Dead Rhetoric: When you look at Canada, do you think that your country embraces both the American music philosophy as well as the European philosophy which in turn fuels the country’s outlook?
Paige: No, I don’t. The only reason I say that is because I find the exposure and story and journey of these bands that come from North America in heavy genres is very different than the journeys that come from Europe. There are much bigger communities that support heavy music from Europe, and then the United States after that- if I was to pull from this list of three. We see bands that have never really toured and have a really big following in Europe- or they can get very far in ten years. This won’t happen in Canada for a metal band. It’s not even something that happens in North America very often, even with American bands- unless you are on the radio. It’s very different, and I think bands have different experiences. It’s not easy no matter what, but I think it’s very different. I don’t want to say it’s harder to be a North American metal band, but I actually do think it is to a degree. Because we don’t have the high volume of support for metal in that same way as (Europe)- the festivals and the populations, there’s just so much density in the populations.
Dead Rhetoric: Do you think the distances play a huge factor in North America, due to the size of Canada and the United States from the west to the east?
Paige: Oh yes. For Canada the central part of the country often gets skipped due to the driving. It’s such a massive country across, people have to be driving for two days to often hit another city to play in. I think that deters people. For the United States, it’s easier to do that- that being said, the routing can be quite bouncy because of the people being booked in these high seasons, so you are going to have odd dates where you will be driving all day to get to the other side of the states. It can be pretty well routed – but Canada is brutal. The middle of Canada, there is no way to deal with it- other than to go through it, or go from the east side to the west side via the states- it’s not easy.
Dead Rhetoric: You’ll be touring with Texas Hippie Coalition across the United States from April to June. Do you feel at this point in the career of Kobra and the Lotus, the diverse tour package approach is well-suited to gaining a wider fan base than necessarily sticking within a conventional ‘metal’ niche?
Paige: Yes, this is going to be quite interesting. There are elements in our music that might actually work for their fanbase, but we’ll have to see. I don’t quite know that yet. What I do know is I think that’s it good for us to branch away from the symphonic female metal sometimes, because we really get lumped into being in the same genre, where we don’t sound similar to a lot of those bands. It happens with women in metal quite often, especially if you are a clean singer. It’s an interesting thing, I don’t know how it happens but it does. It will be interesting to see how this goes, nevertheless we need to bring the music through the USA and it’s good that the work is out there, period.
Dead Rhetoric: You recently participated in The Work, an inquiry process created by Byron Katie that helps you identify and question thoughts that cause suffering in the world. What do you believe you learned about yourself through this process, and how will this benefit you long-term?
Paige: Oh man, it’s really interesting that you brought this up. I think that it’s an unbelievable experience, and it’s a tool. It’s not the same as therapy in the sense that you are going to a therapist or there are people talking to you about what they think or ways that can help you. It’s your own wisdom and taking deep looks into if this is triggering me, what is it in myself that is getting me to that place? It’s eye opening, and healed a lot of hurt places in myself. It’s not like everything is fixed- it’s a practice, because our minds always go back to self-criticism and judging the outside world, and it’s also how we make an identity for ourselves. I have an awareness from this that I am so grateful for. It does make a lot of the world seem a lot kinder than it was- once I go through the process.
It’s something that I would recommend to everyone- and it’s the simplest thing. It’s like four questions- and it all starts with is it true? And then you go through how you react and what happens, and how you treat yourself and other people. Does it bring stress or peace into your life? And then who would you be without that thought, as if it never existed? And then you do the turn arounds. And you go to the self, and what you are upset at with somebody or something- and you turn it around and say, ‘I am this’. And okay, what are some examples in life where maybe I was selfish. It’s very easy, but sometimes it can be hard to find things and won’t resonate – but most of the time it does. You walk away learning a little bit more about yourself, and have a little more awareness and interaction and realize this the next time something arises. Interactions happen all the time- I’m finding if we are triggered by one thing, it means that it’s triggering a whole bunch of things that are related to the same thing often. It can bring things back to the same place. It’s made me have more space for a lot more good stuff in my life right now, where that was taking a lot of energy from me before.
