Home Band Interviews Interview w/ Ryland Blackinton of Cobra Starship

Interview w/ Ryland Blackinton of Cobra Starship

Written by Art Michalski

Monday, 28 January 2008

Last May, before Cobra Starship opened for Fall Out Boy on the Honda Civic Tour, I had the chance to interview guitarist Ryland Blackinton. Now, the band is back with their second record, Viva La Cobra!, and are headlining their own U.S. tour for the first time. I got a chance to talk to him again while he was stuck in Cleveland before a show. Ryland and I discussed the success of the tour and his guilty pleasures. Here’s the interview with Ryland: MCB: After opening on many tours last year, how does it finally feel to headline your own tour? RB: It’s been really great. We are getting to revisit a lot of places we played last year as a support act and it’s been great at the way they have been selling as well. It’s totally surprised us at the number of shows that are already sold out. MCB: Because of all the sold out shows, was there any talk about moving the dates to a larger venue? RB: There were some talks. We prefer the smaller venues, and what we ended up doing is just playing 2 shows, perhaps an afternoon and an evening show to satisfy the fans. We’d rather do that than play a larger venue and have 400 empty seats, you know? MCB: Where did you guys find the “Little Superstar” video that is used for the album sampler for Viva La Cobra? RB: Oh, you haven’t seen that? (laughs) We found it on EBaum’s World a few years ago. It’s from some Bollywood movie; that little kid can move! He’s smiling from ear to ear as his dad is just sitting there and smoking. It’s great. MCB: What is your favorite song to play live off the new record? RB: I think a lot of the electronic stuff is the most fun. Songs like “Kiss My Sass” and “Smile for the Paparazzi” are the ones we are like playing the most right now. MCB: There’s a song named after you on the record (“Pleasure Ryland”), were you lobbying hard to have the song on the record, or was it more like an inside joke within the band? RB: I was in the studio working, and we had a week or two left in recording. I was writing a little beat and was just messing around with it. I really thought it was a throwaway, to be honest. I played it for Gabe (Saporta; lead singer) and he liked it. The band ended up liking. The song reminds me of Parliament Funkadelic; it has a real 70s, west coast, laid-back vibe to it. MCB: “Guilty Pleasure” was the band’s first single off the new record. You have any current guilty pleasures? RB: Oh man, I just caught an episode of “Gossip Girl,” and I’m hooked. It sounds bad, but I want to know about all the characters and how they got there. I am trying to learn about it. Without saying too much, a couple of people on the bus are huge “Hannah Montana” fans, but I can't name names. MCB: According to the rumor section of your site, Vivid Video has approached you about an instructional video? Gonna stick with Vivid’s offer, or are you holding out for an offer from Playboy? RB: Vivid is a one stop shop for anything like that. I am really pushing for a relationship with Vivid for this. We did a song for Playboy, for E! Entertainment. But we’re too ugly to get into the Playboy Mansion, so we’ll see what happens with that. Cobra Starship is currently touring with Metro Station, We The Kings and The Cab including TONIGHT and TOMORROW night at Subterranean in Chicago, IL.  Many showsare SOLD OUT. Check www.ticketmaster.com for availability. .

 

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