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I recently spoke to Kobra, lead singer of Kobra and the Lotus shortly before they supported Buckcherry at the Roadmender in Northampton.
Festivalphoto: Your new album was released in August. Can you tell us a bit about the album.
Kobra: The album is a very high energy album full of very driving riffs and fast and furious drumming followed with a lot of wailing. There's also a song in the middle of the album thats more of a ballad at the beginning then picks up again with the same energy but is slightly different. There's quite an eclectic variety of riffing and styles, all sorts of metal genres mixed together on this album.
Festivalphoto: You were planning to call the album "Visionary". Why the change to a self title?
Kobra: That happened when the record label signing came about. A few things changed once that happened - we had a brand new team that we were working with, and they made us re-work the album so we replaced a few songs with different ones and recorded them later on in January with another producer, Kevin Churko, and then we released this, what they're calling a debut album, because it's the first album from the signing with them, so it was all political really.
Festivalphoto: You've released the album through Simmons records - Gene Simmons label. Did he come and see you live before signing you?
Kobra: No and he still hasn't seen us play which is insane. He just saw a clip of us playing Hard Rock Hell Ibiza and he loved it and thought "we need this band". Something in the live video just did it for him, and actually not all the band has met him yet. I met him at Heavy Montreal festival last year during the summer and that was my first time meeting him and seeing what he was going to propose and what he was all about.
Festivalphoto: I saw the photos of you standing next to Gene Simmons - you looked tiny next to him.
Kobra: In the first place he's just a big guy but then he puts on the KISS outfit and he's like I don't know, five times the size, he's massive.
Festivalphoto: This year has been a busy one for you playing most of the major European festivals. How did you find that?
Kobra: That was amazing, I can't wait to do festivals again. It was a completely new experience with that kind of outdoor festival vibe where there are thousands of people and it's just this massive energy being fed back at you and you're throwing your energy at them and sort of feeding off each other, it turns into something huge, it was incredible. I love playing outside.
Festivalphoto: Since then you've toured with Steel Panther. How was that?
Kobra: That was so awesome. Those guys are amazing. They are such great musicians and it was a really great crew and group of people to tour with. Genuine, very humble, nice guys that have worked so hard to get to the place they're out now, so they appreciate the new generations coming up and the place we're in so they treated us really well. It was great to watch them every night - we learnt a lot actually. They have a flawless production and none of us were really familiar with Steel Panther before - we knew what their music was and stuff like that but we didn't know what their live show was like and we really learned a lot from them.
Festivalphoto: Have you been surprised how fast things have taken off? This time last year you were playing small venues around the UK and this year you've been playing to huge crowds at the major festivals.
Kobra: Yeah we're playing everywhere we can. We think about that every single day actually, we bring it up and say "This is nuts, I can't believe we're doing this, can you believe this has all happened in the last year". I can't believe we've been in so many countries, and not even once, twice or three times already. That's been in the last six months even, and it feels insane when I look back because it feels like we've crammed several years into one almost, so the last couple of years really it's been never ending.
What's cool about it for us is that we don't realise how much time is going by, so when we can see little things of progress that show we're moving forward that's exciting, and at the same time we're like "This is happening? oh my god", then we look back and go "wait, we've played almost 300 shows, so yeah this makes sense for where we should be".
Festivalphoto: You've touring with Buckcherry, are playing Hard Rock Hell then have some more tour dates announced right up to 20th December do you actually get time to have a proper break for Christmas or have you got more touring planned?
Kobra: We are actually going to take a break to write new music before we tour again. We want to go into the studio very soon and that will be after the summer tour. We actually have two months off from touring - that's a huge break for us. It'll be very nice, but it's going to be pedal to the metal writing in those two months.
Festivalphoto: You met Doro a couple of days ago. How was that?
Kobra: Meeting her just moved me. I've never been that familiar with Doro other than the legacy she's built. I know who she is because she's become iconic but I don't know very much about her or the music, so I was nervous to go and meet her but she was so incredibly humble, friendly and kind and warm, ans so metal. It was like talking to an angel - I felt like "You're not human, you're incredible".
Festivalphoto: What are you guys like on tour - sober and sensible or party animals? Or are some more party animal than others?
Kobra: No comment. I can't confirm or deny any details about that. We're still a rock band so...
Festivalphoto: Rather than asking what bands have influenced you, heres a slightly different question - ignoring the big most popular bands, what bands do you think fans should check out?
Kobra: That's a really tough question. One would have to be Rival Sons. I saw them for the first time this summer because we were on some of the same festivals and they were really really awesome, so that's a band that instantly comes to mind |
