DMM: We know you guys have been really busy with the side projects, you have Ralph in the band now, and you got the new record coming out….bring us up to speed on what’s going on, how have you been able to keep up?

DT: It’s been because we’ve been so busy when it comes to creating songs and albums, and recording. I mean, thank God we actually took the time to buy ourselves the studio and a pro tools rig for everything we needed to record. So the Xecutioner album and the Tardy Brothers albums and the new (Obituary) album Darkest Day have all been recorded at our studio, so its just fun process to write, record and just create albums now the way we are doing it.

Me and (guitarist) Trevor are the main meat and potatoes of Obituary’s songwriting. My brother (vocalist John Tardy) obviously takes care of all the vocals, and Ralph has just brought a whole new flavor to the mix of just killer guitar solos that he’s putting down, it’s just super cool.

As far as the new album goes, I am super stoked about it. It’s a long album, I think there’s thirteen songs on this record, there is some old style crazy sounding Sepultura type tribal shit on it, there’s some super fast stuff, and I think the first song on the album (List of Dead) is the fastest tempo we’ve ever attempted. Obituary fans are going to dig the new album.

DMM: After listening to the new album, I think that it is definitely a new sound, but totally identifiable with the old school Slowly We Rot Obituary sound as well.

DT: Yeah, and that’s some of the same reactions we are getting, and that it’s reminding a lot of people of Slowly(We Rot), and that it’s reminding them of The End Complete . I heard this in a couple of reactions to (the new record). Those are both good compliments because those are my two favorite Obituary albums because I think both those albums just have killer songwriting and are really just different than a lot of metal albums. So yeah, it’s just an instant classic sounding death metal album. We’re stoked!

DMM: Having your own space to record affords you a lot of freedom. Are you guys still pressing each other (in the studio), or is it a more relaxed process?

DT: Well, there were deadlines that needed to be made and it pushed us a little bit, because we were so busy with the festivals and the touring and just being away from home a lot of the times when we needed to be in the studio recording, so there was a little bit of a timing issue, but we never let deadlines stress us to where we think we have to create a song to get it over with. A song is gonna come about when it’s ready. We would never put a song on an album that we are not completely confident with, and I would never say, “Ah, that song’s just on there cause we had to finish that day.”

We have a unique style of writing. Me and Trevor just get in the garage. We don’t discuss what needs to be done or what was already done on the last record, what other bands are doing; we don’t worry about any of that shit. We just… we write, and whatever feels good that day, whatever rhythm comes out of him, if it’s something that we feel is a good song, we go with it, and we don’t stress each other. We don’t push it too much you know? The song-writing and song style of Obituary is simple, and we keep it basic on purpose, and I think that’s what people love about Obituary. We are not the most technical band, but when we get together to write songs, they are classic Obituary Death Metal songs.

DMM: I think that’s what people love about Obituary, you stick to what you are doing, but still identify with your roots. You can bring out the tribal styles and new things, but when you get down to it, the basis for what Obituary is the straightforward style, and in my opinion, it is what has kept you guys separate from the mix over the years.

DT: I’d agree with that, we just know what we have, when we get together there is that chemistry that brings out the style that Obituary Is, and we don’t worry about anything else. It doesn’t matter what bands are “in” now or what fans want to hear, it’s the idea that Obituary is that trademark sound and name, and that’s what people want when they go and buy our record. We are happy with that, and that’s why we stick to it, it’s what we are good at, and we stick to what we believe in, and we write songs that we like and that we would want to hear as a fan of metal, and that’s all we worry about.

DMM: What is your (Drum) setup like? What are you playing these days?

DT: My drum kit? I am and have always been a Yamaha drummer. It’s the classic Tommy Aldridge when he was drumming for Ozzy kit, it’s that classic look – two double bass drums, two tom toms, two floor toms very flat to the ground and them cymbals all over the place obviously, it’s classic and about as metal as you can get.

DMM: And your cymbal setup?

DT: I’m a Sabian guy. I like variety obviously. When you are in the studio and recording it’s one thing, you need a certain style sounding cymbal, light and crispy, and the minute you go on tour you go to Europe and play those big open air festivals, you realize those light and crispy cymbals don’t even get picked up. You don’t even hear them. You need big 18 inch, thick, humongous cymbals to really bring it home, so I have a studio set up and I have a live setup that are separate from each other, and it’s not very many cymbals but the placement of them are where I need them. Three over the top of the drums, two china boys, another one over my ride and a cymbal called an Ozone, which is a crash with holes all through it which sounds like a China boy and a crash in one (cymbal). It’s one of my favorite cymbals Sabian has come out with.

DMM: How did you mic up for the album and whet do you do differently that you like better?

DT: Well, drums and guitars are different worlds you know? The drums are setup in the room where you are comfortable and when you are happy with your setup them you mic it appropriately. I am a drummer that is confident in my own performance, so I don’t sound replace anything, I don’t have to try and trigger drums and fake snare drums or anything. I play like John Bonham played back in the day, put the microphones around the drum set, and let me play.

