Bobaflex Interview

As officially reported first on The Gauntlet, Bobaflex have signed a recording contract with TVT Records, who will be releasing the band's third effort, "Blood Red Violent Sex" this spring. The group continues to tour like mad, heading out with labelmates Sevendust on April 6th for a string of dates. The band brings a lot of different influences into their music in order to fashion a unique and upbeat vibe that is a lot of fun to listen to, both on record and in a live situation. Guitarist/Vocalist Martin McCoy is an engaging personality who comes off as very down to earth and approachable. You'll find no rock star attitudes in Bobaflex, just hard hitting music delivered with a lot of attitude and personality. Erin Fox catches up with the highly colorful McCoy in the men's restroom for a chat during soundcheck.

The Gauntlet: Bobaflex have been doing a lot of short tour runs as of late, you guys are just kicking off another string of dates?

Martin McCoy: Yeah, this will be the second night of our tour, we just played last night in Grand Rapids and we're out with this one until March 1st. We head out to Wisconsin tomorrow and if all goes well, we'll pick up the Sevendust tour in April.

The Gauntlet: So is "Primitive Epic" the band's first record?

Martin McCoy: Actually, we had an album before that, but "Primitive Epic" is what I consider to be our first real album. The band got serious, we kicked out some guys and got this new lineup, and then some things got really serious.

The Gauntlet: So how did you hook up with Eclipse Records?

Martin McCoy: He heard the record, "Primitive Epic"; he heard it one time and called us to re-release it.

The Gauntlet: When did you guys record the album?

Martin McCoy: Shit, what year is it? About two years ago.

The Gauntlet: Bobaflex incorporates a lot of different vibes into the music; you have a lot of different textures and influences going on. Why do you choose to play this style of music?

Martin McCoy: The music industry right now-the rock scene seems like not as fun as it used to be. It's more of a depressing, darker scene right now and this band is not really into crying about their girlfriends or girlfriends breaking their hearts or parents not really being the right parents to you. We're kind of more about fun and more about fantasy and getting away from that whole scene. I like emo bands and all of that, but it's like with rock bands right now, it's kind of hard to be different if you fall into the whole black fingernail polish, my girlfriend broke my heart for three hours scene. I ain't got no girlfriend and I don't give a shit.

The Gauntlet: So, the band has a bit of a hip-hop influence, but it's more in the vibe, beneath the surface.

Martin McCoy: Yeah, definitely, we listen to everything. Like any kind of music, if you play it for me and I can get into it for about four bars, I'm gonna enjoy it, whatever it is. We all really like music a lot and we're not afraid to put in whatever we want.

The Gauntlet: Tell me about the song "Tears Drip", that's a track on the record that really sticks out to me, I just love that song.

Martin McCoy: That was the only song that I've ever wrote where the lyrics just came to me. I sat down one day and was like "What's this song all about?". The lyrics to that one just flowed so smoothly and so nicely. It's the only song that I've ever written that went like that. Usually, I'm just pouring over it and it just came together and it came together in like, just one twenty minute session.

The Gauntlet: Do you feel the track is one of your stronger tunes live?

Martin McCoy: Yeah, definitely, that's the one where I come out and take the mic, 'cause I play guitar and my brother sings, and we'll switch and take lead vocals and he will play guitar. On a lot of songs, we have four different singers and try to run them through on every song.

The Gauntlet: So where did you get the idea for the name of the band?

Martin McCoy: Actually, we were gonna be called The Flex at first and someone said Boba means blowjob, and I thought it was hilarious and then someone said Bobaflex and to me, it reminded me of Boba Fett from Star Wars, so we definitely had to keep it then.

The Gauntlet: You guys are Star Wars fans?

Martin McCoy: Yeah, ah. we're comic book geeks and movie fans and just goons, pretty much. I mean, my brother is the biggest comic book fan. He knows everything about every comic book ever made. And he's got us all into comic books now.

The Gauntlet: So I take it you guys find a lot of time to read them on the road then?

Martin McCoy: Yeah definitely. We were in Florida and this guy gave us a whole box of graphic novels we still haven't finished the box. He gave us an awesome set-up of comics.

The Gauntlet: So, Bobaflex has been talking to some major labels about releasing the next record?

