“To do what we do, you have to be crazy.”

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BOBAFLEX has been no stranger to the road. Since the band’s inception, BOBAFLEX has been playing anytime, anywhere, for however many people. After the late 2013 release of their fourth full-length studio album, Charlatan’s Web, they have begun to reach new audiences with the help of radio. They are reaching new heights with the single and corresponding music video for the song “I’m Glad You’re Dead”. Before their show in Akron, Ohio I jumped aboard the band’s bus to discuss the new album, filming the video for their new single, and everything else BOBAFLEX.

KNAC.COM: Lets start by talking about the new single “Glad You’re Dead”. The lyrics in that song sound very personal and powerful…did you guys write this song about somebody you knew?

MARTY: (Laughter) Actually Shaun (McCoy) wrote it.

SHAUN: We had a fan years ago that came up to us and said, “yeah I went to the funeral of my father”, and we were like, “oh we’re sorry about your loss”, and he said, “nah, I’m glad he’s dead”. That inspired it a little bit and it’s sort of an homage to Jack Nicholson’s “Joker” who actually said it. And we noticed too, with that, you know when Osama Bin Laden was killed people used it to express how they felt about his death. People have been dedicating the song to the guy from Westboro Baptist Church that just died. There’s an old, old song from like the thirties or twenties that’s called “I’ll Be Glad When You’re Dead”. So we kinda noticed that there is this subconscious statement that people don’t want to say but kind of think about.

MARTY: We’re a rock band…we will say it. It has really connected with people. It’s big on the radio and it’s our best selling song on iTunes.

KNAC.COM: I want to ask you about the video for the song then…because that was very different from your typical music videos.

MARTY: We did that with a couple friends of ours, Keith Williams from Hilljack Films, Paul Cunningham from Cool World Photography, and Jon Payne from Payne Productions and we got together, my brother and myself, and Keith Williams wrote it all up and we dug the hole and just did it all ourselves. And it turned out great, man. My dad is in it; my dad is the preacher. He just loved it. Now you can just see him showing people his video – “Did you see my video?” He probably won’t even have the sound on.

KNAC.COM: I heard a story online – how many times exactly did you have to drop the guy out of the casket into that grave?

MARTY: About five times. And my buddy Keith and I dug the hole with shovels and I had like one more day before we would be back out on the road so we knew we could only do it on Monday, and it happened to be the day that it was like thirty below zero.

KNAC.COM: Nice…how deep was it?

MARTY: It was supposed to be six foot deep. We got it to five feet.

KNAC.COM: Did you have like pillows or anything?

MARTY: We had an air mattress but the third time we dropped him, it was out of air and he just hit-slam! He busted his ass, but he was a great sport. He is six foot three or four. We literally just dumped him in that hole. His foot actually bounced out into the frame and it was just perfect.

KNAC.COM: How did you guys find the church to film the video?

MARTY: Keith and I called about 170 churches and they all said “no”. We had to go and talk to the arch diocese of the Catholic Church and everything. But finally the guys at in Focus Media Group said that they talked to their Pastor at their church and said we could do it there…at the very last minute. We were gonna try a funeral home, anything and the funeral homes were meaner than the churches. The guy at the funeral home said to me, “are you fucking crazy?” ‘Cause when you tell them, “hey we wanna do a rock music video and the name of the song is ‘Glad You’re Dead.’” They say, “You know this is a place of worship; we worship Jesus here. We’re not into it.” But we had the church in Xenia, Ohio do it and they were amazing. Of course, we cleaned everything up and were really respectful. When we were drinking in the party scenes, it’s tea. We didn’t have any alcohol on the premises. They were just really great to us and it was a beautiful spot. There was the podium that my dad was at; that was already there. It was great.

KNAC.COM: It really looked like it was like the 1850’s or something with all of the attire.

