Thursday 11 June 2015

Kobadelta Q&A

Photo by Daniel Robson
Your names:
Dominic Noble – I’m the lead singer.
Alex Malliris – I’m the guitarist.

Where are you from?
Gateshead, UK.

Name of band:
Kobadelta.

Who else is in your band?
AlexWe’ve got my brother Chris Malliris on drums, Jon Marley on bass and Jordan Robson on synths.

How would you describe yourselves and your music?
AlexWe’re just an easy going bunch of lads wanting to make and play music and have a laugh along the way. Musically though there’s a bit of a contrast to our personalities in that there’s a dark and brooding vibe running through all that we do – it’s heavy rock really but with a psychedelic edge and a dark heart.

Who are your main influences musically?
AlexI’d say any bands that combine dark and heavy well are an influence, Black Sabbath and Queens Of The Stone Age are definitely and influence on our rhythm section, and for me guitar wise there’s fuzzy psych bands like anyone from The Black Angels and Wooden Shjips to more current bands like Hookworms and King Gizzard that I feel are starting to influence my guitar playing at times.

What do you hope to achieve in music?
DomI don’t think this generation has yet had a defining sound, and I would love Kobadelta to write a new chapter in the big book of British music.

What has been the highlight of your career so far, and why?
AlexI can’t speak for the rest of the lads, but for me personally getting a feature with a photo and all that in NME’s Radar section felt like a nice achievement and a ‘box ticked', in the same way our songs getting played on a station like BBC 6 Music was, in the sense that it’s national recognition from an ‘established’ institution. I don’t know if NME quite holds the influence and sway that they used to but I remember going out on my lunch break at school and buying my first copy in 2003 with The Strokes on the cover. Although to a degree the other lads see it as just another decent feature in another magazine, to me it’s iconic almost. I bought it religiously for years through my teens and into Uni and it felt weird seeing ourselves in it.

And what’s the moment you want to forget?
DomIn the early days of the band I used to get off my face before gigs, and looking back it was probably to hide my nerves. I remember one gig I started punching the cymbals along to the song until my knuckles were bleeding, then wiped blood on my face. I think I hid my nerves behind shock tactics.

If you had to pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
AlexI would say ‘Blame It All On Me’ from our new EP ‘Open Visions’, it just seems to me to have the right blend of all the things that seem to represent Kobadelta musically. It’s got quite a subdued and moody, creepy vibe to the verses that kicks off into a sludgy and heavy chorus with Jordi’s synth line behind it – I also really like the sped up psych-breakdown in the middle, and lyrically I feel Dom is at his best, spouting his musings on everything from mass media manipulation to love and war in his own surreal way.

Where can we listen to it?
Strangely enough we’ve just unveiled a music video for it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YublS8e7u0) and you can also download it for FREE at www.kobadelta.bandcamp.com cos we’re nice lads and that.


Where can we find out more about your music?
Twitter: @kobadelta

Anything else you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask?
AlexYou didn’t ask us about the time Nick Cave pulled Dom out of the crowd at his Gateshead gig at the Sage in April and got him on stage to sing with him. No news on any further collaborations just yet.


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