Reviewed on Apr 30, 2007
Heaviest loves interviews. We especially love interviews which turn a little bit silly. Recently we caught up with Gabe and Ryland from the band Cobra Starship, and this interview was silly from the very start. They recently scored a hit song with their track from Snakes On A Plane (the theme no less!) and even have a track on the new Turtles movie. They are fans of Wikipedia, Turtles, and they are slightly worried about the prospect of bare breasts.
Interested? Read on!
Heaviest: Hello – who are you and what do you do?
Ryland: Hi I’m Ryland and I play electric guitar!
Gabe: I’m Gabe Saporta and I sing!
Heaviest: For those unfamiliar with CS – tell us a little about the band…
Gabe: Really brief history… I was in a band called Midtown before and then I went on a spiritual quest into the desert, I was bitten by a cobra from the future who taught me how to dance and make beats. He told me… no wait, he INSTRUCTED ME to make Cobra Starship. He took me away on his crazy spaceship but brought me back, I did the song for Snakes On A Plane, it took off, I got these guys together for the band, we put out a record, yada yada yada, we kick ass, and that’s it.
Heaviest: What can we expect when we hit play on our CD?
Ryland: The biggest dance party EVERRR!
Gabe: Well this is a cautionary thing, more of a warning… if there are women in the room, and you have a problem with exposed breasts, you really shouldn’t play this CD. Tops just… disintegrate… not just disappear, truly the fibers of it will just come undone and the girl will become naked and they will dance with you.
Ryland: For sure. It’s like… the fibers just… collapse.
Heaviest: Well now one wonders what will happen if there are lots of exposed breasts tonight?
Ryland: Well, we’re supporting Fall Out Boy tonight. I guess if there are lots of exposed breasts I guess we’ll be in the nearest county jail!
Gabe: I think we’re lucky really, the venue have kindly put up lots of warnings about this issue and have provided plenty of costume tape to attach to your clothes.
Ryland: Yeah those signs are cool. It’s like the same kind of thing you have at fairgrounds for pregnant women and epileptics.
Heaviest: Does Cobra Starship have a particularly high level of fans who are pregnant women or epileptic… or both?
Gabe: Well.. hmm, not really but I think we’re going to be striving for that demographic.
Ryland: It’s definitely something to work for.
Gabe: Yeah, you don’t just get that. You’ve gotta work for it.
Heaviest: Ok, so i have a have a press release which says that as a band you are ‘teaching hipsters to not take themselves so seriously and telling emo kids to stop being pussies’. Subsequently I’m wondering how you’ve been getting on with this?
Gabe: Well, the thing is… hmm… the taking themselves so seriously thing is the one which we’ve really succeeded in so far… ‘cos, well, there’s been a few instances where we’ve toured in parts of America where the kids didn’t know who we were, and they’ve got the flat ironed hair and the eyeliner, you know, that kind of thing and the bandanas! The emo kids. No wait… the hipsters…
Ryland: We are hipsters…
Gabe: What? Oh… well, whoever these kids are… we tried to get across this idea of just not putting on this moody type of thing… which WE never do. I think it’s worked.
Ryland: (in English accent) We’re just ‘aving a larf!
Heaviest: Now you are of course a relatively new band but most of you have had a degree of success with previous bands (Midtown – Gabe, Ivy Leage – Ryland) what affect do you think this has had or does have on Cobra?
Gabe: I think it just basically taught us the ropes you know. I think we kind of fulfilled our artistic needs and we also got to see the business side of it, so now…
Ryland: It’s fun!
Gabe: Yeah it’s fun
Ryland: Basically this has given us a really concentrated idea of what its like in this scene. More so with this band than my previous band anyway!
Heaviest: So does this really come back to the ‘not taking yourself too seriously point from before?
Gabe: Yeah. There’s two ways to look at music I think, either it makes you think and look at your life more closely, or it’s something that makes you forget your problems… and when you first start out playing music you are really inspired by it. You write songs to look at your life more closely… I think we’ve all kind of done that so now we are just all about having fun. Making kids come to the show and forget about their problems.
