Cobra Starship-Dance Dance Revolution

 

Even if you’re not a Cobra fan, please read this. I read this interview a while back and never got to repost it thanks to my laptop internet crashing, but this interview is amazing. It really made me have newfound respect for Gabe Saporta. A lot of what he says makes a hell lot of sense, especially about the subconscious revolution part, how the entire revolution has been repackaged for the masses. Its like how so many pop artists nowadays don’t write their own songs, they can barely sing, they just have the looks and are packaged and marketed by their label. Its terrible. So just read this, and let your mind try to wrap yourself around it.

Written by Shahlin Graves

Tuesday, 02 September 2008 22:44

When I say COBRA STARSHIP, you say ultra-fluro-fashionista-dance-commanders. Suave social commentary, is probably not the first thing that comes to mind... While the music industry teethes from traditional models to survive meeting the cut-throat ultimatums of modern society, band success is still measured by outdated norms. Even before the merchandise stalls opened for business, despite Panic At The Disco support bands; Cobra Starship and The Academy Is... being represented by just as many hearts on t-shirts as the headliner, an orthodox eye would assume that their local demographics are non-existent. Attention-deficit teenagers are not loving bands in the same ways that their parents did. Instead, teens are loving their favourite bands beyond their parents imaginations.
Gabe Saporta, is no fool. "It's hard, especially for bands like us who have fans of the young demographic who have grown up never listening to the radio and not bowing to paradigms." Get familiar. The world is primed; dance floors, basements, your city. Killing time, pining for electric rule. Perfect for the likes of savvy, sassy Cobras such as these. Will you sleep? Will you take to the streets? Will you drop it on a dime? Get familiar, in our exclusive New Zealand interview...

"What modern liberalism really should do, is put a blank piece of paper right in front of you, so that you realise it's not about what you see in the mirror. It's about what you can project onto this piece of paper."

COUP DE MAIN ( @coupdemain ): In Alternative Press magazine, you stated that the vibe with Cobra Starship is that "there's no revolution". But in another interview you also said that "artists are always supposed to be able to give you a perspective outside of the social norm. It's a responsibility of ours". Do you think that Cobra Starship represents soliciting subconscious revolution? Especially in your last two singles, with the rhetorical questions in the lyrics of 'Guilty Pleasure' and the lyrics of 'This City Is At War'?
COBRA STARSHIP - GABE SAPORTA: Actually, I think that's exactly what it is. I can't believe that you figured it out. The thing is, a lot of people talk about revolution. But the last time there was a revolution, it was in the sixties and seventies with music. Basically, anyone who lived in America was all about the revolution in the sixties. Then everyone just sold out and became yuppies. There was no revolution. The reason why is, the system we exist in is like 'The Matrix'. The minute there's a break in 'The Matrix', a little hole, it bandages by itself and makes sure all the capitals stay in-tact.
The sixties freethinking, the forward movement, the progression, what happened to all these things? All the parts of the 'revolution' that were marketable and could be sold, were repackaged and sold to the masses as the 'revolution'. It had no substance. People would buy into revolution thinking it was cool. But nothing really happened.
People do change and evolve globally. Americans, Western Civilisation, we don't really have a need for revolution. If you're born into a country that has real oppression, where your being exploited and there's people coming to kill your family, if the people don't get it together and start a revolution you're going to keep getting oppressed. Then you have a cause for revolution. That's real revolution. It's like in 'Fight Club'. What problems do we have? We don't really have anything to rebel against. All our problems are psychological problems.
We are born into the world with every comfort that we could ever imagine. Think about sixty years ago. People were wiping their ass with their hands. There was no toilet paper. Now we have everything. We have every modern comfort. We have electricity, we have the internet. We have everything we could ever need. But we're the most neurotic society in the history of civilisation. And why is that? It's because we have nothing to fight for. We have nothing to live for. So what does that mean? There's a subconscious revolution that needs to happen. The problem with the subconscious revolution is that it's not something that can just happen. I can't just say to my friend Michael Guy Chislett; "yo we should become aware of ourselves and start a psychological revolution". It doesn't happen. It's a very personal thing that needs to happen. I need to think about my own problems and think about the world and fight my own truth. And he needs to do that for himself. Maybe we can help each other but we can't do it holding hands and thinking;fight the power. It's a different kind of revolution. It's just not going to happen that way.
But having said that, kids today they grow up. They're jaded at fifteen. They don't believe in things when they're fifteen years old. They're already smarter than your parents were. And the idea of cool? Your parents were cool. They were the ones into revolutionary rock music. It's not cool, to be cool anymore. Being anindie-rock hipster? That's not cool. What's cool about that? It just means that you're old. If you try to be cool, you're old. So what's the real thing that you can do that's different? That's the real generation gap that I think is happening now between parents and their kids. Their kids go online and reveal everything about themselves online. And their parents wonder; why is my fifteen year old daughter taking naked pictures of herself and putting them online? What does that psychologically mean? That's the real generation gap. That's a real revolution. That's why it's all messed up now. We're in a very transitionary time in the evolution of human consciousness on a global level.
People going through real oppression have purpose. They may never be happy. They may never have enough food. They may always be starving. But they have purpose everyday. They know that they're going to fight for freedom. We have no purpose. What's my purpose? To play in arenas? That's my purpose? What's the purpose in that, if I don't really inspire people to do something positive? That's the hard thing. You can't be like; yo man you guys gotta listen to me. You guys gotta hear about the revolution. No-one believes it. The minute you say something, the media grabs onto it and diffuses it. That's what happened in the sixties.The media diffused the revolution.
The last revolution that happened in music was hip-hop. All throughout the eighties, hip-hop was revolutionary. People were talking but the media did not repackage and sell hip-hop. Why? Because the media was owned by all white people. All the people in charge were racist against black people. And that was actually great for hip-hop because it allowed it an incubation period where it was allowed to become a real movement. Then in the nineties, they realised they should pay attention or lose out on all this money. In the nineties, you had a lot of hip-hop artists selling music to suburban white kids. The revolution was lost. That was the last revolution that happened in music.
When I was a kid, I thought Nirvana was a revolution. But now that I'm a grown man and I'm a little smarter, I see that was all manufactured too. The thing is, kids that live today? They see through that instantly. So if you try to talk to kids about revolution and you have a label that is trying to sell your revolution. It doesn't work that way. So you can't talk about revolution. If you have revolution, it has to be subconscious and people have to dig for it exactly like you said. Which is amazing that you pointed that out.

