Kobra and the Lotus’ Future in Doubt
Kobra and the Lotus fans may wanna start getting extra naggy about making friends check out the band’s new album, Evolution… or otherwise brace for the end. ‘Cause in a new interview with the Talk Toomey podcast, frontwoman Kobra Paige casts doubt on the band’s future, saying that their current financial situation is not “sustainable.”
When asked about KATL’s future plans, Paige said:
“I actually have no idea for the first time ever. I have no clue what we’re gonna be up to. I really put I everything I had into this record, and it’s kind of one of those things where we’re at a really tough point in this band’s life cycle. So there’s no plans as of yet. I can’t really accept anything if I know that I can’t, y’know…”
At this point, Paige’s voice trailed off for a moment before she continued:
“I don’t know how to get into this without making it weird. But let’s just say I put everything I had left into giving this album the last chance, the best chance it had, and what it does beyond that is out of my hands and in the universe… I have no idea. As of yet we can’t go on another tour. We’ll just see if the universe wants it to happen.”
When asked if the end of her unfinished sentence — “I can’t really accept anything if I know that I can’t, y’know…” — was going to be related to finance, Paige elaborated:
“Let’s just say this: I have never broken even, and I’ve never given myself one penny, and I’ve let go of the idea of even giving myself anything out of this. But I do need to survive, and I’m entering a marriage and I want a family and I can’t continue to bring home… I carry a lot of debt, all the time, and I’m 31 and it’s very crushing by this point, and I can’t continue down the path i’ve been down, ’cause I keep taking risks and it becomes like gambling eventually… and I’m just proud of what we’ve done so far and what we’ve gone for. But yeah, I can’t really do anything that’s gonna put me in a worse position than I’ve already put myself in. And you know what? I’ve made my choices, I’m really happy that i pushed for this project and that we’ve gone for this project. But I literally have no answers as to what the future of the project is anymore, because I have not been able to push this band onto the other side. And the other side is being sustainable and breaking even. That’s all we need.”
This is a very common story in metal. As we’ve said many times before, you can tell if a band is making money or not based on how many of its original members are still in the group after said members reach the age of thirty. That’s about the time when touring for no money, sleeping on floors, bathing in sinks goes from an exciting adventure to a really shitty situation, and people wanna settle down and start families, as Paige does. So, like, Mastodon hasn’t had a line-up change since before anyone knew who they were, but it’s almost impossible to keep track of who’s in Arsis at any given time.
The fact that Kobra and the Lotus’ tale is so boilerplate doesn’t make it any less sad for the band and their fans, though. I admit, KATL is not my jar of moonshine. But I would still urge you all to check out Evolution, which is out now on Napalm. Because if you do dig them, well… they could clearly use the support.
You can stream Evolution below. Below that is the entire Talk Toomey episode.
