Interview: Kobra From Kobra And The Lotus

Canadian metal band Kobra and The Lotus recently blew into the UK alongside Delain and Evergrey. We were lucky enough to grab a quick chat with Kobra herself, and on the day that Donald Trump won the US presidential race there really was only one place to start… So, with news that the Canadian immigration website crashed due to the large volume of internet traffic… how many of your American friends have asked you to put them up? “HaHa! Actually, our drummer is American, and he doesn’t even want to talk about it!” He’s packed already? “Yep! But sadly for most people, they won’t be getting into Canada anytime soon” 2017 is an exciting year for Kobra and The Lotus, with not one, but two albums (‘Prevail’ and ‘Prevail II’) on the way. What was the thinking behind that? “Not many people from our generation do that anymore, and I thought that this would be a wonderful challenge, especially if we can make them both really good albums. That was the biggest challenge… how do you put out that much material and make sure that it’s strong. You don’t want to have these dips or half of both albums are complete crap” So no repeat of Guns N’ Roses ‘Use Your Illusion’ I and II then?! “Exactly! It’s quite ambitiou,s but it was in my head, and as soon as it was, then it had to be done. We went in there and rose to the occasion. We release album one in February, and people will have six months to absorb it, then we’ll release album two” The dictionary has many meanings for the word ‘prevail’, but the one that I like is “conquer or overcome” “Yes!, it’s the overcoming that’s relevant. It’s kind of a metaphor for us, prevailing within this industry, saying that we’re not giving up, we’re going for this. We’re getting close to our ten years as a band, and it’s getting more stressfu,l this industry, so we’re giving it our all”