By Ali Ikram
Up-and-coming US dance punk band Cobra Starship played two New Zealand shows over the weekend.
Lead singer Gabe Saporta talked to Nightline’s Ali Ikram about having his face tattooed on his label boss’ leg, and the B-grade movie that started it all.
The 2006 horror Snakes on a Plane was not good enough to be a classic, nor bad enough to achieve cult status, but it did spawn Cobra Starship – whose debut single ‘Snakes On A Plane, Bring It’ was on the soundtrack.
“When you have people who don’t think you’re a real band you have two choices,” Saporta says.
“Tell the band you’re not a real band and try and explain it until your face turns blue, or shut the fuck up and prove it. That’s what we did.”
‘Good Girls Go Bad’ is the first single off the group’s third album Hot Mess. It got as high as number 7 in the US charts, and number 2 in New Zealand – thanks in part to a cameo from Gossip Girl star Leighton Meester.
The success caused unexpected pain for their label boss, Pete Wentz, who bet the album wouldn’t top the iTunes chart.
For losing he had to get lead singer Saporta’s face tattooed on his leg – inked by Kiwi tattooist Dan Smith.
The tattoo did not sit well with Wentz’s wife, Ashlee Simpson.
“Ashlee was like, ‘why are you getting a tattoo of Gabe? Everybody thinks you guys are gay, you’re just going to perpetuate that rumour’. Ashlee thought it was going to be a picture of me. I’m like, ‘No, it’s going to be a picture of me as an eight-year-old fat kid, which makes it much better’.”
Stopping the band turning into a sausage fest and providing the 80s throwback key-tar is Victoria Asher – who quit interning on film sets with the likes of Michel Gondry, to join the band.
But it doesn’t sound like she misses it all that much.
“I’m not going to name the actor, but it was an actor on the film I was working, he asked for an iced coffee. I bought it back and he said, ‘oh, this coffee is a bit too iced’, so I had to go back again. That was my life on the set – it was driving me crazy.”
Cobra Starship are now playing a sold-out tour of Australia and looking forward to eating Tim Tams.
3 News