Daily Record – interview

3 February 2006 EXCLUSIVE: SPARKS ARE FLYING Exclusive Mael brothers return with an ambitious new album By Rick Fulton SPARKS are everywhere. Just listen to Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, Scissor Sisters, The Darkness, Morrissey and Bjork. American brothers – keyboard player Ron Mael and singer Russell – have shaped many UK music acts with songs as diverse as Beat The Clock, Amateur Hour and I Predict. And last year, Justin Hawkins from The Darkness covered the 1974 hit This Town Ain’t Big Enough and took it to No.6 in the charts. Now, the brothers are back with their 20th album Hello Young Lovers and have revealed that Franz Ferdinand want to collaborate with them. Russell said: “Franz Ferdinand want to do an album with us and they have picked out 10 of their favourite Sparks tracks and added a and recorded together, so hopefully it will happen. “It’s nice that we’re being discovered by younger bands. We liked Justin Hawkins cover version. He’s talked about playing guitar on a future track which we’d love.” Advertisement Russell, giggling, added: “But it didn’t get as high in the charts as our version. We made it to number two so it shows – don’t mess with success.” Of course he’s joking. Russell is clearly flattered that new acts have been influenced by Sparks’ music and it’s made them more determined to create even better songs. Russell said: “We are trying to make the modern equivalent of that song so that some contemporary band will want to cover a song off Hello Young Lovers because it’s just as striking as the older material.” And their new single Perfume certainly makes a good stab at it. With 30 girls names and 30 brands of perfume namechecked, it’s as wildly eccentric as you can imagine if you’re a fan of the band. With the same electronic savvy of Beat The Clock, it’s as clever and sassy as anything from the Scissor Sisters and bodes well for the new album. The brothers who come from Los Angeles, have managed to create a unique look to go with their unique music. Ron was scary to most of us watching Top of the Pops in the Seventies and Eighties with his deadpan look and Hitler moustache. He looked more like someone from German band Kraftwerk than an American musician. But the image and music have prevailed throughout the years. Russell said: “I really never thought we would do so many albums together. “When you start out, you are just happy that someone will let you make an album – then you find yourself 20 albums later – it’s quite frightening. “When you hear some of our old songs from 30 years ago on the radio and they still sound fresh, you wonder if we were so far ahead of our time or is the music scene just boring at the moment?” Russell is modest enough to feel it’s the latter. It has been four years since their 2002 album Lil’ Beethoven, and the singer admits it took them two years to record Hello Young Lovers. He said: “It was harder coming back with the new album. “We didn’t want to repeat some of the things we did on Lil’ Beethoven, like not working with verses or chorus structure. “We had made a plan to try and steer clear of a lot of pop conventions which at the moment seems to be full of clichŽs. “We are so disillusioned with the music scene right now. It just seems very stale and there’s nothing much that excites us. “So with Hello Young Lovers we have tried to find new ways in pop music that aren’t based on what’s gone before. “We still don’t want to play it safe.” Sparks’ new album Hello Young Lovers is out on Monday. They play Carling Academy, Glasgow on February 12 and new single Perfume is released on February 13. ‘It’s nice that we’re being discovered by younger bands like Franz Ferdinand’