On page 12 of Issue 4 of Under the Radar, UTR’s Philadelphia correspondent Frank Valish tells you all about Philly native’s Ty Cobb in his short article on the band. Ty Cobb are hotly tipped because they are signed to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s new UK label/imprint Abstract Dragon. In fact, the night before the interview took place the duo (brothers Ryan and Paul Cobb) were up till five in the morning bowling with BRMC. Scroll below to read the full interview on Ty Cobb, who beat BRMC at bowling, by the way.

Frank Valish (FV): So you guys have an offer for a US label?

Ryan Cobb (R): We’ve been given offers but we haven’t made any decision yet. It’s just a matter of finding the right people we want to work with I guess.

FV: What’s the deal with Abstract Dragon?

R: At this point it’s more of an imprint than a label. It’s not like a functioning label. There’s no one working there. It’s more of a thing that they put on their records and they plan on at some point really making it a thing. So they said, if you do this EP, you can put it on Abstract Dragon. And we’re good buddies so it kinda just made sense. And it would just distributed by distributors. We’re just letting that happen. Whatever’ happens with it. It’s not going to be like … it’s been playing on the radio when we were over there. It’s doing quite well. It got some good reviews and stuff.

FV: Which one’s the single track? R: I think they’ve been playing the song “Wheel” on the radio. I kind of figured that that would be the one they would play first. The order of the songs on that EP, they kind of go in a logical, the first 3 songs, if it was a full record, those three songs maybe would be singles. In that order maybe. FV: But when it is released, it will be in the UK with US distribution. R: No. It will never come out here, unless you bought it online. I don’t think it’s ever going to be in a store (in the US).

FV: You talked to a record executive yesterday, but not for this EP, for future stuff?

R: Yeah, but these songs will be part of a record. That’s maybe part of the reason why the EP’s been on hold. Other things are happening for us. So if they were to happen in the next month or whatever, these songs might be very important to have on the (debut) record.

FV: You said you had some 200 songs?

R: It’s awesome. I would say that my computer needs a new hard drive because of our goddamn songs.

Paul Cobb (P): (laughs)

R: My whole computer’s filled up with our songs. I bought the computer quite a long time ago so I probably needed a better hard drive anyway. It’s full.

FV: Since Trophies For Lovemaking!?

R: Yeah. And including Trophies. All in all.

FV: You self-released Trophies in 1999. Or was it 1998?

R: I think it was ‘99 but it was on the cusp of being 2000. It was toward the end of ‘99.
(At this point, the tape recorder is moved closer to Ryan, who is speaking in a very soft tone. Paul pulls his own higher-tech tape recorder from his pocket to show.)

FV: See, I’m not that high-tech.

R: Paul’s recording you guys.

P: Yeah.

Both: (laughing)

FV: So what was the response like to Trophies? That’s what Black Rebel Motorcycle Club heard, right?

R: (To Paul) What did they hear?

P: We made them a mix CD.

R: I don’t even know if I made it for them.

P: Oh yeah.

R: Yeah, actually we had a show with Black Rebel and the Strokes in Philly and I just made a CD figuring I’d probably give it to one of those guys. Someone. Just a mix I guess. And I actually dropped it on the ground while we were walking off the stage and Nick, the drummer from Black Rebel, he was standing there with his kick drum, ready to come on the stage. And he picks it up and goes, ‘Can I have it?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah.’ And we also gave this other guy, Charles, who’s their lighting guy. We were all hanging out. And they just started calling, asking us to play with them and stuff.

FV: That was when you first met them and became associated with them was through that opening gig.

R: Yeah, yeah. They were just playing a show here and we just became friendly. So we didn’t give them Trophies, we just gave them some other stuff but there was most likely songs from Trophies on there.

FV: Had Trophies been out for a while at that point?

R: Yeah, yeah. At that point, we’d gotten rid of most of our copies of Trophies. Trophies, we would just give it out. We never really…we’re bad businessmen.

