Jack's Info Portal: Cobra Starship's Gabe Saporta Arrives In Madrid For 2010 EMAs

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Cobra Starship's Gabe Saporta Arrives In Madrid For 2010 EMAs

Our special guest correspondent also reveals details on his band's forthcoming album.
By James Montgomery

Gabe Saporta in Madrid on Wednesday
Photo: MTV News

MADRID — Cobra Starship frontman Gabe Saporta just arrived in Spain's capital city, and he's already pulling double duty. See, AT&T and MTV News decided to send Saporta to Madrid to work as our special guest correspondent for the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards, and he's definitely delivered, serving as both tour guide and translator.

Though, really, it's been more of the former and (a lot) less of the latter.

"I think I'm like the only translator here!" Saporta told MTV News on Wednesday (November 3). "You guys obviously forgot to bring a translator, or actually, I think you booked me so you could save on a translator ... you know, like a two-for-one."

And though he spent most of the day darting across Madrid — making stops at landmarks like the Plaza Mayor and the Museo Reina Sofía — and preparing for possible interviews with EMA performers like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Ke$ha and 30 Seconds to Mars, Saporta also took a minute to give us an update on Cobra Starship's new album, which the band is beginning work on in a Brooklyn studio. And from the sound of things, the process is going rather well.

"The thing that's hardest for us is that we've become so good, and we've got too much stuff to choose from right now," he said. "I'm only half-kidding, we're really not that good, but we do have a lot of stuff, and I think it's all about just trying to figure out where Cobra Starship is headed musically.

"I'd love to do something that really separates us from the pack a little bit, but not too much. I don't wanna do what every other band does when they have a little success, like, 'OK, now we're going to make a record that's completely self-masturbatory,' " he continued. "It's not going to be a thing like that. Our fans will still like it. [But] it's weird, we've always been these underdogs who talk a lot of sh--, but in some ways, we've had a lot of blessings, so we have to find this balance between being gracious and still being a snot-nosed brat."

The blessings he's referring to are, of course, all the successes that came with Cobra's last album, the breakout Hot Mess. And though it's, as he puts it, "super-early" in the process, Saporta is already thinking about lining up collaborators for the new album ... including old friend Kara DioGuardi, who co-wrote their smash hit "Good Girls Go Bad." And he's also trying his hand at writing newer, somewhat more, uh, mature songs.

Sort of.

"When we started Cobra, no one thought it was going to work, so in a lot of ways I was the dude who was ready for war, and I had that attitude," he said. "And that kind of attitude, it definitely took a toll on my soul a little bit. It makes you an angry person, and I definitely had my run-ins with problems. So I'm trying to bring a little more tranquillity into my life. Not to say I'm going to be a total pu--- or anything, but I've grown up too."

The 2010 EMAs will air on MTV2 on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET, and an edited, performance-heavy version will be broadcast Friday, November 12, at 9 p.m. ET on MTV.

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