Hi Ryland, how are you?
Great, we are in the car on the way to play an acoustic thing for MySpace, driving through London right now, we've just been through the park which was really nice.
Have you been to the UK before?
Several times, yeah, I actually studied here at college for a semester, so that was a few years back. We've come back as a band now five times or so. I love it here.
Was it while you were over here you came up with Guy Ripley?
You know, I have been an Anglophile since I was a kid. We have a station over there called PBS and they used to play 'Only Fools And Horses', 'Blackadder', and 'Faulty Towers', which was the big one for me, and from there I got into Coogan, Gervais, Sessions, and The Goons. I love Peter Sellers, I love all that stuff. It's just kind of been my bag I guess. But, no, I don't know anything about Guy Ripley. People say he looks like me, but that's about it. (laughs)
Can you describe each of your band members briefly, with a couple of words about each one?
A couple of words for each one, Alex Suarez (bass) who I've known the longest, he is hungover, laughs, and sweet. Victoria (keytar) is salty and sweet, Nate (drums) is savoury and sweet, and Gabe (vocals) is just a huge fuckin' handful. He's spicy and sweet.
Where is Pleasure Ryland?
Some people think it's a few hundred kilometres off the coast of Barbados, but it's actually a place that I've developed in my mind. It's a utopia if you will, a place where you don't have to listen to anybody. There's no rules, and there's no bullshit, there's just all the things that one loves. Everybody's got a little pleasure island in their heart somewhere, whatever it is that they like.
Which country have you had the best experience touring?
I love Japan quite a bit. That just really blew my mind. the place is so different, so foreign. I've been into Japanese culture since I was a kid I used to love anime, and things like that. So when I went there, I expected it to be really crazy and it was. It really is quite a different place.
Actually, as far as playing with the band, I like coming to the UK, to Scotland, and Ireland, because the crowds, the kids are energetic. I think a big part of it is the lowered drinking age. They go crazy here, and it's just really fun.
What do you think of British beer by the way?
I like a lot of the British beers, as I said I used to study acting at college, I came here and I stayed near the British Museum, and I got really familiar with some of the bitters, and stouts. Some of the stuff that you can't get in the States. I also became quite accustomed to drinking the warm ales, obviously you guys go for the warmer beer here at room temp. At first it was strange for me, now I like it, you can drink it a lot quicker.
What's been your most memorable gig in the UK and why?
We played the Hammersmith, I guess that was memorable just because that was such a beautiful space, right there on water and everything, and it was the first time we were over here as a band with Victoria, our keytar player, and she's natively British, so all her family were there, and that was a really great night. I remember we went out and had a really good drink, and I have very fond memories of that show.
Your original idea was to bring out an album every year, obviously that went a bit awry, is that still the plan?
We kind of botched it on the last one. Well, the new reformed plan is just to do a record every year if we feel like it's ready to go. We had a bit of a fag when Gabe had his vocal surgery, he had cysts on his throat, and he had to have invasive surgery, and that took three months off. Plus we wanted to make sure we'd got all the right songs, stuff like that. If we had released this album when we were going to release an album, I might not be talking to you right now. It was not as good, we just weren't satisfied with it so we kept at it a little while longer, and in the end I'm quite thankful that we took the extra time.
You did the production on it, do you have your own studio?
Alex did a tonne of the production. We both have our shitty small apartments that have some keyboards and stuff. We also started use some space out in Jersey city, and we also spent some time up in the mountains in The Poconos, any space we can find we use ultimately.
Do you have any new stuff on the horizon?
We have some of the B sides, we wrote over a long period of time, and we have a lot of these extra songs, so we're going to some B sides stuff. Lately, we've just been doing remixes. We're doing a remix of 'Hot Mess' right now, and some other people too, we are just trying to stay sharp.
You have quite a lot of people on 'Hot Mess' with you, who would you most like to work with you?
I don't know much about that world. People like Kevin (Rudolf) and Kara DioGuardi, I didn't really know who they were before I met them during this process. I don't really know about other people, but I know there's other bands that I'd like to work with. I really like a Canadian act called Chromeo, I think that they are great and I love their production. I like La Roux a lot too, I think that she's really cool. Then there's another Canadian band called The Junior Boys, you should check them out they have some good stuff. I'd like to work with them. I'm doing a remix for this guy in New York, his name is Patrick Cleandenim, and he's got some great stuff.
