God Forbid’s Byron Davis Would Rather “Spend the Time Writing Music Than Playing Shows”
Ever since their reunion back in 2022, God Forbid has played some shows here and there and that’s about it. There’s been some rumblings about maybe some new music being a thing in the future, but at least one member of the band would rather sit down and focus on the writing process than playing live at this point.
During ar ecent interview with The Metal Mixtape (as transcribed by Blabbermouth), God Forbid frontman Byron Davis said a lot has to be considered if the band were to move forward and write new music, as there’s more at stake than just the band’s legacy — band members now have families of their own and live long distances from one another.
“We’ve had an initial conversation like that. And I’m trying to bring back those conversations.
“We all live separate lives. Two members have full functioning families, so if we’re gonna do something, it has to make sense. Unfortunately, we’re not at a stage where we have a stockpile of money to make these things happen, so we have to be fiscally responsible every time we decide to do this, to see if it financially makes sense to do it. It’s not like a band that dissolved and everybody still lives in the same area. We’re scattered across the U.S. now. So all that comes into play.
“As long as people really want to come see us, I’m more than happy to get out there, but it has to make sense. Because I’m not gonna jeopardize the future of my personal [life] that I had to rebuild. And I don’t expect anyone or know that anyone else in the band to do the same for themselves. We have to be smart about it, and it needs to make sense.”
Byron’s comments there effectively reiterate what guitarist Doc Coyle said in an interview last month that the band would “have to figure some things out” logistically if they were to commit to writing new music. That being said, Byron said the band wants to make new God Forbid tunes.
“I think that until we get new music, anything more is just playing… It’s not really playing ourselves out. It’s just… Dude, I want new music. The dudes in the band want new music. I’d rather spend the time writing music than playing shows at this point, to be honest. I wanna get out there and have something new. Yeah, we have a couple of B-sides that no one’s ever heard, but I wanna have new current music. So, we’ll see what happens. Everyone has schedules.
“And then God Forbid is not one of those bands that just throws anything together. When we write, we take our time and we write. Luckily for us, everyone in our band is about integrity, so they’re not just gonna throw out some slop. So, it’s gonna have to go through the gauntlet a couple of times before parts get cemented as the parts. And then from there, then we’ll put it together, run some demos. I already started speaking to my man that produced a lot of the material that we did, on the vocal tip. So when we do some material, it’s gonna be a record worthy of being called a God Forbid record; it’s not just gonna be thrown together. So if it takes a little bit longer, it’s worth it. Nah, man, we can’t be coming in with that bullshit. We’ve gotta stamp it with the God Forbid. It can’t be less than; it’s gotta be greater than. We’ve got a we got a back catalog that stands the test of time, and the new shit needs to stand the test of time as well. So that’s how we go into the writing process.”