Dead Rhetoric: If you had the chance to teach a class at either a high school or college level about a subject outside of your music career, what would you like to teach and why?
Paige: You know what? I think (laughs) I would not like to teach but share The Work. I think it’s just such an amazing tool for dealing with our perception with how we are being judged in the world, and how we do the same thing onto other people in a different way. I really do think that this is world changing, because you are changing your world, essentially in the way you choose to see people. As Byron Katie says, this is not something that you teach- you are only reading four questions- but I would share it, and share the process. Doing these questions with partners, in the class, sharing with each other – the only way you can see how it works is by doing this yourself. You learn from going through other people’s situations, too. It’s so crazy- you see yourself in people, all the time. I see myself in almost everybody that reads their thing back to me about what they are upset about and what is affecting them. It relates to me in some way, and I realize that I do that too with another person in a different situation. It’s really cool, it unlocks a lot of the self-doubt in waves that stops us from what we love, and that’s ultimately what I want kids to be able to do in school, to go off and really feel passionate about things and live a life of passion.
Dead Rhetoric: Who do you look to as the benchmark standard for where you would like to see Kobra and the Lotus go to as far as successful – and has your definition of success evolved from those initial beginning days to today?
Paige: That’s a great question. My definition of success has greatly changed. If I was to define success right now, I would say that in many ways we are already successful. If a song had gotten into anyone’s hands where it meant something, then it has been successful. As far as the band continuing on with longevity, there is a key piece that we have not met yet, but we are getting closer to it. And that is covering all the costs that it takes to have a band that’s touring and making albums. It’s not quite meeting the mark yet, we are still taking a loss every year. And that will need to shift soon or it’s not going to be sustainable for much longer. I have high hopes that we are going to cross that boundary within the next year or so- and I love doing this. The guys do as well, we want to keep making music. We would like to start doing our own headlining shows, and start to have some production for them, which would make things really wonderful.
Dead Rhetoric: How does it feel to finally get a clean bill of health due to your struggles with Lyme’s Disease?
Paige: It felt really wonderful. I feel so lucky because I’ve seen so many people that are completely debilitated because of Lyme’s Disease. They have a really tough time getting on top of it, and when I was in that clinic I saw everything. So many people that have lost their sight, lost their ability to walk, lost control of their nerves, they are having seizures, neurological issues- just really ill people. Young people too, younger than myself. I got away- I was able to get on top of it and I feel very fortunate. There are also a lot of people that will not be diagnosed, and they will eventually just become crippled or have some bad nerve damage, lose control of their bodies in a lot of ways that could have been helped but it’s not offered in the public health care system as a good enough test. A lot of people get dismissed with their weird symptoms and have to just suffer physically that way for the rest of their lives.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the horizon for the band over the rest of 2018 into early 2019?
Paige: A few exciting things. We are on tour with Texas Hippie Coalition for two months in the United States- and then we are going to pop off to Europe for seven headliner shows- three in Spain and three in France. Which is pretty interesting because we have never gone there to some of these places as a headliner before. I don’t know what that’s going to be like, but that will be exciting- and we will be playing Prevail only sets. After that, we will do some touring of Canada- and then we will be going over to Europe in the fall, and then after that we have booked time in the studio to start working on the sixth album as we intend to have it written, recorded and finished by the early summer of next year.
Dead Rhetoric: And will you be going back to Jacob again?
Paige: We have chosen a different producer again. Not because we don’t love Jacob, but we always learn something from different people, and we just feel like this guy is the next place where we want to go. We will announce who we are working with after this album has come out and stuff, but I’m excited about it. It will be another very organic process- we’ve booked almost a month of time just with him in a pre-production period. And we will always be taking a look at all of our songs from the past, and evaluating what we really loved and how we can challenge ourselves once again.