Gabe Saporta

The spunky front man of pop punk band, Cobra Starship, had a successful mainstream success with the summer 09 party anthem “Good Girls Go Bad.” With the help of Kara Diogaurdi and a drop from Leighton Meester, the “Hot Mess” album was an album that was on repeat everywhere. Since Cobra’s last record, the band has recently gotten back into the studio to record their fourth album .. Gabe and I got to chat about Miley vs Selena, Justin Bieber, the old MTV and insights from the next record.

Alex Kazemi: HI Gabe! How are you? How has New York been treating you?

Gabe Saporta: Hey Alex! I’m good. I just went shopping and right now I’m trying on some stuff I bought from Super Saturday. They had some nice polo shirts for like fifteen bucks. I bought my dad some too.

Kazemi: I’m going to check it out when I go to New York. I understand you moved to the big apple recently. Has living in New York been a big inspiration for the music on the upcoming record?

Gabe : A lot of our inspiration comes from our experiences at night time. As a musician you don’t really keep track of your schedule. I don’t come home until 2 in the morning and even at that time I’m still kinda crazy. You can always find something going on musically in New York, there is a lot of cool creative people in the city and were lucky to hang out with them sometimes.

Kazemi: Who are some other influential artists who have influenced the sound of the upcoming record?

Gabe: Chromeo has been one of my biggest influences from the start of the band in the first place.. It’s funny cause when Cobra just started, Chromeo just started too. Me and Dave from Chromeo dated the same girl so we met through this girl who put us in touch and we tried to work on this song together. I wanted him to produce stuff for us. It’s cool. I’m totally inspired by their attitude, they have fun with it. They are really good musicians but they don’t take themselves too seriously, they have fun with it. I actually went to see them on Wednesday and it was honestly one of the most fun shows I’ve been too in New York in a long time. Everyone was dancing; good vibes. He definitely doesn’t try to be too cool for school at all.

Kazemi: I love “So Gangster.” So Kevin Rudolf contributed to many productions on the last record, will he make an appearance on this new record?

Gabe: We just started working with some other songwriters. Our goal for this record is for us to get together as a band.. We learned a lot co-writing with other people, one of the most interesting things when you co-write you get to see how other people come up with the [struggles and laughs on spelling this word] methodology. You learn a lot of things and rub off of other peoples techniques and you take what you learned from the sessions with the people you worked with from the last record and bring it onto the next record.

Kazemi: Have you even started working on this record so far?

Gabe: Actually today me and Alex went to go check out this studio space on 7th and 30th and it’s this old production studio and its torn up and it’s in this loft base which is perfect for us. So for the next two months we’re going to take it over and have our own little studio in New York and write for a couple months.

Kazemi: That studio seems pretty sweet. What producers/songwriters have you been working with so far for this record?

Gabe: Well Kara Diogaurdi who worked with us from the last record. We’re musicians so we’re writing all the time even on tour, so we always have this stuff that were sitting on and Kara is really good at taking a raw song and turning it into something that still has the vibe that the song came with and makes it something that will appeal to a larger amount of people. Its kinda what she’s used for. I don’t like changing the continental song structure. I like having the same verse and chorus but I also like to add a new flavor too it. We’re also working with Josh Abraham who’s fucking awesome.

Kazemi: She seemed to push the band in a more mainstream direction. When did you first meet and start to work with her for the “Hot Mess” record?

Gabe: It was really random. When the band starts to write for their third record you start to get a lot of pressure from people. “Oh you need a radio hit” and you know we’ve always wanted to work with people who are easy to work with, we try everything. We’ve  worked with a lot of different people on that last record and a lot of the stuff we did with other writers/producers when the conclusion came and the song was done it didn’t sound like Cobra Starship and if it doesn’t sound like what we do, were just not going to do it. A lot of bands have a lot of pressure to work with certain people and for us were not pressured at all; we just take that as a learning experience. On that journey, you might find a really great relationship with a producer/songwriter. That’s kinda what happened with Kara, I didn’t even know who she was at first and the people at my label introduced me to her and they’re like she is a top line writer and I was like what she’s a topless writer? I couldn’t hear if he was saying “topless or “top line” and I said “So what does she play?” and they’re like “Well she doesn’t play anything” and I was like “Well then what the hell does she do?” they said “Well, she’s gonna come and vibe with you guys.” I was like to myself what the fuck does that mean “vibe with us” and in reality she came in and we had this unreal awesome vibe.. She totally got where we were coming from and she’s tough, she’s no bullshit! People who are good in music can appreciate every type of music. There is some people who will just come in and have their own sound and they just try to put it onto you and it doesn’t work especially for a band like us. She is really good at seeing what we are and taking us for what we are and figuring out how to mesh that with what she’s good at.

Kazemi: That makes sense. Well all the good vibes paid off on the “Hot Mess” record, are you going to work with her on the next record?

Gabe: She really doesn’t work with that many artists anymore, she’s really great!  During the “Hot Mess” sessions we worked with her for only a week and we got three good songs out of it. I know we’re planning to work with her at the end of the month; she’s definitely one of my favorites to write with.

Kazemi: Kara was responsible for “Good Girls Go Bad” which was by far the summer anthem of 2009 but it was also the launch of Blair Waldorf’s singing debut. I must say that was a pretty random cameo for that verse! Why her? While writing the song, who was your alternative female artist choice for that verse?