Another thing that’s gonna get picked up so on those Obituary albums and the Tardy Bros Album is there is a lot of room sound, a lot of ambient room mics because I like the sound of a real drum kit and there’s nothing fake about it. You know, its just classic, mics on each tom, mics on the bass drums, but also the Yamaha Sub kick, which is a device that picks up the sub-sonic sound of the bass drums and really gives a warm sound to the mix, just some overhead mics like everyone puts on their cymbals, but then I use room mics too to pick up that ambient sound, cause like I said, I like the ambience of a room because I don’t sound replace anything with my drums. What you hear is what the microphones are picking up. I am very proud of that.

Guitars are a whole different story, you now? Once Trevor gets his sound, that guitar sound, or like with the Tardy Bros once I got the guitar sound that I liked, I put on isolation head phones and would listen as I moved the mic into different places until I was happy with the mic placement, and it might be a completely different placement that you would think would be smart because sometimes its on a weird angle or it might not be directly in front of the actual cones. But it’s just about listening until you’re happy with the what you get out of the sound. That’s how we’ve done the last two albums, especially the Tardy Brothers, I just moved the mike around until I was absolutely happy with what I heard, and that’s how we did it.

DMM: You guys are hitting some overseas dates pretty soon right?

DT: Yeah, three weeks from now we start and we have four different trips back and forth to Europe throughout July and August, so we’ll be busy. We’ll bet taking tons of plane rides crossing the puddle four different times to get to the festivals! In September we start here in America, and in October we do Mexico. I think we’re talking Japan around Christmas, and we’ve already confirmed another full month in Europe in March of 2010.

DMM: Who is doing that with you, do you know?

DT: It’s three bands, but I can’t remember. It’s on the website.

DMM: I know Ralph brings some sick leads with him, and you’ve obviously known him for years, but has his joining the band brought any new perspectives to the writing process?

DT: Well, he definitely always has cool ideas when it comes to adding layers on top of the songs that me and Trevor already created, but it is me and Trevor that write the album. We are confident in our songwriting (process). Me and Trevor have been together for so long that we don’t want to mess with the chemistry because Obituary fans are buying our records to hear that style, but Ralph always, always has certain cool ideas to mix it up a little bit and add layers to harmonies to a part that maybe we aren’t thinking of, and like you said just phenomenal solos, just throwing them down every time we record, he puts something down on tape that’s usually just shredding, you know? And that’s the whole new level that he has brought to us. Fans of killer guitar playing are actually getting that with Obituary albums now. So that’s just a whole hew flavor.

DMM: And you guys have been with Candlelight for a few years now right?

DT: Yeah, we gave Candlelight the last two Obituary albums an the Tardy Brothers albums.

DMM: And that transition has been pretty good?

DT: It’s been alright, you know, a band is never satisfied. I know they are doing what they can. I wish it was tenfold, but they are getting the job done. A band…any band, if you ask them, I don’t care if they are on the smallest record label in the world or the biggest, they always want more focus. You can never get enough promotion or enough push to make the band happy, because this is everything to me man, these songs are my life and everything I pour into it, I want the whole metal world to know it.

When you see the album sales decline from the internet and kids just being broke, and a million things going on in their mind, it’s just one of those things where you gotta (stay positive) and you can’t get mad about it, you’re not gonna sell the albums like you used to or you thought you were going to, you just have to push on and you got to use the internet to promote yourself to find new fans. That’s what we do, instead of getting frustrated about the internet is that we just constantly try to update our website. My brother updates the website all the time when we are on the road. When we are on the road, John is updating it with the photos from the night before and telling all the kids how the tour is going and talking about stuff, that’s kind of what we do right now and that’s what we re focused on.

DMM: What was it like touring when you were really young compared to today?

DT: You know the irony is, and it’s funny, but it’s not funny, is that when we signed with Road Runner it was 1986 I think, and we signed literally the worst album contract a band could have signed to. Literally making no money for a 19 year career on that record label, we made no money on album sales, such little money that we literally never saw any money from any album sales, but back then it wasn’t that hard to sell 70, 80, 100 thousand records when the album came out, and now we re selling half that, and the sad thing about it is, that now that we are older we have the veteran mind and the know how, we just went out and found ourselves a contract with Candlelight that actually helps us and makes us money per album sale, and now we are seeing money, but we are selling 1/3 of the records we used to sell.

Now we are making a lot more money per album sale, but albums just don’t really sell (laughs).

DMM: Yeah it’s a weird swing of the pendulum.

DT: (Laughing) yeah, it sucks! But Obituary fans deserve music, and that’s why for as little money as we actually pocket when it comes to putting albums out and waiting for royalty checks after spending all the money on the album it’s all about the fans. We just want the people to get good sounding albums that have good songs on it so they can get off work and listen to a new album. That’s what’s important to us.

DMM: If you had one last show and you could pick your audience, where would it be?

