Cobra Starship
interview by Grey
Yours truly, hearts Cobra Starship.
In case you have not been listening to the radio in the past year, or not reading my journals (shame on you), or are maybe an idiot, then this may be the first time you have heard of the Cobra.
I realize a lot of the members of this site are male but know this: man, woman and beast are suceptible to "sass attacks" via Cobra Starship.
Cobra Starship is a band fronted and concieved by a magical Uruguayan Jew named Gabe Saporta, who a lot of you ladies might know from Midtown and maybe some of you dudes. Also in the band are Ryland Blackington, Alex Suarez, Nate Novarro, and at the time of the interview some chick who has since been replaced by lovely, wave haired, vintage clad Victoria Asher.
Unlike Saporta's other project Midtown which offers thoughtful introflections of life and its mysteries, Cobra Starship offers fun, dance parties, keytar playing, hilarious blog videos, and mild to moderate amounts of shit talking.
I fell in love with Cobra Starship the minute my friend had told me that Gabe informed her that she had lipstick on her teeth and offered to help her with that embarrassing predicament by shoving his fingers in her face to remove the lipstick.
If you can't support that, there's something wrong with you.
The Cobra's album While The City Sleeps We Rule The Streets is in stores now, also look for Cobra Starship on tour with Fall Out Boy (omg.....!!!!) this April and May.
Ladies and Gentleman, Gabe Saporta.
Grey: I know you give a lot of different versions about how your band started but what version are you gonna give me today?
Gabe: haha I have one story and I'm sticking to it and you know what it is. What's wrong with my story? You don't like my story about going out to the desert on a special retreat and getting bit by a cobra from the future?
Grey: No I like that story! It's just that I've heard a few different versions and I was told that you make up a different version every time.
Gabe: Yeah thats probably true. It's hard to lie to your friend though. I lie strictly to journalists all the time.
Grey: So for the purposes of the interview what do you want to tell me?
Gabe: Well you can write that story about how I went to the desert (Long story short. Gabe went on a spiritual retreat to a desert and was bitten by a cobra from the future who then basically gave him some kind of a 5 to 10 year plan. You can read the entire detailed story here. Gabe is magical and that supercedes any doubts you might have about spiritual retreats and/or the native habitats of cobras. Get into it.) But....Ok here is what I'll tell you cuz I'm your friend... you know... I was doing midtown for a while... I felt like I had done everything Iwanted to do... I was getting to a point where I really liked what Idid I especially was proud of the last Midtown record. I put a lot into it... A lot of stuff that was really personal. When you do something so personal, you have this conflict because you want it to do well but at the same time you don't want to undermine the integrity that you've infused into whatever you've done. I didn't wanna do anything to undermine it like do interviews with certain magazines and stuff like that, tour with certain bands, that sort of thing puts you in a weird position because like poeple are gonna stop offering you opportunities no matter how much they like you if they think that you don't wanna work for stuff and that you think you're too good for it. So its like a common thing a lot of artists have happen. So I had a lot to think about and I was thinking like well I've done everything I wanna do, I've made a great record for Midtown and Ireally don't wanna repeat myself again, so maybe I should stop doing music, I was really going to stop doing music and leave off on a good note as opposed to just you know beating a dead horse or letting it fade away in a bad way. So I was just like I should just stop doing music. Then I had this whole revelation. Midtowns really personal. That's like my darker question about life, then there's a part of me that just likes to have fun and party and go out and have a good time and get trashed and be an idiot you know? So I thought, 'Why don't I make music thats just fun?' and I started Cobra Starship.
(I love this thoughtful, honest version - but truthfully I was hoping for a version involving near death or, a rocket strapped to someones taint.)
Grey: Cobra starship got a lot of the full gamut of media attention... MTV, MySpace, evrything right away... how do you feel that you've handled that so far?
Gabe: I think the first thing I did with Cobra Starship is the Gwen Stefani thing.
(Cobra Starship covered then perverted Hollaback Girl and it got mad myspace plays. Then Ellegirl sent Gabe on a mission to crash the L.A.M.B. show during New York's fashion week and meet Gwen - apparently he was successful. Also in what I'd like to think is an atypical act of cuntsmanship on the part of Gwen, she sued him. Bummer.)
