Interview: The Cobbs

ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY PAULA GONZALEZ

Mychelle [Scenestar, Chicago correspondent] and I debated for days whether to make the five-hour trip from Chicago, Illinois to Columbus, Ohio. After all, is it necessary to drive to another town when the city you live in is a hot spot for all bands to visit? Mychelle was celebrating her birthday, and I was in need of a get-away musical vacation, so we decided that this trip was more about the adventure, which adds a bigger picture to the concert you drive to, the band you are going to listen to and the experience of getting out of routine and going to a show in a different city and with a different crowd.

Along with seeing one of our ultimate favorite bands of all time, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, we also were checking out the Philadelphia-based band The Cobbs, who was added suddenly to the opening bill for BRMC after both The Horrors and The Fratellis dropped out. Who were they? The Scenestar wanted to find out.

We arrived in college town Columbus, Ohio, and Mychelle immediately spotted Paul Cobb at a Starbucks. We confused him with his “brother” Ryan Cobb (for the record, they are not actually brothers; they are “soul brothers”), and though Paul was probably trying to figure out who the hell we were, we already knew that The Cobbs wasn’t a new band on the scene and their sound was worth following. They rock ‘n’ roll along the same lines as Guided by Voices, BRMC, The Von Bondies and The Walkmen. After drinking the necessary caffeine, we sat face to face, took out the recorder and pen and let the laughter begin.

Ryan: We had this one interview a few years ago. We kind of mumbled; not kind of, we did. We were traveling as a two piece, pre-recorded drums and bass. The question [from the interviewer] was something about, “So what’s it like traveling in the VAN? You know, there are only two of you and the drive must be really nice in the van.” And every time Paul would answer the question, when he would say the word van, the guy thought he was saying the word BAND. And then he wrote it like word for word, “It’s really nice in the BAND, so there’s a lot of room so you can stretch out in the BAND.” It goes on and on. [Laughter]
Paul: It said BAND and VAN so many times in the same paragraph that it was BAND every time, because I was talking about the BAND and then I was talking about the VAN, and the guy wrapped up his little tape and said, “I’m not really sure what I learned from meeting those guys.” [Laughter]

SS: Let’s start with both of you. How did you get to know each other?
Paul: We each played guitar in high school, and we met each other in high school, when we used to play in my sister’s band.
Ryan: You used to.
Paul: Yeah, I know, and you used to too.
Ryan: Oh yeah. Well, he was in a band with his sister. I was in another band, and we were friendly. We had mutual friends, and we grew up in the same area. After it was my first show with this other band, the first time I ever played a show, I was psyched, you know? And the second I was done [with] my band, we are all like “Wooooo!” We’re kind of doing that in the parking lot, and then Billy, [Paul’s] brother, comes right up to me, and he’s like, “I’m going to take you into my brother’s band.” [Laughs] So he ruined the band I was in right away. And then I was kind of filling in consistently, and Maria [Paul’s sister] would call me up and say, “Why don’t you come hang out? We’re recording with the BAND, not the VAN.” I was kind of around a little bit and then their guitar player quit or they got rid of him or whatever.
Paul: He quit.
Ryan: Then I joined the band.

SS: Let’s talk about the other two bands, Ty Cobb and Mad Action. How did those come about?
Paul: [Pulls the recorder to his side] [Laughter] First, we did Ty Cobb, and we needed a name for our band cause we just had a bunch of songs that we wrote together and weren’t intending on making a band or anything. We were just having fun doing recordings and songs.
Ryan: We were learning how to write songs, figuring out how to write songs.
Paul: And sing. So this recording process helped us become songwriters, singers, really work on the craft, so once we started getting good, we decided that we needed a name, and so we called it Ty Cobb [famed major league baseball player]. He only cared about baseball in the same way we care about music.
Ryan: He played in the Philadelphia team, and we are not like big sports enthusiasts, which kind of felt good. Guys are always like, “You’re really into baseball I guess.”
Paul: Then it was too much baseball talk and then...
Ryan: And then we were meeting people, [who said,] “Yeah, well, my band’s name is Babe Ruth.” [Laughter]
Paul: Well, when that was too much, we changed our name to Mad Action.
Ryan: Well, it was a little more than that.
Paul: We were going to get sued too.
Ryan: The Ty Cobb estate.

SS: So you went to Mad Action.
Ryan: We went to Mad Action.
Paul: That was [from] the song [“March of the Loons”], Mad Action. It’s on the Ty Cobb CD.
Ryan: We were getting ready to put some records out as Ty Cobb, and then we ran into trouble with the Ty Cobb people. We could have fought it and spent the next [few] months wasting money that we didn’t really have to go about it, [but] it also would have pushed back all these releases we had planned, so that’s pretty much why we changed the name. It was kind of painful.

SS: Did you cry?
Ryan: No, it was weird. [Silence]

SS: Seems like you’re still holding onto the moment.
Ryan: The other night, Robert [of BRMC], at their show, he says, “I would like to thank Ty C… I like would to thank Ty...” [Ryan does an impression of how Robert caught his mistake of almost saying Ty Cobb and not The Cobbs.] And then we did three releases [as Mad Action] and then it became kind of a disaster with the record label we were with at the time. It has always been really good, our friendship and our writing. It has always been really kick ass. And then we had that typical major label record breakdown, and it kind of put... for the first time, we were kind of... we were scarred. So we got these new guys, and it kind of felt better. Every time we bring new people in the band, there is always this sense that it’s our band, and they are just playing in our band. This time around, we have three new guys we really like and they are good friends, so that’s why we chose to rename it [The Cobbs]. It felt like all five of us were starting the band.

