An interview with Bobaflex's Marty McCoy

An interview with Bobaflex’s Marty McCoy

October 3, 2015

Bobaflex is known as one of the hardest working bands in the country. Renowned for their high energy, live shows and relentless touring the band was formed in 1998 by brothers Shaun and Marty McCoy. The latest CD from Bobaflex was released on July 17, 2015. The band consisting of brothers, Shaun (vocals, guitars) and Marty McCoy (vocals, guitars), Tommy Johnson (drums), David Tipple (guitars) and Jymmy Tolland (bass).

Side Stage Magazine: What was the inspiration when writing the new CD “Anything That Moves”?

Marty McCoy: We actually got to be a band again. We were together in a room instead of touring nonstop with each individual writing a song.. We rented a nice rehearsal space and stayed hours a day in there and wrote together as a 5 member band. It was an experience I enjoyed very much and something I haven’t done in a very long time. It was cool. You hear everyone’s in the band influence on every song. It has more of a cohesive feel I think so. It’s still a Bobaflex record. It still goes everywhere.

“Mama (Don’t take my drugs away)” is my favorite. It reminds me of Warrant’s “Cherry Pie”.

I’ll take that any day. My brother came up with the chorus for that song. As soon as he sang the chorus to me, it makes me I was like “It makes me feel like Joan Jett and Warrant. Let’s start working on that immediately.” That was one of the first songs we wrote and probably took the longest on the record. It was one of those kind of songs I heard where I was like “I’m 11 yrs. old again and it’s 1989. This is awesome.”

What’s your favorite song on the cd?

It’s a given is my favorite song. It’s a pretty personal song. I’m not a religious person, but in the back of my mind I always fear that I’m wrong and I’m going to burn in Hell forever. So, that’s pretty much what that song is about. I don’t believe in the whole God/devil thing, but I hope I’m not wrong. There’s a part of me being from West Virginia and the Bible belt, that fear is still deep. The older I get the more I think it’s a silly idea, but the closer I get to my last days on the planet I’m like “Man it would be really great if it was true and you could go to heaven forever, that would be awesome”.

Do you guys write the songs yourself, or do you have help?

We have written all our own songs ourselves since we started the band. We never did any covers. We did the Sound of Silence cover on one of our old records. That was the only cover we’ve done. Everything else is all original and everyone writes. I think we are getting better at it over the years, I hope so.

If you could do any cover of any song as a band, what would you do?

If it was possible, I would do any Queen song, probably “Bohemian Rhapsody” or something like that because it’s such a beautiful song. Queen is not something any musician can do. There are not very many musicians that can sing like Freddie Mercury. Those are untouchable songs. I saw Pink do it once, but she’s an untouchable singer as well. Freddy Mercury is one of my favorite singers. There are not very many people born like that guy and since. There’s certain people put on this planet that were made for this and he’s one of them. It’s sad he’s gone.

As a band, what’s your biggest accomplishment so far?

The biggest accomplishment is probably staying in the band and being able to have enough success to be able to do another record. Each time you make a record especially early on in your career you’re always like “Hold your breath, is this the last one? Are people going to hate this? Are they going to give us another chance?” After a while, we just started saying “We’re doing it. We’re selling enough records and the shows are doing well enough we can keep doing this.” We quit worrying about everything and just started doing what made us happy. It seemed to actually work really well. When you’re being real, people can tell if you’re being real or not. People can see right through it. I might would say being able to be a band this long and have all the experiences as a whole. Rock on the Range is amazing, played a lot of big festivals and met a lot of my heroes but being able to continue to write songs with my brother and best friends is probably the biggest accomplishment especially in this day and age. We’ve done it without a record label. It’s not unheard of, but it’s not an easy task. I’m just really happy we’re doing it. Looking at the success of this record, it looks like we are going to be recording another record by the end of 2016. We’re going to keep doing it. It’s a blast.

Is there anything you’d like to accomplish that you haven’t yet?

We are going to Europe next year which I can’t wait to do. Rock and roll in Europe is still alive and well and thriving. It’s like 1980 over there. I can’t wait to go play in front of thousands and thousands of people. I’ve been to Europe because my mother is Scottish and all my family is over there, but I’ve never been with Bobaflex. I think that’s what’s most exciting to me. Whether it’s an amazing trip or a disastrous trip I’m going to be like “Five guys in a little garage in West Virginia are now playing the world.” I’m pretty excited about it.

Is there anything you want to pass along to your fans?

The entire reason we’ve been able to be a band is and do the great things are have been able to do is because of the fans. Without them we would be nothing and we know that. They see us every out every night shaking hands, drinking and having a good time with them. It’s because they are the reason we are able to do what we do. I have a pretty amazing life. The hard work and determination that we put in has a lot to do with it, but 90% of it is the fans that is just amazing that fed us over the years, let us stay at their house, came to the shows in snowstorms, bought the records, and went to the radio stations with pitchforks saying “if you don’t play Bobaflex we are going to burn the place down”. We have amazing fans that are really passionate and that’s why like I said I love playing music and I’ve been blessed to do what I want for a living and I wouldn’t be able to do any of it if it were for the people that like us and took care of us. A lot of the fans have become family over the years and I can’t wait to see them every night. It’s a different city, but it feels like home every night because you get to see all the people you haven’t seen in months that have taken care of you and made you what you are today. It’s an amazing thing. Our fans are the best and I’ll die for them.

Upcoming Tour Dates:

October 30, 2015 Blood &Brewst 2015 Fest; Ironton, OH

November 5, 2015 Monirae’s; Pennellville, NY

November 6, 2015 Suzy’s Auburn; Auburn, NY

November 13, 2015 Rockin’ Horse; White Sulphur Springs, WV

November 14, 2015 The Wizard Saloon; Hickory, NC

November 20, 2015 Alrosa Villa; Columbus, OH

November 28, 2015 V Club; Huntington, WV

December 11, 2015 Dillinger Event Center; Bucyrus, OH

December 31, 2015 8th St Pier Bar & Grill; Dickinson, TX

January 8, 2016 West End Trading Company; Sanford, FL

January 16, 2016 Harpos Concert Theatre; Detroit, MI