Interview with Kobra, punk rock from St. Petersburg

Kobra, punk rock poison from St. Petersburg

We had a chat with Kobra, a punk rock band from St Petersburg that we interviewed just after their practice in a massive soviet-style concrete building: a noisy labyrinth of corridors buzzing under the neon flashing light.

Radio Punk: Hey guys, would you mind introducing yourself to Radio Punk ?
Kobra: Hey, my name is Max, I play the drums, I was the singer of 4SCUMS. Katya is the singer, Pteras plays rhythm guitar. Mazut, melodic guitar, Hose plays the bass. We’re all born in the Soviet Union. But, while Hose and Mazut are from Petersburg. Pteras and me are from Kazakhstan and Katya is from Karele…How do you say in English…”big guns” ? It’s a big guns capital in Russia.

RP: Just having listened to your practice I can’t help myself thinking about Motörhead. What is your favourite song of Motörhead ?
Kobra: (Laughs.)
Max: God was never on your side. Rock out and the Ace of spades.
Katya: Ace of spades.
Pteras: Love me like a reptile.

RP: And apart from Motörhead. Who are your main influences ?
Max: I guess as a lot of russian punks, I grew up listening to Sex Pistols, The Exploited, Discharge, early Chaos UK. Of course some russian bands as well, a lot of garage : Grazhdanskaya Oborona for example. People from Moscow or Petersburg had a wide access to music. But most of people that come from smaller cities like me used to record tapes for each others. It was not easy at all to get records, I guess the first punk tape I ever listen was Grazhdanskaya Oborona. In Ouralsk there were one music shop and you could check their catalogue and ask the sellerman to record the band on a tape, like illegally. But now we have Internet of course and we have access everything.
Pteras: Black Sabbath and Metallica.
Katya: I’m really into D-Beat rocknroll, lately I was listening a lot to this band called Black Panda from Spain. But in general I like to listen to some local bands that I can see live.

RP: What could you tell us about the St Petersburg punk scene?
Kobra: The scene is small but pretty ok here in comparison with some other cities.. In Russia local punk scene exist in big cities like Moscow but there is not so much going on in smaller cities. Being a punk here means that you’re confronted to a lot of nazi scums, police pressures and so on. For us it’s not even that political, it’s just our life.

RP: Can you tell us about your future projects?
Kobra: We wanna go on tour next year and new songs and new recordings as well. Maybe a LP or a split with some other band too. Any coproductions are very welcome!