Mark Tornillo - Accept
When I was younger, the loudest band I knew was Accept. The first time they came blaring out of my TV with the video for Balls To The Wall I was stunned that something so forceful and so angry sounding would be on MTV. Many years later with different formations of the band we finally have the definitive Accept record and lineup. Blood Of The Nations is a a massive middle finder for the metal community and a testament to how metal survives. Mark Tornillo, the singer with those sickening pipes, took the time to discuss the new record and what it means to the fans to have them back.
An interview with Mark Tornillo of Accept.
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: You have remade your name with Accept but you had years invested with TT Quick. What have you done in the last decade since the last TT Quick record?
Mark Tornillo: I have not been involved in many music projects since then, I just left the business. I have been working as a Union Electrician for the last 10 years as well as working in construction. It was a complete surprise to me when the phone rang with the Accept offer.
Metal Exiles: What attracted Accept to your vocal style?
Mark: It was just a chance thing as they were doing some work in New Jersey where I live. Peter Baltes was in the studio with his son and Wolf Hoffman had come up to visit. They were tossing some ideas around and the engineer that owns the studio told them that should have Mark Tornillo come in and sing the stuff because you are going to need a singer. They asked who I was which he told them and that rung a bell because TT Quick and Accept worked with the same producers back then. I came in and we had a great jam session and I thought that was it. About a week later Peter called me and asked if I would be interested in a record and a tour and of course I said I could do that.
Metal Exiles: You made a comment about not wanting to fill Udo’s shoes and after listening to the record, I believe that you have kicked his out of the limelight. Did people actually think you should sound like Udo?
Mark: I have been compared to him obviously before this and some other singers as well but I try to do my own thing. At this point obviously I am going to try to make them sound as much as the originals as possible because the fans deserve that but when it comes time for the new songs I have to be my own guy.
Metal Exiles: One of the big surprises I guess for Accept is how quick the music industry snapped to attention when you guys announced that you were going to do a new record. Were you surprised at how quickly the industry thought the band was still viable?
Mark: It just blew us all away; we did not expect it to happen like this. We are all very grateful and it is turning out to be a hell of a ride.
Metal Exiles: Japan’s Universal was the last to come on board and it is a major label. Accept was extremely popular back then in Japan so has it translated to you now?
Mark: We just flew back from Japan and it was amazing at how many fans there are for us in Japan still. We just played the Loud Park Festival with many other bands and the response that we got was phenomenal and from many young fans as well. They all knew the new record, singing along to all of the new songs. It is really snowballing right now.
Metal Exiles: Are you surprised that you have moved so many units of the new record considering the downturn in record sales?
Mark: By All means we are. The record industry is very different than when we were all making records in the 80’s and it is hard to say what good sales are and any sales are good at this point. It surprised us that it debuted at #12 on Billboard in Europe, nobody was ready for that.
Metal Exiles: That being said this record was the highest debut for Accept in their home country of Germany. They know you are from Jersey, right?
Mark: (laughter) I am sure they do. Balls To The Wall did not debut that high so that was pretty wild. We wrote a metal album the way we used to do it, a classic Accept album and not try to follow what is happening now, the screamo and everything else and the fans are responding.
Metal Exiles: With the new album of course you have to have the classic cover and for this is a peace sign covered in blood. What was the significance of that?
Mark: The title song, Blood Of The Nations, is dedicated to the men and women of the service in the allied nations because without them we could not do what we do. They are out sacrificing their time and their lives to keep us all free. What this symbolizes to me is there no peace without war but we are not condoning war but we will support our troops. All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. We can all sit around and do nothing but you will not be free for long.
Metal Exile: I know the guys in Accept are great songwriters so what did you bring when you came on board?
Mark: When I first came in I had no idea how we would work but it turned out to be a total collaboration among Wolf, Peter and I. Peter only lives about 40 minutes so we got together and wrote a lot and Wolf came up from Nashville quite a bit as well. I wrote about 90% of the lyrics as well as using some of their ideas. I had a lot more input than I thought I would have let’s put it that way. I did not know how it was going to play out but they are a great bunch of guys to work with.
Metal Exiles: Where were you pulling some of your ideas from?
Mark: Just from current events. This was never one of those “oooh baby” bands, writing about chicks and stupid shit. There were always political views so I went back and listened to a lot of the old records, well I had to anyway to learn the old songs, so I got some great direction from what they used to write about. We went after Wall Street, War, many different areas to cover.
Metal Exiles: Tell me about Pandemic.
Mark: That was one of the first ideas that Peter and Wolf wrote. Peter wrote the chorus and he had the idea, which was Pandemic and it’s a metal disease.
Metal Exiles: One of the other top tracks is Rolling Thunder.
Mark: Wolf and I wrote that together and it is really about the bike runs that go past my house. When there are about two or three hundred motorcycles going past your house you can hear it, it sounds like thunder.
Metal Exiles: Now there is a melodic difference in the material, it is not just wall to wall bombast. There is a difference between Teutonic Terror and Kill The Pain. Did you guys feel that it was needed to mix the material up so there was a noticed difference?
