INTERVIEW: COBRA SPELL

Featuring current and former members of IDLE HANDS, BURNING WITCHES, JACK STARR’S BURNING STARR and others, COBRA SPELL is an experienced group of musicians spawned out of pure passion of 80’s hard & heavy. Their debut EP, “Love Venom”, was released on September 4 and Sonia Anubis (guitarist) took care to answer our questions.

-Hello! Thanks for taking your time! How are things? Are you fed up with this virus situation and its many restrictions?

Thanks for having me on your interview! Things are going pretty well here. Working from home at the moment, by giving Skype guitar lessons and more music related activities. I do am fed up with the pandemic situation though, it doesn’t allow me to get all my band members on the same place at the moment. Also, I am dying to get on stage and play some live music!

-When did COBRA SPELL get together as a band and how did you meet each other?

The beginning of COBRA SPELL was during the summer of past year, 2019. Sebastian and I have a very special bond and jamming together was always very fun and felt just right. We thought it would be cool to start a band together. From that moment we started creating music and ideas for the band and looking for the remaining band members, we did it in a slow pace though.

-Is there any special story behind the band name?

Sebastian and I were brainstorming a name earlier before creating the band, it was kind of like a joke. We were like “imagine if we started a band, how would we name it?!” sort of thing. We firstly came up with VOODOO LYNX, but we thought it was too corny. So I came up with COBRA SPELL and Sebastian liked it.

-Correct me if I’m wrong but Sebastian is currently playing in IDLE HANDS and SILVER TALON, Alexx is the lead vocalist for JACK STARR’S BURNING STARR and HITTEN, you are a CRYPTA member as well… Musicians in COBRA SPEEL are involved in other groups, except Angelina and Mike, if I'm not mistaken. Is it hard to juggle time between all these bands from different countries? Why did you leave BURNING WITCHES? Is it something related to the lack of time to face so many projects?

We are all busy cats! But we have enough experience in being in numerous projects and so far it has been realistic, so we don’t see any problem. It’s just a matter of planning things very well in forward and good communication between the members. As I said before, there is something that binds us all in the band and that is the immense passion we have for music, so we would do anything to be onstage as much as possible with all of our bands. And we don’t want to discard any of the bands by doing so. I left BURNING WITCHES because I didn’t feel that I could express myself enough in that band and there where limitations and rules that I simply didn’t agree with, to explore myself further as a musician I needed to follow my own path instead of following the path of BURNING WITCHES. It’s been one of the best decisions I’ve done in my short musical career, because now I feel like I can finally release music that I created 100% or have contributed a lot song-writing wise. And that is the most full-filling feeling I’ve ever had, to be able to express my own art in my own way. Aside of that, I am totally free to do things my own way now.

-Could you tell us which band is the priority for each of the COBRA SPELL members?

All of our bands are our priority since it’s our biggest passion to play with all of ‘em!

-You started with an EP. Was that done so that you could just present something as COBRA SPELL?

We chose to release an EP instead of directly a full-length, to not shoot with too much at once. We wanted to see how the sound of COBRA SPELL was received in first instance. In this situation, for a new band I think “less is more”. Now that we now that the music has been received so well, we definitely will be considering a full-length follow-up.

-Do you think that you could make COBRA SPEEL work on a long term basis without a label? Basically just running everything on your own and self-releasing material? Are you looking for a label right now or are you happy to be an unsigned band?

So far, it has worked fine for us. But it is a lot to think about when you manage everything yourself. And we are just a starting band… So imagine how much work it would be if the band would grow. We are definitely open for any label offers for the future!

-When did the writing process of “Love Venom” start and which are your main influences when you began to write the songs? What will be your words to describe it?

