Obituary

I recently caught up with Obituary's John Tardy to see what the guys have in store for 2011. The band have carved out a rigorous work ethic on the touring and recording fronts since their comeback with 2005's Frozen In Time album. John was kind enough to talk about everything from illegal downloading to Frank's recent departure.

Ghostie: What have Obituary got in store for us in 2011 on the touring and recording fronts? Can we expect a new album this year, and if so can you tell us anything about musical direction and how the album's taking shape in general?

John Tardy: We are actually supposed to be writing right now, but decided to head back to Europe to play more shows.  We have started writing but are just not in a hurry.  We will probably be done with the new album this year, but not likely to be release until sometime next year. Not sure. We really do not have enough done to comment on which direction it is going and we do not really try for anything in particular...just seems to come out as we go...

Ghostie: How does recording an album differ for you guys these days, compared to when you were doing the first few records? I’d imagine around the time of “The End Complete” and “World Demise” as you became more popular there was some label pressure, was this the case?

John Tardy: Never any label pressure! We always just do what we want to do.  But, recording has changed a lot of us.  We now record all our music ourselves in our own studio.  It is so awesome and I am not sure how we would do it without that option!

Ghostie :Speaking of World Demise, that really was a very different record for Obituary. Now, the purists will say their favourite albums are Slowly and Cause, but World Demise is my personal favourite. Could you ever see Obituary experimenting like that again and what are your personal thoughts on that album?

John Tardy: Not really sure.  Like I said, we really never go into any album think to much about it.  We have more of a caveman approach and just go it.  Although I will agree that World Demise is a great album.

Ghostie :There was a big gap between Back from the Dead to Frozen in time, were you involved in making music in the intervening years in any capacity? What made you guys decide to come back in 2005? 

John Tardy: That started off as a planned break but just wound up last much longer.  We just had nothing coming our way, a label that did nothing and we all just got busy doing other things.  It was always just a matter of time before we got things going again.

Ghostie: If I could ask you your honest opinion on something John, piracy has always been a problem, but when you released Frozen In Time in 2005 the amount of (illegal) downloading must have come to you as a bit of a shock? What’s your stance on illegal downloading of music? Some bands have gone on record to say that they don’t mind as long as people are listening to their music, but I’m sure that doesn’t pay the bills!  There are a generation of bands now that are happy to throw their material up for download for free, do you think this is a positive move or do you think it’s only fuelling the problem? 

John Tardy: It really has changed a lot for us. Bands just do not sell records anymore which means they have to do a lot more touring and try to sell a lot more merch to pay bills.  It is a big problem and I am not sure what can be done about it.  Record labels disappear everyday and band have to do more and more by themselves. It is amazing how much it affects things and I could go on for a long time about this, but the bottom line is you should support the bands you enjoy if you want to see them stay around.

Ghostie: Playing classic albums at shows seems to be quite common place these days, and proves to be a real treat for the fans, especially those who were too young to see bands at the time of said classic albums release. I’ve seen Slayer doing “Seasons in the Abyss” in its entirety most recently and it went down a storm. Would Obituary ever consider doing something like this? Obviously you have to possess an album in your catalogue that is considered a classic, but I think in your case you’ve arguably got several!!

John Tardy: Thank you.
We think about it and I will never say never.  Every show we try to play something off every CD and I think that is better but...who knows!