Both: (laugh)

FV: You guys have been around for a while, even as Ty Cobb. I just want to get a sense of history. I was listening to the Trip 66 when you called the other day. Perhaps we should just start from the beginning. When did you guys decide that that was not something you wanted to be doing or when did you guys start writing on your own. At what point did it stop being about Trip 66?

P: I guess we just kinda started realizing that we wouldn’t listen to that music or buy that record. If I wasn’t in the band, I probably wouldn’t buy it. We were writing songs for them and just figured that there was something that we’d rather being doing.

R: Oh yeah.

FV: Your (Paul’s) sister was the singer so you guys just became involved as a family thing, right?

P: Yeah

R: I joined the band later, but they were like, Maria was like 13 (when the band started writing music). It took after years of being in the band, then it was like, ‘Oh, whatever.’ But when it first started, everyone was like probably about 16. Not even. It was like a little kid band, but like a really good band at the time. I remember I was in another band at that time and I was always like, ‘Wow, they’re awesome.’ But we were really young, you know.

FV: So it was just a maturing of musical tastes?

R: We would write songs for that band. But at the time we were more guitar oriented. (At this point a strange cracking noise comes from somewhere in the vicinity of the ceiling).

R: What? I think something crumbled. But Paul and I would write guitar songs. We were guitar players. At the time, we never sang ever, unless we were in the shower or something. We weren’t singers, but we would kind of hum melody maybe to his sister Maria. But we would never sing. We’d write guitar parts. But they’d still be like arrangements. Kind of like songwriting obviously but we’re just writing guitar parts and changes, like we’d know that was a chorus, or whatever. So we would bring that stuff to the band and play it for them. And eventually there were songs. And we’d record them on that machine (4-track) behind you. That inspired Ty Cobb. Trophies we did on that. So we’d start recording songs and kind of holding them, not playing them for the band. And Paul was singing at the time. Paul kind of started it. He took the initial stab at it. And it was kind of funny. We would laugh at it. P: It would be like a joke. R: But they were kind of like brilliant. They were. So Paul would be singing and I’d be like, ‘Shit, I gotta start singing.’ You know? P: (laughs) R: I guess that was kind of the downfall of the old band. FV: Who do you tour with as Ty Cobb? R: We have a full band (Jay Mehler, bass, J.P., drums, Arch, keyboards). FV: You record all of it yourself though? R: There are times when those guys are involved but primarily (it’s us). We used to kind of work backwards and figure out how to make the recordings happen here instead of working it out and then figuring how we should record it. And the lineup has changed several times.

FV: What did you learn about the business or what you wanted from being in Trip 66? Because that was on a major label (Ruff House Records through Columbia). Did it help you figure out what you wanted or didn’t want?

R: Well yeah. Just to deal with the right kind of people. At the time we were like 18, 16.

P: Yeah.

R: We were like high school kids. We were in high school. So we didn’t know what we were doing. So we probably shouldn’t have signed to that label. And at the time we could have signed to Interscope and we made a nasty mistake by not doing it. But then again, we probably wouldn’t be here in Ty Cobb right now.

P: We got a studio out of the deal. That record we recorded in the basement of my parent’s house. So instead of going to a studio and paying all this money, we just built a studio in my basement and spent all the money there. And that’s kinda how this started too because we had all this recording equipment and a lot of time on our hands.

FV: How much did you tour off that record?

P: With the Trip?

FV: Yeah.

P: Not too much, man.

R: We actually like to call it the Trip, because it was always the Trip. Always, until like 2 months before the record came out. Some guy came out of nowhere with like, he put out some compilation disc in like 1980. So he wanted like x amount of dollars out of nowhere. So it was always the Trip. So at the last minute, we were almost doomed right away. We had to change our name and we had no time to do it. It just had to happen and we became Trip 66 since.

FV: I was wondering whether there was anything with the number 66 (The bs of Cobb in the EP album title are represented as 6s).

R: Just coincidence.

R: It’s funny because now, we have the name Ty Cobb and we couldn’t have picked any other name. That name like guarantees getting sued, so we’re in it again. But we’re figuring it out now. There might be a way with this one.

