Interview: Mike Fitz of Bad Marriage

Interview With Mike Fitz of Bad Marriage

By: Lori McKone

We started talking about the song Denim and Leather. What made you choose that song to release as your new lyric video?

Great song. I’ve been a fan of Saxon for a long time. They’re an equivalent to me, like a Judas Priest, where they blur the line with some songs and albums that were rock and roll and metal. Denim and Leather is a super catchy song, and the lyrics are fun. The message is special in that it marries rock and roll and metal fans when it says, “denim and leather bought us all together” and how fun it is to go to shows. The vocals are in our singer Johnny’s wheelhouse and he really captured the vibe of that song.

So, you’re happy with the response from your fans?

Yeah totally. Everyone seems to like the song and we’re happy with the way it came out. We’ve been performing it for a few years. When we have longer set times, we’ll throw in some covers and that’s a revolving song. We decided to record it when we thought we fine-tuned it, you know, putting Bad Marriage’s, spin, or flavor on an old classic.

So, I understand the band has recorded a few new songs. Will you be putting that version of Denim and Leather on an EP, or are you working on a new project?

That song will not be on any hard copy anything. It’s available now on YouTube and we did a cool lyric video and it’s on all the streaming and digital download stuff like Apple and iTunes and Spotify and it will live there. As far as a new record, yeah, we’re releasing a new full-length record very soon. Pre-orders are going to begin this month and the album will have at least 10 songs and we’re really proud of them. We might throw in one or two more that we’re still in the process of writing and recording. It just depends on how those come together in the time frame we’ve set but this will be our third full-length album, and our first full-length with Tommy in the band so it’s exciting for that reason.

When can fans expect to see the album released?

I would say the first quarter of 2025. Continue to check out the Bad Marriage website for details.

Can you give fans an idea of the type of music they can expect to hear on this new album?

Yeah definitely. I mean it’s still going to sound like Bad Marriage. I think bands that have something special have a certain sound that when you hear them you instantly know its an Aerosmith, or a Metallica or a Led Zeppelin song and on and on. Those are the bands that I’ve always wanted to strive to capture so people say, “Okay, that’s Bad Marriage, you know?” So yeah the new record is still going to have that Bad Marriage sound, but we have a new member of the band, Tommy Skeoch, and obviously, I’m sure we’ll get into that, he brings an outside element from his days in TESLA and just being a different style of guitar player and songwriter than me and Ian and the rest of the guys in Bad Marriage. He adds a totally different style of guitar. What he does with the whammy bar and stuff that he does really makes our songs kind of pop out more. And again, he’s been around the block. He’s written huge songs that have sold millions of records, so he has the experience, and we absorb that from him, we learn from him and it’s just a great fit for the band.

I totally agree. I was curious. How does Tommy’s skill contribute to the songwriting and recording process remotely?

Tommy and I are very, very close. I do all the recording, the mixing, the mastering, everything that Bad Marriage does, right in my basement and we practice there as well. That’s what I love doing so it’s just kind of been my thing. I can easily write down ideas and email them to Tommy. He can listen to it, and it could just be two little guitar parts. I say, check this out. Write something, an additional part to it, you know? And so it’s easy to bounce ideas back and forth from me and Tommy, but he flies here a lot. We’re in New England, he’s in Florida so when we practice, Bad Marriage practices every Wednesday, so obviously, he can’t make those because we’d be spending a lot of money on flights and stuff. So, we practice and do whatever we do then we’ll brief Tommy on it and give him a crash course on songs we went over, whatever we plan on doing for the show or tour. If we have an upcoming show, we’ll fly him in a day or two before and then we have a rehearsal in my house with him. Tommy does his homework on his side. We do ours and it’s a pretty well-oiled machine. It’s been about a year since he’s been in the band, so we have a pretty good system now.

So how do you maintain that musical chemistry and cohesion when he comes in and out?

