By: Lucy
Hall
L.A.
Cobra Logo
Big explosions, colored smoke, fire,
motorbikes, classic cars, and hot chicks surround the platinum blonde singer.
He does a dramatic roundhouse kick, whilst staring dangerously into the camera
lens, as he turns full circle to face the microphone. His ripped, skintight
jeans with the protruding bulge look great. The band’s rhythm section is finger
tapping their guitars and twirling drumsticks, decked out in denim and leather.
All this exhilaration is showcased within a single music video. Was I
describing a Cinderella or Poison video circa 1988? Uh, No! I just described
elements of not “one” but “many” hits in L.A. Cobra’s video playlist.
L.A. Cobra Promotional Photo By: Marina Mare
In most people’s mind, South Africa’s L.A. Cobra would be a
product of the 1980’s hair metal movement upon their initial impression.
However, this is not 1988, it's 2018, more than three decades after the L.A.
Scene took over the airwaves and MTV. L.A. Cobra may not be driving their
motorcycles down Sunset Boulevard (yet) however, they definitely possess the
musical talent, image, and attitude of 80’s Sunset Strip rockers including the
kick-ass attitude. L.A. Cobra formed in 2005 with members, Don Cobra (Vocals
and Guitar), Slade (Lead guitar & backing vocals), Ewil Honey (Bass &
backing vocals), and The Animal (Drums). Cobra moved away from the popularity
of nu-metal and forged their own brand of rock. They claim to be heavily
influenced by bands such as Motley Crue, Guns & Roses, Bon Jovi, White Snake,
Poison, Kiss, WASP, and Skid Row. Not only does Cobra have the talent and looks
needed to produce a successful metal act, they also have a contagious sense of
humor. The band has elevated their camp rock persona to a new level by
proclaiming to not simply be “glam rock” but they regard themselves as “sleaze
rock”. To support these claims the band uses over the top stage antics and
tongue in cheek lyrics and album titles. Like predecessors Van Halen, Cobra is
the ideal band to party with. They are all about fast music, fast cars, fast
Harleys, fast chicks, and a good time. By gigging and networking the band paid
their dues to the Metal Gods and soon their debut album, Cherry Hill was
released in 2007. L.A. Cobra continues to produce emotional hard rock song
sagas within their latest 2017 release, which may be ultra commercial glam but its
addictive as hell.
Don Cobra Promotional Photo By:
Christelle Duvenhage
I caught up with the
powerful-voiced frontman with the charismatic stage presence, Don Cobra for an
interview:
HEAVY MAKEUP: L.A. Cobra is based in South Africa, Don,
what can you tell us about band's origins? How did you meet your band members?
Don Cobra:
Yeah L.A. Cobra is based in Pretoria, South Africa. We started out in November
2005, we were all friends hanging out in the same rock-clubs, and then it just
happened. Besides for myself and Callie; The Animal, Slade, and Ewil
joined in 2012/13 and it has been the longest running L.A. Cobra line up
yet. We’re a gang now and we love each other like brothers.
HEAVY MAKEUP: What can you tell
us about the charismatic Don Cobra? How old were you when you got into hard
rock music? When did you begin to sing and write songs?
Don Cobra:
What can I say…haha, what you see is what you get, I’m down to earth and love
to make new friends, and of course traveling is my new passion besides music,
but it’s always music related.
I was nine
years old, a friend of mine introduced me to Metallica, Ride the
Lightning and Garage Days…since then my life changed, I
had it all on tape back then...haha I started playing guitar at nine (and
I still suck), and started writing songs at about the age of eleven or
twelve. My cousin Zeff and I played our first gig at eleven if I remember
correctly, after the first song the teachers stopped us cause my cousin sang
something about “Playboy Magazine” that was the start for me..haha
HEAVY MAKEUP: What can
potential American fans expect from a Cobra show? What can be expected
both musically, and visually from a performance? Any unique stage antics?
Don Cobra:
Our shows are raw, honest and full of energy, if we mess up, we mess up,
there’s no hiding behind stuff, but the crowd can relate and connect and see
that we are having a fucking good time while we’re on stage, which make it more
enjoyable for them and that they wanna be part of the Cobra experience. There’s
a lot of sweat, we are busy, no time for just standing in just one place, I
wanna connect with everyone in front of me. We do have our unique stage antics,
we’re three singers now, so we switch mics at times that the fans can see
everyone up close from where they are standing.
