Song on a Plane

Gabe Saporta's solo project, COBRA STARSHIP, slithered its way to success with a theme for one of the summer's most talked-about films

Shortly after the film Snakes on a Plane became a cultural Internet phenomenon, Gabe Saporta, lead singer and bassist of the popular band Midtown, began his solo music project, Cobra Starship. He soon got wind of the upcoming similarly titled Samuel L. Jackson movie and knew it was fate. He called in Maja Ivarsson of the Sounds, William Beckett of The Academy Is and Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes to record and film the music video for Cobra Starship debut song, "Snakes On a Plane (Bring It)," which got picked up as the hit theme song for the movie. The song and video instantly skyrocketed on downloading websites, illustrating the vast power of the Internet. The band's debut album, When the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets, will be released this fall on Decaydance Records.

Saporta recently spoke with Playback about his relentless studio work, the motives behind his solo project, surviving the music industry and the new era of music.

The music video, "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)," and the Internet spoof "Hollaback Boy" revealed Cobra Starship's comedic side. Can we expect the same humorous side to the album?
Definitely. I started Cobra Starship as more of a fun thing, to give me a chance to not take myself so seriously. Most songwriters when they sit down to write, they're upset or in pain and they need to look within themselves to find the music. The challenge for me was to try and make music be fun and have that kind of lightheartedness, be tongue-incheek and sassy, but not just to be corny.

I read that you turned down a "big money" deal with a major label in order to take the "no money" route with Decaydance Records. You said, "Success only comes with control." What did you mean by that?
When you go to big labels, there are a lot of random people involved in trying to decide what's best for you. I guess that's where being true to who you are comes in. I'd rather work with people who understand me and will give me control of what I'm doing. If I take that money now and get involved with these business people, it's gonna be the end of my career. I'd rather bid on myself and be like "Yo, I think the people I work with understand what I'm doing. They're gonna work their ass off for me, and it's important to what I'm doing." That's what it's really about.

With "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)," you got to not only witness but actually be a part of this huge Internet phenomenon that just exploded!
[Laughs] Crazy, right? The music industry is definitely going through a paradigm change right now. There's a new way of doing things, new ways of exposing bands to the public. It's definitely because of the Internet, and it's definitely the cross marketing. It's changing the attitude of rock music. Rock's always been scared to do any kind of cross media stuff or any kind of guest appearance stuff. There's this idea that it takes away from their credibility or the integrity. We should take a cue from what hip-hop guys do, which is when one of them gets big, they feature each other on the records. That's what I think we're doing with Decaydance. I've known Pete [Wentz from Fall Out Boy and Decaydance Records] forever. That kid went to go see Midtown when we were playing in a bowling alley in Chicago, so everything we're doing now with everyone helping promote each other is just awesome.

You once said, "It's important to stop and evaluate where you've been, where you are and where you're heading."
It's really hard to stop when everything's happening so fast. I think it's definitely important to stop and look at where you're going because to tell you the truth, I don't even realize what's going on right now. [What I'm doing now] is such an intangible thing, it's not, like, quantitative; it's not like my record sales, where you can see what's selling. It's like people are talking about this, which is great and all, and it's being played on the radio, but no one knows anything yet. I've had this entire year just to think about myself as an artist. I think the hardest thing for an artist is balancing the need to be creative and true to yourself and keep experimenting with giving fans what they need - to make something that's accessible for the average music listener. So it's a trick question of where you want to fall into that, and I think when you're making music you kind of have to think about what niche you want to inhabit.

So this whole past year has been you discovering where you are as an artist?
I really had to think about stuff. If I don't take myself so seriously, I have a lot of fun. I'm really just comfortable with what I'm doing and what I'm putting out there. Don't get me wrong, I put a lot of work into what I do and I wanna make everything I do great, but I do it for myself first and foremost. If people like it, I'm very grateful. If they don't like it, God bless them.

—Corley Sims


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