FV: So you’re already dealing with stuff about the name?

R: We know that it’s an issue. The lawyer who we deal with, he said that ‘Your record can be called Ty Cobb but once you get a T-shirt, it might be an issue.’ So he’s working that out.

FV: So is that how you can get around it, by using 7y Co66?

R: That’s what we just did. Just in case—if Ty Cobb’s granddaughter was at a show or something. But I got sidetracked. Touring

FV: Yeah, you said you didn’t tour much with the Trip.

R: We toured with Cheap Trick

P: Yeah

FV: I heard you played Lollapalooza.

R: A side stage, just one show. We had a bunch of little one-offs.

P: We played with Ween even before we had a record. We would just play with Ween because t hey would just have shows in New Hope. They would play shows and we would open for them but it wasn’t because our booking agent got it or anything. They were just playing at the roller-skating rink

R: That was actually a really cool show. It was one of the coolest shows.

FV: So you got some chance to rub elbows with rock stars.

P: We had Ween over to the studio once.

R: But it was funny because, since we were on Ruff House Records, we’d be at their office and there’d be like Cypress Hill hanging out. Not that we were even hanging out with them. It was like funny rock stars surrounding us at that time.

P: The one band, Urge Overkill.

R: We went to a barbecue with them and we were like watching the Simpsons. It’s li

ke we were all sitting on a couch. (Gestures to members of Urge Overkill sitting on either side of them). And once again, we were really young. They were probably walking out and coming back in totally wasted, out of their minds (acknowledging Urge Overkill’s reputation as hard partiers).
BREAK

P: The last tour that we did we did with the 4-track machine. We went over to Europe and toured with Black Rebel without the band. We just had that four-track machine playing bass and drums. That was awesome.

R: I wish we had pictures here to show you. It was cool. The shows would be sold out shows. And Black Rebel’s a pretty loud kind of band. And we would walk out and we had that machine on a pedestal, dead center and just 2 guitars. And that thing would be in the middle. And we’d wrap it all in the lights. And we had this horrible disco light. And we would walk out and people would assume that we were going to be an acoustic thing, really mellow, just because it’s two guys and their guitars. Once you hit play on the machine, it’s a rocking thing. It was full on drums and bass and various other little parts. P: Put it on.

R: So we did a dozen shows as a two-piece
(At this point, Paul walks over to the 4-track and cues up the backing track the band used for their tour.)

R: And we had massive technical difficulties. I can’t ell this story enough. Finally, after weeks of being sure it was happening it was happening, and now you have to freak out. There’s so much work involved in getting ready. Paul and I were spending weeks doing mixes of drums and bass for this machine but then again not knowing what it’s going to sound like in a huge place. So we finally we it all together and get it all packed up and ready to leave, go to the airport, get to London, hang out for a few days. We’re now in Glasgow, it’s the first show and we finally have our moment to sound-check. Because Black Rebel was sound-checking for a while; it was the first s how of the tour. So we finally get up there and the guy was like, ‘Uh, could you put on your machine please.’ This is after everything has led up to this moment. And we’re all psyched. And it didn’t turn on. The deal is that if the remote control isn’t plugged into the machine, it doesn’t work, and we knew that from the get-go. That’s the whole thing with that machine, if it’s not plugged it, it doesn’t work. So I think Paul hit play and he looked at me so scared. He’s like, ‘Do you have t he remote?’ But he already knew that I didn’t have it. I’m like, ‘No, do you have the remote?’ We’re mad at each other. And then we went into a total freak-out. We’re like, ‘Oh, we’re fucked.’ We had it on backup on CD but we didn’t want it to have to go there.

FV: The remote wasn’t here, was it?

