Bobby Mahoney: ‘It feels urgent, it’s fun and catchy and we had a lot of fun making it’

New Jersey alt-rockers Bobby Mahoney will bring out their album full of summer anthems, Another Deadbeat Summer, on 14 June, marking their first record with Wicked Cool Records.

The band comprises Bobby Mahoney (lead vocals and guitar), James McIntosh (drums), Andrew Saul (guitar and vocals) and Jon Chang-Soon (bass and vocals). ‘I know those guys all from various circumstances at this point,’ Mahoney said. ‘I met James when I was around 17 or 18, so he’s been playing with me for 10 years now, which is pretty amazing. Andrew, I met through a Facebook advertisement looking for a guitar player and it turns out he had actually seen us play before and knew of us. And that’s how we found Jon as well on bass. He had mixed us as a sound engineer. He’s a great singer, songwriter on his own as well, under the name JC Soon.’

Mahoney describes Another Deadbeat Summer, which consists of 13 tracks, as an ‘energetic rock ‘n’ roll album full of catchy songs’: ‘The way the record came about was it’s actually two EPs that were separately recorded and then remixed into one new record but as the guy that wrote the songs, it feels like a new record to me, which is really cool and exciting,’ he said. ‘It feels urgent – it’s fun and catchy and we had a lot of fun making it.’

‘I actually took the title from the Pink Panther, Peter Sellers movie’

‘Shot In The Dark’ is a pulsating opener, hitting hard with a crunchy, hooky opening riff, and it would be easy to imagine his hero Springsteen singing it. ‘It’s a bit of a cliche title, admittedly,’ he said laughing. ‘That title has been used a lot, Ozzy Osbourne used it, Bon Jovi did. I think Metallica might’ve, too. AC/DC have a song called ‘Shot In The Dark’. I actually took the title from the Pink Panther, Peter Sellers movie. I started writing it in my college dorm room at William Patterson (University) in New Jersey. I was trying to write a Gaslight Anthem song in a way but in my own pastiche (laughs). When we were getting these tracks together, I was trying to think about the track listing and ‘Shot In The Dark’ really just set the tone and does describe what we do. If you had to listen to one song, I would say this is what we sound like.’

The track, which could easily encompass a lot of things, turns out to be about watching friends self-destruct ‘and only being able to help so much’: ‘When you’re trying to care for them as much as possible,’ he said. ‘Some of it is about when we overthink situations, or when we spend so much time worrying about what other people think, or how a social interaction went, that we drive ourselves crazy. Ultimately, usually, it’s probably not nearly as bad as we think it was.’

And whilst how every song comes together is different, ‘Shot In The Dark’ started with the title and the chorus, according to Mahoney: ‘Then I came up with that little verse and guitar part and brought it to James and the band,’ he said. ‘This is actually the second time we recorded it because one of the earlier self put-out albums we did was called Shot in the Dark. All these songs have been a process, you know, and evolving. ‘Shot in the Dark’, we play live pretty much every show. I said at the time that this song is going to put my grandkids through college (laughs). And I keep joking about it but I keep thinking, you never know!’

‘For people who have heard us, who have been following us for 10 years, I think this is the best we’ve ever sounded’

The title track ‘Another Deadbeat Summer’ has been around since 2014, although it has evolved a lot since then, picking up the tempo to become a full-on rock song. It has a slightly punky edge, it’s very singalongy and you could imagine the crowds going wild to it at a summer festival. ‘That was the first song that people started to sing of ours at shows, you know, back to us,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘It was one of the songs that Little Steven (actor, musician and producer Steven Van Zandt, who founded Wicked Cool Records as his garage rock label) heard. It still blows my mind even saying that sentence out loud, it’s still surreal to me. They liked this song and we formed a record around that. Some of the songs have been in the state of “becoming” over the years and they’ve changed but the core is still there. For people who have heard us, who have been following us for 10 years, I think this is the best we’ve ever sounded. A shout out to our friend Zack Sandler on the saxophone. For people who have never heard us before, this is, I think, an awesome introduction to what we do. I kind of, tongue in cheek, wanted to call it Greatest Hits, Volume 1!’

It’s another song that harks back to Mahoney’s student days: ‘I remember writing that in my dorm room at college,’ he said. ‘I finished it in my parents’ house with Jon Alba, a guy who was in the band when we started. I was very much thinking about Springsteen and Asbury Park.’ He describes it as being about an amalgamation of moments: ‘My friends had a party in high school, very much like the stereotypical movie where the parents are gone for the weekend (laughs). They had to clean up the house before they came back, that kind of thing. It was debauched, you know, at the time and still, I’m not too much of a partier myself, so I was there more as an observer (laughs). My friend had a whole movie that he made of the party, part of it was to film the house beforehand so they could see where to put everything back!’ They called it “the deadbeat summer” and I’m like: “I think that’s a song, I’m taking that!”‘

For me, the standout track on the album is ‘Empty Passenger Seats’: ‘I initially wrote the first part of ‘Empty Passenger Seats’ while we were driving home overnight after playing Richmond, VA for the first time,’ he said. ‘We were driving up the NJ Turnpike as the sun was rising. We had this feeling of accomplishment that we were doing exactly what we should be doing, and that imagery became the bridge of the song. I then spent time with our friend Dan Cohen (Creating Clementine) on the riff and the chorus in East Brunswick at my parents’ house. I remember also working on it with the band in a Motel 6 in Carlisle, PA, and listening to rough mixes in a parking lot in Georgia. It is very much a road song, and a good representation of what we do as a band.’

