There are so many newer fans that have kind of come our way of late,” says Ron Mael, Zooming immaculately from Los Angeles. “We feel an obligation, which we always do, to keep the quality high. We’re lovers of pop music, and we think it’s a disservice to pop music to come out with stuff that isn’t cool.”
READ MORE: Sparks Interviewed: “We’ve stayed true to our creative vision...”
And so, 53 years on from their first record, the wondrous, rewarding and sui generis story of Sparks rolls on. This decade has been a lively one for the Mael brothers, with their Leos Carax-directed musical film Annette and Edgar Wright’s documentary The Sparks Brothers both arriving in 2021; then 2023’s LP The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte became their third consecutive LP to reach the UK Top 10.
After last year’s triumphant world tour, they got to work. “We kind of immediately jumped in on a new album,” says vocalist Russell, who speaks in front of a statuette of ’56 Elvis. “We steamed through it in the past six months, and it’s ready for serving.”
Yet, as the album is not coming until next year, they can’t tell us anything too specific, though Ron admits that, “it did seem to come together pretty rapidly… we approached it in a similar way to the last albums, where there are songs done in various styles.” They did regular hours, as ever, in the LA studio set-up of Russell, who also engineers and mixes. Some songs were written in advance and others developed in the studio: though Ron says they’re happy to leave tracks that don’t come together relatively speedily, time is lavished on arrangements and recording. Their regular band – guitarists Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl, bassist Max Whipple and drummer Steven Nistor – all contributed.
What are the songs about, MOJO wonders, possibly in vain. “I think that the assumption for a band that, say, has been around for as long and made as many albums as we have – I won’t mention years – is that we would be introspective and mellow down a touch,” says Ron. “You know, the usual things where musicians try to come to grips with mortality and all those sorts of things. We’re not like that. It still has a pretty high degree of aggression to it, I think.”
“I think it’s consistent with the lyric universe that Sparks has always had,” suggests Russell, “with some issues that are maybe not treated so much in normal pop music, or issues that are, treated in a way that’s not clichéd.”
Russell adds they’ve also been working on their new movie, musical X-Crucior, which now has a director and studio involved. “We’re really excited about it,” he says. “We really would like to blab more about everything – we have plans for touring as well – but we’ll just have to tell you tantalising non-details.”
“Yes, there’s a certain sensibility about what we do,” says Ron in closing. “We just try to not besmirch our good name. Because that’s all we’ve got – our name!”
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