is a named after a song of the same name, continuing with the character Mastercutor from their last album Mastercutor.

“The meaning of the lyrics (for Dominator) is people try to dominate other people in politics, in private life, in many things and in many ways and so the character from the last album was the Mastercutor is no longer the master but is now the dominator, for he dominates the whole album in a way.” Dirkschneider reveals.

We have discovered that when we writing songs, we write the lyrics first which seems to be very unique. For nearly 10 years we changed our writing process, We start with the lyrics and look for a good hook line and melodies with the vocals and then you put the music on. Like on the song The Bogeyman on our new album, You know what kind of music the lyrics needs. In this way, it’s much easier for us to write songs” says Dirkschneider.

Dirkschneider talks more about the album, about his days in Accept in our interview. Prepare for world domination.

Congratulations on Dominator. It’s your 12th UDO album. All of them are very consistent and you know you’re listening to an U.D.O. album, but is there anything you might be doing differently in the studio now that you might not have on the first one?

Why did you decide to call the album Dominator?

I think I’ve read on several occasions that you write the lyrics to your songs first. Is that the usual process for you and why do you do it that way?

So the topics of the songs are really important to you then?

Are there any topics that you’ve wanted to write about, but you have trouble getting the right words together?

To me U.D.O. is in many ways a continuation of Accept. Was that always your plan?

Is that history with Accept important to you?

Accept was doing really well and then it disappeared. What happened?

Accept went out with KISS and Motley Crue in North America. Dan from RockStar Weekly was at those shows. Those were big tours at the time. Was that a great experience?

What are the main differences between Accept and U.D.O.?

You seem to be a happy man with U.D.O. Is being at the helm of your own band a better way to be?

With U.D.O. you’ve been able to use keyboards and you also did a duet with Doro. Those things might have been out of place on an Accept album, but with U.D.O., the fans have been very welcoming to new ideas. Why do you think that is?

Balls To The Wall was such a worldwide success that it will probably be associated with you for a long time. Is there a song that you’ve written that you wish was U.D.O.’s defining song?

What’s you favourite song on the Dominator album? Why?

Out of all the U.D.O. songs, and someone was listening to your music for the first time, What song would you choose for them to listen to?

Is there anyone or band in particular that inspires you to play the music the way you do?