Mark: We did not have a direction for where we were going. We had a shitload of songs, almost 40 and we narrowed it down to 14. Kill The pain was an idea that Wolf had and I think it was something that he was going to put on one of his classical albums. He played the idea and it was going to go on his record as an instrumental and Gaby (Hauke) decided that she wanted to do a ballad and that song would work. It just sounded so sorrowful; the melody is just gut wrenching. I wrote the lyrics about a friend of ours that was murdered by a serial killer in 2007 and it really tore us up, you can hear it in the lyrics.
Metal Exiles: Kill The Pain should be the next radio single, great song. It really broke up the tempo of the album.
Mark: It changed the pitch of the record.
Metal Exiles: You have been in metal for years now so how do you keep your vocals in the shape they are in?
Mark: I have no idea. I take a whole new approach to it now than I did back in the day. Your throat is a muscle and just like any other muscle you have to know how to work it. I have had some training from a vocal coach and I exercise it as well. When TT Quick started back in the day we were a cover band and we do three long sets a night so I was used to it but I am older now so I have to approach it differently.
Metal Exiles: Well, the album is out now so what is your overall opinion of it looking back on it.
Mark: I love it. I think we did what we set out to do and I am happy as hell that is being received as well as it is. I think it fits in with their whole catalog; it is a true Accept album.
Metal Exiles: I know that European fans are stalwart about their metal so how were you received when you guys did your first tour?
Mark: The first show was in New York and I knew what to expect. Three days later we ended up in Lithuania then to St Petersburg and to Moscow down to Scandinavia into Germany and I had no idea what I was getting into. I did not know if I had to go out there with a shield or what. All of the people online were saying “there is no fucking way they can do this” until they saw us and then it was a whole different ballgame. An audience has never disrespected me, they have embraced me from the beginning, even in Europe. They are just happy to see the band, they do not give a shit who is in it.
Metal Exiles: Well, I remember Eat the Heat not getting a good reception.
Mark: Well, that was a different time and they tried to take it in a different direction then. The music scene was changing and their direction just did not work for them as well as they wanted it to. We are not trying to move anywhere now, we are just trying to be what Accept was in the early 80’s, just a fucking metal band.
Metal Exiles: Are we going to see more Accept records in the future or is this a one off?
Mark: We have every intention of making more records as we have signed a long term deal with Nuclear Blast. The way things are looking now we are taking some time off and in the first week of January we are heading back to Europe to start our world tour and hopefully by the end of 2011 we will be back in the studio to start our next record.
Accept are back with their best record in years with Blood Of The Nations. The affect it leaves on the listener is devastating at the least and it must be experienced by every metal fan.
OFFICIAL ACCEPT SITE!
BUY BLOOD OF THE NATIONS!!
An interview with Mark Tornillo of Accept.
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: You have remade your name with Accept but you had years invested with TT Quick. What have you done in the last decade since the last TT Quick record?
Mark Tornillo: I have not been involved in many music projects since then, I just left the business. I have been working as a Union Electrician for the last 10 years as well as working in construction. It was a complete surprise to me when the phone rang with the Accept offer.
Metal Exiles: What attracted Accept to your vocal style?
Mark: It was just a chance thing as they were doing some work in New Jersey where I live. Peter Baltes was in the studio with his son and Wolf Hoffman had come up to visit. They were tossing some ideas around and the engineer that owns the studio told them that should have Mark Tornillo come in and sing the stuff because you are going to need a singer. They asked who I was which he told them and that rung a bell because TT Quick and Accept worked with the same producers back then. I came in and we had a great jam session and I thought that was it. About a week later Peter called me and asked if I would be interested in a record and a tour and of course I said I could do that.
Metal Exiles: You made a comment about not wanting to fill Udo’s shoes and after listening to the record, I believe that you have kicked his out of the limelight. Did people actually think you should sound like Udo?
Mark: I have been compared to him obviously before this and some other singers as well but I try to do my own thing. At this point obviously I am going to try to make them sound as much as the originals as possible because the fans deserve that but when it comes time for the new songs I have to be my own guy.
Metal Exiles: One of the big surprises I guess for Accept is how quick the music industry snapped to attention when you guys announced that you were going to do a new record. Were you surprised at how quickly the industry thought the band was still viable?
Mark: It just blew us all away; we did not expect it to happen like this. We are all very grateful and it is turning out to be a hell of a ride.
Metal Exiles: Japan’s Universal was the last to come on board and it is a major label. Accept was extremely popular back then in Japan so has it translated to you now?
Mark: We just flew back from Japan and it was amazing at how many fans there are for us in Japan still. We just played the Loud Park Festival with many other bands and the response that we got was phenomenal and from many young fans as well. They all knew the new record, singing along to all of the new songs. It is really snowballing right now.
Metal Exiles: Are you surprised that you have moved so many units of the new record considering the downturn in record sales?
Mark: By All means we are. The record industry is very different than when we were all making records in the 80’s and it is hard to say what good sales are and any sales are good at this point. It surprised us that it debuted at #12 on Billboard in Europe, nobody was ready for that.
