OBITUARY's JOHN TARDY Explains Why It Takes His Band Several Years To Release New Music

In a new interview with Sense Music Media, OBITUARY frontman John Tardy spoke about why it sometimes takes him and his bandmates several years to release new music. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's cool when you have the time to have some songs and mess with them for a while and put them off the shelf. It's great to get started, put some stuff together and then you don't listen to it for a month and a half or something. And then you come back to it and then stuff kind of comes to your mind fresh."

He continued: "When you have a lot of time, like we did during the pandemic, it really gave us time to let the songs kind of grow, feel them out and be able to add some cool stuff here and there to them. There's nothing worse than being rushed with a song. And even if it's a cool idea, get it down, write it, record it, because you listen to it and a year later, you're, like, 'Damn, I wish I would have done this. I wish I could have done that.' And the longer you let yourself let those songs grow and you can sit and mess with them, the less of that you have. You'll always get that no matter what, but the less of it that you do have, you give yourself that time."

Tardy added that he and his OBITUARY bandmates " always" take a few years between albums. "We've just never been the band to put out albums every year, every other year, other than I think 'Slowly [We Rot]' and 'Cause [Of Death]' were pretty close," he explained. "But other than that, we're okay to sit back. And now with the touring, we just find that it really takes us three or four years just to cover all parts of the globe and get everything done with that album. And people don't buy the albums that much anymore anyway, so you've really kind of gotta get your money out of 'em. [Laughs]"

OBITUARY's latest studio album, "Dying Of Everything", came out in January via Relapse Records.

Last year, Decibel Books released "Turned Inside Out: The Official Story Of Obituary", the fully authorized biography of OBITUARY. The book was written by David E. Gehlke, author of "Damn The Machine: The Story Of Noise Records" and "No Celebration: The Official Story Of Paradise Lost".

Earlier this year, OBITUARY drummer Donald Tardy told Kerrang! magazine that the extended hiatus he and his bandmates went on in 1997 was a positive experience.

"Hindsight is 20/20," he said. "At the time we didn't know if that break was going to be one year, two years, six years or whatever it was. But, looking back, it was fantastic for us to step away and recharge, to get away from the music industry and that scene at the age that we were. And we were gone for long enough that we were hungry again when we got back onstage. It's weird to look back at how long ago that was. Our 'second career' has lasted longer than a lot of bands' entire existences."