You've toured with quite a few bands, who has been the best one you've got along with whilst you've been on tour?
Probably The Academy Is, there was one year where we were out for 10 months or so on tour, and we were with them the whole time. We've come to be really good friends, and Butcher their drummer recently moved to my neighbourhood, and so I get to see him a lot too. Those guys we've made life long friends with.
And who has been the worst?
You know we've been really lucky, I don't think we've had anybody who really was a bummer. I tell you what was a bummer, we were supposed to go out on this last tour with this band called The Plasticines. Basically four really beautiful French girls, but they didn't have enough money to come on tour, so, I'm bummed about that. I wish we could have done that, they're really cool.
What do you have to have on tour with you?
I like Xbox, I like to play video games to unwind, that's probably the big one for me. We all like to play a little bit of Xbox when we have the time. Right now I like 'Call Of Duty World At War'. The new one's coming out in about a month, I actually saw some photos of it in a magazine here, and I'm pretty excited about that, I love Call Of Duty.
What was the last tune you purchased?
The last record I bought was the Wavves, I love that. I couldn't really have aspired to be in the music industry, but now that I am, I realise that you don't really make a lot of money, and so, I started to buy records of bands that I support. If you're going to make money, then you've got to tour and make music. I bought their record, and then I went to go and see them in New York, and it's such an incredible record.
With the name Starship are you into sci-fi at all? what's the best starship?
Yeah I am, well I don't know if this counts but I really like the vehicles in Blade Runner, those aren't really starships those are just flying cars. There's also some pretty good vessels in Dune. The Millennium Falcon is obviously a classic, the Slave 5 is pretty cool too the Boba Fett one. Those are great but I love the Tie Fighters, I love the sound they make when they fly.
Who was the first band you ever went to see?
I think the first band I ever went to see was Dinosaur Jr. I come from Massachusetts and they were local celebrities, and they played a show in my Uncle's hometown, and I went up there, I was about 11, to see them, and that was really amazing. I didn't know how loud they were going to be, and my ears were ringing the next day. I've since got to meet J Mascis and I told him about that, and he was a little underwhelmed. But that was the best show.
Is he one of your guitar heroes?
yeah, J Mascis is definitely a big influence on me. I actually recently got to get my first Jazzmaster and it's the J Mascis signature. Also, do you know this band Ratatat? (No) They're a Brooklyn band and their guitarist Mike Stroud is the best in the business, actually he's very influenced by Brian May, so Brian May is another one who is definitely up there. Who I like too, at the moment that I'm really listening to is Mark Knopfler. He has a really interesting style. The thing I like about Mike, and about Brian, and Mark, is that even if you don't know it's their band's song, you hear the guitar and you know it's them, they have such a very unique, distinct sound. Same with J Mascis, you know right away.
Is that what you hope to achieve with Cobra Starship, your own distinct sound?
Umm, it's weird now that I'm in this band I probably play less guitar, than I have ever done in my life. With them I've been more interested keys and stuff, the guitar stuff's kind of limiting in this kind of music for me personally.
So is Cobra Starship going to stick with the pop genre of music?
I don't know, I was never into the pop punk stuff, not so much, I like some of it, I like NOFX, but I feel because of synthesizers and stuff you can get more expressive sounds and things. I guess we'll stick with whatever works, whatever feels right. I don't think we'll ever change. I don't think we're going to release a country album, or a jazz anchored album any-time soon.
Where do you see Cobra Starship in a couple of years?
Shooosh, retired! Heh, I don't know, probably in band therapy. Hopefully happy, doing what I love to do. It's hard to say, I don't even know what we're going to do next week, because I'm some kind of a day by day guy. Well, I do know what we're going to do next week, we're going to shoot a video.
What's the video for?
It's for our second single 'Hot Mess' and I guess you guy's haven't got the first one yet, but we're a little ahead of time. We just heard that 'Good Girls Go Bad' was on a new rotation on Radio One. It came out in May in the States and the record came out in August.
Thanks that's about it Ryland, I was going to ask you some questions about Guy Ripley, but as you're not him...
I'm not him, but maybe I can help you, I dunno?
Well my last question was going to be, what is the best recipe for keeping warm on a cold winter night?
A hot totty (laughs).
Thanks Ryland.
All right, we'll be back in February.
article by: Scott Williams
published: 08/10/2009 13:50
FUTURE GIGS
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