On the wall is a vintage poster for Kimono My House.Īcross town, Ron (three years his senior) looks debonair in a navy blue jacket, his pencil-thin moustache and round glasses providing some trademark symmetry. Seventy four-year-old Russell, with a dark mop of hair matching his casual shirt, sits against a white backdrop dominated by a tasteful fireplace, on which sit a number of ornaments and odd figurines.
It’s early morning in Los Angeles when Classic Rock catches up with the Mael brothers via Zoom. L-R: Adrian Fisher, Ron Mael, Norman ‘Dinky’ Diamond, Russell Mael, Martin Gordon. Sparks posed in Amsterdam, Holland in 1974. One that sees rock’s greatest and most enduring cult duo finally achieve what they’ve always wanted. As we soon discover, it’s a remarkable upturn in fortunes. Deep into their sixth decade as recording artists, Sparks sit on the threshold of one of the most exciting phases of their lives. That’s always been the unspoken credo ofthis band.” “We always fight desperately hard to move on and try new things, to be as bold as we can. “Getting complacent in this period of our career would be the saddest thing for us,” Russell adds. They’d feel disappointed if we weren’t doing things that were pushing it.” “And we’re fortunate that most of our followers expect to be challenged. “I think we both feel that what we’re doing is making music that we can’t hear anywhere else,” posits Ron. It’s everything that makes Sparks so remarkable: bold, transgressive, in-your-face adventurous. The latest proof is The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, their twenty-sixth studio album. They remain daring provocateurs in an increasingly risk-averse world. Sparks have freely changed courses and styles over the years – encompassing everything from hard rock to electronica, dance music to neo-classical pop – but the sheer quality of their output has rarely dipped. Not only by proving that brothers in bands can co-exist in lasting harmony, but also that the passage of time needn’t dilute the creative juices. They’ve made a habit of flipping the prescribed notions of pop music.
Since that first flush of Sparksmania, the Maels have hardly stopped.
0 kommentar(er)