Martin McCoy: The folks from Atlantic Records, they came out to see us. Steve Robinson, he's the A&R, he's a really good guy and we've been talking with them. We really want to go somewhere else; we have the record finished. We're trying to get away from Eclipse as fast as we can.

The Gauntlet: Why?

Martin McCoy: It's time. It's time for a major label push. We've been pushing this a lot on our own and got a lot of things done and it would be nice to see what we could do with bigger resources and how many people we could reach on a bigger scale. TVT is out there too, so we're looking at them as well.

The Gauntlet: TVT could use some heavier bands; they haven't had a lot of heavy artists on their roster. Of course there's Sevendust.

Martin McCoy: They're pretty big in the rap scene right now, which gets me excited 'cause rap's on top of the music world right now. Rap videos are fun and full of some wild shit, big tits and girls dancin', instead of people crying about their girlfriends and stuff like that and coming back to that, I know a lot of kids connected with that but come on, is every kid tore up because some bitch dumped them? I mean, there's got to be another connection there.

The Gauntlet: Do you view the image as more of a marketing strategy as opposed to an actual, genuine expression?

Martin McCoy: Oh, absolutely and love songs have always worked. I'm not disrespecting that in any way, it's just there's people that have that handled. We're handling a different side of things. We're trying to bring more fun out to the stage. If you wanna go see a band that, you know, is into the whole depression thing, you can go see them quite easily, there's plenty of them out there. We like to bring something else to the table.

The Gauntlet: So lyrically, the band focuses of science fiction and fantasy themes. You seem to take on a futuristic theme.

Martin McCoy: Yeah, it's more just stories, science fiction, kinda space rock. It's stories but instead of telling stories about ourselves, I mean who wants to hear about us? So we tell stories.

The Gauntlet: Tell us a little bit about the Bobaflex Warriors.

Martin McCoy: Man, they're crazy! You don't want to fuck with any of our fans. We had this incident, it was two weeks ago, it was on this run and a kid jumped up on the stage and attacked our bass player. I chopped him in the head with the guitar and the fans pulled his arms and legs off his body. You don't wanna fuck with the Bobaflex Warriors. I was like, "Hey! Our fans need medication!", cause they just went crazy.

The Gauntlet: What was it like for the band to reopen the Alrosa Villa after the tragic Dimebag incident?
Martin McCoy: That place is our home. We've played there for years, we've opened for nationals there and we've made a lot of fans there. It's like our hometown. Even though we're from West Virginia, we consider Columbus to be our hometown. It was definitely-we thought it was gonna be so strange, but the fans and the kids came out in such throes an they spent their money to help the families from the incident and all around it was a warm vibe. The police officer that shot the guy, he came up onstage halfway through our set.

At this point, a guy walks into the bathroom to relieve himself. He obviously thinks it is strange there is an interview going on in the men's room.

Martin McCoy: Yeah, this is strange lookin', we're doing an interview in the bathroom. Yeah the police officer that killed that guy he came up onstage and it was pretty emotional, but the vibe was really warm and the fans in Columbus, they came out in droves to support the whole thing. It was exciting to see the club back open. I believe that it's the longest or second longest running club in the nation. We have had a lot of things happen for us because of Columbus, Ohio and that club.

The Gauntlet: Where else does the group have a strong following?

Martin McCoy: Minnesota is pretty big, Wisconsin, Iowa, starting to do well in Florida. Anywhere in Ohio is huge. West Virginia is pretty nice.

The Gauntlet: Bobaflex recently performed on Sirius Satellite Radio?

Martin McCoy: Yeah, It was awesome. The technology in that studio is amazing. It was amazing to be in that place. The whole place is made of glass and you can see from one end of the studio to the other. It's in Rockefeller Plaza. Thirty big floors up, it's just amazing.

The Gauntlet: Is it hard to find other bands to play with that really fit on a bill with Bobaflex?

Martin McCoy: We have been out on some good tours, like the Sevendust tour. We get booked with a lot of death metal bands. We do fine and it's not that I am not a death metal band, but I don't see our band as fitting in with that. We get lumped into that a lot, which of course, there's a lot of death metal bands around. I think there's some really good death metal bands. I've been a fan of Napalm Death, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse , you know, I love all that shit. But now, it seems a lot of the local bands that are popping up are death metal oriented, or they're afraid of not sounding tough, they're afraid that they really are homosexual and it kills me. They have to "RRAARRRGH" cause they're afraid they really wanna suck a dick.