Metal Exiles: That being said this record was the highest debut for Accept in their home country of Germany. They know you are from Jersey, right?
Mark: (laughter) I am sure they do. Balls To The Wall did not debut that high so that was pretty wild. We wrote a metal album the way we used to do it, a classic Accept album and not try to follow what is happening now, the screamo and everything else and the fans are responding.
Metal Exiles: With the new album of course you have to have the classic cover and for this is a peace sign covered in blood. What was the significance of that?
Mark: The title song, Blood Of The Nations, is dedicated to the men and women of the service in the allied nations because without them we could not do what we do. They are out sacrificing their time and their lives to keep us all free. What this symbolizes to me is there no peace without war but we are not condoning war but we will support our troops. All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing. We can all sit around and do nothing but you will not be free for long.
Metal Exile: I know the guys in Accept are great songwriters so what did you bring when you came on board?
Mark: When I first came in I had no idea how we would work but it turned out to be a total collaboration among Wolf, Peter and I. Peter only lives about 40 minutes so we got together and wrote a lot and Wolf came up from Nashville quite a bit as well. I wrote about 90% of the lyrics as well as using some of their ideas. I had a lot more input than I thought I would have let’s put it that way. I did not know how it was going to play out but they are a great bunch of guys to work with.
Metal Exiles: Where were you pulling some of your ideas from?
Mark: Just from current events. This was never one of those “oooh baby” bands, writing about chicks and stupid shit. There were always political views so I went back and listened to a lot of the old records, well I had to anyway to learn the old songs, so I got some great direction from what they used to write about. We went after Wall Street, War, many different areas to cover.
Metal Exiles: Tell me about Pandemic.
Mark: That was one of the first ideas that Peter and Wolf wrote. Peter wrote the chorus and he had the idea, which was Pandemic and it’s a metal disease.
Metal Exiles: One of the other top tracks is Rolling Thunder.
Mark: Wolf and I wrote that together and it is really about the bike runs that go past my house. When there are about two or three hundred motorcycles going past your house you can hear it, it sounds like thunder.
Metal Exiles: Now there is a melodic difference in the material, it is not just wall to wall bombast. There is a difference between Teutonic Terror and Kill The Pain. Did you guys feel that it was needed to mix the material up so there was a noticed difference?
Mark: We did not have a direction for where we were going. We had a shitload of songs, almost 40 and we narrowed it down to 14. Kill The pain was an idea that Wolf had and I think it was something that he was going to put on one of his classical albums. He played the idea and it was going to go on his record as an instrumental and Gaby (Hauke) decided that she wanted to do a ballad and that song would work. It just sounded so sorrowful; the melody is just gut wrenching. I wrote the lyrics about a friend of ours that was murdered by a serial killer in 2007 and it really tore us up, you can hear it in the lyrics.
Metal Exiles: Kill The Pain should be the next radio single, great song. It really broke up the tempo of the album.
Mark: It changed the pitch of the record.
Metal Exiles: You have been in metal for years now so how do you keep your vocals in the shape they are in?
Mark: I have no idea. I take a whole new approach to it now than I did back in the day. Your throat is a muscle and just like any other muscle you have to know how to work it. I have had some training from a vocal coach and I exercise it as well. When TT Quick started back in the day we were a cover band and we do three long sets a night so I was used to it but I am older now so I have to approach it differently.
Metal Exiles: Well, the album is out now so what is your overall opinion of it looking back on it.
Mark: I love it. I think we did what we set out to do and I am happy as hell that is being received as well as it is. I think it fits in with their whole catalog; it is a true Accept album.
Metal Exiles: I know that European fans are stalwart about their metal so how were you received when you guys did your first tour?
Mark: The first show was in New York and I knew what to expect. Three days later we ended up in Lithuania then to St Petersburg and to Moscow down to Scandinavia into Germany and I had no idea what I was getting into. I did not know if I had to go out there with a shield or what. All of the people online were saying “there is no fucking way they can do this” until they saw us and then it was a whole different ballgame. An audience has never disrespected me, they have embraced me from the beginning, even in Europe. They are just happy to see the band, they do not give a shit who is in it.
Metal Exiles: Well, I remember Eat the Heat not getting a good reception.
Mark: Well, that was a different time and they tried to take it in a different direction then. The music scene was changing and their direction just did not work for them as well as they wanted it to. We are not trying to move anywhere now, we are just trying to be what Accept was in the early 80’s, just a fucking metal band.
Metal Exiles: Are we going to see more Accept records in the future or is this a one off?
Mark: We have every intention of making more records as we have signed a long term deal with Nuclear Blast. The way things are looking now we are taking some time off and in the first week of January we are heading back to Europe to start our world tour and hopefully by the end of 2011 we will be back in the studio to start our next record.
Accept are back with their best record in years with Blood Of The Nations. The affect it leaves on the listener is devastating at the least and it must be experienced by every metal fan.
OFFICIAL ACCEPT SITE!
BUY BLOOD OF THE NATIONS!!