‘I try to give him a run for his money, though; I try to run around onstage, I try to get as sweaty as he does!’

It is, it’s such an anthemic rock song and McIntosh’s drumming speed reaches new found heights, creating a tempo that propels the song forward furiously: ‘We’re both trying to keep up with each other. It’s pretty fun,’ he said laughing. ‘He beats the hell out of those drums! I’m happy I’m not the drummer! That said, I try to give him a run for his money, though; I try to run around onstage, I try to get as sweaty as he does! I can’t let him do all the work, I’ve got to get in there, too!’

The song title entertains Mahoney: ‘It’s funny because when I think about it, when I came up with the idea, I was not alone in the car. I had this whole van full of my friends, so it was not an empty passenger seat in any way! The idea, though, was: “I’m in this van full of my friends, feeling really comfortable and feeling like I’m doing what I need to be doing”. Whereas with the girl I was dating at the time, who I wasn’t very happy with, it might as well have been an empty passenger seat because of that disconnect. That was where it came from, it’s very much a road trip song in that way.’

It’s a song they open with a lot: ‘It’s a great opening song,’ he said. ‘I always kid around and say we have 10 songs that could work as openers and 10 to 15 closing songs that could work. It’s just that pesky middle where you have to figure out the order (laughs). ‘Nothing For Nothing’ is a really good opener, too. When we do that, we do a little build-up intro for that. Or we’ve opened with ‘Deadbeat’. ‘Shot In The Dark’ also works as a great opener, not just for the record, but live, too. If we’re playing, we will have our foot in multiple camps at times. So if we’re playing for a younger punk, heavy rock crowd, we might tailor the set a certain way versus if we’re playing to more of a classic rock crowd. But ‘Roaring Twenties’ is usually towards the end.’

‘His advice for South by Southwest was: “If you don’t leave with no voice and crying, you did it wrong” – that’s great advice!’

He has also shared a stage with one of my favourite – and recent – interviewees, Frank Turner, and when I ask him what that was like he gets very animated: ‘Frank’s amazing, we did a show in Garwood, New Jersey a couple of years ago. He played a full band Sleeping Souls show and then an acoustic show after midnight. What a machine! What an amazing person, just so inspirational,’ he said. ‘He had me and a couple other of our friends open up acoustic, which was nice. And he took time to talk and gave good advice and emails back and forth once in a while. He told me to just keep going, keep doing the thing, keep writing, keep working. I’m trying to think of more specific things he told me. I’m so bad, I get starstruck! I’m talking to the person. And I’m like: “What am I doing to try not appear like an idiot?!” I’m trying to hold myself together and in doing that, I’m like: “Wait, what did they just say to me?!” Do you know Adam Wiener from Low Cut Connie? His advice for South by Southwest (SXSW, an annual hybrid festival in Austin, Texas) was: “If you don’t leave with no voice and crying, you did it wrong” – that’s great advice!’

Mahoney has also had the chance to jam with his long-term hero, Bruce Springsteen via the Light of Day Foundation, which raises money for Parkinson’s research. The founder, Bob Benjamin, started the foundation in the late 90’s when he was diagnosed with the disease himself: ‘He worked for Springsteen at a point in time. They did benefit shows to raise money and Springsteen started showing up and jamming with people unofficially (laughs). It became an unspoken thing: “Is he going to show up?” I cut my teeth as Willie Nile’s guitar tech growing up, so I was backstage tuning guitars and Bruce came to the show and Danny Gochnour introduced me to him, Bruce is a god to me. Towards the end of the show, my friend Danny said: “If you’re able to come out, they bring all the people out for the finale during Light of Day, they sing ‘Thunder Road’ usually.” I have Thunder Road lyrics tattooed on my arm! So I go and get out there and I’m on stage with 40 or 50 people that I really look up to like Willie Nile, Jesse Malin, Joe Grushecky and Joe D’Urso. And I’m standing next to Springsteen! I don’t know if he would know me if I fell on him (laughs) but I’m just so grateful to be in the room with him.’

Springsteen has a legendary guitar barn in New Jersey and I ask him if he’s managed to wangle an invite to it and he laughs: ‘It would be soooo great to be in that barn and see all of his guitars in the wild,’ he said enthusiastically.

