Black Cobra Interview

Fall of Doom by Smoke the Fuzz gigs is around the corner since the days are passing slowly here is what we said when we had some private time with Black Cobra. Enjoy!

How/why/when/where did it start?

In 2001 I was living in the Bay area playing in a bunch of bands. I don't know why I had this idea of starting a long distance band. I had never heard of anyone doing something like that but I thought it would be an interesting experiment so I called Jason who was living in New York at the time and we started back then

Describe to us the band’s daily/weekly routine.

Basically whenever we have time we go down to the studio and work on whatever we have going. Sometimes it's rehearsing for a show or a tour, other times we are writing and coming up with ideas.
Why did you name the band Black Cobra?

We thought it was a good name for band.

You're a duo band. What are the pros and cons of being just the two of you on stage and on studio?

Well we have to work a bit harder since there's less people involved. It's defenitely as simple as it gets as far as any band situation goes.

You have released 7 albums. Which is the most true to your sound and which the most diverse from it?

This is actually our fifth album. Every album we have written and played the way we are feeling at the moment. We have raised the bar on ourselves on every release improving on what we did in the past. There are certain drum parts that I play now that there is no way I could have done 10 years ago. I love listening to all of them and seeing the progress throughout the years.

Your music is heavy and aggressive. What is it about the world that makes you so angry? What would you change?

I'm not angry. The music is intense and energetic but I never pour any kind of hatred in my playing. There's a lot messed up things that happen in this world but I try and focus on all the awesome things that are out there.

Imagine you can tour not in space but in time. What historic events would you choose to perform in?

Ancient Egypt during Rameses II empire. It would have been awesome to play in the middle of the Peloponnesian Wars.

Your latest album is called Imperium Simulacra. Most of your lyrics are existential and the term simulacra is rooted in philosophy. Can you explain what Imperium Simulacra means and where did you get your inspiration for naming the album?

Most of it is based on the works and philosophies of the writer Philip K. Dick. He was an extremely well read author and had so many sociopolitical views on the posibilites of our race in retlationship to technological advances. He actually has a book called The Simulacra Which is basically about robots that perform human tasks and live amongst humans like the way the replicants did in Blade Runner. Similacra means a simulation of the real thing. Imperium comes from the latin root that means empire, so the title is basically an empire of androids. We are living in world today where the human race is slowly melding and
depending on technology more and more every day. We based the album on a lot of the surveilance and propaganda that is being manipulated with technology today.

When can we expect a new record?

Not sure, the new one came out just six months ago.

We are done! This is the famous FREE-MODE section, you can say whatever you want to end this interview. On behalf of the Full Throttle (Radio Show) it was an honor talking to you and we are looking forward to your performance on the 17th of September at Gagarin205.

I want to say thank you to all our fans in Athens. Greece is a beautiful country with amazing people and we are honored to have the opportunity to play there for our third time. We are very excited to playing for the great people of Athens once again