R: It was in America, yeah. It was actually at his parent’s house. And the guy was like, ‘Put on your machine.’ We had 10 or 15 minutes to sound-check for the first show, they had to open the doors you know. It was fucking horrible. Our friend was flying out the following day to Dublin to hang out, but even getting that coordinated. We didn’t have cell phones over there that would work here. So then our friend, John, brought it out. So they we get to Dublin, John was there, and he hands it over. And we plugged it in and it was time for sound-check again. And we hit play and it was like, ’Mmnnn,’ really slow. And we had to use a voltage converter so we had that, a huge voltage converter. But it ended up that the cycles were different over there than here. Here current runs at 60, over there it’s 50. That show, we played it on a CD, like underneath that machine (4-track). We were so psyched about that machine that we had to just let it run, just for the visual. We had a CD payer underneath it but we had the fear that if it skipped it would be straight Milli Vanilli. And the CD is at the soundboard, so once he hits play, the show’s going. To stop it, we would have to say, ‘Please stop the tape.’ So we took the backup CD and re-recorded it over there back on there at the right speed so when it plays it runs in regular time. And now we’re at the third show having to transfer music behind the soundboard while Black Rebel was sound-checking. We’re having to get levels. It was horrible. It was totally stressed out until the fourth show.

FV: This was when?

R: December.

FV: How long were you over there?

R: Three weeks. This was all UK.

FV: You said that Trophies was more like “Lonely Girl” on the EP. So has the stuff you’re writing changed even since then, because “Lonely Girl” is the most dissimilar track on the EP? Have the styles changed from when you recorded Trophies until the EP and has it changed even since?

P: I guess Lonely Girl was how we would write songs. All the songs on Trophies were the original recordings, the original ideas.

R: Never worked on. We never even thought about those songs t hat are on that disc. We’d just have an idea and grab a microphone, one mic and record drums, record various instruments at the same time onto one mic because we only had 4 tracks and we didn’t know how to balance tracks. So it just became that we really liked those recordings.

FV: I did want to ask you about “Wheel.” What’s it about?
(Silence)

FV: Or are we leaving it up to interpretation?

R: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Could we … yeah.

FV: Do you like to write more cryptic stuff?

R: Yeah, probably.

FV: Do they have more personal meanings to you or are they just more general?
R: Yeah, probably more to me but they are probably more general and hard to make out at times. I kinda do that in a lot of my songs. Sometimes I try to write something a bit more obvious, but every time I do, I’m just like, ‘Nah.’ (To

Paul): You’re better at that—with the obvious.

Both: (laughing)

P: It’s not hard to figure me out.

FV: So the songwriting is split evenly?

R: Yeah, yeah. Entirely. We both write songs and we work on each other’s songs together. But it’s fun. Because we have two singers and both Paul and I sing, I enjoy listening to Paul’s songs. It’s almost like it’s another band.

FV: Who wrote what?

R: It tends to be that the one’s we’re singing, we write. So if I’m singing, it’s probably a song I wrote. But we both work on them together so we both take part. So it would be both “Wheel” and “Wondering” I sing, so those are the songs that I wrote. “When You Smile,” “Lonely Girl,” and “In the Way” are his songs.

FV: Why’s the title to the fifth song not on there?

P: It’s not supposed to be on there. When they pressed it, they gave them the wrong CD to be pressed and they wound up putting an extra song on. R: When it went to get mastered, that was one of the songs we recorded in t he session, so the guy that mastered all the songs (generated) a mastered CD that he’d give to duplicating house, whatever you call it. But that last song wasn’t supposed to be on that tape that went to them, so they got the disc and just printed them. So when we got the CDs, we didn’t even realize, because we didn’t listen to them. So we found out days later. Actually I did listen to it at one point and I still didn’t realize that there was a fifth song.

P: We got a bunch of emails like, ‘What’s up with the last song. I love the last song.’ But I thought they were talking about “Lonely Girl.” So I’m writing back all these emails and then I finally figured it out. So I had to rewrite them all.

R: And it’s funny because some people are like, ‘It’s so cool. I can’t believe you put a song, an extra track but there are only five songs or four songs anyway.’ They actually think into it. One guy was like, ‘It’s such a good song, I can’t believe you didn’t put the title of it on.’ They think that we intended it.

Visit the band’s site to hear MP3’s and get the latest news on Ty Cobb: www.madaction.com