Bad Mary are ringing in spooky season the only way they know how; loud, fun, and full of punk attitude. The New York rockers are celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with their fiery take on “Time Warp,” a cover that captures both the campy chaos of the original and the raw, unfiltered grit that defines their sound. Bassist Mike Staub has joined TGEFM for a quick roll of the dice to chat. Between their high-voltage live shows, theater and teaching gigs, and boundless creative energy, Bad Mary prove once again that rock ‘n’ roll is alive, well, and ready to dance.
Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview! You’re kicking off spooky season with “Time Warp.” What made now… 50 years after The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the right time for Bad Mary to take it on?
We’ve been playing this song for years live and always loved the way it sounded – so we figured – it’s the 50th anniversary, it’s October, why not record and release it now.
“Time Warp” is such a theatrical, chaotic song. How did you balance staying true to the original while giving it that Bad Mary grit?
We’re bringing our compact sound to it – and our chaotic growly energy to the feel. We wanted it to sound close to the original but ensure we put our spin on it and gave it a big of a punky makeover. Raw, unfiltered, rock and roll.
You all have creative careers outside the band; theater, teaching, pop culture events. How do you avoid burning out while keeping Bad Mary’s fire burning?
It’s hard. We like to ensure that we take our time off, have our free time, and engage in things that make us laugh and smile. Movies, games, comics, entertainment we indulge in – we even visit a theme park here and there.
Bad Mary has always embraced fun and chaos but underneath that, your songs carry a lot of heart. How do you balance being tongue-in-cheek and totally sincere?
We think our tongue-in-cheek fun is us being sincerely ourselves. We like to joke around, we’re quite sarcastic, but we also want to ensure we’re having fun. We can’t not be ourselves! So, the whole feeling of a Bad Mary show (and record) is to write the music we want to perform – and give people a fun place to escape to for a little bit.
Roll of the Dice is a short interview format with a variable amount of questions. A pair of dice is rolled and the total, between 2 and 12, is the amount of questions we can ask. All questions are given to the interviewee(s) at once, and no follow-ups are allowed. The interview may be lightly edited for content and clarity.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/