“Cornhole Starfish”
Cornhole Starfish… That’s what Mark Hoppus calls them. Well at least that’s what he called them during the Fall Out Boy/+44 Tour. We caught up with frontman Gabe Saporta during the previous tour with Panic! At The Disco. Read on if you’d like to find out how to pick up chicks…
10 Questions with Cobra Starship
- by Mattias and AK –
1. If you were on a motherfuckin plane with motherfuckin snakes, what would you do?
G: I would just sit back relax and enjoy the flight. I mean what else can you do, you know? When you start freakin’ out then you get bit on your tit, or your dick, you know. I think that movie was really a lesson to all of us to really… you know when are snakes just stay calm. The snakes won’t attack you unless you’re a bad person – because the bad people die in the movies.
2. The artwork for “While the city sleeps, we rule the streets” – is there a meaning behind that, or is it just meant to be straight up weird?
G: I think it’s a little bit phallic… which truly just speaks to our penis envy that we all have. *laughs* We all wish that you know, maybe we were all a little bit more well-endowed – so we put a nice big cobra on the cover of our record.
3. The whole album has a crazy dance vibe. Who are your top five non-rock musical influences?
G: Oh this is a good one, ok… Phoenix is definitely one of the top ones. Daft Punk, Justin Timberlake, Gwen Stefani, and… Chromeo.
4. If you could literally rule the streets while the city sleeps, what’s something you’d make happen?
G: *laughs* I mean, I kind of already rule the streets while the city sleeps. What happens is that, us, we just hang out until the sun comes up and you kind of get the feeling that the city is, like everyone else is XconstantX. The whole city is yours. It’s more of a vibe thing than making anything happen. It’s like you can do whatever you want because the world is open for you to do anything. If you’re up while the city’s sleeping, you’re ruling.
5. In your video for “The Church of Hot Addiction”, what’s with the bunny?
G: *laughs* What isn’t with the bunny? The whole record is like a mix of dance stuff and rock stuff. That song in particular starts of with a really kind of like meat and potatoes heavy rock riff and then it just changes up a little bit and has that really weird part in the middle – so we incorporated all these elements plus on top that we have the really obnoxious lyrics you know – but at the same time it’s like we’re laughing at ourselves too. We wanted to combine all those elements in the video too. We wanted to do something that had a good cinematic quality, looked good, had a storyline, was sexy, and at the same time could be goofy. It could have a swagger to it, but at the same time be self-aware and self-deprecating.
I was trying to figure out what would be a good story for that and that first thing that obviously comes to mind when you hear that song are all things that are vices – strip clubs, gambling, boozing. So it seems like that video needs to have that, but I mean if we just have that, it’s not enough because then it’ll feel a little contrived. So what can we do to take a left turn and make the video completely bizarre? So when I was thinking about different movies that I like Once Upon A Time in Mexico, and I wanted to have that kind of cinematic quality, but also a bizarre storyline like in Donnie Darko. So the bunny thing is actually influenced from Donnie Darko, but with less of a darker vibe and more of a Napoleon Dynamite kind of funny vibe.
The idea of the video that first you have this cinematic down in Mexico, and then you have the Donnie Darko weirdness, and Napoleon Dynamite throughout the whole theme just laughing at yourself the whole time.
The idea is that I drink the worm, and then I start to hallucinate. So I’m hallucinating and then I get a lap dance from the bunny and you’re wondering “Is this real or part of the hallucination?” but then you see me leave with the bunny and then my hallucination turns into a reality.
If you really want to expand on that and philosophizing, that could expand the whole Cobra Starship myth of how I got bit by the snake in the dessert and I was hallucinating but it was reality.
M: Any relation to the bear from the 30 Seconds to Mars video for “The Kill”?
G: No, but that was an amazing, amazing bear. You know I realize afterwards too is that the first Motion City Soundtrack video had a bunny in it also. But that bear in the 30 Seconds to Mars video creeped me the fuck out when I saw it. I think it’s a dog.
6. How would one go about in joining the Church of Hot Addiction? And what kind of things would you expect in a mass?
G: [Gabe calls bassist Alex Suarez across the room] Hey Suarez, The Church of Hot Addiction, how would you join it? And what would bass me like?
See I’m Jewish, I’ve never been to mass so I don’t even know what mass is like.
S: Well you’d have to have communion with the body and blood of Gabe. The alter boys would be girls, slutty girls. Instead of the cross, it would be Gabe with lightsabers.
G: Me on a disco ball.
S: Nah, that’s already a Justin Timberlake thing
G: Ok me on a dance floor with lights.
M: How would you wear that around on your neck?
G: Ok fine, me on a cross, but behind the cross, there’s laser lights spinning around.
M: Sign me up.
G: Yeah exactly.
7. During the “Welcome to the Universe Tour”, for “Bring It” you let audience members come up and rap Travis’part? How did that go? Was it awkward?
G: No it was awesome! The best was like, I would ask “who wants to come on stage” and some of them weren’t even clear on what I was saying. So we would get these jock dudes that would just come up on stage and just do nothing and I’d be like “alright you gotta do the rap” then they’d be like “Oh… I don’t know it”. Then I would have to get a girl to come up and do the rap. The girl’s would always be the best ones doin the rap. It was awesome – a lot of fun.
The only bad thing is that on this tour we can’t do it. We’re not allowed to bring people up to the stage. Yesterday was the first time that I ever did it. I did it myself and I embarrassed myself. I mean it did it well just because I know it. But I mean, especially because I dress gangster, I wear bling, and we have beats in our songs, I don’t ever want to act like I’m trying to be a rapper because I’m not. Even though I do love hip hop, I want to stay as far away from that as possible.
8. If you were to make a snowman, what would you use for his parts (arms, nose etc.)?
G: He would be in the middle of doing the popping and locking, so I’d have to get branches in really angular shapes. He would definitely have gold chains – I would give him some of my own. That’s what would actually bring him to life and make him start popping and locking. He would definitely have a cobra as well. *laughs*
9. Girls! You have tons of girls in the “Church of Hot Addiction” video, Maja from The Sounds was in “Bring It”, the girls in your press photos – How do you get all these girls? What’s your secret?
G: I think my secret is my amazing skills. Girls like a guy who’s not afraid to dance – even if you’re not that great of a dancer. I’m not a fabulous dancer; I’m ok, but the thing is by dancing more and more, I got better at it. Once you can be that guy at the party who’s dancing like an idiot, girl will just flock to you like flies on shit. *laughs*
10. Who would you like to see next on Band of the Day?
G: hmmm… Men Women and Children – they’re awesome!
Well there you have it fellas, the secret to a woman’s heart (and subsequently her pants) is doing an awesome robot on the dance floor – I think we all already knew that though. Extra thanks to Gabe for a super long answer to the “What’s with the bunny?” question. And remember, if there are somehow snakes on your plane, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight.
Kiss us Goodnight,
The BotD Team