Meet Bad Spy

If I have learned anything in this wacky world it is that Bad Spies make great music. Enter Bad Spy, the Brooklyn-based project helmed by Jack Dougherty will dazzle you with upbeat pop and existential dread. Get to know the artist a little bit in our latest interview as we chat about their latest album “Heat Death of the Universe” and some other fun things.

“BICYCLE RIDING” A fill in the blank by Bad Spy

Most doctors agree that bicycle ROLLING is a LAVISH form of exercise that benefits STAIRCASES of all ages. Riding a bicycle enables you to develop your LEFT PINKY muscles as well as GINGERLY increase the rate of your NOSE beat. Bicycle riding is also a POTENT means of GLOBE BAR. More FIREWORKS around the world GRAB bicycles than drive KNOBS. No matter what kind of TROPHY you ride, always be sure to wear a ALMOND on your head and have reflectors on your SHIN, especially if you FLIP.at night.

Would You Rather

your favorite restaurant be modified to have massage chairs that are on at all times, or there is a clown in there doing clown things at all times? Please explain why.


The chairs. Soul food goes great with a massage, I imagine, and it would be much harder to ignore the clown. I don’t think I have the type of clown fear that you see in movies or small town cable news, but in my mind they do have a strong association with the time that, as a carsick kid, I threw up in the parking lot of a clown themed pizza place off the garden state parkway. So, the chairs. 


Some Questions with Bad Spy

What do you want your listeners to take away from your upcoming EP?

I think it would be nice if people could tell just that I had fun making it, even though I think a lot of my own anxieties come through in writing songs, I think people can relate to those as well. To that point also, that we collectively have been making art about the end of the world for a while, and that hopefully we get the chance to continue doing so.

Was there a concert or song that inspired you to want to make music? 

More than any song or performance I should credit the people around me when I was making those decisions. My dad doesn’t play but raised me on classic rock and new wave, and once I got to high school I was super lucky to stumble into a thriving late 00’s suburban emo/screamo/hardcore scene. I played some talent shows and stuff as a kid but I can probably narrow it down to a handful of garage and vfw shows at 14/15 that solidified music as a lifestyle.

What are your hopes for the NYC music scene post-COVID-19? 

The last show I went to before covid was a great, packed basement show at Tarheel Lounge in Bed Stuy, and I think like everyone my main hope is that we can eventually get it right back to where we left it. It’ll be *tough because our gov would rather build fighter jets and kill people than give us money and medicine, and we need to pay attention to how this time will shape the who and where of the community, but the people that make up the scene give me hope that it’s not really going away unless we fully need to revert back to being hunter gatherers. 


Who do you show your work for feedback? Why? 

My bandmate Alex and one of my oldest friends/bandmates Keith are usually the people who I send demos to, both because I trust them more than anyone to know what I’m going for, and because there’s a good chance one or both of them will be adding a guitar or bass part. Also, it usually means something good if my girlfriend Madeline is humming a track around the apartment later on.


What is the last book you read?

Black Wave by Kim Ghattas. It’s about the connected histories of Iran and Saudi Arabia, and how the US’s consistent interactions in their rivalry has been shaping world politics for decades. But, David Gaeber just passed away & his writing is pretty crucial right now, I think.

What was the creative process like working on your upcoming EP?

I’m always writing/demoing but some periods are more dense or focused than others. This batch of songs came out of the ways the deterioration of things in the first few years of trump’s presidency manifested through some long-held anxieties about how things might go down. “Heat Death of the Universe” is kind of a catch-all for many ‘end of the world’ scenarios, and it’s the one at the most comfortable distance. Looking back I definitely snuck some non-dystopian tracks in there, about cute neighbors and fictional medic-detectives, which feels right given that plenty of things continue to feel good and normal while the world ends around them. 

If you were an onomatopoeia which one would you be?

Crush!

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)


I have a very new small label and studio called Ghostie Recordings, and other than compulsively make my own music I’d like to always help the insanely talented independent songwriters and bands that I keep finding around me record and release their music in the most beneficial way possible for them. If you’re reading this that’s probably you, hit me up! On 10/30, we’re releasing a Halloween compilation tape with some NYC area bands, proceeds go to Housing Justice 4 All to fight evictions. Follow us on IG for that & future releases! & thank you TFR!