CDM: In 'Prostitution Is The World's Oldest Profession (and I, Dear Madame, Am a Professional)' off your latest album 'iViva La Cobra!', you have the lyrics; "Prostitution is revolution". The young generation would like to think they are modern liberals, but do you think that political correctness keeps us conservative?
GABE: I have a lot of faith and hope for the young generation. The young generation is smarter than my generation. They're cooler. They're jaded at a real young age. I was jaded when I was a little older, so I had to go through the process of being a kid. I was really politically correct. I was all into equal rights and not saying things that would offend people. Then I realised as I became older, that the problem with modern liberalism is that it makes you hold a mirror up to yourself and assume that what you see is beautiful. That who you are is great. That you need to project that to the world and make sure people respect that. The only thing that's going to happen, is that you're going to force people to identify who they are with what they see in the mirror.
What modern liberalism really should do, is put a blank piece of paper right in front of you, so that you realise it's not about what you see in the mirror. It's about what you can project onto this piece of paper. Regardless of what you look like, where you come from, economic status, your colour, or what country you're from. Nothing. None of that matters. It's what you project to people.
The problem is that there's differences between people. I have a penis, she has a vagina. I'm Jewish, he's not Jewish. There's a black dude there, you're asian. We're all different. If you try and hide that and walk on eggshells around people like, okay I gotta respect her cuz she's Asian, I can't bring that up because then she might get offended... we're all going to walk on eggshells and the only thing that we're going to do is repress our evolution and repress any kind of progression. The differences between us which are really superficial, stupid and mean nothing, are going to manifest themselves in weird ways. That's what happens now. We have these people who are really politically correct but everybody's still racist.
I think we give words too much power. Words don't mean anything by themselves, words point to something. What they point to, can't really be expressed unless you're feeling it. You can feel things by projecting. We have no emotional IQ. Our IQ is very rational and scientific, there's a piece of that that's important but you can't understand anything else beyond that. It's all repressed, too sensitive. For every problem you have, there's a drug that's going to solve your problems. Nothing evolves when you become like that. You just become numb to everything. People don't feel anything.

