During a May 19 press conference for U.D.O.‘s upcoming album, “Touchdown”, in Hamburg, Germany, former ACCEPT and current U.D.O. frontman Udo Dirkschneider spoke about the evolution of his singing voice. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “For me, the most important thing is that you are open-minded with music — not [have the attitude of], ‘This is what I did for 40 years. I don’t wanna change anything.’ For me, [it’s important] to be really open-minded. I always was open-minded. I mean, I was working with so many musicians. It was out of my control. We had a lot of changes. And I always [had the attitude of], ‘Yeah.’ I’m interested for me, myself, to see how far I can go with my vocals, with my voice.
“It’s a different thing, but when I did this cover album [2022’s ‘My Way’, released under the Udo Dirkschneider banner], I was making like a spectrum… For me, it was, like, ‘Yeah, I can do that,'” he explained. “It was helping me also to see, ‘Oh, can I cover this like this?’ The range — this is also very interesting — my range got wider. I mean, I didn’t expect this. It’s like an old wine; the taste is getting much better.
“With my voice now, I can do so many different stuff,” Udo added. “This is also a miracle for me, for myself. 20 or 25 years ago, to sing some songs, it was, like, ‘What?’ [Laughs] But now it’s easy for me to do some also different stuff. And yeah, it’s good to see. That means, for me, I see we can do a lot of different stuff also in the future.”
“Touchdown” will be released on August 25 through Atomic Fire Records. The 13-track LP was recorded at various locations with producer Martin “Mattes” Pfeiffer and was mixed at Redhead Studio (Wilhelmshaven, Germany) while the mastering was handled by Stefan Kaufmann at ROXX Studio (Solingen, Germany),The record also includes a guest appearance by violinist Stefan Pintev on the closing track, and bass tracks were recorded by former ACCEPT bassist Peter Baltes. Artwork was provided by Martin Häusler who was also responsible for shooting band photos in support of the new album campaign.
In April, Baltes officially joined U.D.O. and DIRKSCHNEIDER, the two bands fronted by Udo Dirkschneider. The former ACCEPT bassist had been playing bass for U.D.O. since last September, initially as a temporary replacement for U.D.O.‘s then-bassist Tilen Hudrap who was hospitalized after the band’s show in Munich, Germany.
DIRKSCHNEIDER is the name of Udo‘s band which performs ACCEPT material exclusively.
Although Udo announced eight years ago that his initial DIRKSCHNEIDER tour would mark his final time performing ACCEPT songs, he has continued to play select shows under the DIRKSCHNEIDER banner.