By Jameson R. Jones
“¡Hasta Los Cobra Skulls Siempre!” as the song title suggests. The Cobra Skulls’ unique blend of punk, rockabilly and straight up awesomeness draw an assorted crowd of punk rockers, greasers and crusties. Devin Peralta Luke Ray and Adam Beck are a band with something to say, whether its political, social or even matters of the heart, and you’d do well to open your ears and listen closely.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Devin in the Cobra Skulls tour van, while they were on tour opening for Me First and the Gimme Gimmes at the North Star Bar. The van was a place they’d called home for most of the year. As Adam strung up his guitar and searched for his misplaced shoes, Luke entertained himself with Mario Kart while Devin and I hashed out the meaning of life, death andother such nonsense.
Origivation: Where are you guys from?
Devin: Well, I’m the only original member left. The band was formed while I was in college in Reno, Nevada. Currently we all reside in California. Adam and I were both raised in San Luis Obispo, California, where we met in junior high, and Luke is from Santa Rosa, Californa. I bounce back and forth between San Luis Obispo and Reno.
O: You voiced your negative opinion of the punk scene in several songs, for example, “Anybody Scene my Cobra?” and “Bad Apple.” Is this from personal experience in Reno or the scene as you see it while being on the road?
D: Does it come off negative? I think it’s critical, not negative. If people think it’s negative, I disagree, I think critical is a good thing. If something is fucked up, say something! I’m definitely very critical, and I can see how it could come off as negative, so I hope people don’t take us as a negative band, but that we talk about negative things in a critical way to change the negative things and make them more positive. The song, “Anybody Scene my Cobra?” is about how bands should not try to compete with each other for the spotlight. Punk is too small nationally and locally to talk shit. We’re all just trying to have fun, but I guess if bands are just trying to make money that’s another deal. When bands are talking shit about the other bands in town just to get ahead, they drag each other down. If that happens, there’s gonna be no scene, it’s gonna get clicky and more exclusive instead of inclusive. Whereas, the song, “Bad Apple” was really something I was trying to avoid, it’s about the straight edge scene and not really about the punk scene. I didn’t really want to write this song because I didn’t feel like it was my place since I’m not straight edge. But just by encountering so many people that had this bad impression, I felt like I should say something, because not everybody is like that. In various places across the country people were saying to us, “Reno has a real bad straight edge scene.” We were like, no, not really. Yeah, you have a couple assholes, but the straight edge scene is supposed to be positive. However, you have these “hate edge” kids ruining it for people who are trying to be positive. It’s definitely critical of people that beat up people, all it takes is a few bad apples, and that’s what the song’s about.
O: On the Draw Muhammad EP there’s a plea for someone to stop shooting out your windows. What was going on there and did you ever find the culprits?
D: So, I was living on Kings Road in Reno at the time, with Chad, the former drummer, where we sometimes practiced. Soon after we moved in, there was a drive-by for some random reason and a bullet ricocheted off the driveway into the window. They also shot at Chad’s truck. At first we thought they just might be aiming for the truck. We never found out the reason, but we later learned from the landlord that the previous tenants skipped town, leaving everything behind, which he had to clear out. So, we thought that it could have been intended for them, or that’s just Reno for you. And then there was another time when we had just moved to San Francisco, above a liquor store. We had only been there a month when there was a drive by, eleven shots were fired into the store. It seemed like everywhere we go, we attracted drive-by shootings. It didn’t appear to be anything personal, just coincidental drive-by shootings.
O: So you guys aren’t gangbangers?
D: (laughing) No.
O: So you’ve been through line-up changes, shootings, etc. Was there ever a time in the band’s history that it almost came to a permanent end?
D: We were definitely concerned when Chad quit. We had been touring for five months straight, with a total of two weeks worth of days off. Afterwards, Chad said, ‘I’m over it, I can’t do it any more.’ I was really worried. We had known Luke from playing in Nothington, and we asked him to join. Right now I think it’s our strongest lineup ever. I’m stoked. He’s a great guy, great drummer, and a pretty good Mario Kart-er. I think at some point every band says, ‘Fuck it, we’re not gonna do this anymore.’ Even really successful bands that make a lot of money quit. It’s not easy touring a lot. Not having a stable income, struggling to pay rent, having to rely on family, friends and girlfriends to help you get by. That kind of wears down your self worth. Being in a band our size, we can’t really afford not to tour all the time. Everyone has been really supportive. My girlfriend is our roadie on this tour, and she’s also doing merch. Both Adam and Luke’s girlfriends are really supportive too.
O: You’ve recently announced that you’ve been signed to Fat Wreck Chords. Was there any particular reason you left the label whom you previously released all your albums on, Red Scare records?
D: It was just a natural progression, a step up, something new. We actually haven’t released anything on Fat yet. We have an EP coming out January 15, which was recorded in August. So we’re waiting for that to be released, I guess it’s a longer process with Fat, they want to promote it properly or something. The new EP was produced with help from Fat Mike. We were invited to come in and record, with no financial constraint, it was all pretty casual. We were in the studio recording for eight days, Fat Mike was there for three days, he helped with harmonies and threw out some ideas. We still love Toby, from Red Scare, he’s a really good personal friend. He got us on tour with bands like Against Me and The Loved Ones, and that’s only because of him being on such good terms with those bands, he really helped us out a lot.
O: I recently viewed a music video for the song “Rebel Fate” (American Rubicon). Was this your first video? Did you enjoy the process and will there be more?
D: Last year we were playing in Brooklyn at CMJ, (College Music Journal), and Djay Brawner saw us play. He emailed us, said we were his favorite act and asked if we would like do a music video. We did it because it was his idea and he said he was gonna do it for free. Well it was free to film it, but editing cost us $200. It was fun filming, he had a full on crew, and we did it all in one day. Hopefully there will be more in the future.
O: What was the reason you stopped putting “Cobra” in all your song titles? And did you catch a lot of negative feedback as the song title, “I Used to Like Them When They Put ‘Cobra’ in the Titles” implies?
D: We threw that song title out as a disclaimer because we were sick of doing it. It was something we thought would be funny but it didn’t really turn out to be as funny as we hoped. Some people thought it was brilliant and asked why we stopped putting “Cobra” in the song titles. We didn’t think, or I didn’t think, it would last this long. It was a stupid gimmick, like obviously it’s by the Cobra Skulls if it has “Cobra” in the name. I think it detracted from the songs. We actually had fans at our shows and I could tell that they obviously didn’t buy the CDs or read the liner notes because I could see them singing “Faith is a Cobra” instead of “Faith is a Cult.” I was like no, we’re really not that stupid! I’m not actually gonna sing about cobras or skulls! It was all basically on a whim and if people were taking it literally, we’re not gonna keep doing “Cobra” titles because people are gonna think we’re singing about snakes.
O: So no snake love?
D: (laughs) Yeah, our band has nothing to do with snakes or bones!