HEAVY MAKEUP: While in the writing
process, where do you channel your lyrical inspiration? Do you write from your
own experiences, or do the songs have certain storylines or themes?
Don Cobra:
All of the above, some songs are written from past experiences and emotions
that popped up whilst writing the album, means a lot of stuff happened in the
past four years, we had death, breakups, and Slade was blessed with two awesome
twin boys (Deo and Enzo) so all of that kind of stuff happened whilst
writing Shotgun Slinger and had to be dealt with some way or
another.
HEAVY MAKEUP: In the subsequent
years following the aftermath of grunge rock, there were bands that possessed
both the look and sound of classic glam rock who denied being part of the
genre. However, these days, there are bands like Steel Panther who are
continuing the tradition and embracing the genre as a new wave of hair metal
bands is emerging onto the music scene. L.A. Cobra openly declares to be a
notch higher than glam by turning it up to eleven and proclaiming to be “sleaze
rock”. How did you initially get into sleaze rock? Has there ever been a sleaze
rock movement in South Africa?
Don Cobra:
When we started out it was natural, I don’t think it’s something you choose,
and decide we are gonna be a sleaze rock/metal band. It’s in your blood or
not. Our influences were of that nature and the songs that we wrote when
we started out was just sleaze rock/metal, the lyrical content and the way we
dressed immediately set us apart from any other band on the scene. I
don’t think there was a sleaze rock movement in South Africa before us, there
were some glam/punk inspired artists and band is the 80’s early 90’s that was
definitely part of that era, but no one that took it serious enough as SA was
and still is very conservative in certain ways. There is a huge metal scene
here, don’t get me wrong, but in the Sleaze rock/metal since we’re the one of a
kind on this whole continent.
HEAVY MAKEUP: L.A. Cobra is
definitely a memorable band. A band that is sincerely fulfilling the role of
“rock stars,” an element that has been lacking in modern music. Is that an
aspiration that the band has intentionally pursued? In your words, how
would you describe your sound and style?
Don
Cobra: I don’t think it’s something we intentionally pursued, it just
happened after our first music video “Live to Ride” was nominated for an award
on national television here in SA and people who seen us related to whom and
what we are and we did a television commercial for a UK based company that was
broadcast in the UK for two years.
L.A. Cobra featured in TV commercial
It’s hard
to say, I guess every band says we’re unique...haha we just do what we love,
our sound is raw, in your face with guitar solos that everyone craved for the
last two decades, and catchy sing along choruses, there’s also a modern element
in our sound to attract the younger generation that wasn’t as lucky as us to
grew up in the 80’s haha. But with the sound of our new album, Shotgun
Slinger that was produced by Swedish Rockstar Martin Sweet from
Crashdiët, Sister, and Sweet Creature, he brought out a whole new element into
our songs with his production, by making it alive and he knew what we wanted
before we even wanted it. Martin is one super talented human and
we couldn't be more grateful to have worked with him on this.
Take a listen here for yourself:
Check out
L.A. Cobra's Shotgun Slinger Album on Apple I Tunes
Link:
HEAVY MAKEUP: You definitely
have an image and attitude inspired by the 80’s sunset strip rockers. In
particular, you have a similar look as Motley Crue’s Vince Neil. Did you
intentionally channel Vince’s look? Who has inspired you the
most? Who has been your primary rock role model?
Don
Cobra: I actually didn’t, I just look like him…haha so weird. I had people
from abroad wanted to take photos with me cause I was their version of young
Vince Neil, but for me it is a compliment, he is one of my favorite frontmen of
all time, he is a living legend and has accomplished so much and so much for
our genre that words can’t describe. I had people saying that I should play
“Vince” in The Dirt movie as well. Rock on Vince!!!
HEAVY MAKEUP: I love the fact
that L.A. Cobra has a tongue in cheek method to song/album titles and themes.
For example, the album How Much Snake Can You Take?? is an
ingenious title. How do you generate such ideas?
