Music / electronica
Interview: Sparks
Sparks are permanently woven into the tapestry of great pop music. Ron and Russell Mael’s unforgettable 1974 Top Of The Pops debut kicked off with the majestically flamboyant This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us, and introduced Russell as a satin-flared dandy while Ron glowered from behind his keyboard with a basilisk stare and a Hitler moustache. They remain impossibly witty and wonderful, collaborating with Giorgio Moroder (creating in the process one of electronica’s greatest middle eight breakdowns in Number One Song In Heaven), Jane Wiedlin, Faith No More and, most recently, Franz Ferdinand as the arch supergroup FFS.
Demonstrating a creative vitality that would shame artists half their age, they now deliver Hippopotamus, an album effortlessly conjoining their delirious pop with Reichian systems music and the modern operas of Robert Wilson. Ahead of their Bristol O2 Academy show on Tuesday, September 26, we caught up with Russell.
Missionary Position. An anthem for the sexually unadventurous?
We’re weighing the pros and cons of a sexual position in a pop song and having a debate over something where there really isn’t much controversy. We liked that idea.
You tried to recruit Brian May at one point in the 70s. Was he tempted?
I don’t know to what extent. He was tempted enough to to want to meet with us and discuss it. It was the time when Queen hadn’t yet become massive. They’d just returned from the States where things hadn’t fully exploded for them yet. He obviously made the decision to continue with his band.
You heroically played every single Sparks album live at a London residency. Knowing what you know now, would you do it again?
Oh no, absolutely not. It was a harrowing experience, one that we’re really proud of. But the preparation and the anxiety and just the sheer focus to rehearse for four months and retain something like 260 songs – it’s a pretty demanding process. It’s something that no other band with twenty-one albums will ever attempt. We’re extremely proud of it but we wouldn’t do it again. A lot of fans were happy as a result so that’s the trade-off.
I was at the Barbican for the 40th anniversary celebration of Kimono My House. it was a fantastic night.
It was an amazing event. Playing with a full orchestra was an exhilarating experience, it puts you in a different context musically. There was a lot of love in the air.
Can we expect any more FFS action with those Franz Ferdinand boys?
The album for us was so perfect and the concept of working together with them, the novelty of that idea was so strong that to do it again, we don’t know if it might be diminishing returns or not, that would be one fear against doing a second album. Time will tell.
There have been a few collaborations over the years, who would you particularly like to work with?
We had a chat with Chuck D and mentioned it would be really cool to do something together at some point. We don’t know if it’ll ever become a reality or not but it would be something intriguing for us to do something with Public Enemy and Sparks. We’ll keep you posted.
A guy that used to host beauty pageants is now the President Of The United States – that’s a scenario straight out of a Sparks song.
It’s even more evil an idea that anything we would come up with. Donald Trump is beyond our wildest imaginations. We don’t even want to humour the thought that that’s something we could create, it’s much worse.
Sparks appear at Bristol O2 Academy on Tuesday, September 26. Check out tickets on www.academymusicgroup.com/o2academybristol/events/959418/sparks-hippopotamus-tour-tickets
is needed now More than ever
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