CDM: At sixteen, you were pressing your own 7-inch singles for your first band: 'Humble Beginnings'. Do you think that society doesn't take teenagers seriously enough?

GABE: I don't think society takes anybody, or anything seriously. When I turn on the news or watch anything, I feel like people think I'm an idiot. I feel like the masses are just completely asleep and things are just being marketed to them and sold to them. It's cool whatever, God bless. If you want to sleep, sleep soundly. For a long time, I wanted to sleep too and I slept great. But one day, you're going to want to wake up. It may be when you're fifteen, or it may be when you're fifty-five. It may be on your deathbed that all of a sudden you have a revelation. But like I said, I can't hold Michael Guy Chislett's hand and think; yo, we're going to wake up together. It's not the way it happens. Everyone has to find their own truth. It's not even society. It's the media. The media is what runs society. You can't escape it. Any problems that we have, are media induced paranoia. What real dangers do we have? All this airport stuff, yeah this some messed stuff but the media makes it worse. Why? To make you shut your mouth. So that the people in control can keep doing what they need to do.

CDM: But at the same time, maybe teenagers bring it upon themselves by crying 'wolf'? For example the FBR Trash Livejournal community and their; 'Gabe Saporta is dead' stunt.

GABE: That's two different things, I'm talking about a much broader thing. The great thing about Fueled By Ramen Trash and all these things, is that they exist outside of the media. These are kids creating their own news and their own stories and they don't consider what anyone else says and that's great. I really don't turn on CNN that much, I don't catch much of the news, I live in my own world. I think it's great for people to live in their own worlds but also, if there's some way... I think the future is going to be like every kid can have their own world and have their own truth, but still be connected to each other. I don't know how to solve that challenge. But that's where the next revolution is going to be.
Think about music. If you wanted to make music fifty years ago, you needed to bring a group of musicians together and play all their instruments. And you needed to have people to listen to it. Now music is made by a producer in a room, for people to enjoy on their own on their headphones. It's the digital abstraction. Everything is digital. Everybody is completely isolated from each other. Everyone is in their own little world. In their own little place where they are completely abstracted from any sense of context.
So the question is, how do you take all these people who have created their own little worlds, their own livejournal communities, whatever they have, how do you bring them all together and how do you make them think about what's happening in the world at the same time? How do you make people care about Africa without trying to live vicariously through their struggle? When someone tells me they're going to Africa for the Peace Corps and to help other people, I can respect that's very virtuous. But at the same time I feel that you couldn't be more lost. You're not going to solve those people's problems and fill your own problems. You've gotta face your own problems. Everyone is born into their own problems that they've gotta deal with.

CDM: Are you trying to bring about awareness with your participation in Citizens For Our Betterment?

GABE: No, absolutely no. That's not my job. I used to feel like that was my job for a while. But the problem when you feel like that's your job, is that you develop a Messiah complex and you feel like it's your place. I've been lucky enough to have gotten that outside perspective that we were talking about before. I've been able to step outside and see the whole thing for what it is and walk behind the wizard. I feel like I really understand it. Now I have a duty to express it to everybody else. The problem when you feel like you have that duty, is that you develop a Messiah complex and you want to stand on a hilltop and shout to everyone and open everyone's eyes. But you can't do that.
I can only do what I do and lead by it. It's hidden for the people that want it, it's there. And if you don't want it, your never going to find it. Michael Guy Chislett will tell you, he's Christian. When the Armageddon comes, the people that will be saved are the ones that are understanding. There's always Armageddon.There's always been Armageddon. There's always been general catastrophes. And the people that are aware enough and know what's going on, see the way the world is going and will be able to move out of the way. I know that's pretty dark but that's really what I think.

CDM: I heard you opened a New Zealand bank account...