I guess it’s the same sort of thing because our communication is so common and close, you know? We’re always bouncing stuff back and forth. He’s sending the ideas we’re sending cell phone videos or little music notes and with technology today, it’s just very easy where back in the day, yeah it would be tough. Today you can write a song through email and then have it all ready for when it’s time to actually record in the studio, which I do anyway. So, you know, he sleeps in my basement right next to all the guitars and the recording stuff.

Yeah I saw them in a Bad Marriage post, all lined up, side by side like they were having a play date.

Yeah. Oh no that’s not all of them, that’s only a few. (laughing)

How do you balance the touring schedule with Tommy’s schedule since he is based in Florida?

Now that he’s in the band fully it is a lot easier than it was yeah. I mean now that Tommy is a full-time Bad Marriage his schedule is wide open so it’s just a logistics thing planning his flight a few days before we’re doing something so he can practice with us. We’ll do four or five hours of practice then we’re ready to go. Tommy’s a professional you know, which was one of the biggest draws when we hired him. Actually I don’t know if hired is the right term. I guess when I wanted him to become a permanent member of Bad Marriage. It was his professionalism and, you know, we gave him a bunch of songs to learn initially when he first came down and he nailed them, which solidified it. He’s a professional and he takes his job and his craft seriously.

So do any of the other band members have to adapt to fill in any gaps of sound for any of the performances?

Yeah the dynamic is initially, and I guess it’s still ongoing because Bad Marriage was an entity for seven or eight years before Tom so we had an established sound and a way of doing things so yeah. I mean adding a sixth member and a third guitar player is not a walk in the park, right? You can’t just throw somebody else in and expect it to be magical so yeah, we’ve had to adjust some, but everyone was onboard, and if they weren’t initially, they are now. Everyone sees the good outweighs the bad of having another member. I mean, it’s another seat on the bus, another guitar, amp and less stage room that we’ve had, and we knew all that going in and it was not going to be easy but nothing much is. Nothing crazy has changed other than we have an added dynamic and that we all are embracing.

Curious. Who does the bulk of the songwriting now that Tommy has joined the band? Is it collaborative? All Bad Marriage? Mostly you and then you bounce ideas off other people?

Yeah you said it. It’s initially me I think because I have the recording studio and I’m around it everyday. I wake up and fire up my studio and my guitars and that’s what I do. I like to say that I have the foundation or the backbone of the new songs and then it goes from there to a practice night. Every Wednesday we practice. So when the guys come down, not only do we practice or rehearse the songs we have to play for an upcoming show, but we also have allotted time that we’ll write some more and jam on some new ideas. So I’ll email like I said and they’ll some to practice and they’ll add their own stuff to it, and a lot of times it’s not fully written but I’ll have 60% of a song then the other guys will collaborate, and they’ll finish the arrangement. And then I worked a lot with Jonny, our singer. Me, and him are I would say the primary lyric writers of the songs; we work a lot on the lyrics and the melodies. But again, it’s a system that nothing really changed. The only thing that’s changed is now Tommy has songs that he’s worked on himself for years so he’s bringing those into the fold and kind of running it through the Bad Marriage thing to see if they can work and a lot of them can be within our Bad Marriage sound. So we have a lot to digest and make ours but yeah Tommy has a ton of material, we have a ton of material, so yeah, it’s a good problem to have.

Will any of Tommy’s song ideas be on the new album?

Yeah totally. I can’t give you an exact answer, but I mean I would say almost close to half because that was the exciting part. It wasn’t just putting out another Bad Marriage record with Tommy, we wanted to give his fans more of Tommy with Bad Marriage.

So you have a couple of songs that are emotional songs like 300 Miles, how do you get in touch with your emotions and make a song like that? Is it always drawing from raw emotion or do you ever find it through something else like art or extracurricular activities? Where does it all come from and how do you successfully put it into a song that your fans are going to like and be in touch with as well?

