Alex Suarez of Cobra Starship by Danielle DeVizia, Photos by Emily Makar

Nearly a year and a half ago, I attended a concert in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The headliner was a band named Cobra Starship, and I instantly fell in love with their eclectic sound. This year at Warped Tour in Charlotte, the band rocked out on the Highway 1 Main stage. Their performance was a giant dance party with incredible talent behind the signature instruments, including Victoria Asher’s keytar and Alex Suarez’s Chanel bass. Below is my interview with the stylish bassist.

D: Can you introduce yourself for readers who aren’t familiar with Cobra Starship?

A: Hi, my name is Alejandro Francisco Suarez. I play the lead bass for Cobra Starship.

D: You guys are unlike any other band here at Warped Tour. Do you have any musical influences or is the idea of having a dance party at our concerts a complete stroke of originality?

A: Well, we used to go to shows and dance when we were all younger and now people just kind of take it all too seriously. We try to bring a really fun element to shows. We just want to have a good time, and we want everyone else to have a really good time so it’s kind of like, forget about all of your problems, dance your [butt] off, look sweet, feel great, and that’s it. Have a good time. For musical influences—yeah, we have some. Some of us were born in the eighties, you know we grew up with stuff like Prince and Duran Duran. We bring some of that into it, plus, we lived through the nineties and experienced all of the rock that came out of that. We’re a whole whirlpool of stuff going on.

D: What are the best and worst aspects of being on Warped Tour?

A: The heat is really intense, but I mean it’s the summer so you kind of have to deal with it. A lot of these venues are out in the middle of nowhere so it’s not like you can go out and explore in the city, you know? You’re stranded out in the middle of this huge parking lot far from everything else, but it’s really awesome because you have no choice but to hang out so it’s like a huge bro-sesh. It’s a really good time.

D: What would you say to those bands who complain about meet & greets and signings with their fans?

A: That’s the best part about the job. You have to be able to give back to the people that make you able to tour, you know? We wouldn’t be anywhere without our fans. The least we can do is try to meet all of them; we just try to give back.

D: Do you guys get to choose who you tour with or does your label choose?

A: We choose. We absolutely choose. We choose with our management, though, so we talk about what would be a good tour package because nowadays, I guess the whole renaming the tour just came back not too long ago so now it’s like, let’s put together a sweet deal, give it a cool name, and make it a traveling tour.

D: So when you guys make friends with other bands you can choose to tour with them?

A: Yeah, we’ve toured with The Academy Is…like nineteen times already, and we love it.

D: So you guys are the “Guilty Pleasure” for a lot of your fans. What is your “Guilty Pleasure”?

A: Oh man, I have so many guilty pleasures, I watch the food network like it’s going out of style. I was just watching it this morning on the bus. That’s probably my biggest one which I guess some wouldn’t say is a guilty pleasure. I wouldn’t say it’s a guilty pleasure because I genuinely like it but I feel a little guilty sometimes when people are walking up and I’m like ::gasp:: and you know, you’ve got to change the channel real quick.

D: So fangs up. You’ve got to teach me how to do it.

A: Ah, you don’t know how to do it?! Your right hand is the claw and your left hand is the hood.

D: Where did that come from?

A: Well, you know we wanted to create this theory that we were like a gang. We wanted to have a gang with our fans. So we teach you a gang symbol. We have a secret handshake and everything.

D: So Charlotte Style Magazine is a lifestyle magazine with an emphasis in fashion. When it comes to appearance, what is the cobra style?

A: Cobra style is…anything fun. We just try to look awesome. If you look awesome, you feel awesome, you know? It’s like food. It has to look good in order to taste good.

D: You are so into this food network thing.

A: Well I went to culinary school.

D: Did you really? What school?

A: In Florida. West Palm Beach.

D: Nice. Are you planning on doing anything with that in the future?

A: I’ve done a lot with already, but I’d love to get back into it one day. I kind of love playing music a lot more than doing that right now.

D: True, you can’t beat this right now. If Cobras had their own clothing line, what would it be called?
A: Cobra Style.

D: I could have guessed that. Okay, last question. When everything is all said and done, what does Cobra Starship want to be remembered for?

A: Being awesome.

D: Being awesome? What a loaded answer.

A: Yeah, but you know what? It’s like, we all look in the mirror every morning and go, “Man, why am I so awesome?”

D: Well, I should take a hint from the pros.

A: There you go! And you’ll feel great. You’ll start your day off well because everything’s awesome.

D: Well thank you so much for your time, Alex!

A: My pleasure. It was good meeting you.

D: You too! I can’t wait to see you guys at 2PM!