Don Cobra: This actually came from
an old flyer we made, like a 70’s retro flyer with this blonde pin-up girl that
had a python wrapped around her, the caption we made was: “How much snake can
one woman take??” and it became our album title a few years later, we always
like to provoke a little at the right time and place..hehe.
HEAVY MAKEUP: The official video for the single, “Stray
Cat” has an exploitation film vibe complete with big explosions, a hot chick, a
fast car and a killer band, L.A. Cobra performing in a junkyard. Whose idea was
it to make a video in the style of an exploitation B movie?
Don Cobra: It was our director at
the time who came up with the idea of making a Tarantino style short story over
three music videos when we released How Much Snake Can You Take??
HEAVY MAKEUP: The videos for songs such as “Shotgun
Slinger,” “Danger, Danger”, and “Back Roads” has all the elements of any great
glam video. Not only do they have glam elements but in addition, they kind of
have southern rock aspects. These videos remind me of bands such as Kix or
Junkyard wearing ripped jeans and cowboy boots while dancing in the desert.
What can you tell us about these videos and songs?
Don Cobra: I guess there's always
been a sleazy cowboy vibe in our songs and videos...haha “Shotgun
Slinger” was the first song produced by Martin Sweet and the title track of our
new album, Shotgun Slinger. "Danger Danger", “Back Roads”
and “Stray Cat” was from our previous album How Much Snake Can You
Take?? that formed part of Tarantino style trilogy.
Check out L.A. Cobra's How Much
Snake Can You Take?? on Apple's I Tunes
Link:
HEAVY MAKEUP: If you picked one
song, one album, one video, or tour what would you be most proud of?
Don Cobra: This is super
difficult...haha. I must choose one song, I’d say I'm very proud of the song
“Ride” on our new album Shotgun Slinger, actually super proud
of the whole album. Also, our new video for “War” was released on
Christmas day; check out our www.facebook.com/lacobra band for updates.
HEAVY MAKEUP: What else does Don Cobra do outside of music?
Is there anything that would surprise fans?
Don Cobra: As I mentioned earlier
I love traveling, it’s my new passion, I love to see how different cultures
live, and eat their local cuisine. When I’m on an island I have to drink their
local RUM…haha...other than that Slade and I do road trips with Harleys when
there’s time. Yeah, I guess so I love carpentry as well, been neglecting it the
past year and a bit, but I love creating things with my own hands…hehe.
HEAVY MAKEUP: The band has toured Scandinavia, Europe,
Australia, and Brazil. Any American tour plans?
Don
Cobra: Yes, there actually is, we were confirmed yesterday for Rock N
Skull Festival 2018 in Illinois and it’s such a dream come true to share a
stage with Pretty Boy Floyd and Crashdiët who is also performing there. We’ve
been waiting for this for past twelve years and can’t describe how grateful we
are. Thank you, Justin Murr \m/
HEAVY MAKEUP: Other than your the
debut of your third album, Shotgun Slinger, any other upcoming
projects? Lastly any messages for L.A. Cobra fans throughout the world?
Don
Cobra: Yes, we launched it on the October 7th this year, and yeah we are
gonna make a video for every song on the Shotgun Slinger album
starting early in 2018.
Thank you
guys for all your support in the last twelve years, can’t wait to see you next
year at the Rock n Skull Fest, Il, USA, please check our www.facebook.com/lacobraband for updates on shows that will be added in the
USA, and please get your copy of our new album online or a signed hardcopy and
merch in our online store on FB, so that you can sing along while we break some
hearts and melt some faces!!
See you
soon America
Love
Don//Slade//Callie
The Animal//Ewil
L.A. Cobra Promotional Photo By: Marina Mare
L.A. Cobra not only has the ability to write songs that make
chicks cry and drop their panties with their gritty sleaze cock rock but also
they draw in the male fans by invoking lots of headbanging and air guitar. Here
is exactly what you’ll be missing if you don’t splash out your cash for L.A.
Cobra albums: a solid package of hard rocking music and your collection will be
devoid of one of the essential bands of the New Wave of Hair Metal.
Thanks to L.A. Cobra for ensuring that the glamorous era of rock lives on.
L.A. Cobra
- “War” Video, Album, Shotgun Slinger
Lucy
