from West Virginia and not from LA or California, there was not a lot of people that know how the music industry works. West Virginia is an amazing place and the music scene is off the chain, the fans are crazy. They but your merch, buy your records, support you, bring you dinner, they become family and friends. It's one of the reasons I am able to do what I do. In the beginning, they would buy the merch and all that and that would allow us to venture into markets that didn't know us and lose our asses only to come back home to make enough money to back out and do it again. That was the one way we knew to get out music out there, was to go play live. We knew we were not going to be on MTV and by the time we got to the point where we could afford a video, MTV was gone. Radio is a tricky game, but we are learning to play it. Before all that, it was impossible to be seen on a national level unless you went out and looked people in the eye and shook their hand. The crazy thing is, that's what has come back around. You go out and meet people and the buzz starts from the ground up.
DDR: With the new album, can you explain the name Charlatans Web?
MM: My brother came up with the name and as soon as he said it, everyone stopped and said, that's it. It's a play on Charlotte's Web. Charlatan mean fake, like a snake oil salesman and we have met a lot of them during our time in the industry. Sometimes we have been that person. The songs on the album are reflective of the things we've done or things that have happened to us or our friends in the music industry. It came together as a dark record. With that being said, there are kind people out there, Doug Weber is one of them. He's a hard-working, good person. What we have noticed though, the more you project positive and the more you let positive people around you, good things happen. There for a while though after the label bankruptcy and going through managers that were scumbags, it felt like a dark and dirty place.
DDR: The album did sound more dark than previous albums...
MM: Yeah, it's a good thing though...I don't think our next album is going to be called Sunshine and Rainbows.(laughing) Actually, starting next week, we are going in to write our next album and get everything ready to start another tour in February. We have a lot of things we wrote over the tour and we can't wait to get back into the studio.
DDR: You guys are also sponsored by Coldcock Whiskey?
MM: Yes, they are awesome. Things are starting to blow up and Adam's a cool cat. I've known him from the Jager days and he's a really passionate dude and whatever he gets behind, usually goes. The cool thing is Coldcock is almost everything they sponsor is music based...and it tastes really good!(laughing) They are popping up everywhere and they are doing well, I'm happy for them.
DDR: I digress, back to your album. How long did it take to put it all together?
MM: Actually, it was really easy. We have been writing together for so long, it was the easiest album we ever did. It came together really fast. We wrote it in a week and a half, but everyone in Bobaflex writes the songs. If you don't get up early in the morning, have your coffee and put your game face on, you will have songs fly past you and you won't even realize it until they are on the record. Sonically, it's one of the best records we've ever done. But it came together and done in about a month, artwork and all. What I think really worked with us was that we came right off the tour into the studio to write and put it all together. I think because of that, it sounded tighter and we were sharper because we were used to playing seven nights a week for three months straight.
DDR: Usually bands will take a break after coming off of tour before going back into the studio.
MM: Well, that's not our story(laughing), we like to work work work. This band is a 24 hour a day job and we love it and wouldn't have it any other way.
DDR: One of my favorite songs off the album is “I'm Glad You're Dead”. Can you tell me the inspiration behind that song?
MM: My brother came to me after he had and experience on the road with a friend saying that he would be celebrating that night and drinking heavily. Shaun asked him what was going on and his friend told him that his dad had just died. Shaun said that he was sorry to hear the news and the guy says”Oh, I'm not. I'm glad he's dead. He was a son of a bitch.” My brother was like holy shit, like a bell went off in his head. At the same time, Shaun is a big Batman fan and in the first Batman with Michael Keaton, The Joker said “I'm glad your dead”. Right there it all came together for my brother. He came to me with the idea and I thought it was great and as we talked about the song and it starting growing legs. During the writing process, we found that a lot of people could relate to the song and when it hit the radio, we realized there was a whole nation that felt that way about SOMEBODY in their life. Whether it is Saddam Hussein or your uncle, everyone has that feeling about someone, we are just too afraid to say it out loud. Me and a friend of mine directed the video and that was just as fun and we did it on a shoestring budget and little cameras. We fans come out that made their own clothes, my dad was the preacher in the video, it was just a blast.
"The more you project positive and the more you let positive people around you, good things happen."