DT: Man that’s tough…cause it’s all different you know, you’re not gonna get the crowds you wish you could in America anymore, but I love American fans, you know? American fans, the ones that do show up, are diehard, they buy our merch, they buy our albums, they support us and they love it, and they deserve it just as much as a German crowd that we pull 3,000 people in one night. In America, you’re playing in font of 300 people.
So it’s a tough question, but if it was for simply my satisfaction, and just remembering just how fun it is to go somewhere and have a show and see the reaction of people, it would probably be one of the far off places like Japan or an Australian show, or maybe somewhere like what we did last year which was some South American shows like Venezuela or Ecuador or a Mexico show or something because those kids don’t get to see that stuff very often, and they just really, really dig it when they get to finally see it.

DMM: Yeah, it’s huge down there! It seems like even though the industry has changed dramatically, Death Metal is seeing an upsurge today. Do you see that from your side as well?

DT: Yeah it is cool to see, you know when people can get physically in front of you and tell you, “Man, I grew up to you,” and “My band is influenced by you.” It’s a good feeling to know that, you know, I thought that same thing when I first heard Celtic Frost or Slayer or Death. I thought “Man, that’s exactly what I want. That’s the music that is more badass than anything on the planet.” And that’s what dudes are still trying to do and that’s an honor, and you know, it’s one of those things where, I don’t really worry about competition and what new drummer is going to ‘destroy me’ or is 10 times faster than me. I know what Obituary is, we set our (own) standard, we etched our name in the concrete of metal, and it’s always gonna be there.

For these young guys that are just picking up drumsticks and learning to play, trying to play Slowly We Rot or Chopped in Half or something… that’s totally cool, and there are definitely musicians out there, coming out right now that are just tenfold the musician and better as a drummer than I am or guitar player and Trevor would say the same thing. But what we have is magic, and when we get in a room together and write songs they aren’t the most technical song, and we aren’t gonna write a song that is gonna sound like Carcass or Cynic or Death or anything. We know what we write is Obituary and we are proud of that, and no matter which way direction music turns, kids are getting Death Metal albums and buying Obituary because they want to hear that style of music, because they still dig that and that makes me very proud. And you know what? How can that be a bad thing, you know, but the hard part about it is that there are a million and one bands out there, and a lot of them are having fun, and might not be the greatest bands in the world, but they are having fun, and I think that’s the important thing.

The record labels that are signing every million and one bands might be the problem, but there are record labels putting anything and everything out, and that makes it really tough for a fan to really focus and figure out what band to but or am album that means something. So you know, it’s not the band’s fault, cause a band wants to be a band and they want an album, and they will sign anything just cause they want to be in a band.
You know, it’s up to the record labels to find out who’s worthy and the fans… thank God there is the internet, cause fans can check out their websites and hear a song to determine whether it’s good enough to buy, and it’s like going to an ice cream store where you go in get the little spoon so you can try each flavor before you buy the flavor you like. That’s really what the internet has done, and that’s a good thing in my mind.

DMM: What are your favorite tracks on the album? What do you want fans to listen for on Darkest Day?

DT: The way this album came about, and the way we realized when we were done with all the songwriting, and how we recorded it, it was like, we can sit there and discuss what song order we are going to put it in and we can save the fastest songs for the end of the record or we can save the long songs from this or that, but instead we realized that there is a taste on this album that we immediately sought, and the first song on the record List of Dead , and the second song Blood to Give we said, “You know what? If we put these songs together, and we put these two songs back to back on the album, it’s a one-two punch right in the face to fans that but it and I think that’s what they want and everyone agreed to it.

When Trevor said, “Imagine this song going right into this tribal type thing, people are gonna love it.”, and we stuck with it and that’s the reaction we’re getting and people are saying, “I love it.”

DMM: Well I am looking forward to seeing you guys in September, even if I have to take the ride to San Antonio or Dallas!

DT: The dates are up on the website man, and I look forward to it!

When OBITUARY announced plans to record a new album in early 2007, the metal world stood up and applauded. One of death metal’s crown jewels was returning and fans couldn't have been more enthused. The album, Xecutioner’s Return, delivered the goods as only OBITUARY could. Now, two years later, the band returns with eighth full-length Darkest Day. Signature in every way, the record proves the band gets even better with age.

OBITUARY's core of brothers -- John Tardy (vocals) and Donald Tardy (drums) -- with guitarist Trevor Peres came together in 1984 forming what would become one of death metal's most successful and internationally respected bands. OBITUARY 2009 -- the Tardy brothers, Peres, guitarist Ralph Santolla and bassist Frank Watkins -- remains unwaveringly brutal. Said John Tardy about the new CD Darkest Day, "It came out really sick and I cannot wait for you guys to hear it... it is heavy!" Added guitarist Ralph Santolla, "The new stuff is heavy, some of my favorite OBI riffs yet." Trevor's guitar sounds huge and menacing. If you like OBITUARY, you're gonna love this record."

The band once again worked with artist Andreas Marschall, who created the art for The End Complete, Frozen In Time, and the group's last record, Xecutioner's Return.

 

By John Newton

http://www.obituary.cc

http://www.myspace.com/obituary