Ryland: And shake their asses!
Heaviest: Your album “While The City Sleeps, We Rule The Streets” has been described as an impossibly catchy rock extravaganza – so tell us all about it.
Ryland: Well, with the exception of one or two tracks it’s very aggressive, very… er… light and free, but the beats are never less than 175 bps
Gabe: BPM bro! Beats per second?! BRRRRRAP!
Ryland: hahah!
Gabe: You know though, the record was kind of strange though. After I got back from the desert, you know – where I met the Cobra, I just started experimenting with like, writing beats, as he instructed me to do so, and to be honest I really wasn’t sure what the sound was going to be like. I had all these ideas and I went and recorded one song… which was the Snakes On A Plane song, and after that took off I had to really record everything else quickly. It all just like came together in literally 3 weeks. It was a very different process from writing a rock record. This was like, going to a studio and working with a mad scientist in a laboratory. Cutting and pasting bits.
Ryland: It’s kind of backwards in a way. It really started with a beat where as with a rock record for example it may have started with an acoustic guitar.
Gabe: And as for the vibe of the record, it’s a fun, dancey type record, but at the same time it’s not completely devoid of intellect.
Heaviest: If there was one specific message that you’d like to convey with the album what do you think this would be?
Ryland: Have a good time!
Gabe: Have a good time, all the time!
Ryland: Buy the record!
Gabe: Yea but if you don’t buy the record, we’re not going to cry about it. We’re just going to keep on having a party! You’ll be the one missing out!
Heaviest: You are a newish band, supporting FOB in London. That’s huge. What do you make of that?
Ryland: From my perspective, in the way that this band has grown and evolved, although this may seem like a big step, for me it just feels like progression. I felt that sooner or later this was going to happen, but it’s pretty awesome.
Gabe: For me, Well, you know I was in a band for a long time and we kind of came along early in the scene. The infrastructure so to speak wasn’t there so it’s just like… you had to make it up as you went a long, but right now, this situation happened so fast…. We’re playing to 3000 people a night with Fall Out Boy, the first time I came over here with Midtown we played to like 30 people. I am VERY grateful for it.
Ryland: I think we’re all very grateful to be here! We never forget for a minute that we’re very lucky to…
Gabe: Have done it the way we have done it.
Ryland: Yeah.
Gabe: I think partly, we have all been in similar situations before in our previous bands and we’ve kind of learned from our mistakes. We planned it out a little bit smarter. It’s awesome. We’re very lucky, we’re having a great time, and the kids have been really supportive.
Heaviest: It always seems tough when you are opening at big shows but how do you think the material has been going down with the kids?
Ryland: Well last night is the only example we can draw from but a lot of kids knew the singles… but even the kids that didn’t know the singles… you could see this want… this, yearning to know them… so they do this thing where they are mouthing along… kinda, trying to get it but getting it wrong. For these kids to let some inhibitions go, you know, the ones who take themselves too seriously, it’s good to see them trying.
Gabe: And yeah of course for us we’re all about having a good time at shows. We MAKE kids have a good time, even if they’ve never heard of us. Our vibe on stage is all about the party.
Heaviest: Snakes! + Turtles. Two movies, two songs, do you have some kind of fascination with animal movies?
Ryland: Well, only amphibians and reptiles.
Gabe: Actually I have something to say. I was on Wikipedia today and I found out that a turtle is a reptile. It’s not even an amphibian.
Ryland: Oh..?
Gabe: Yea, it lays eggs! There’s only three types of amphibians really. Yes… sorry, reptiles. The Cobra from the future!
Ryland: It’s funny really that we got the TMNT opportunity. I think we just realised that if an animal movie came up we just had to take it. We’re destined.
Gabe: Yeah…. Plus, I loved Turtles.
Ryland: I think kids who don’t know anything about Turtles will go and see this but guys like us who watched this growing up are a little perturbed about it being all CGI.
Gabe: No way dude, I’m excited about it!
At this point, a conversation about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles carried on for about ten minutes, and then the band had to go on stage, so we thank them for their time!
Don’t forget to check out Cobra Starship at their official website here!