New York, Mar 6: Riding high off its Top 10 single, the dance tune “Good Girls Go Bad,” Cobra Starship went off to record a follow-up to its 2009 album, "Hot Mess." But the recording process became sort of a hot mess.
Lead singer Gabe Saporta said he had struggled with personal issues, and that the songs they recorded sounded “uninspired.” So, the band scrapped them.
“I think a lot of it had to do with where I was personally at that time. I just wasn't in a good head place,” Saporta said. “Once we were doing these songs ... it just didn't feel true to me at all; didn't resonate at all. So I was just like, ‘I need to figure out my shit.' I took time off and had to regain clarity and just like, organize the things in my life outside of music so I could come back to music.”
Saporta and his band—which includes guitarist Ryland Blackinton, bassist Alex Suarez, drummer Nate Novarro and keytarist Elisa Schwartz—restarted the album. The result is “Night Shades,” a mostly upbeat CD that features collaborations with Ryan Tedder, hit production team Stargate and rapper Mac Miller, who appears on the group's latest single, “Middle Finger.”
“It was really a hard time in my life. I almost thought that I wasn't going to be able to make the record, so to have made it and to also be really proud of it is like a huge...,” Saporta said before Blackinton interrupted: “Accomplishment.”
Part of the reason for Saporta's struggle was because of a break-up. The song “Fucked In Love,” co-written by former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi, highlights the relationship, and was the only song from the original recordings of “Night Shades” to remain on the album.
“It (is about) kind of how I fucked up my relationship, which is part of the reason why I was so upset, and when we were writing it Kara made me cry,” he said.
There's also the doo-wop-sounding song “Fool In Love,” co-written and co-produced by Ari Levine of the Smeezingtons, the production trio which features Bruno Mars.
“I've just been lucky enough to have a girl that's going to put up with an idiot like me, you know. And I think a lot of guys share that kind of sentiment. I think there's something romantic about that, just like you know, a girl understands you and sees you for your flaws and she'll still stick by you,” Saporta said of the song.
“Night Shades” also features the Top hit “You Make Me Feel...” The album was released in the U.S. in August, and in October in the U.K.
