Expect It: Summer via Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen

When AP reached Cobra Starship majordomo Gabe Saporta in late April, the band were about “halfway” there to finishing their fourth album, Night Shades. “Sometimes these things just take time,” he says. “When we started Cobra Starship, I said that most bands can make three good records and then it’s over, so I wanted to make sure that our fourth record wasn’t a piece of crap.”

To that end, Cobra Starship are being careful not to force anything—or reveal too much, too soon. Saporta says that they’ve worked with multiple producers; while he’s mum on most of these names, he does confirm Kara DioGuardi (who co-produced the band’s 2009 hit “Good Girls Go Bad”) and OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder have been collaborators. As for current inspirations, Saporta cites the “attitude toward making music” displayed by the kaleidoscopic electronic duo Major Lazer—a colorful, fun project which refuses to be pigeonholed by genres.

“That’s the thing with Cobra also,” he says. “We always have not wanted to be pigeonholed. If you listen to our albums, stylistically, they’re all over the place. We’re definitely going to keep with that tradition of doing whatever the fuck we want.

“[Night Shades] definitely has something for everyone,” he continues. “For me personally, I think we’re at the point where people listen to mixes much more than they actually listen to full albums. I kind of want to make records that feel like they’re mixtapes.” Read more »