L.A.Cobra talks new album "Shotgun Slinger" with Hair Band Heaven
From the L.A. Cobra biography: Formed in November 2005, L.A. Cobra is the Only Sleaze/Glam/Hair Metal band on the African Continent. They are the “Sleaze Rocking Hair Metal Stars” from Pretoria - flying the 80’s Glam Rock Flag from the handlebars of their Harleys whilst making a name for themselves internationally and locally. Like the well-known song of oueen, “Tie your mother down, lock your daddy out of doors”, L.A. Cobra has been let loose to cause a rebellion amongst the youth with their revival of the 80’s glam era. Largely influenced by 80’s rock bands like Motley Crue, Bon Jovi, White Snake, Poison, Guns & Roses, Kiss, WASP Skid Row, and Def Leppard, L.A. COBRA is all about girls, Harleys, big hair and a good time. The band is: Don Cobra On vocals and guitar, Slade On lead guitar, Ewil on bass guitar and Callie The Animal on drums, bringing back those memorable guitar solo’s and “balls to the wall” hard rock shows we’re all starved for with a modern twist from their songwriting as we know them, these guys are the real deal, and live Rock and Roll! HBH went one on one with lead singer Don Cobra about the soon to be released new album "Shotgun Slinger" and more....
Tell us a little bit about the band how long you've been together and what some of your influences are?
We've been together for almost 12 years now, had a lot of line-up changes, but since 2013 we've found the right guys, we're brothers, we work hard and play even harder, we're a gang again. Our main influences is the 80's Glam era Motley Crue, Skid Row and Wasp.
You guys are set to release your third album "Shotgun Slinger", do you have a release date yet, and what can fans expect from the new album?
Yes thats true, hopefullly third time is lucky with Shotgun...haha We don't have an official release date yet, we've just reached our minimum milestone on our crowd funding campaign, so now the work starts, i can say it will be end of July early August the latest. There's still a few days left, so if you can make pledge please help us out and pre-order your copy now at https://www.thundafund.com/project/lacobra
Our new album is something different, we are so fortunate to have Martin Sweet on
our team, mixing, mastering and producing it, so its gonna be a product of high quality as he is super talented. From our side its a bit heavier than our previous albums, you obviously still hear the 80's influences, but its got more balls I'd say. Its also our first album that we wrote with Slade and Ewil, where their influences were well incorporated. Slade is master with melodies...hehe
L.A. COBRA - SHOTGUN SLINGER
What are your plans for touring in the coming year? Any chance of making it to the States?
At the moment we're in negotiations with a tour to Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Italy. We'll also tour locally in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. We'd love to come to the States, if the right opportunity presents itself and we meet the right people that can hook us up we'll pack our bags without thinking twice about it...haha
You recorded the new album with Martin Sweet of Crashdiet, how did that come about?
We basically recorded the album ourselves in Pretoria, South Africa and Martin is doing the all the post-production on Shotgun Slinger. Early last year I became friends with Martin and Peter, and ended up going to the "Rest in Sleaze" fest in Stockholm in November 2016. Long story short...haha The day that I left to go back to South Africa I left Peter's place and went to say goodbye to Martin in Solna, it was f#@king freezing (for me as a South African) he arrived on Fathersday knee-deep in the snow to meet me for an early morning coffee; I said to him it would be an honour for us if he could mix a song with us on our new album. Martin then went on tour
with Sister in Nov/Dec and in Feb we spoke again and then we sent him the track "Ride" it sounded so amazing that we just couldn't release the whole album without him mixing, mastering and producing it. Martin is one super talented human and kind person, like i've stated before he just knows exactly what we want before we want it...haha Thanks my brother Mr. Sweet \m/
Give us a list of your top 5 albums ever?
Wowww this is a hard decision...haha
Deep Purple - Made in Japan
Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood
Guns & Roses - Appetite for destruction
Crashdiet - Generation Wild
Skid Row - Slave to the grind
If L.A.Cobra could hook up the opening slot for one band that's currently still out on tour, who would it be and why ?
Without a doubt Guns & Roses, we grew up with their music and its so special that almost their whole original line-up is togehter, would definitely make history here in South Africa to be part of something huge like that coming from here.
What's it like playing for crowds in South Africa? Is there a big scene for this type of music there?
The rock scene is huge, and everyone knows the mainstream 80's bands like Guns & Roses, Bon Jovi, and Def Leppard so we have a good following seeing that our originals are connected to that era, when we play shows its usually the people who grew up in that era and the youth. We're literally the only band on this godforsaken continent doing Hair Metal, and for the last 12 years its been working for us. Iron Maiden was here last year and if I remember correctly there we're 40,000 people. Then there is also the "Afrikaans" rock scene. Afrikaans is one of the languages here, very similar to Dutch, and that scene is taking over at the moment. Fun fact and proud to say the new vocalist of Skid Row ZP Theart is also from here. Also Seether, Trevor Rabin and Duncan Faure is from South Africa and they kinda represent us internationally.
Tell us about some of the newer "Hair Metal Bands" that you listen to, that you think our readers might enjoy?
For me "Rest in Sleaze" of Crashdiet is obviously the trendsetter of the newer Hair Metal bands, Hardcore Superstar, Santa Cruz, The Cruel Intentions, Nitetrain. In 2012 I was fortunate enough to open for Reckless Love in Zurich, very cool experience.
What have been some of your favorite musical experiences so far?
In April 2017 i opened The Sleaze Ball 2017 on acoustic for Peter London and Eric Young in Adelaide, Australia, was very honored to do a few songs with them as well, was a very special moment in my life.
Please support our crowd funding campaign there is still a few days left, pre-order your Shotgun Slinger album now, we also have cool range of merchandise like tshirts, caps our own tattoo aftercare products etc.
instagram @l.a.cobra
Thanks so much Hair Band Heaven for featuring us :)
Love & Respect
//Don
Don Cobra – Vocals & Guitar
Slade – Guitar & Backing Vox
Ewil – Bass Backing Vox
The Animal – Drums
