NOFX may still release new music despite retirement from touring

NOFX could still record and release new music even after they retire from touring next year, according to guitarist Eric Melvin.

Melvin elaborated more on the band’s decision to quit touring in conversation with Avenged Sevenfold‘s Johnny Christ on his Drinks With Johnny podcast. He revealed that the decision was largely down to frontman and bassist Mike ‘Fat Mike’ Burkett and the stress and anxiety he faces when on the road.

“It’s sad, but it’s true. It’s Mike, really. I think I have a clue, but I’m not really sure why exactly. It’s maybe stressful, anxious for him. And he’s just like, maybe not sure that it’s working for him any more,” said Melvin.

“He’s just been talking about it for a few years. We’ve been trying to make adjustments and of course the pandemic has thrown a wrench in everything. We’ve tried to make adjustments to see if that works better for him, and it just seems like it’s not.

“So he’s got to get out and stop. I think that we’re like showing our strengths more than ever in the live show and he’s just not feeling it. He’s gotta do what he’s gotta do. We’re brothers and we’ve gotta take care of each other, despite the reasons pulling us in different directions.

“We gotta support him in that. Let’s make the biggest bang that we can to get out. Have a big party, celebrate 40 years of touring, 40 years of recording.”

However, it doesn’t necessarily mean the end of NOFX. “He still wants to record and release records as NOFX. So we’ll see how that works because they kind of go hand-in-hand, but they don’t have to.”

NOFX released their new album ‘Double Album’ earlier this month. Fat Mike has also announced he has started a new band, Codefendants, which he described as a “genre fluid musical collective — a cross between hip hop, new-wave, flamenco, and the Beatles”.