MARTY: Yeah, we rented costumes for the band and a few other people. And then we put it out on Facebook that we are doing this video, it’s gonna be a long two days, but our fans showed up in these amazing costumes that they bought and made themselves. It was just great and they spent fourteen hour days and they were just awesome. It was a great, great experience. It was a humbling experience because people would come out and take days off of work to be there and work for us and we fed them hot and ready pizzas. It was one of those moments were I realized that we are just lucky guys. We are just so lucky.

KNAC.COM: Alright I am going to ask you about Dave Tipple. How did you guys first meet and how did he end up in the band?

MARTY: He was in a band called OF HUMAN. It was a great band from Columbus, Ohio and we played shows with them and every time they would play we would watch them and we were like, “man these guys are good.” They were a really tight band and Dave has been in the Columbus area for a very long time. We kind of knew each other and when our guitar player quit Dave messaged Jerod (Mankin) and said, “Hey my band is breaking up, we haven’t practiced in two months, I am itching to do something.” The next day he met me in Columbus and I asked him, “Who is your favorite guitar player?” And he said, “Joe Perry.” I was like, “Lookin’ pretty good so far to me buddy.” We sat down and sang some songs and played guitar and that was it. I asked him if he wanted the gig and he wanted the gig. We took off a week later on tour and he has been in the band a year now. It feels like it is the best lineup of BOBAFLEX that we have ever had.

KNAC.COM: Do you think this is it? –Because you have had quite the revolving door at guitar.

MARTY: Yeah, this is it. This is the guy and he is awesome. He loves touring which is what broke the other guitar players. They did not understand what touring was and exactly how much we are out on the road. If you don’t enjoy it, it will break you quick. We have seen crew members, bus drivers, and guitar players go. It is not for everybody. To do what we do, you have to be crazy…a little…or a lot.

KNAC.COM: I wanted to ask you…I know Tommy Johnson is a phenomenal player…have you ever thought about just letting him cut loose and do a drum solo?

MARTY: Absolutely.

KNAC.COM: Does he?

MARTY: No.

KNAC.COM: Will He?

MARTY: No. He has his work cut out for him on the songs. He has to stretch and warm up before the shows, but he used to do a couple drum solos here or there but now it’s like nope, we need to just bang them songs out. We got good songs, lets bang ‘em out.

KNAC.COM: Okay, I wanted to ask you - this is a weird question – you guys are originally from the Point Pleasant, WV area, have you had any experience-

SHAUN: Never fucked a dead body.

(laughter)

KNAC.COM: Ever have an experience with the Moth Man? Or know someone that did?

MARTY: Personally? – No that all happened in the 60’s. It happened…it all happened. There was the men in black around telling people to keep their mouth shut and stuff. All that shit is all true. The guy that wrote the book used to own a record store where we would go buy our GUNS N’ ROSES records and stuff. It really happened. What really brings it home is that normal Christian people that would never lie or say anything like that. I don’t know what it was but these people saw something. The bridge fell, people died, it really happened. These people had no reason to make this up.

KNAC.COM: Let’s get off of the supernatural. Tell me…what is the one BOBAFLEX song that you want to play live but never have?

MARTY:Whoa…that’s a good question. I don’t know. We have written so many songs and we have so many albums (and EP’s) out, I don’t know. That’s a good question. I will tell you this, every song we are playing now – I love every damn one of them.

KNAC.COM: What is the writing process like?

MARTY: Awesome. We have five writers in the band. Everybody writes. Everybody has cool ideas. We trust each other very much. Everybody gets a fair shake.

KNAC.COM: Does it usually start with a riff or lyrics or something else?

MARTY: I like to start with the vocals. I like to start with the chorus. I will see what everyone thinks but a lot of times each member comes up with a whole song. Then we add our stuff to it, cut the fat here and there. It’s just really easy. We just throw everything together and pick which ones we want to work on. It doesn’t matter who wrote it but if you don’t put your head down and get involved you will get left behind. It goes really fast.

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