That was like a year before Snakes On A Plane came out. So I did that and I started writing songs and that's all that truly was going on. You know I was writing new songs, and they were great songs and no one really wanted anything to do with me, because it had been a while since Midtown, and I was doing things so emphratically different from Midtown so people were scared to touch it. So the Snakes On A Plane thing happened, and then all of a sudden Cobra Starship took off. I wasn't even sure if I was going to keep the name Cobra Starship because I was starting to lose faith in the whole experience in the desert with the cobra, I was like... maybe, you know, I didn't have it. Maybe I just imagined the whole thing, because the cobra told me to call the band Cobra Starship, and I was like maybe I should give up the name give up the idea and should try things differently. Snakes On A Plane came about and it was just on from there. So you know, then we got a lot of media attention with the movie, which was awesome. I probably wouldn't have a band if not for the Snakes On A Plane thing, because it just catapulted me. Otherwise I would have had to like start from scratch, and do things so differently. It would have been really hard. I dont know if I would have had it in me to start a whole new band from scratch. It would have been really hard for me. So it just catapulted me to the place I was with Midtown or beyond, even. The strange thing about Snakes On A Plane is that we still are a new band... we've been a band for four months, our new record just came out... but people also are familiar with the name which can be both good and bad.
Grey: Cool. (I bring it with the thoughtful responses, eh?)
Gabe: I know I can just talk forever, right?
Grey: That's good I was hoping that would happen because if you had given me one word answers I would choke you as soon as you got to LA.
Gabe: Will you choke me anyway? (uh...holla.)
Grey: yeah probably. I've come pretty close in the past. Just kiddin'...
Gabe: That's hot.
Grey: You're on Decaydence Records (Pete Wentz's record label who is also the bass player for Fall Out Boy... a band you have all heard me tesfity on about at least 80 million times last year.) What are the advantages of of dealing with a smaller label as opposed to a major?
Gabe: Kind of. In a way its kind of set off of that. Major labels are these huge burocatic cumbersome machines, and its hard for things to, uh, work in certain ways. The good thing about Decaydence/Fueled By Ramen is that they do all the artist development. They have a small staff thats like a family that basically works on a few bands and they have a certain way of doing things and they target to a certain niche. I felt like that was the right place for this thing to give you the best shot.
Grey: Do you feel that your pre-existing relationship with this label has helped in any way or do you feel like everyone is treated the same?
Gabe: It helps in a sense that I didn't have to go the normal things I'd have to go through when I was trying to get signed to a label. I've known Jon Janick for like 8 years and I've known Pete forever also so it was kind of natural. We're managed by the same company so its all in the family. There was not even a question. I'm going here you know. Another good thing about Fueled By Ramen is that there aren't a lot of bands there, and the bands get love and attention, and do get treated equally according to their needs as well.
Grey: How do you feel that using online networking sites like Buzznet.com and Myspace worked in your advantage?
Gabe: The thing is with our band is that were so new that people wanted to see who we were and get to know us. I think thats what the great thing about all that online stuff is that it gives us a chance to show us as a band beyond who we are - and our personalities which I have to say is really uh handsome and funny... and witty.(haaaa!) I'm just fuckin around. All that online shits great, because even if you're not in the city you're playing, they can still meet you, kind of.
(If you have a spare moment when you are not lurking boobs on this site, put your dick or dildo down for about 15 minutes and check out the Cobra Starship video blog on Myspace - link at the end of this interview. Hilarity will ensue, I promise you. It covers all spectrum of random shit. If you saw a video of some people making a band out of singing furry electronic puppets, you'd try to marry them. Wouldn't you? I did.)
Grey: So what can the kids expect from Cobra Starship in 2007?
Gabe: Um, more venom? We're basically touring through the summer and were definitly gonna write a new record as soon as possible. The record that I did I kind of did it by myself and now I have this amazing band with me and uh and thats the thing were most excited about is writing together....we just wrote a song for uh hold on am I.....we just wrote a song for the new turtles soundtrack.
Grey: Haha... So you have that whole reptile movie shit on lockdown,right?
Gabe: Yeah and its really funny cuz in the song I go 'Oh I'm ready for it....oh shit I used that line again'. Its fuckin' funny dude.
Grey: Could you describe Cobra Starship's vibe in 3 words?
Gabe: I could describe it in 2 words, dude. Sass Attack.
Sass attack, indeed.
:: www.cobrastarship.com : cobrastarship.buzznet.com :: myspace.com/cobrastarship ::