THE ACADEMY IS... - MICHAEL GUY CHISLETT: Really? Why New Zealand?
GABE: I'm telling you bro, the Armageddon. I really don't have a lot of faith in what's going on in America right now. I feel like it's all bad. If Barack Obama doesn't win, I think I'm really going to have to leave America. Even if he does win... this is what I really think is going to happen. I think he's going to get elected and everything will be really good for a year. The dollar will go back up and everyone will have a lot of faith in America again. Then he's going to start going on a roll. Then his ego is going to get kind of big and he's going to try and do the right thing for the people which is revolutionary. Then someone is going to assassinate him. And then it's going to be all over.
Here's the thing that's really weird about presidents. People think that you're the President of the United States, you're the most powerful person in the world. But what people don't understand is, you're the dude that comes into something for eight years max. There's oil companies running the whole world providing everyone with their energy that have been their for thirty years before you and are going to be there, for the next hundred years after you. You're nobody. You're the president? You better learn to play ball. That's what happens. That's the learning curve of a President.
Not only that, there's agencies that have been there for fifty years with the same people in charge that are doing all the coercion. The whole United States from the beginning of its inception has all been about these secret societies, these organisations that really control everything. I don't mean to be a conspiracy theorist or anything but the only thing you want, is to just have hope that the people in control are really looking out for the betterment of the people. I've heard of dudes in Russia that control electrical power for parts of the country and they get into a political fight with someone and they'll just shut off the power for the country for three days. Don't mess with us, or we'll shut off your power.
That's kinda what happened in the United States in the past couple years. The minute that the House of Representatives and the Senate became Democrat and became very green, oh we're going to do everything not for the Government but for the environment, gas prices went through the roof. Why? Because oil companies were in control. Basically the way it works, is you have a democratic leadership who doesn't play ball. The real people in control, the businesses just ignore you. We're just going to boycott you, we'll wait until we have someone who we like. And they just sit out on their asses and wait. The fact that petroleum is so expensive in America, is only because the gas companies say we're going to charge you more money because your messing with us.
Here's the craziest part, ready? A barrel of oil has three sections to it. The bottom section is the really crude stuff. The middle section is the diesel and that makes up more than fifty percent of it. The top section of the barrel, that's what's used for petroleum for cars. The oil used for cars is so minimal. They skim the top off. They used so much diesel for airplane flights, for boats, for electricity, that they need the barrels. They need to bring lots of barrels in and take just the diesel for the middle part and they skim the top off. That's what goes to the people. They can't get rid of it fast enough. They have so much excess. They have warehouses full of just barrels with the top part that's used for cars. Cars don't consume that much. But they're just like, ignore it dude. If the government is not going to help us do what we need to do to protect the people,we're just going to raise the prices for the people and we're going to ignore them. That's what happening now. That's why everybody's getting pissed off. The whole oil thing is so messed up.
I like the idea of moving onto sustainable energy, that's awesome. but it's not going to happen overnight. The internal combustion engine was invented in 1914. And it took ten years for them to build roads and then after they built roads, it took another twenty years for them to have a car. It took fifty years for them to convert the whole system to cars. Today, if you found the right technology, which we don't have still... it's not ethanol. I'll tell you that right now. We don't have the right technology, somebody's gotta find it. But even if you found it today, it would take fifty years to convert it. We're not going to stop using oil right now. We need to have oil. The whole world, society is built on oil. Now, no-one wants to drill in Alaska, no-one wants to drill off the shores of Florida. Environmentalism is very weird. I'm going to have a bomb-shelter with five years of food and that's all I gotta worry about.

CDM: ...and your bank account in New Zealand...

GABE: That's what I'm saying. My bomb shelter is going to be here. That's why I'm opening a bank account.2012, it's over. I got three years. I'm going to open a bank account, slowly move all my money over to here, buy a little mountain, a little house on there, build a shelter on the middle of the mountain for when it all goes down. Victoria, you wanna come with me? You're down.

COBRA STARSHIP - VICTORIA ASHER: I want to buy a volcano.
CDM: Stereotypically, musical talent is acknowledged as 'serious musicians'. For example, elite indie artists. Are you out to prove that Cobra Starship can be FUN, yet still musically profound?

GABE: I'm not out to prove a thing. The only people I give a worry about in this order; are my family, my girlfriend and then my band. They're my brothers. The only thing I give a worry about is that we like what we do. We're pretty good at it. I just feel like we're all in on the good fight. We're fighting against so many odds, to just be able to do what we love for a living and not have to get boring jobs. We've all had bad jobs except Victoria. I don't think Victoria has ever had a bad job.

