Cobrah

(Laughs) I’ve always loved music and I had this gut feeling from a very young age that I knew that I was going to do music, and so I’ve pursued that. I have learned different instruments, written music, danced and did all of that when I was younger. When I got older, I met some friends and we started to make the first EP, Icon, but at the same time I had to support myself. So, while I was making that record with my friends, I was teaching music part time to kids because, you know, you have to work.
It was a good job to do because I could do music all the time, in different ways, of course, but that is kind of how it came about. I just didn’t have a ton of time to make a record because when you make a record it takes a lot of time, both making it, but then afterwards as well. And you still have to pay rent and stuff like that, especially in the beginning.

It was during the pandemic, which was a little bit weird because everyone wanted a job then. I had made Icon and I was going to do some shows during the spring, but then the pandemic happened and I felt kind of lost. I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to make a second record over the summer holidays, and that’s where I made Good Puss and some of the other songs on the cover record.
Then the semester started again and I was back to work, which felt really wrong because I had all of these songs and I needed to spend a lot of time to make and finish them in order to put them out. I had already put out an EP and could support myself through that music, so that became the kind of pivotal point where I thought I could do music full time. However, I needed to give my full time to the music, so I think around mid-2020 pandemic time is when I decided to cut the cord and give it a go.

All of the music is released through my label, even the new one. Originally, it started just because I had this music that I wanted to put out and there was no real, serious interest from anyone else to put it out. Then I was just like, alright, I’ll create a record label I guess. I filled out the forms, I released it, and then I tried to do a marketing campaign. It was all very indie, of course, but we did the same with the second record and I really liked it.
I think the name is kind of stupid, but it’s stupid in a way that’s a little bit nostalgic, so I’m not going to change it. You know when you made something when you were younger, you’re like, god, that was stupid, right? But now it’s funny-stupid because I have to call the bank sometimes about the label and they’re like, what’s your company name? And I’m like, Gagball! I need to talk to so many insurance people and bank people about it (laughs).

I feel like it’s all very me. Sometimes I get a lot of questions about whether Cobrah is an alter ego and whether I’m just completely separate from that, but I feel like being an artist is just an extension of me finally being able to do what I like and think is fun. I like making music and music videos and creating this world. So, I feel like everything I do is very much an extension of me as a person.

I think most of us have this hidden talent where it’s easy for people to see when things are inauthentic, and that’s when we stop trusting artists or when we feel like it looks like they’re aiming for something that isn’t really them. It’s very hard to pinpoint with words what makes one artist authentic and what makes another artist inauthentic, but I think it just has to be a personal passion for it to come across as authentic. People see it, it’s hard to fake.

Hmmm not really female empowerment. I’m into joy and happiness and being free in general. Like, being excited and happy (laughs). And I like to write music that makes people want to dance and feel like they’re the best – that’s the best feeling, when you feel like you’re on top of the world. I think that’s the goal a bit more than just female empowerment. It’s more of a general empowerment, I guess.

I am surprised by the diversity of the people that come to the shows, and that’s really exciting because what I see mostly on my social media are just really funny gays saying really funny stupid things, and I love that, I think they are hilarious. I mean, it is probably the majority of the fanbase, but because that’s all I see I sometimes expect to go into a room full of gays – and they are usually full of gays –, but they are also full of a lot of different people that I wouldn’t expect too. So that’s always the fun thing about live shows, you get to see some faces of the actual fans – that’s a little bit magical I think. I like the music to be perceived widely, not as a very niche thing.

It’s about the lore of Succubus, a magical creature. It’s a folklore creature that is a really ugly looking demon in folklore, but in TV, movies, and video games it’s this beautiful woman that attacks men by sitting on top of them and having sex with them at night. And they steal the man’s sperm or eat part of their soul and their body. They then give the sperm to an Incubus, which is the male Succubus, who will impregnate a woman so a demon is born.
I really like the lore of that because, when I was growing up, I was highly uncomfortable with being female, in a way that I was afraid to be perceived as weak. So I was really drawn to metal and rock music and being emo and all of those harder things. What intrigued me about the Succubus was that it’s so feminine and female and sexy, but it’s not weak; it does something really aggressive, and in folklore it’s not a sexy creature either – it’s not supposed to be. The sex is a force, a way of being a beast and not a way of being, you know, a beautiful woman for example.

When we made all of the visuals – and also the music –, I feel like that’s the core of what I like. I want to be someone who is in control of my femininity and my body. I don’t want be naked but I want to use that, and not in a way that screams ‘look at me, I’m so sexy,’ but more like, ‘look at me, I have this will to dominate’ (laughs).

Usually we start with a beat that we wrote. We wrote most of the songs within one or two weeks – the demos. We were just experimenting with different beats, and normally I just grab the microphone as soon as I hear something and I sing – I mumble-sing quite a lot. And then I write lyrics really fast because I just need to put some lyrics on it so it sounds like a real song. Then, we record that and I rewrite the lyrics to the final ones. But what happens mostly is that I kind of start to like the stupid lyrics that I wrote from the start.
For example, “suck my clit” was really stupid, but when I was going to change it I was like, this is the best lyric that I could possibly say here. And Feminine Energy was the same, I liked the pace of saying “feminine energy.” I worked with the track and then I was going to rewrite it but I was like, you know what? This actually works. So I try to go on intuition as much as I can and not overthink it.

I work with my good friends a lot, the same I worked with on the first EP, and I feel like that’s one of the key things for me to feel confident. I’m in a room with people I know really well and that have made music with me for a long time, so it’s like a relationship. You know each other and what you want to hear, and you feel free to say what you want and what you like. When I’m in the studio, I’m always chasing the thrills of being creative, even with music videos and stuff. What seems to thrill me is a house beat which feels club-y and exciting. And what makes me feel even better is to say something that makes me feel confident and cool. So I guess it just happens, but that’s the process of why I like to write that kind of music, it feels good; it feels really good.

I think people should maybe just try to do things that make them feel good. The better you feel, the easier it is to do what you like. And I don’t know how hard that is to do, but again, the better you feel, the more confident you are and the easier it is to do the things you like. It’s like a spiral of goodness I guess.

Exactly!

My favourite part so far is Australia, but that’s because I haven’t done anything else other than that right now. Doing live shows is the first time you get to be with the fans and experience the music together. Doing something live is so precious because everything I do, when I put out music or videos, they’re going to stay the same forever, but a show is always different depending on the fans, on the country or night. What you get is this unique experience that would only happen one time and it never happens again. It’s the true connection between me as an artist and the music and the fans, and we get to see each other. That’s the top moment of doing a tour: seeing the music that you’ve been hearing for almost two years come to life and how people like it. I love the interactiveness of a show.

Of course, yeah, exactly. It’s like an extension of the record.

I do my own makeup in peace, really quietly, and I’m not talking to people. I think that’s the best ritual that I have, doing my makeup for an hour and a half. I guess I take an extra long time because I like it. I do this tour glam book so each city has a different look that I prep in advance. Duraing that time, I can listen to a podcast or something and I can sit and have this kind of meditative state of just doing an eyeliner for a long time. That’s the best because when I’m on the stage, I’m so hyper and happy and doing the choreography, I like giving everything.

It’s going to be really sweaty – it always is. Which is good because I heard it’s cold in Barcelona right now. It’s very interactive, people scream, I hand out the mic a lot, and it’s going to be a big light show that I’m very excited about. We made some custom performance wear that I have. I’m really excited to do it.

Um, hot. That’s a bad word, but I like it (laughs).