Back when Believers were Never Dying (again), I sat down with Nate Novarro, drummer of Cobra Starship, two years after my first interview with the band. "We all stayed the same height, no change there. Our taste in music has changed big time. I only listen to hip hop and dance music [now], instead of scene music, I'm so out of the loop now, in a good way, kinda."
Back in April as people geared up for Bamboozle, bands gushed about their excitement for this and that band, Nate wasn't all that excited to see very many bands. "I'm excited to see--well uh... The Get Up Kids, I want to see them again! I want to see friends again, but the music the music side, I don't really care.
As May approached, there were no set plans after the month ended although a new album was on the horizon. "We don't know yet. We have nothing coming up yet. It's crazy, it's kinda scary.""You have a CD coming out. You have nothing to support the CD?" I ask. "No." "Are you okay with that?" "No. We're definitely not okay with that." Cobra Starship has this uncanny way of hopping on tours and shows at the last minute as they did with The Sleeping with Giants tour in 2007. "We'll figure it out, we always seem to figure it out," Nate says. Obviously they did, as they have not one but two headlining tours lined up for the rest of the year in support of the new album.
At this time, Hot Mess didn't have a name or all its tracks, "I won't say I thought of it, but other people in the band and outside the band actually gave us ideas like, Shreddy Prinz Jr. Shred Savage [for the album name]" The possibilities were endless. "Eighty-four songs. Triple disc, with an interactive DVD." "Like a choose your own adventure thing?" "That would be awesome. 3D, comes with the glasses. If you want electronica, go this way. You just died. Have to keep buying the album because it blows up every time you play."
Even before the album was finished, it was clear that they wouldn't be straying far from the signature Cobra sound. "We have a lot of songs, but congesting all of the best ones. There's album tracks that are a little more Cobra, there's others that are poppy. We're trying to find a good medium. It's definitely not too different. It's just... more songs."
Hot Mess hit number 4 on the US Billboard Charts, so maybe they'll have a different answer to "what would you say is the band's biggest accomplishment?" "Ryland won a hot dog eating contest. OH! We snuck into the VMAs twice," Nate responds humorously.
About half way through the interview, guitarist (and hot dog eating champ) Ryland Blackinton, joins the interview. I ask him how he thinks things have changed in the last 2 years. "We're still opening for other bands, nothing's changed." "You totally did a headlining tour!" I reply. "We did. It was awesome."
"We got a break for like 3 months to do this and this is like the longest break we've had in 2 and a half years," Nate adds. "It's like a breath of fresh air [to go home]. Everyone else is from New York, so when we have time off but still have things to do, they're all at home, and I have to be there for press and interviews, and I'm just like, I want to go home [to Atlanta], because everyone else gets to go home. We had those three months off, I came back to this tour, and I was like I'm. So. Ready. To. Play. Again. Right before that, I was over it a little bit and I just needed some time off. I think that's why this tour has been so sweet; we all had so much time at home."
Three months later, I'm a little disappointed that Hot Mess isn't an interactive DVD, and couldn't have imagined that Cobra would collaborate with a Gossip Girl and score a Top 40 radio hit, but Cobra Starship always comes out of nowhere and shakes things up. With songs come videos, interviews, appearance and MTV. "It's kind of surreal at first but then you kind of get to know everyone that works there... We're like vets now; we know where to go now."
"Any last words?" "Buy our new record when it comes out, buy it twice! The first one will self-destruct, so you have to."[CO]