VICTORIA: I've had so many bad jobs.

GABE: Yeah but just for fun, so you know what it's like to be a normal person.
I never got into music to be a musician. I'm a modern musician. I've always liked music. Everyone likes music. Music is always a part of life. Music is the biggest thing in the world. You can't escape music, it's everywhere. It's the biggest part of your life. I was always listening to music as a kid but it wasn't until Nirvana came out that I wanted to be a musician. They made me feel like it wasn't about your proficiency. It wasn't about your actual talent, it wasn't about how you were raised. You could buy a guitar and set up in your garage and start a garage band and you could be huge. You could do it, if you loved it. If you had the heart and you had the will, you could make it happen.
That's why I started playing music. Not because; oh I'm going to be the best thing in the world. Or, I'm going to be the best bass player in the world. No man. I just want to be the truth. I want to go out there and have an outlet to speak the truth with, to inspire other people to find truth in themselves. That's all I give a worry about. Music saved my life. I feel like the story of Dumbo. Where it's the Gabe and the little feather. And he flew because of the feather. But then it's revealed that the feather is a lie. You could always fly. That's how I feel about Nirvana. I love and hate them. They inspired me to be like wow, I can do whatever I want. But then it's like, wow this is untrue too. It's life. The things that inspire you, also at some point disappoint you. But if you can accept all these things and embrace them, you can really enjoy life. And that's the point that I feel like I'm at now.
CDM: Who is the real 'Papi'?

GABE: Hahaha I'm the real Papi.

CDM: ...Really?

GABE: No, we have a friend of ours who basically takes care of all our internet stuff cuz sometimes when we're on tour we don't get internet every day. It's very hard. We only get it at the show venues, so he's the one making sure that is going straight on myspace and stuff. It's our friend, I've known him for eight years. He's a very good dude. He's a Cobra.

CDM: Victoria, what's happening with your side-project: 'Not In Town'?

VICTORIA: Nothing. It's not in town. My friend Frankie and I work on stuff whenever we can, when I'm back home. But he was working on stuff with his band 'Big City Rock', which have now actually broken up. But whenever we're in town, we'll put something together. But, we're not in town at the moment.

CDM: What happened to your arm?

VICTORIA: We got in a car accident last night. I always, always wear my seat belt. This is the one time I didn't have it on and we got in a car accident. My arm was up on the handle bar and we hit a car. I went flying forward and my arm was still on the handle. I twisted my arm very poorly. I spent all night in the hospital. It's severely sprained. I was all excited to go out last night, it's a shame I got messed up.
CDM: If G.A.B.E. was a real acronym, what would it stand for?

GABE: Giant Abnormal Baby Elephant. G.A.B.E.
CDM: Tell me about your poker playing days...

GABE: When I was living in New York between Midtown and Cobras, I was writing music and it was kinda slow-moving and I didn't have money. So I was really into playing poker. Have you ever seen the movie'Rounders'? There's all these underground poker clubs in New York that are all run by the Mafia and basically I would go there and I was really patient and would spend a lot of time there. I never had a job between bands. I just made money from playing poker. I don't gamble, I don't play roulette, I only play a little bit of black jack. But the thing that I love about poker is, that you're playing the house. The odds aren't against you. You have the same odds as everyone at that table and especially with Texas Hold 'Em.
There's five cards on the table and the only thing that separates me and you, are the two cards in my hand. That's the only thing different between me and you as a person. There's two cards. It's a metaphor for life. You have all these people in life with the same odds and you're all standing facing each other. Sometimes they're your friends, sometimes they're your opponents. You're trying to win. When you play with friends at the same time, it gets very tricky. The psychology of it is insane. It's all about the psychology of the poker game. It's all about reading the person. What are you projecting to me? And do I believe what you're saying to me? Are you better than me? Is your hand better than me? Or are you lying? Is there something underneath your front? Or are you playing stupid so then I think you don't have anything and then you're going to try and take me over. That's what life's about. Learn how to take it.

COBRA STARSHIP's latest album 'iViva La Cobra!' and THE ACADEMY IS...'s new album 'Fast Times At Barrington High' are both in-stores now.