Interview with John Tardy of Obituary 2007

By Bradley Smith

Xecutioner’s Return is your latest album and it has been hailed as the best since Cause of Death.  Do you see it this way?  How has the press reaction been so far and how do you yourself view this album?  How excited are you about its release?   

We are really excited and hearing the response from the press I think they are too!  I think this is the best album we have done.  I think everything from the songs to the production is as heavy as we have ever done, but still has a ‘listenability’ to it. 

You guys have an upcoming tour in Europe with Holy Moses and Avatar.  That is sort of a strange line-up.  How did you guys select your touring partners and what are you looking forward to on this tour?   

I really don’t get involved with the setting up of a tour that much.  We have a great booking guy in Europe and trust his judgement when it comes to a good bill.  I know we are totally pumped about playing some new songs live and love coming to Europe in the winter. 

Allen West’s incarceration obviously has impacted Obituary.  How do you feel it has affected you guys and when he gets out what will happen?   

Allen has put himself and us in an unfortunate position.  Right now there is not much we can do for him and he has a lot to think about when he gets out.  Obituary has so much going on right now and we are continuing to move forward.  The addition of Ralph Santolla has been great.  It worked out good for him and us and I think he is as happy to be with us as we are to have someone that talented playing with us. 

Being from Brandon FL, I was always proud that Obituary was from my home town even though you guys are lumped in with the Tampa scene due to proximity.  How did you like growing up in Brandon?  What are some of your memories from there and from all the early days of doing shows in Ybor City and at Off Limits there on Lumsden Ave.?  

There are a lot of good memories growing up here.  Brandon was a quiet little town back then and the early music influences around had a big impact on what we do.  Watching the guys in Savatage and Nasty Savage do what they do was my first introduction to the music world and we have been doing it ever since.  From shows at Ruby’s with N.S. to shows at the Sunset Club with Death…it was all good.  It is good to think of the amount of good bands that came out of this area and good to see a lot of them still around.

I saw that you guys worked out an Itunes exclusive for the song “Evil Ways.”  How did that deal get worked out and why did you choose “Evil Ways?” 

When Candlelight asked us for a single I think all 5 bands members said a different song.  That is a good thing!  After thinking about it we chose Evil Ways because it was kind of catchy and not really fast.  ITunes offers us a chance for maybe some people that are not real familiar with our music to check it out and that song hopefully will make them want to hear more.

You recently released the Frozen Alive DVD.  Can you tell us about what it contains and why you decided it was the right time for a DVD?  With all the great press that is surrounding Xecutioner’s Return do you think maybe you should have waited until this album or are you even considering another DVD release? 

I think we are probably the last band in the world to do a DVD so it was way over due.  Shot in Poland by Metal Minds, it came out even better than I thought it would.  The sound and the picture are awesome and it has so many songs on it that it is crazy.  The video also has other footage, photos and the release of the On The Floor video.  When I think of how many people around the world that have never had the chance to see us live, this is a great DVD for them!

Obituary pretty much has been granted Living Legend Status within the underground.  How do you deal with such an image and do you feel you guys warrant it?  Does that create unfair/unreal expectations for you guys? 

Thank you. I don’t really think living legend is a fitting term but, to be at least thought of somewhat as such is nice!   We just do what we do and never put any pressure on ourselves to do anything that we don’t want to do.  Believe it or not after all this time we still have fun with what we do and as long as that is the case we will continue to play and write music.   

With the ease of releasing albums in this day and age how do you look back upon all the struggles that you guys had to go through in order to get a record deal and get Slowly We Rot recorded?  Does it make you feel stronger for having had gone through that ordeal or do you wish it had been a little easier?  

Getting an album deal at the beginning was easy for us.  We never tried to get a record deal, they came to us.  Now, that record deal was not very good and as it turned out the record company was even worst!  Sure you can release an album a lot easier today, but that doesn’t mean you will sell them very easy.  No matter how good an album is you really need to work hard to get people to buy them.  We have learned a lot over the years and it is nice to be working with Candlelight!   

You guys recently bought your own recording studio, the aptly named Redneck Studios.  What went into that?  How did it feel to be recording on your own and to have to shop for the equipment and software?  And how did you feel after you had recorded your first full song in it?   How do you think have ready access to it is going to affect future recordings?

It is unbelievable!  It is actually a necessity for us now a days!  Redneck Studios is our studio and where we recorded our new CD.  We could not have done it without the help of our long time friend, engineer and producer Mark Prator.  There is a lot to consider before you design and build a studio.  First, the room or ambient sound of your studio is what is most important and we new that our studio had a good room sound.  Second, we have a lot of experience recording and knew what we wanted and knew we could get the sound we wanted.  If I thought that we could get a better sound by going somewhere else we would have done that! We purchased a Pro-Tools HD system and that is really the “easy” part.  We tracked the whole album here and then went to Mark’s studio, Redroom Recorders, to do the mixing and then went to Morrisound to do the mastering!  Having a studio is constant work but the freedom to record at will is something that we had to have to continue our desire to write better and better music.  

How do you feel about the new Death metal scene as compared to the one you helped establish?  Is there any sort of resentment there or do you share a kinship to them as or is it somewhere in between?   

To me it still feels the same.  Metal, like all kinds of music, comes and goes with popularity, but right now things are going great for us and we are having a blast!!!

Things are heating up in the US political scene these days.  DO you follow politics at all?  How do you think it’ll all shake out when election time is finally here?  Has American politics affected your relationship with your audience throughout the world at all? 

I read a lot and consider myself somewhat informed of what is happening in the world.  I don’t talk much politics because like most governments it always seems to end in a no win situation.  We occasionally get emails or run into people that want to talk politics, but it is not what I want to talk about. I do get a little angry when people just have no idea what they are talking about and just want to read headlines to me and as soon as you bring up any facts or world people they just instantly get lost!!!  Use your own mind, draw your own conclusions and don’t believe everything you read!

Can you tell us what are your future plans for Obituary?  Is there anything unexpected coming down the pipe? 

We are just waiting to get this album out, will be on the road in Sept and Oct in the U.S. and then headed to Europe!  Hopefully get another video done along the way!

Last words ? 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…hope to see you all out on the road and get your copy of Xecutioners Return because we will be playing a lot of it at the show!!!!!!!  Thanks!!! John Tardy