DDR: Charlatans Web is the sixth album for you guys. What was the inspiration that sets it apart from the previous five?
Martin McCoy: There's a lot of things. This album was more of a live record; I mean it's not “live”, but instead of layering a bunch of stuff, we just played as if we were live to get that same energy on the record. More like a minimalist approach. The big thing about this record that was most fun for me, it was the first time that we had a budget, and it wasn't like we were questioning if we were going to fall apart or needed to get a second job at Lowe's or something. We had food and whatever else we wanted and it was a blast. There was no stress, we could take our time, it was great!
DDR: How was Bobaflex formed?
MM: In 1998, my brother and I were in college at Marshall University. I kind of decided that it wasn't for me and I started playing music. I had always played music since I was young and our drummer Tommy and I had been playing music together since we were eleven. I knew that was what I wanted to do and my dad was cool enough to say “Hey, your student loans and the loans I have to pay off, just play music. I know you are going to ass up in college and fail out, so just play guitar and stop building the debt and start doing what you want to do.” My brother just showed up with his guitar during one of our rehearsals and kind of forced his way in and hey I have a song sort of thing, but that's just my brother .(laughing) There's no stopping him no matter what. So we start playing and it was a lot of fun, then this crowd started showing up. We started thinking that this was getting serious, so we quit our jobs and started practicing like we were a football team. We were rehearsing eight to nine hours a day and it just got better and better. You know you go into a local scene and all the bands are pretty good, but they don't practice eight and nine hours a day and you can quickly take them out. We went from Huntington, WV to Columbus, OH to Kentucky and starting attracting these huge crowds and we signed to Eclipse Records. I wanted to be on a major label, but looking back now, Eclipse Records had the model on what's going on now before anyone else did. They had the digital world and had a lot of things handled through downloads and online promotions. A really smart label. It's our fault that we wanted the glitz and glamor and we came in at the tail end of big labels being the shit. Eclipse taught us a lot. We left Eclipse and went to TBT Records, which we thought was going to be great until they went bankrupt. After that, we decided no more labels. We had major labels come out to sign the band when we did Hell On My Heart. Not that the deals were bad, but we just had that fear, you know? We decided to keep doing it on our own and it was the best thing we ever did. We are not the biggest band in the world by far, but we make more money now than we would have signing on a label.
DDR: That's funny because it's the growing consensus of a lot of the bands and musicians we have spoken to that the labels are losing the glamor.
MM: Yeah, what they are doing now are 360 deals. That means they take from your merch, your live show and your never getting paid for you records sales. That's the cool thing about being independent, we get paid for everything we do. They take from everything and I guess I understand, they have to survive too. Sure we could be going on big tours and play in stadiums, but we would be penniless for it. I'm at the age where I have a house to pay for, a car payment and insurance. If I was a nineteen year old kid, it would be a different story.
DDR: Does being in a band with your brother help or hinder the process?
Formed in the late 90's, Bobaflex is known to be one of the hardest working bands in Rock and Roll. When Gene Simmons said "Rock Is Dead" it’s obvious that he has not heard a Bobaflex album nor been to a show. Maybe he should add a few Bobalflex Albums next to his dusty KISS CD's. All kidding aside, Bobaflex is leading the charge with their brand of original Rock and Roll. Shaun and Marty McCoy are historically linked to the old feud between the Hatfields and McCoys, but if the feud would have been originally fought with vocals and instruments, it would of been over as fast as it began.