SS: You’re not the typical opening band that was just put on the bill. You have a relationship with BRMC.
Paul: We played at this place in Philadelphia. It was us as Ty Cobb, BRMC and The Strokes. They got a hold of our CD.
Ryan: Well, that night, we gave it to [BRMC]. It was kind of like, “Here.” And we were excited.
Paul: And they gave us a call a week later and asked us to open for them on an East Coast tour. So we did that.
Ryan: They really took us under their wings and really supported us. We traveled with them, and they looked out for us. That’s how we became friends.

This friendship also turned into a collaboration, as both Ryan and Paul worked on BRMC’s album Howl in Philadelphia.

Paul: Time ago, Robert talked about making an Americana record, so we understood what they were going for. We’re pretty easy to work with, and we could mold to what they wanted to work with. We recorded seven or eight songs, including “Shuffle Your Feet,” “Sympathetic Noose” and “The Line.”

Paul adds that while the Howl material was being pieced together, both groups enjoyed the atmosphere of being able to hang out. The influence of this collaboration and style of music can be heard in both bands’ work. And The Cobbs clearly was in a perfect spot as an opening band for BRMC: exposure, new fans and avoiding being musically out of place.

SS: Moving on from BRMC, what influences The Cobbs?
Paul: There are tons of bands we are influenced by. If you name a time period, it’s probably six bands from each couple of decades. The usual: Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Pixies, Joy Division, The Pretenders. [Laughter]

SS: What is the difference between albums from Ty Cobb to The Cobbs?
Ryan: [The Cobbs] is different from the Ty Cobb stuff, which was more low-fi, four track recording, sounds like you did it in your bedroom, so it kind of started like that. The more we learned how to record, the more fidelity. I think it still has a little bit of that going on.
Paul: Noisy, very natural, not overproduced.
Ryan: The songs [are] not particular to each [band] name. We go about writing them and recording them the same way throughout. It’s really just the name change than the sound. It has always been guitar and that melody bass.

SS: What is the concept behind Sing the Deathcapades?
Paul: Death.
Ryan: We had a really cool friend pass away. It’s funny. The entire time we were making the record, he’d always be, “When will I be able to hear some of that stuff?” We had just started it. [We’d tell him,] “We got some work to do; we’re not there yet.” I’d always deny him from hearing some of it. Of course, he was alive at that moment. Then he passed, and the album took a little spin.

The album Sing to the Deathcapades features 10 heavy-set songs, made for the aftermath of a one-night stand, a break-up and whatever else requires some comfort set to made-in-the-U.S.A. beats. A little psychedelic, a little classic rock, a little rock ‘n’ roll all in a perfect combination; this is an album made for those searching for real music. For the Scenestar, the songs that standout are “Climb on Top” “When the Morning Comes,” “Say You Never Knew Me” and “Broken Strings.”

SS: How has the reaction been from the audience?
Paul: It has been a great reaction, seems like everyone likes us.

Then of course, there’s the BRMC mix up.

Ryan: He gets mistaken for Robert. I get mistaken for Robert. Happens every day. Every time somebody comes up to me, they’re like, “Awesome! Great show!” And I’m like, “Wow! Thanks!” Actually, two weeks ago, some guy and his girlfriend walk into Denny’s after a show. This guy stops me and says, “You guys were fucking great.” And she’s like, “You guys were amazing.” And I’m standing by their table, and they are complimenting me over the top, and I’m like, “Wow! Wow!” I’m like, “Thank you! That really means a lot to me. That’s fucking great.” And they are like, “Why didn’t you play…” And they name a Black Rebel tune. I didn’t care. It was awesome. I’m glad that it happens. I said, “We’ll be back...” It happens all the time.

SS: What’s the plan after this tour finishes?
Ryan: Do shows in New York and in our area. We kind of need to get it out on a label, so we’re going to seek that out a bit. That’s the immediate plan. In the summer it’s tougher because of all the music festivals, so it’s better to get on a fall tour. So probably record another album in the summer and have that ready. We have our studio, so it’s easy. That’s like the smartest thing we ever did.
Paul: We have a do-it-yourself kind of thing going on here. We’re putting our record out ourselves, we recorded it ourselves, we’re driving ourselves, we’re tour managing ourselves.

Days later, the Scenestar attends the BRMC and The Cobbs show in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The venue is packed, and although it’s obvious that people were waiting for the men in black, The Cobbs manage to make an impression and get a positive reaction from the crowd. For that night, and every night they’ve been opening for BRMC, it’s the setting they want to be in, performing live and playing the music they love.

They’re mellow, don’t fight, love to tell stories and love to make you laugh. Why not become part of those stories or laugh along with them? Check them out while they are currently touring with BRMC. You can purchase their album via www.apolloaudio.com and also check out their Ty Cobb material.

Comments

[mychelle]

brings back fond memories. the cobbs were so gracious, so fun and just really great guys. they made our trip to columbus and my birthday something to remember! they are absolutely worth checking out!

if you don't like "climb on top," there may be something seriously wrong with you. and you might need to be checked out by a doctor. :)

[charlotte]

I like the bits about "Howl." I'll have to check them out.

[paulag]

Dude, im still an emotional wreck that they didn't play when the morning comes.. I mean.. I have yet to recuperate....

this is some serious shit.

[Oscar]

Nice! I liked it it.

[bob]

the greatest band...i love every song I've ever heard. LISTEN to THE COBBS!

[mike J]

HAIL THE COBBS

[Chaz Face]

Yeah, these guys were great.

[XXX]

I have only love for The Cobbs.

[mychelle]

Yay Cobbs!