INTERVIEW: U.D.O. prepares for touchdown in the United States
Photo: U.D.O.’s new album is called Touchdown. Photo courtesy of Martin Häusler / Provided by Earsplit PR with permission.
Several years have passed since U.D.O., fronted by Udo Dirkschneider, has played the United States. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic got in the way of any hopeful plans, and there was also the need to sit down and record a new album. Well, that album has now been released under the name Touchdown, and Dirkschneider and company are planning to bring U.D.O. to North America in the next few weeks. Eager concertgoers, some of them longtime fans going back to the days of Dirkschneider’s tenure in Accept, can catch the metal group on the road starting in early November and extending into mid-December.
“I think we started composing already in April last year, and then, of course, it was still during the pandemic,” Dirkschneider said during a recent phone interview. “It was not so easy to work on everything, but then we had a lot of things in between.”
In addition to the pandemic, the studio that the guys were going to use for the recording of Touchdown was destroyed in a flood, and also, more importantly, Russia invaded Ukraine. U.D.O. guitarist Andrey Smirnov was living in Ukraine at the time of the invasion, so the band had to stop everything and ensure his safety.
“The most important thing was to get him out of there, and in the end, he made it,” Dirkschneider said. “Somehow he’s living in Germany. Let’s say it was not easy to work on this album, but in a way, I’m really happy with the result. What can I say, I’m more than happy with the new album.”
Joining Dirkschneider and Smirnov in U.D.O. are Fabian Dee Dammers on guitar, former Accept bassist Peter Baltes, and Dirkschneider’s son, Sven Dirkschneider, on drums. Together they came into the studio — after many delays — and produced a banging album of 13 anthemic metal songs, including the tunes “Isolation Man,” “The Flood” and “The Double Dealer’s Club.” There’s also a song called “Touchdown,” which ultimately the band used for the album’s title.
“For the first time I remember we didn’t have any plan what we wanted to call this album, what kind of title we want to give the album,” Dirkschneider said. “Then we were thinking, we’re at the airport at a sports bar, and American football was going on. Then always came the word, ‘Touchdown, touchdown,’ and then we say, ‘Yeah, touchdown. This is the right word for the album.’ OK, we are not huge American football fans, you know, but also touchdown means we have landed. I think we have landed with this album and make a touchdown with this album, so the whole marketing with the cover is like a football in metal. We were wearing American football dress, and they said, ‘OK, we can use that all.’ Also, on the other hand, American football now is getting more and more popular in Europe. It’s more and more on TV. I was watching that already two or three years ago. I like the sport, and it fits together with the music we’re doing. So that’s the story why we call this album Touchdown.”
As far as the set list for the North American tour, Dirkschneider predicts three or four new tunes coming from the Touchdown album. One of them might be “Isolation Man,” which is clearly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. “There’s a song talking about the pandemic,” he said. “You were sticking at home. You couldn’t go to restaurants. You couldn’t go to your family. We couldn’t meet friends, and this is a true story. You’re sitting around, and you feel like an isolation man.”
Dirkschneider’s vocals on the album are strong, in that unique manner that his longtime fans have come to know. He doesn’t complete vocal exercises or do anything different to keep that instrument of his strong. “In a way, I do nothing,” he said. “The only thing is 20 years ago I stopped smoking, but I think I’m really, really lucky with my voice. I’ve never had any problems, and cross my fingers.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
U.D.O.’s new album is called Touchdown. Udo Dirkschneider and his band will tour North America starting in early November. Click here for more information and tickets.