Right. It’s a very good question but it’s a tough one to answer because, for example 300 Miles, I wrote that before Bad Marriage was a band. I had the guitar part and a lot of the lyrics. That whole vibe of 300 miles away and you’re trying to get back to your relationship or your loved ones or whatever and I had that idea for a while. I didn’t know Bad Marriage was going to be a thing, so it wasn’t written. You don’t really write it specifically for something. You can try, but it’s not always going to work. When Bad Marriage started becoming a thing that was something of mine. I brought it forward to the guys and presented it to our singer and he wrote some additional lyrics, and it just worked. It wasn’t until we did that EP that you’re referring to that was produced by the bassist of TESLA, Brian Wheat, he’s a good friend of mine. When we were trying to work out ideas I sent him a bunch of my stuff and he liked that particular vibe of that idea, so we fleshed it out when we worked with him, and that’s what brought that song to life. He liked it. Otherwise I don’t know if it would have even come out. In that instance that song was something I had for a while so it’s totally situational lyric-wise, inspirational wise. The Pennyman song that we just put out just happened. I’d be enlightened and things would just come to me and I’m fortunate that I could lay it down in my studio so I could just get it out. The studio is where I can really get stuff down and its more solidified.

I often wonder what a rock star does when they are not creating and performing. I see on your website a hobby you are passionate about is metal detecting. How does someone get into such a hobby? How were you introduced?

Bad Marriage, and I are specifically from New England and so I’ve always liked history. I wouldn’t say I’m a history buff and know crazy facts, but I appreciate it and where we live is very Colonial. It’s where the pilgrims first landed it’s where everything started for the United States. It’s very Colonial America so I’ve always been fascinated by the houses. Even Tommy is fascinated because I’ll be driving around town to go get coffee or run errands and we’ll pass a dozen houses in neighborhoods that were built in the 16-1700’s. So about 10 years ago I was living in Boston and at the time saw a TV show where someone had a metal detector, and it just hit me that I should get one and start exploring the tons of undeveloped industrial land. It’s like anything else, it’s addicting when you start finding some cool stuff and meet people that do it as well, you network and find new places to treasure hunt. You just fall in love with it. There are spots I’m investigating historically, where battles might have happened by looking at old maps in the library or town hall of houses on streets built in the 17-1800’s. You might do a Google Maps search and see those house foundations are now all covered by woods. All the good stuff is located on permission private property and sometimes the only way to be able to metal detect there is to know someone who can ask for that permission. Networking’s key in that instance.

How did Tommy get interested in metal detecting?

Tommy’s a huge history guy. Before I knew him, he’s big into the Civil War, so when he started hanging out with me and writing songs in New England; I mean he visited with TESLA when they were touring, but they were in and out of here I believe. He never spent a lot of time here before, and he started falling in love with the area. He asked me to take him with me sometime and once I did, he loved it. He’s not as into it as I am, it’s a passionate hobby of mine, but I try and get him out once in a while, but he loves it. He enjoys it. People don’t realize how time-consuming it can be. I mean some days I’ll go out there for eight hours, barely able to walk afterward, and have found nothing.

Mike, is there anything that you want your fans to know about any of your upcoming music?

Just that we’re all really excited about the new record. The Tommy thing is still fresh to us and we’re still, tip of the iceberg, kind of thing for music that we’re writing and songs that we’re coming up with, and everyone’s excited for people to hear it. I think we’re going to take pre-orders for some packages for the new recording like CDs and vinyl this month. Continue to check out the Bad Marriage website where you can link to all media sources at https://www.badmarriagemusic.com

Are you doing anything special with the vinyl for your third album and Tommy’s first year anniversary with the band?

Yeah we always do but I can’t go into details, we are still brainstorming ideas, so nothing is final. We did something really cool for the first album that we might bring back and because it’s Tommy’s first full year well that’s just exciting.

Mike, thank you, I appreciate you giving me time to speak with and photograph you.

Check out Bad Marriage’s final show of 2024 at Devlin’s Tavern in Bellingham, MA and check out their website for February and March 2025 listings.