Gabe: [laughs] Its funny because I’m a big Gossip Girl fan and I had heard that both Leighton and Taylor were going to do some singing and I was just like “YO, I don’t care which one I get.. I want a Gossip Girl on my track.” [Laughs] So definitely Taylor would be an option but Leighton ended up being a better fit..Taylor would’ve been amazing too. We actually wanted to work with Maja from The Sounds; she was awesome on the “Snakes on a plane” track. She’s super cool and has a dope voice.

Kazemi: So I know the sessions have vaguely started but do you have a favorite track so far that might make the new record?

Gabe: There’s this track that we worked on with Kara but I can’t tell you about that yet. I don’t wanna spoil anything!

Kazemi: Wow secrets. So Gossip Girl of you!  A friend of yours, Jonny Makeup, wrote in, he was wondering if you remember when  you were “emo” and if you remember the time you guys made out?

Gabe: [laughs] I remember when he was emo and I totally remember the times we made out and I’ve been dreaming about that for a really long time, its kinda sad.

Kazemi: I know Jonny worked on “Damn You Look Good and I’m Drunk (Scandalous)”  from the “Viva! La Cobra” record, could we see a sequel to that anytime soon?

Gabe: I would love that! Jonny is welcomed on any track he wants. Actually he was going to be the original “Good Girls Gone Bad” vocalist.

Kazemi: [laughs] I think Justin Bieber should contribute vocals on a track for this upcoming record. Do you have Bieber Fever?!

Gabe: I really like Justin Bieber. A lot of our Cobra fans kinda hate Justin Bieber but this kids got so much attitude, he’s a badass. I don’t know if we are gonna collaborate.

Kazemi: On the topic of the corrupted youth of today. Who would in a street rap battle between Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez?

Gabe: Selena Gomez would fuck her up!

Kazemi: Really, you think?

Gabe: Well yeah, she’s latin. You don’t fuck with latin people [laughs]

Kazemi: What are your views on social-networking like Facebook and Twitter? Did you know there is Facebook fan-page called ” When Gabe Saporta Goes On Drunk Rampages.” I am impressed!

Gabe: [laughs] No! That’s really good, what’s that fan page about?

Kazemi: I believe it’s about your drunk tweets..

Gabe: That’s pretty much all the time.  When I else do I have the urge to tell the world when I’m sick and puking.

Kazemi: Didn’t you post your number by accident by once?

Gabe: [laughs] I didn’t actually post my number it was a joke between me and Jack from All TIme Low. He posted a photo of his phone and it had his number on it and I decided to poke a joke at that.

Kazemi: [laughs] That’s so funny, all those gossip sites were posting things like “Gabe Saporta just posted his number”

Gabe: The funny thing about the internet is sometimes it’s  so hard to decipher sarcasm.

Kazemi: Yeah, I know we don’t have any internet tones.

Gabe: Yah man, me and someone were talking about this. We wanted to make something like Webster’s Dictionary, so you can have more than emoticons, showing things you could put in  a beginning of a sentence like saying your being sarcastic or your joking. Too help that tone come through with all that shit you write on the internet.

Kazemi:  You should pitch that to Webster. What was your favorite tour memory with the boys from 3OH!3

Gabe: Playing lazer tag man. We usually go bowling and stuff and I never played lazer tag as a kid. I had so much fucking fun and we played with all these fans and we were just running around. One time we were running and Sean smacked me in the face with his laser gun and I couldn’t really get mad at him because he was on my team.

Kazemi: So was taking away your Lazer Tag virginity the highlight. Anything else?

Gabe:  Hmmm, Let me think! The best thing about touring is not remembering most of it. Oh yeah! I saw Nat from 3OH!3 in Canada and I saw him with this other bitch and he was fucked. I saw him was flirting with this girl that he liked and I called him out on stage, then he came on stage and tried to pants me, that’s about it. You had to be there to understand.

Kazemi:  Very eventful tour memoirs.  How do you feel about MTV playing things like “Jersey Shore” and “Teen Mom” rather than TRL, Becoming and Dear Diary? I don’t feel the channel is about the music anymore.

Gabe:  It’s a hard position to be in as an artist because a lot of people complain that MTV doesn’t play music. It’s the same thing with people saying oh “Late Night TV Sucks, Conan should be up there rather than Leno.” Then they get Conan on and they don’t watch it because they’re too busy on the internet. So then Conan gets fired. I know people wanna see videos on MTV, I wanna see videos on MTV but if I really need too , I  just go online. I guess it’s a weird transitional time for not just music but media in general. So I think MTV has to figure out away to do programming for teens who love music and the people who want the reality TV stuff.  It’s hard for everyone who’s making music, it’s really really difficult.

Kazemi: Did you ever watch ‘Daria” and “Beavis and Butthead” on MTV ? What was your favorite program on the glory days of old MTV?

Gabe: Of course! Yeah!  Aeon Flux was actually one of my favorites. My top favorite was “The State!” One time when I was younger, I was seventeen driving home from a show I saw Michael Showalter on the street and we start doing lines from his character on “The State.” He was drunk and he’s like “Yo kid, wanna drive me home.” I drove him home, it was one of the highlights of my life.

Kazemi: That must have been super epic. Basically the radio waves have missed CS; when will we get to hear the first single from the upcoming record?

Gabe: Hopefully by Christmas, if not the first month next year!