 |
| Shaun McCoy - Guitarist/Vocalist of Bobaflex |
We’re all swamped within the information age and bombarded with less than adequate bands that spew out music just to keep their record label at bay. Very seldom do we have the pleasure of hearing a band stay true to their fans and themselves without ever selling out. In a nutshell, this describes one of the most genuine, hard rock bands still out there today. The guys in Bobaflex have been in the business for years now, and through struggles within the industry and outside of it, they’ve managed to stay relevant and remember how to play their trademark, soothe your soul one minute, kick your ass the next, rock and roll. Aaron Manogue sat down with Bobaflex guitarist and vocalist Shaun McCoy to talk about what they’ve been up to and what they have in store for our ear drum’s pleasure coming this summer.
Aaron Manogue: What’s Bobaflex been up to for the past year or two?
Shaun McCoy: Well a little ways back our record label went bankrupt so we ultimately had to fight a legal battle with the t-shirts and touring. Once we got through that, we started to record a new album called, “Hell in My Heart.” We paid for it ourselves, we paid for every recording, and we paid the producer ourselves. Right now we’re working on a late spring, early summer release.
Manogue: Tell me how the tour is going right now. You guys are out kind of promoting the upcoming album release?
McCoy: Yeah dude, it’s going great! Fans have been waiting a long time so we wanted to make sure we had like fifteen tracks on this album and we wanted to get back out there and see all the people we love.
Manogue: Can you tell us a little about the new album?
McCoy: It’s fifteen tracks. Four of them were already done, we just remastered them. There’s ten brand new songs and a live track, which makes fifteen. A lot of it has a lot to do with what the bands been through in the past few years and the legal battles and the battle to stay a band and make this record. I’m excited man! It definitely has the most hooks as any album and it’s deep and rich. We decided instead of making the typical ten track album, that we wanted something longer to take it all in so a year later people are still listening to their favorite track. We miss the days with the longer tracks that really pay the fans back. There’s a lot of hard rock stuff and some more laid back stuff and we really jammed out from beginning to end.
Manogue: Since you’ve been in the business for ten plus years, what to you has changed about the process of recording and promoting a new record?
McCoy: We now have the same contacts as record labels do. Right now, mark my words in the next four or five years you’re going to see the music industry change so rapidly, so quickly. Everything is going to flip and the bottoms going to come out from under it. The guy who is ahead of the curve and knows how to survive and still play music will stay alive. My prediction is that people are going to start going to clubs again and they’re going to start packing clubs instead of arenas and coliseums. You’re going to go a club on a Wednesday night, whether you work the next day or not, you’re going to get a real rock show with a real band and great performance. I think that’s going to start coming back.
Manogue: What’s your favorite part of the whole process? Do you like touring, recording, etc?
McCoy: I love touring. That forty-five minutes on stage is great! We just like going city to city meeting fans. One of the best parts is having an idea, everybody working on it, and then that finished product when you finally have the finished mixed songs. For me it’s that payoff of driving it through to something solid and you can be happy about it.
Manogue: Are there any new tours coming out that you’re getting ready for besides the one you’re on now?
McCoy: Yeah man, we’re going to finish this one out in March. Then we’ll basically be going coast to coast probably four times a year and expect us to come to every city and nook and cranny in America. We’re going to be everywhere, man!
Check out Bobaflex at The Annex Sunday, March 13th and be looking out for their new album “Hell in My Heart” due out late spring, early summer!