Cobra Starship just completed a UK tour and Push to Fire spoke to Ryland Blackinton (guitar/vox) from the band before their Leeds show in February.
How’s the tour going so far?
Good, this is only day three but so far it’s been shaping up fine. My jet lag is slowly dying down, no complaints. Ireland was good, we have never been there as a band and we loved it.
Do you have any pre-show rituals or a band mascot?
Jameson [Irish Whiskey]... In fact Jameson is our ritual and our mascot
As a band you have a quirky and unique style and image, how important is this for you?
I guess I wouldn't know unless we stopped being quirky. I guess it’s important for bands that I like to do it, but it’s also important for them not to take it too seriously.
How did you create 'Hot Mess'?
It took about a year, it was a really disjointed process, but I'm really glad that it turned out the way that it did. We started out with a session in New York and then we ended up doing another in The Poker Nose which is in Pennsylvania up in the mountains, so that was pretty cool. After that we did another session in Los Angeles and finished off the record in New Jersey. By the end of it we ended up with about 26 or 27 songs so we had plenty of material to make an album with but it was all good and I'm really glad that we waited.
If you could work alongside any artist/band (dead or alive) to collaborate with one of your songs, who would it be?
Do you guys know Major Lazer over here? Two DJs called Diplo and Switch, they are really cool. Other than that I would have to say Chromeo, it would be great to do a calibration with Chromeo.
Tell me a bit about 'Cobra Cam'
We were on tour with The Academy Is a few years ago, there was this guy called Jack who worked with them and did all of their video content. He was filming a weekly thing with the guys, just generally about general funny things and little sketches that they do. We liked the idea and decided that we would start just uploading anything whenever we felt like it. After this we saw the power of making it a weekly webisode and so we stole Jack from them. We just got wasted and riffed on ideas and ended up filming them. Some of our fans started really to love them as it’s an opportunity for them to get into all of our mannerisms and some of our inside jokes.
So have you had a good response from it?
Yeh we have, my mom loves them (it’s always good when your mum loves something) haha yeh. The label loved it and they want us to do a second season this year so I guess it’s good that we didn't get cancelled.
What is the response on the tour compared to tours like Warped and other US tours/festivals?
It’s tough to say as we are only three days into the tour but it’s better than Warped Tour straight away. It is hard to say because we have never really been here this time of year, it’s always in the summer but it’s cool for us. It has been kinda grey and raining a lot but it’s been fun. We have every single 007 movie on the bus and I’m up to the second one... From Russia with love..... 1963.
What are the main goals for Cobra Starship in 2010?
To watch every James bond movie! But on a serious note the ultimate goals are going to be...
* Don’t die
* Don’t get arrested
* Don’t get swine flu
* Rob a bank.. that would be cool
* and.... Have a good time... All the time
We do have a lot of small goals.
Quickfire round!
American Football / English Football : English Football
Hayley Williams / Avril : Hayley Williams
American Girls / English Girls : English Boys
Home town shows / New Shows : Home Town Shows
On Tour / Studio : Studio
Myspace / Facebook : milf hunter.com
Blink 182 / New Found Glory : None
Lyrics / Melody : Melody
Playstation / X-Box : X-Box
Gangster Rap / Hip-hop : Gangster Rap
Phone Calls / Text Messages : Sex Messages
Chinese Food / Italian Food : Italian Food
Supporting a band / Headlining : Headlining
Old School / New School : (stands up.. pauses and farts)
Crowd Surf / Mosh Pit : Crowd Surf
Orange juice; With Pulp / Without Pulp : Half and Half
iPhone / Blackberry : Blackberry
Will Smith / Jim Carey : Will Smith
Jager / Beer : Jager
Mac / PC : Mac
55 seconds (+10 points for creativity) = 45 seconds