The writing for the “Love Venom” EP started past year 2019. The first songs that I wrote were “Shake Me” and “Love Venom”, these songs took more time to write since I had to discover the sound of COBRA SPELL by trial and error (that’s how it works for me). In the beginning of 2020, I wrote “Come On Tonight” and “Poison Bite”, these two songs came pretty instantaneously since I had found the formula of writing that works the best for me. Lyrics were written mainly by Sebastian and myself! His English is very good and he can formulate cool lyrics that are grammatically correct and I always have an idea on cool sounding words on top of certain rhythmic ideas. Once we have the compositions and the lyrics, I ask the drummer to write a cool drum-line for it, and I start composing the melodic direction of the vocal line which I record with my own voice. These recordings and lyrics are send to our vocalist and he can create vocal demos with his own voice. When I make a song I have a very specific idea on how I want it to become, so I try to be as close and involved as possible to the process of every single detail. The main influences on COBRA SPELL are many acts actually. Mainly; DOKKEN, WHITESNAKE, X JAPAN, KISS, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, RATT and more.

-Is there any particular song that meant most to you in comparison to the others?

All the songs are very meaningful to me!

-Are there any plans to shoot a video for one of the songs from the EP?

We are certainly wanting to make a video for one of our songs in the EP, even though due to the pandemic, we are yet not able to reunite the full line-up together to make this possible.

-Can you give us a quick description of what each track is about?

“Come On Tonight”: Overall this song is about getting ready for the night. Enjoy the night as much as possible.

“Poison Bite”: Chasing down someone that you really like.

“Love Venom”: Being in love.

“Shake Me”: Being addicted to someone.

-This EP was edited, mixed and mastered by Alejandro Gabasa Barcoj, who is also a member of Spanish bands LEATHER HEART and more recently FRENZY, tell me more about that.

We wanted the mix/master person of our EP to exactly understand what we had in mind regarding the desired vibe/sound for COBRA SPELL. Alejandro has a lot of experience with the old-school sound and his taste is very alike to ours, aside of that he is a super talented musician/producer. So for that reason we decided to work with him.

-How did you decide to choose Velio Josto for doing the artwork? Did you send him any music or lyrics to direct him into the concept of the album? Where you in any way involved in the creation of the artwork?

Velio Josto is an amazingly talented artist and he has made numerous incredible artworks for worldwide underground bands. We were 100% sure that he could deliver something even better than what we had in mind. As crazy as it might sound, the cover artwork was created before the lyrics. But the lyrics are very based on the concept of the artwork. Velio worked with the specific idea that we gave him. The creative direction was created my Sebastian, Alexx and myself.

-By the way, will there be a vinyl edition of the album available too?

There are already 2 vinyl variables available for pre-order in our website www.cobraspell.com! We have a galaxy/pink vinyl and a black vinyl. Both limited, the pink/blue one almost selling out.

-Let’s talk about music in general. What are your first musical memories? And what drew you to your instruments?

My first musical memories where actually unrelated to metal or hard rock at all. When I was little, I went to a nun-school for a long time and I was part of a church choir there. Also I learnt to play a bit of acoustic guitar and to play the classical traverse flute. Later on, after moving to a different country (The Netherlands), at 14 year old age I randomly discovered the American rock band KISS. I became very very obsessed and they made me want to start playing bass guitar. Later on, when I got into more extreme music and listened MEGADETH for the first time, triggered me to additionally play the electric guitar too.

-At this point, live performances are on hold due to the pandemic. That in mind, once things settle down, can you see COBRA SPELL going out on the road?

We will do anything to make that happen.

-I imagine you are already writing new songs for the following full length. When are you thinking you’ll release the next COBRA SPELL stuff? Will there be any surprises? Any differences from “Love Venom”?

Songwriting for the following has indeed already started, we are not sure how it will happen. But we are hoping for next year!

-Name ten of your favourite albums of all time.

KISS – “Kiss”

DOKKEN – “Under Lock and Key”

YNGWIE MALMSTEEN – “Trilogy”

MEGADETH – “Rust In Peace”

IDLE HANDS – “Mana”

PESTILENCE – “Consuming Impulse”

BOLT THROWER – “Those Once Loyal”

TOXIK – “World Circus”

TONY MACALPINE – “Maximum Security”

W.A.S.P. – “W.A.S.P.”.

-Thank you for this interview, Sonia, the last words are yours…

Thank you so much for inviting me to your interview, it’s a pleasure, thanks to all the readers for reading. And also, a big thanks to all the people who have been supporting us by pre-ordering our EP, merchandise and also spreading the word. We are dying to get onstage after the pandemic, so stay tuned for future news!

Diego González.