Cobra Killer sometimes in October 2004

I do not like to do mail interviews. They are artificial. the ones that are supposed to be "ping-pong interviews" rarely end up being so... time consuming, they turn into never ending stories. But it's not always possible to meet the artists, so it is a half-satisfactory medium. It's the "half-empty, half full glass" question... one of perspective, really, and it's better to look at the positive side: "if the future is not bright, at least, it's colourful" (this quote is not from me, I confess quoting Herr Blixa). When I say "half-satisfactory" I am not being such of a positive viewer, though, and I must admit some of the mail interviews I have read, or we have made were actually really good, and that depends on 1) the quality of the questions 2) how much involvement the artists put in answering... and sometimes, I am not sure why some even bother. We talked to the Berlin-based, electro-garage duo Cobra Killer (not sure which one answered the questions, actually)about their art, their performances,their critically acclaimed 76/77 lp (see www.babesinboyland.info for our review in the October section) but we had the naivety of implying that the gender question could be a problematic one... Sorry, girls,for this unforgivable mistake:you obviously do not "care about gender," I should have guessed by looking at the cover of your album...

BiB/Oa: Let's start with the difficult question of definition.... because I've had to answer "yes, but what do they sound like" so many times. Electro-60sgarage, a bit Electrocute sounding is what I came up with, but you can probably give a better, more personal reply....
Cobra Killer : We don't have anything to do with that. There are some bands of the 60s that we like very much.

BiB/Oa: Can you both tell us about your musical background from the fist time you picked up an instrument to the writing of a third album? Did you ever have any self-confidence problem (or never thought about it, just did it...)? Who did you get a real support + encouragement from? Who inspired you?
Cobra Killer : We have always been into music, playing in bands (west-berlin 60s garage
scene) since the age of 12,since 1995 Gina V: D'Orio is in EC8OR,since 1997 Annika Line Trost was in Shizuo,1998 we released the first Cobra Killer record on DHR...our musical background is as complex as our lives...please download our biography at:www.monika-enterprise.de Every artist male/female suffers from a self-confidence-problem from time to time.

BiB/Oa: How did you get involved in the making electronic music? Did you explore the possibilities of the tools? Did you get a more "formal" introduction? Did you watch people? Are you enlightened geniuses? Nerds? ;-)
Cobra Killer : Since we were born we were in touch with batteries,plugs,TVs...,so we have always been in touch with electronic equipment, to us it doesn't make a difference what type of equipment we use.

BiB/Oa: Could you tell us about the various side projects you have, how is Cobra Killer different? And how did CK start?
Cobra Killer : Both of us have solo records/projects and from time to time we like to work with other people. Cobra Killer exits since 30 years.

BiB/Oa: How did Cobra Killer write and record this third album? Was it a difficult one? Are these songs you have been playing live for a while? Did you record "live"? Can you say a word/anecdotes about your work with the sound engineer/producer?
Cobra Killer : We are very satisfies with our third album. Cobra Killer doesn't have a producer as we do it ourselves. This time we were even recording live with a band The Devastations who played on some of our songs. Basically we record live very much and we always did. We rang the dealer who happened to be with Slash (ex Guns `n `Roses)at that time. We realised that he's got a very high voice and we were inspired to record "High is the pine".

BiB/Oa: A word about the diverse collaborations on 76/77... How did each of them happen? Did you invite these people? Were you messing sounds around with them? Did they knock on your door? Did you beg on yr knees?
Cobra Killer : All collaborations happened because we like these artists and what they do.

BiB/Oa: The album was released on Monika Entreprise, can you tell us the story behind that change? What do you expect from a label? Was DHR getting too big for your ideals? What about Hanin Elias' Fatal records? What about the distribution problem on small labels?
Cobra Killer : After Gudrun Gut was watching us play in Sydney she asked us if we wanted to put out a 10" on her label. "Heavy Rotation" 10" was released in 2002 and then we decided to put out our new album on Monika-Enterprise, too. We never wanted to release another record on DHR and as we are not interested in genders to us it was never an option to release our record on Fatal (that is financed by her husband...). From a label we expect respect and support.

BiB/Oa: How do you prepare the shows? How much of improvisation is there? Where do you get your clothes from? Thrift shops? Designers? Talented friends? Can you sew? Have you ever fought over this subject?
Cobra Killer : No, we don't think about that-we are not a concept-band and we never fought about a dress. We don't talk about our clothes.

BiB/Oa: *"Sexy", "hot" are words that come back frequently about your live performances, do you get frustrated by the shallowness of these comments? Do they make you feel empowered? Do you just not care?
Cobra Killer: Once again: We are not interested in genders-people can associate what they want-we don't care and we don't try to be sexy or hot.

BiB/Oa: What women (dead or alive) would you say influenced you most?
Cobra Killer: The women who told us the story that the people in Egypt thought that everyone who was born on a 23rd of a month was eaten by a crocodile in a former live.

BiB/Oa: Diverse plans, projects, tours?
Cobra Killer: World-Tour 2004/2005