Just a few short years ago, Gabe Saporta was happy working on the industry side of things by leading the unique TAG Music label. After all, even while his projects like Midtown and Cobra Starship were in full swing, he still enjoyed managing bands and exploring other roles in the music industry.
But while TAG is still his day job, it’s far from the only focus for the East Coaster-turned-Angeleno these days. With both of his bands reuniting (Midtown in 2022 and Cobra Starship in 2024) for the occasional short tour, major festival stage or other one-off opportunity, Saporta’s already spending more time onstage in his 40s than he did during the entire decade prior.
Combine all of his musical endeavors with his recent efforts to revolutionize men’s skincare with his Brotege line, and Saporta can frequently be considered among the busiest guys in the business.
Hit Parader caught up with the towering frontman and mogul backstage to chat about the music, skincare, and everything in between.
Hit Parader: After taking a decade off, what’s it been like to get back to performing with not one, but two bands?
Gabe Saporta: It’s been a lot — I’m not going to lie — especially because we’re not a fully operational thing. We’re not really touring. I’m not doing it full time. I’m still running my label. I just launched Brotege. So every time we do one of these shows, we’re revving the engine from zero. That can be a little bit daunting, but I’m also so grateful for the way we get to do it. One of the reasons why I stopped touring is because I wanted to have a family, and I don’t want to sacrifice my ability to do that for music. I did music for 15 years of my life, touring 10 months out of the year, almost every year. I didn’t want to have kids and then be away from them for that long, so I love the way that I get to do it now. I feel very grateful that we get to play these big festivals and get good slots. One of the things that touched me the most is how many young people I see out there. What gives a band longevity is having a new generation of kids coming in, and I see a lot of that with Cobra. I’m very excited about that and just thankful to everyone who’s listening.
HP: And with the bands being very different from each other — Midtown being more punk and Cobra being more pop…
GS: I was actually just talking about this before, but I just came across a Cobra fan — or maybe a Midtown fan, I don’t know — on TikTok, and she had a hot take about that. I don’t know if I agree with it, but she said that Cobra Starship is more punk rock than Midtown. Her thinking was that with Midtown, the lyrical content was very much part of the emo/post-hardcore emotional thing. It was always talking about relationships, the inner war, the struggles — everything on a very personal level. Whereas she said that Cobra Starship had a lot of societal critique in it, and that’s actually more of an attribute of punk rock than the personal lyrics Midtown had. (1:30) I don’t know if I agree with that, but I thought that was a hot take.
HP: …How are you going to balance the two going forward?
GS: I’m going to try to alternate years with them. We’re only doing Cobra this year, because there happens to be a lot of shows. I didn’t plan it this way, but we did Warped Tour, Riot Fest, and an Australia festival that unfortunately got in the way of a Midtown show I was planning to do. It’s really hard to schedule both, so if I can do one band one year, one the other year, that’s great. The goal for Midtown is to be able to at least do a great hometown show once a year. Cobra is obviously my bigger project, but Midtown was the project during my formative years as a high school kid, so it’s like your friends you make when you’re in high school. I don’t go to my high school reunion, I do Midtown shows to see all my friends again.
HP: How did it feel to come back — particularly with Cobra Starship — to bigger crowds than you played to the first time?
GS: Well, the last Cobra tour was opening for Justin Bieber in stadiums, so technically we played to 80,000 people in Chile, but there are more Cobra fans now. I think that’s the craziest part. Like at Warped Tour, they don’t tell you when you’re going to play or what stage you’re going to be on ahead of time, and we were literally the last band on Sunday. That could have been a death sentence for us. I was nervous about that, because I thought “Fuck, are people really going to stick around to see us? People are going to leave.” It was Ronnie Radke [with Falling in Reverse] and us as the last two bands when people are tired after a long weekend. But it was packed as far as the eye could see, and I was just so floored. It was just packed. (6:42) As far as the eye could see. I felt very lucky to have done that show and see all those people. Not only do people still give a shit about our music 10 years later, but it’s more people than ever. That’s probably the most rewarding thing any artist can hope for.
HP: Switching gears, what’s it been like to venture into skincare with Brotege?
GS: It’s been awesome, because it happened so organically. I had so many friends where once we got into our 30s, a lot of dudes start noticing that they’re getting older. There are tons of men’s products out there, but one is more confusing and expensive than the next, no one explains any of it, and it’s not really made in a way that’s talking to normal dudes. You have to be like a skincare sommelier to do it – even the word skincare makes me cringe. I felt like there was a real opportunity there, because people want to connect to brands that are coming from people like them. In the world we live in now, everything has become more democratized and niche-ified in a way, so you can really get something running pretty quickly. If you have that DIY ethos from the punk rock world, that’s also a quality you need to be an entrepreneur. And for me, it’s about more than the product. I want to build a community around Brotege to help dudes that don’t know what to do or where to start — and I want to do it in a fun way, so it doesn’t feel didactic and annoying.
