OBITUARY Frontman: 'ROADRUNNER Could Have Done A Lot More With Us'

MetalUpdate.com recently conducted an interview with OBITUARY frontman John Tardy. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

MetalUpdate.com: Does not being on a record label make it more challenging booking shows or is it easier?

John Tardy: "The record company doesn't really have much to do with that, unless you were setting up a tour and needed financial support putting things together. But we're doing so many European festivals and the flights we're forking out all the cash up front ourselves. So the record company didn't have much to do with it. We have a booking agent that sets that up and we work with him. And it's nice, so if you show up and get yourself in a situation where you are getting offstage and have to get to the airport by 6:00 a.m. at least it's all on you."

MetalUpdate.com: Any label interest?

John Tardy: "As you can imagine, all the likely candidates. Nuclear Blast, Century Media, a handful of others who came to us. No firm offers but they have shown interest. We're at the point of kicking it around, leaving all our options open and half considering the fact we'll do it all on our own."

MetalUpdate.com: Does it annoy you on any level, that every two-bit nickel and dime death metal/metalcore band seems to get promoted and recognized, yet a legendary proven band such as yourselves still has to scratch and claw for everything you get?

John Tardy: "I can't sit here and say it doesn't bother me at all. I'll be honest with ya, when we first did 'Slowly We Rot', we sat and had that whole album recorded on the tapes in the garage, and I was happy to have that to listen to. I never actually thought about doing a record with it. So I just take what we get as it goes. It's not always the best musicians who are the most popular. It's whatever the industry wants to pick up and push. I would like to think that Roadrunner could have done a lot more with us. It really seems that only 'Cause of Death' and maybe 'The End Complete', that they did put some effort into. Things were going well for so long with those records and we had a lot of things going for us. But I'm sure everybody would like to think Roadrunner could have done a lot more for us. We're in a position where we are not going to go back with them. Certainly not after what they did to us with this record, which was promise the moon and then once it comes out they sat back and their whole idea was: 'Doesn't matter what we do, we're still gonna sell the same amount of records.' That's just a stupid standpoint to have. It wasn't like it was a shitty album, all the reviews and everything we heard, everyone liked it."

Read the entire interview at MetalUpdate.com.