Utter Trash--Cobra Verde

The Art of Artifice

An interview with John Petkovic of Cobra Verde

By Bob Ignizio

Cobra Verde l to r: Ed Sotello, John Petkovic, Mark Klein (behind John) and Frank Vazzano

If you’ve read more than a few reviews or articles on Cobra Verde (named after the Werner Herzog film of the same name, and at the director’s suggestion no less) in the past then you know this Cleveland based group plays seventies style glam rock, right? Well, not if you ask vocalist/songwriter John Petkovic. “I don’t understand it to tell you the truth,” says John. “I understand that people think in terms of style and genre. It’s typical of everyone. They’re just trying to describe it in a way that makes sense to those people that are reading it. I don’t mind, people can say what they want. But I think that we’re all over the map. We listen to everything from the new Cornershop record to Reggae to R&B and garage rock. I like experimental bands like Neu and Can a lot, and listen to that way more than glam rock.” Whatever particular flavor of rock it is that Cobra Verde plays, it seems to be going over well with critics and fans alike. The band has received favorable notices in magazines like Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, Blender, and Playboy, their shows in Northeast Ohio are well attended, and they’ve been successfully spreading their sound all across the country touring in support of their latest album ‘Easy Listening’. Not bad for what began as a one-off studio project.

“The band started as a recording project in 1994. There wasn’t even a name for it,” says John. “This guy at Scat records asked me if I wanted to do a project. It wasn’t really a band until mid 1999. That’s when we actually started touring and doing shows.” That’s also when Guitarist Frank Vazzano and drummer Mark Klein came on board. About a year and a half ago the current line-up was completed with the addition of bass player Ed Sotelo, and recently guitarist J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. fame has been joining the band when his schedule allows. “J.’s got a lot of time between records. He said to me a few times, “hey, let me know if you guys ever want me to play with you.” He’s into doing it, and we consider him to be part of the band, but at the same time he’s busy with other things. Bands in the sense that they were back in the sixties, seventies, and maybe up to the eighties with coherent lineups are almost like dysfunctional units. Everyone in bands now, it seems like they’re in three different bands at the same time. It’s not like it used to be.”

Then again nothing’s really like it used to be, or even what it seems, at least from Petkovic’s post-modern point of view. “People talk about post-modernism and I don’t think it’s just a theory, I think it’s part of our life and political body. Artifice is part and parcel of the contemporary sensibility these days. People are desperately looking for authenticity and desperately looking for something earnest or real and telling them the truth. I just never bought into that concept. People wanted something earnest during the war and they got the Jessica Lynch story. And that story was a lie, just like the whole war was a lie. The big lie is really the truth,” says John. Not only is Cobra Verde not immune to artifice themselves, they seem to embrace it. In fact John thinks that may be part of why his band often gets labeled as glam. He says, “Some people seem to think there’s a sense of artifice in what we’re doing that reminds them of glam rock. Like our song “Modified Frankenstein”. I’ve seen a couple of reviews mention that it’s reminiscent of a glam rock sensibility. I think unfortunately people often use other music as their only reference point when they listen to music. I think people should see artifice not necessarily as part of a glam sensibility but as part of the contemporary sensibility.”

Not surprisingly, John’s personal outlook on the world often finds its way into Cobra Verde’s lyrics. John says, “I think it’s interesting when you have lyrics where there’s a personal dimension, where the world of politics and the world of fictions intrudes upon the personal dimension. I like songs that have a personal quality to them, with a “you” and “me” and kind of a dialogue quality to them. But at the same time I do think that the world of politics intrudes upon the world of personal relations.” John also uses the idea of nihilism and it’s relation to megalomania as fodder for his songs. “Oftentimes people who have voids develop this kind of megalomania. People with megalomania start seeing that everything they do has some sort of relationship to the world. Like in “My Name is Nobody” there’s a line that goes, “I see myself in everything and everyone”. I think there is this kind of nothingness in certain individuals and megalomania is kind of an outgrowth of that,” says John.

All theories and analysis aside, when it comes down to it the most important thing for John and the rest of Cobra Verde is to have fun and rock out. That’s why despite all the critical raves Cobra Verde has garnered John is somewhat ambivalent towards success. “It would be great to be more popular, but at the same time we have a lot of fun when we play and I’m pretty happy with where we’re at now. Whereas I think often with bands where it becomes a job they have more concerns because the band becomes the way they pay the rent,” says John. “You need to be careful what you wish for because when you get it you may not like what you’ve got. We’ve toured with a lot of different bands and we seem to have way more fun than they do even though they’re doing it on this level that all these bands in Cleveland wish they were on. I’m not saying we’re totally content with where we’re at, but I don’t want to be in some miserable situation where when the promoter comes over with the money at the end of the night it’s like a can opener where suddenly the cats all arrive because they hear the food being opened up for them.”

Part of why John doesn’t have to worry about his band paying the bills is because he took to heart the old, clichéd advice heard by many a musician; “don’t quite your day job.” John’s day job is a little more flexible than most, though. He’s a writer and critic for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Although a critic himself (of movies, nightspots, and restaurants), John doesn’t really let what other critics have to say about his band affect him one way or the other. He says, “It’s not that I don’t put much stock in it. I find it interesting for what it is. It’s great that we do get written about, and people do write us up a good deal and I totally appreciate that. But you can’t believe any of this shit. You’ve just got to do what you want to do and have fun. It’s important to always question what you’re doing if you’re questioning yourself, but you shouldn’t question it because of what other people are saying. Obviously if someone is saying something like your guitar was out of tune or the vocals totally suck then it’s good to take criticism and think about it. But to change what you’re doing because of someone else is just a miserable way to think. You have to proceed with your gut instinct on things. If you enjoy what you’re doing and really get into it I think it shows.”