ACCEPT - The Discovery Of Mark TornilloBy Mitch Lafon
The story of
ACCEPT from 2009 to 2011 is very simple. In 2009, nobody cared about Accept. In 2010, the band released their new album, Blood Of The Nations with new singer
Mark Tornillo. The record set
the rock world on fire, accolades rained down on the band from critics and fans. In 2011, everybody wants to know ‘what’s next’ for
Accept. BraveWords.com sat down with the new voice of Accept, Mark Tornillo (ex-TT QUICK), to find out more.
BraveWords.com: Your road to Accept started with a chance meeting with Wolf (Hoffman; guitar). What exactly happened?
Mark Tornillo: “Peter (Baltes – bassist) was working in his studio in New
Jersey producing his son’s album. Wolf had gone to the studio to visit and they started jamming. My buddy, who is a drummer, was there and they started playing with them. The engineer around the studio brought my name up and said ‘call Mark up. He’ll come down and scream some of this stuff at you.’ They were just tossing around ideas and Peter gave me a call and asked me to come down and jam with them. Nobody said anything about ‘let’s put a band together.’ As far as I knew, it was basically to go down there and fart around. I was really sick with bronchitis, but I figured ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ So, I went and the rest is history I guess. The product of that jam session got released on the Internet almost instantaneously. It was us live in the studio. Then I got a phone call and was asked “what do you think about recording a new album with us and touring?’ Once I said ‘yes,’ we went balls out.”
BraveWords.com: When you get into a brand like Accept that has a hardcore fan base – does it make you a little reluctant to join?
Tornillo: "Oh, yeah. This was not an overnight decision. First, I had to get it passed the wife. We’re set in our family ways. It’s not something you take lightly because it really disrupts your whole world, but she said ‘go do it because if you don’t there will be no living with you.’ She had a point because I’d be kicking myself in the ass…”
BraveWords.com: When you get to the studio to record the album. Are you trying to sound like Udo or are you there to put your stamp on it?
Tornillo: "No, not really. Andy Sneap was in charge of what was going on in the studio and that never became an issue. I think I got the job originally because my voice is reminiscent of his and they knew I’d be able to sing the back catalogue. At the end of the day – that’s the deal. You have to be able deliver the goods on the back catalogue. That’s what the hardcore fans want to hear.”
BraveWords.com: That’s what you’d think, but Blood Of The Nations is such a great album that I think more people want to hear the new stuff.
Tornillo: "You may be right because that seems to be what’s happening. Everywhere we’ve gone, in Europe especially, the amount of people that are familiar with the new record is just phenomenal. It’s over-whelming and kids… lots and lots of kids at our shows. Which I thought would never happen. Don’t get me wrong the shows run the age gamut. There’s people in their 60’s all the way down to teenagers, but the kids are definitely there and they know the damn songs. They know all the new songs and the old songs. Go figure.”
BraveWords.com: The album was a success. The tour was a success. The band seems happy, but now comes the hard work – album number two. When do you get to work on that?
Tornillo: "All of us are writing already.”
BraveWords.com: Did you write on the first album?
Tornillo: "Oh yeah, but that was something that remained to be seen. I had no idea how the writing process was going to go down. Was I going to be included? I don’t know. But I was right off the bat.”
BraveWords.com: Did you get a sense right away that you were part of a band effort and not just a hired gun?
Tornillo: "I never really got the sensation that I was just a hired gun, but the relationship definitely evolved especially throughout the writing. Peter and I live pretty close to each other. I’d be going back and forth to his house a few times a week when we first started. We worked on stuff that he and Wolf had tossed around…”
BraveWords.com: So, it wasn’t a case of them sitting your in the corner of the studio and handing you lyrics and saying ‘ok, sing this’.
Tornillo: "Not at all. Once they saw I was capable of doing the job it was a no-brainer.”
BraveWords.com: What’s the plan for a second album?
Tornillo: "We’re throwing ideas back and forth, but we got some stuff left over from Blood Of The Nations. We wrote thirty to forty songs for that album. We have things that are unfinished business and we’ll see which ones we can use, but we’ve all got new ideas and the creative juices are flowing.”