The Unfiltered Gospel of Gabe Saporta
Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship at RIOT FEST 2025 © 2025 Josh Boles
Gabe Saporta is a man of many lives. To an entire generation, myself included, he is the frontman of Cobra Starship, a band whose brash, dance-rock anthems soundtracked a specific brand of early 2010s chaos. I, like so many others, saw them a handful of times on various tours in high school, a testament to their relentless presence. Now, as the band "comes out of retirement" for select festival dates, Saporta is not just performing a past life; he is inhabiting it while simultaneously carving out new ones. At Riot Fest in Chicago, in a brief moment of quiet before the stage lights came on, we sat down to talk about fatherhood, philosophy, and the punk rock ethos that has defined his every move.
In a conversation that moved at the same rapid clip as his music, Saporta immediately pivoted from a discussion of his upcoming show to offering advice for a new father. He spoke of his own children and the wild realization that they arrive "with their own ideas and how to do things," a truth that, while inconvenient for a parent, must be respected. His favorite part of fatherhood? The morning ritual of taking his kids to school, jamming out in the car to whatever music they are into, which, to his "unfortunate" delight, is currently K-Pop Demon Hunters.
The conversation then turned to Cobra Starship's music, a subject he approaches with a clear-eyed mix of pride and wit. He cited "Kiss My Sass" as his favorite song, both for its musical ambition—marrying dance and electronic elements with a rock sensibility—and for its lyrical message. The song, he explained, embodies the band's "tongue-in-cheek" ethos, giving people "permission and the power to really follow their creative desires wherever it takes them."
Beyond music, Saporta holds a broader worldview. When asked about the world's current divisions, he offered an answer that was both simple and profound. He believes the digital age has created a dangerous separation, where we engage with the "idea" of a person rather than their physical presence. He cited a 1950s study where hotels that had refused service to Asian people over the phone changed their minds when the person showed up in person. He concluded that the best thing people can do is to "get off the computer" and engage in more live, in-person interactions. This philosophy, he noted, is the reason he continues to perform: to play for "for real people and audiences."
Saporta's drive to create is not limited to music. He spoke about the DIY mentality that has defined his career, a necessity born out of a time when there was no infrastructure for bands like his. "We all kind of built this network of people," he said, and that self-starter ethos, he believes, is the same one required to be an entrepreneur. He applies this same mentality to his skincare line, “Brotege”. He created the line, he said, because he saw friends in their thirties who didn't know how to take care of their skin, and most products marketed to men were either condescending or overly complicated. He designed “Brotege” as a simple, all-in-one product for people who want a solution without having to become "skincare pros." The goal, he said, is simply to help people start taking care of themselves.
Before his set on Sunday, he spoke about his excitement to see the band Superchunk the following day, a long-time favorite he hadn't seen in 15 years, and a potential fashion collaboration with a designer like Jeremy Scott, citing his legend status. But ultimately, his vision is clear: to keep touring, to keep creating, and to continue to live a life defined by genuine engagement, not fear of failure. He has no time for the introspection that comes with age; for him, the action is the answer.