The Gauntlet: On the mic, you guys have a lot of skill. Did you experiment a lot to come up with the harmonies you pull off?

Martin McCoy: It's like a lot of bands, a lot of them to me-people have forgotten about bands like The Eagles and Pink Floyd and bands of the seventies where everybody could sing. Hell if you can sing, then sing. It's hard for me to get an album and listen to the same singer for twelve songs. There are singers out there that can definitely do it. To me, I wouldn't think that people would just want to hear me for the whole album. You can do so many different things, different feels. My brother comes in and gets that real dark, crazy, he's crazy anyway, he gets a crazy feeling and Jared, the bass player, he's got the higher pitched voice. There's so many more emotions you can pull off with four people and overlap and hold vocals longer, it's just a lot more fun to play with everyone singing instead of just one guy singing, you know? We can go so many different places with it.

The Gauntlet: So are you guys real hard asses or what? When I saw the promo pic, I was thinking wow these dudes look ready to whip somebody's ass.

Martin McCoy: No, pretty much all we do is have fun all day long. We like to laugh and have a lot of fun, really. We never fight each other. I mean, what better life is there than traveling from town to town? We get to travel and hang out and meet people and things are great. Music fans are awesome. Whether they don't like you or do like you, they're still fun to hang out with and you get to hear people's views and just get the hell out of town, man. I love being away. It's awesome and you just get to meet all kinds of people. People are really nice, man. I hear things like "this town is fucked up and that town is fucked up". No, people are so cool. People bend over backwards a lot of times for five guys they don't even really know and to me it's outrageous how these nice people are. I just like to be around people.

The Gauntlet: So far, what has been the show that you have had the most fun playing?

Martin McCoy: I would have to say, Orlando, Florida at the House of Blues with Sevendust, that was sold out. We have a huge fan base there and it was just crazy. Also on the Sevendust tour when we came through Columbus, we let Sevendust know that we had a whole lot of fans there, and Sevendust came up and watched us play the whole set. To have them up there when it's like our hometown and the crowd's going crazy for us, that was a great feeling. Those were probably my two favorite shows of the past four months, but every night I love to go play.

Another guy comes into the restroom to use the urinal.

The Gauntlet: Go ahead man, we're just taping.

Martin McCoy: We'll get it in the interview and everything.

The Gauntlet: Are you going to continue forward with the same themes you've started with "Primitive Epic?"

Martin McCoy: The name of the new record is "Bright Red Violent Sex." There's a title track that goes with it and ties in and everything. The same guy that did our last cover will be doing it again. He's a guy out of London, England, Mick Usher and you can check him out at mickusher.com. He's worked with us and he's always got the artwork the way we wanted. He's fast and he's pretty cheap. He does great work for us.

The Gauntlet: So do you have any wild stories that you'd like to share from the road?

Martin McCoy: Playing in a band, you just wouldn't believe the girls, but I'll just leave it at that. I've been paid in women before, it's pretty awesome.

The Gauntlet: So for you is this just like living your dream? Is this what you always wanted to do?

Martin McCoy: Yeah, definitely, Every night to be somewhere different, hanging out with crazy people. We've been working at it since we were kids, we're all from the same tiny little hometown, if you have ever heard of "The Mothman Prophecies", that's where we're from, it's about our hometown. That's some alien shit, it's a true story. There's some crazy shit in West Virginia. Hey, have you ever heard of the Hatfields and the McCoys? That's me, myself and my brother; we're direct descendants of the McCoy family.

The Gauntlet: Man, I am gonna get my ass kicked in the bathroom of a little club in Battle Creek.

Martin McCoy: No, we're nice guys, there's a lot of history in that little colony state. It sounds like they need me now for soundcheck.

The Gauntlet: Well, thanks for taking the time out to do this interview. I'm really looking forward to the new record!

Martin McCoy: Thanks for having us, we appreciate it, man!








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Tags:  Bobaflex  , Martin McCoy, interviews

Erin Fox    April 03, 2005