PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
I managed to have a short interview/chat with Kobra Paige and Jasio Kulakowski shortly before their gig at Alter Ego, Manchester on the 5th November 2013. Here’s what they had to say: –
Hello I’m Louise (AKA LouellaDeville) from Planetmosh. Thank you for taking the time to speak to us. You’re over from Canada on a nine date tour. Is this the fifth or sixth night?
Kobra: What’s the date today?
5th November. Bonfire Night.
Kobra: The first show was on the 30th.
Wow. Do you get tired?
Kobra: We do, it really depends on how long we’ve been on the road. It’s the last tour of the year so I think everyone is pretty tired.
I believe you’re classically trained? (to Kobra)
Kobra: Yes.
Do you think there’s much difference between rock music and classical music?
Kobra: There’s a lot of correlations, that’s for sure but I think there’s more similarities than differences.
What made you transfer over to Rock Music, after the classical training, or is it something you’ve always liked?
Kobra: I actually didn’t want to sing opera, it wasn’t of interest to me and when I saw Judas Priest, I saw a different place for me to express myself.
If you don’t mind me asking, how old were you when you first saw Judas Priest?
Kobra: I was fifteen.
I got into Rock Music at a similar age. You’ve got one album out titled Kobra and the Lotus, have you got any other albums coming out in the near future?
Jasio: Yes, we’ve just finished recording one, literally a week and a half before we flew out. We spent two months caved up in Chicago at the Groovemaster Studios with Johnny K. It will be ready for release in early 2014.
What’s it going to be called?
Kobra: We’re not sure yet.
Jasio: Working on that.
We’ll look out for. When are you going back to Canada?
Kobra: The ninth, this Saturday.
So you’ll finish on stage and you’ll go straight back?
Kobra: Straight to the Airport.
How has the reception been here in the UK?
Kobra: It’s been great. We have not come through by ourselves for quite a while and it’s been very interesting and positive to see people coming out for the band. It’s a different experience to see that, it’s really cool.
I saw you last year, supporting Buckcherry, really enjoyed it, was a good show. So I’ve got another opportunity to see you tonight and I have been hearing good things from some friends who saw you in Glasgow. It’s Bonfire tonight and I read that we will get fireworks, are we going to get fire tonight?
Kobra: (Laughs) I wish we hope to see some fire after, for sure.
Jasio: Our tour manager is a trained pyrotechnician so maybe he has some tricks up his sleeve.
Kobra: We’ll blow this place up with a flame.
Do you get any choice as to who’s supporting you? I know you’ve got female fronted support in Incassum tonight.
Kobra: For the most part, no, we have no idea, because we haven’t planned the tour but sometimes bands contact us and we love to play with people who we’ve played with before, and whoever contacts us, some of those bands have particularly been in the UK, who we’ve played with in the past and who have wanted to play.
Santa Cruz, I believe, are from Finland so how did you hook up with these guys?
Jasio: Label Mix. We’re both with Spinefarm records so it makes sense.
Have you got any messages for the fans? Why should they buy your albums or come to your shows?
Kobra: I just think it’s a fun time. Live music and music in general is important for people, so if you’re a heavy metal fan and want to go out to a heavy metal show, and take your mind off things for a little bit, you come on out and support the scene. We thank everyone who has supported us and the scene and kept it alive.
Do you think there’s any differences over in Canada as opposed to the UK, in the reception or as in trying to book a venue/find somewhere to play?
Jasio: The whole thing works a little differently, like there’s a different architecture in the industry over there but not really in the reception. People love heavy metal everywhere we’ve gone.
We’ve had quite a lot of venues have closed down over in the UK recenlty and I wondered if it was the same?
Kobra: Oh man, I haven’t heard of very many venues closing down in Canada recently but there’s not a of of rock and metal shows going on, in general it’s other types of music so that’s probably mainly what’s keeping the venues open, that’s sad to hear.
It is, we’ve had a couple of festivals cancelled over here. Didn’t you take part in a female fronted festival over here?
Kobra: Not in the UK. We did the female voices of metal festival in Belgium and it was great.
Have you got any festivals lined up for next year?
Kobra: It’s too early actually
Quite a few bands were announced for Download yesterday.
Kobra: It all starts happening over the next couple of months and it will be exciting for us to find out what we’re playing too. We hope so.
Thank you very much for talking to us and very nice to meet you.
Kobra and Jasio in unison: Thank you!
Review of the gig can be read here: http://planetmosh.com/kobra-and-the-lotus-alter-ego-manchester-5th-november-2013/
https://www.facebook.com/KobraAndTheLotus
http://www.kobraandthelotus.com/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kobra-And-The-Lotus/dp/B008ATL3GS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384125462&sr=8-1&keywords=kobra+and+the+lotus+album