‘My mom and I have a deep bond over that song, so it always meant a lot to me’

I ask him what ‘Thunder Road’ lyrics he picked as his tattoo: ‘I didn’t show him it, I think I would have been too embarrassed to do that,’ he said laughing. ‘He’s said it’s the corniest line he’s ever written, which I disagree with, but it’s: “I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk”, I love that line.’ I say that I really love it as well. ‘My mom and I don’t agree with him but that’s ok, he’s allowed to be wrong a little bit! My mom and I have a deep bond over that song, so it always meant a lot to me.’

He clearly comes from a close-knit and musical family: ‘I’m very lucky, I went to see Neil Young last night with both my parents, I have the coolest family,’ he said. ‘My parents and sister, my wife and sister’s boyfriend, we got a nice little rock ‘n’ roll unit. My mom and my sister sing. My mom tried to play guitar when I was a kid and didn’t take, but then my grandfather held onto that guitar and then I asked for it when I was 10, so it all connected. My dad cannot sing (laughs), god bless him, but he’s super supportive and a great roadie. My mom, my wife, they all help carry the guitar cases. I’m a very lucky guy.’

When you grow up within earshot of the Jersey Shore, and just a bridge or tunnel away from New York City, inspiration comes in waves. For Mahoney, an East Brunswick, New Jersey native, the music of Springsteen and Bon Jovi mixed seamlessly with Gaslight Anthem, Against Me! and The Menzingers. That’s also evident on tracks such as ‘No Amens In This Van’, which also has a Pearl Jam feel in places alongside its punky energy. It’s raucous and tight and builds towards a blisteringly rambunctious outro with a fuzzed up, squealey wall of guitars: ‘We wrote that when we broke down in Miami, Florida, ten minutes from the venue we were playing,’ he said laughing. ‘Our photographer and good friend Hannah Greve, who has been on the road with other bands in the past, told us a story about how one of the bands had said something about: “No Amens in this van” and I thought: “I’m taking that!” You know, good artists borrow from great artists, steal or whatever (laughs). I love taking titles very much. I started writing this song in the hotel room while we were stranded for a couple of days. Ok, so maybe stranded is exaggerating, there’s a lot worse places to break down!’

‘The Grateful Dead – some of their acoustic stuff really stood out to me when I was younger’

Mahoney has been inspired by a big list of legends over the years, including Neil Young, saying that ‘Heart of Gold’ was the first song he ever learned to play: ‘My mom sat me down with his Harvest album, he said. ‘Jesse Malin is another one, Bob Dylan, The Stones, The Beatles, Against Me!, The Gaslight Anthem, Brian Fallon, Green Day. And The Grateful Dead – some of their acoustic stuff really stood out to me when I was younger.’

‘Roaring Twenties’ has one of the prettiest guitar tones I’ve heard all year and I ask him how they created it: ‘That was probably my Gibson SG, I think,’ he said enthusiastically. ‘I think we doubled it with an acoustic six string, which was probably my Martin. We used a pedal in the studio called an Emperor Penguin. A shout out to cousin Frank, who we recorded that with, Frank Mara. This Emperor Penguin pedal had this kind of warbly jangles thing. I’m not sure I’ve seen one since, I don’t own it, so I think I need to get one or find one! My Gibson SG is definitely my workhorse guitar but I also have a Black 35, a double cut, made by a friend of mine, Black 35 guitars in Jersey. And there’s my Martin acoustic, I have a D15, a dark mahogany, and I have another Martin, a DM model that my grandfather left me’.

He has had some funny but also painful moments on stage: ‘My funniest moments as a musician are almost always in hindsight,’ he said. ‘It’s usually funny to laugh about something going horribly wrong onstage years later but in the moment it typically is very much not funny! My wireless guitar unit going out in the first song at the Prudential Center while opening for Bon Jovi is hilarious in hindsight but in the moment it was dreadful, but we handled it seamlessly and no-one noticed but us. Bruce Springsteen telling me “Don’t fuck up” before guitar teching for Danny Gochnour and jamming, and then after the show, following that up with “You didn’t fuck up” would be up there, too! The whole band is hilarious, James in particular, and we have a million dumb inside jokes that are pretty much only funny to us (“S!”)!’

If he could go for a drink with anyone, he is torn between two legends: ‘With Bruce Springsteen, I’d love to,’ he said. ‘But I might pick Keith Richards, he’s such a rock ‘n’ roll pirate (laughs), he’s the guy! I’d love to talk to him and be in his presence and soak up some knowledge. I’d have some nerdy questions about how he wrote ‘Midnight Rambler’. I would love to know where they got the idea for the tempo changes, the riff, and also to hear about the inspiration of the lyric. He could talk about the weather, I wouldn’t care. If I was able to survive that rite of passage, I’d be unstoppable!’

(Top photo from left to right: James, Jon, Andrew and Bobby. Photo credit: Hannah Greve.)