Sven Dirkschneider, born on 8 December 1993 as the son of German metal legend Udo Dirkschneider in Dormagen near Cologne, began playing drums at the age of five. Fascinated by the musician's life, he joined his father's tours at an early age and experienced travelling, nightlining, concerts and instruments as integral parts of his life. In 2008, Sven founded his first group ".damaged", which started as a cover band, then wrote more and more of their own songs, played gigs in German clubs and produced an EP with the support of former Accept drummer Stefan Kaufmann. The highlights of the band's history, which only ended in 2015, included gigs in Germany and the Czech Republic as a support act for U.D.O., his father's band.
After finishing school in the summer of 2010, Sven began training as a media designer. At the same time, he used every free minute to accompany his father to concerts and help out as a drum technician. After passing the final exams of his vocational training, he first worked with the British NWOBHM legends Saxon in 2013, who had noticed the confident work of the young drum technician on international festival stages. After signing on as Saxon's drum tech, Sven made the decision to turn his temporary job into a full-time one. In 2013 and 2014 he toured Europe and Russia as a stage technician with U.D.O. and Saxon.
When Saxon had to cancel some shows in December 2014 due to health problems of their drummer Nigel Glockler and reschedule them for February 2015, frontman Biff Byford decided to hire Sven Dirkschneider as a replacement drummer. What Sven didn't know was that a few months earlier, during a Saxon gig in Berlin, where he was invited as a guest, father Udo had told his friend Biff Byford that U.D.O. were looking for a new drummer. To his surprise, the Saxon frontman recommended Udo's son Sven, whom Byford had observed night after night at the sound check and rated as absolutely suitable for U.D.O.. In February 2015, Sven was confirmed as the new U.D.O. drummer, and just four weeks later he went on a big tour with the band. Since then, Sven and Udo have formed what is probably the most successful father-son duo in the metal history of our century.