Sparks tell us about new album ‘Mad!’, Trump’s America, and dreams of working with The Last Dinner Party
Sparks have shared new single ‘Drowned In A Sea Of Tears’ and spoken to NME about how it’s becoming impossible not to be influenced by global politics, as well as sharing their hopes of collaborating with The Last Dinner Party.
With Russell and Ron Mael preparing to release new album ‘MAD!’ on May 2, lyricist Ron has admitted that Donald Trump’s re-election as US President has been part of a trend in Sparks’ music that saw them title a song ‘Please Don’t Fuck Up My World’ on 2020’s album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’.
“We have beliefs about certain things, but we don’t express them in explicit ways,” said Ron. “We don’t want to be lecturing or sloganeering, but if it can be done in a way that’s a little more subtle? Those events are hard to avoid everywhere in the world now, but especially in the US.
“You can’t escape that kind of feeling. We try not to be directly influenced by outside events, but you can’t help but have it have some kind of effect on what you’re doing.”
‘MAD!’ is Sparks’ first album for their new label Transgressive, and follows 2023’s ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’. Following the singles ‘Do Things My Own Way’ and ‘JanSport Backpack’, today sees the release of new preview song ‘Drowned In A Sea Of Tears’ – check out the video below.
‘MAD!’ will be followed by Sparks working on their second film, X Crucior. To be directed by John Woo, it follows 2021’s musical Annette, which starred Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. This also follows Edgar Wright’s acclaimed and NME Award-winning 2021 documentary about the band, The Sparks Brothers.
Check out our full interview below for Sparks’ hints at the “totally different” X Crucior, how they’ve finally incorporated a guitar solo into their music, and their hopes for a duet with The Last Dinner Party, who covered Sparks’ 1974 hit ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’ last year.
NME: Hi, Ron and Russell. ‘MAD!’ seems a great album title for Sparks. Are you both feeling mad?
Russell Mael: “It feels appropriate, specifically for this album and also because we’ve often been described as mad, in both connotations of the word: crazy and angry. ’MAD!’ fits that description, and also for these times, when everything feels like it’s completely out of control and the world is mad in all meanings of the word.
“There were long Sparks board meetings about: ‘Do we really need that exclamation mark in the title?’ We decided it’s absolutely needed, to ram home the point.”
What made you decide to sign for Transgressive for this record?
Rusell: “They were fans of Sparks and, even more importantly, fans of this new album. It’s a label where the people just love music, where it’s less about accounting.
“The icing on the cake was ‘Do Things My Own Way’. That’s been their mantra for the label in its 20 years. It struck a chord with them too, to have it as an initial manifesto song as our first single for Transgressive.”
How much of a manifesto for Sparks is ‘Do Things My Own Way’ too?
Russell: “We don’t go around with a little badge saying we’ve done things our own way for 55 years, but it seemed a good opening salvo for this record, to have that idea out there.
“It’s been our unspoken mantra from day one. We’re proud that we haven’t succumbed or veered off course from maintaining the Sparks universe. Not succumbing to outside influences is what has kept Sparks pure through this long a career.”
Ron Mael: “We’re really fortunate that we were encouraged to follow this route early on, when we were malleable. When Todd Rundgren produced our first album (1971’s ‘Halfnelson’), he could have easily smoothed off the edges and made us move in a more palatable direction. But Todd saw our idiosyncrasies as something positive.”
The new single ‘Drowned In A Sea Of Tears’ lyrically sounds an unusually straight-up relationship drama…
Ron: “We don’t usually get inspired by anything that’s happened in a relationship context, and it wasn’t inspired by any particular incident.
“I hate to use the term ‘sincerity’, because we’re sincere about everything we write. But we wanted to write something from a more traditional feeling of what a pop song should be, lyrically. A few songs on this album were inspired by that.”
Speaking of being traditional, this album even features a guitar solo, on the closing song ‘Lord Have Mercy’. That must be a first for Sparks?
Ron: “I know! Don’t hate us for it.”
Russell: “We have stuck it at the end of the album. We’re not a guitar-hero-worshipping band, but there is the right time and place for a good solo. A blistering solo under the grandeur of that song felt an appropriate way to close it.”
Have you heard from JanSport about your ‘JanSport Backpack’ single?
Ron: “We’re waiting for either a lawsuit or an endorsement deal. Either is expected.”
The song ‘My Devotion’ describes irrational obsessions. Does that apply to either of you?
Ron: “Both of us are devoted to sumo wrestling. If you take it on the surface, sumo is this antiquated fat guy thing, but really, it’s beautiful. Like with any sport, if you keep watching, you get an attachment to certain key people and we do start rooting for various wrestlers. If you get into it, you can get really sucked in.
“People always say Japanese audiences are more restrained but, having been to a sumo match, they can be wild about some things.”
How has John Woo come to direct your next film, X Crucior?
Russell: “After Annette, we wanted to do another movie musical that channels what we do, without it just being another Sparks album. John Woo said in an interview that he’d never done a musical, which we were astounded by. We’re fans of his, so about a year ago we approached him with our idea. He heard the whole two hours of what will be the film and said: ‘I love this, let’s do it’. We now have some great producers working on it and it’s hopefully going into production soon-ish.”
What can you say about the plot?
Russell: “Story-wise, it’s 180 degrees away from Annette. It’s totally different from Annette, a really different genre, but it still has all the idiosyncrasies that come with Sparks’ sensibilities.”
Ron: “It’s all singing, no dialogue. Singing is a natural thing in the world that’s being pictured in X Crucior.”
Russell: “We bonded with John over The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg. It’s one of our favourite films, and one of his, and that’s all sung too.”
What did you think of The Last Dinner Party’s cover of ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’?
Russell: “It’s really good. They’ve raised the key and sing it higher than Sparks, if you can believe that. If they ever duet with us on that song, they’ll have to meet us halfway.”
Ron: “We still play it in the original key, though.”
Russell: “That’s true. If anyone can do the last note in our key, they get an award.”
Would you ever work with them?
Russell: “I saw them in LA and went backstage. When I left, it was: ‘Hey, let’s do something together!’ from both sides. Those things usually don’t end up happening, but let’s see. I think they’re really good, and a song with them would be fun. They seemed genuine about doing something, and I genuinely think it’d be cool to do something together too.”
Sparks’ new album ‘MAD!’ is released on May 2 via Transgressive. They’ll also be touring this summer. See the full list of dates below and visit here for tickets and more information.
JUNE
8 – ROHM Theatre, Kyoto
10 – Zepp Namba, Osaka
12-13 – Ex Theater Roppongi, Tokyo
19-20 – Eventim Hammersmith Apollo, London
21-22 – O2 Apollo, Manchester
24 – Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
26 – PHIL, Haarlem
28 – Cirque Royal, Brussels
30 – Salle Playel, Paris
JULY
1 – Gloria, Cologne
3 – DR Koncerthuset, Copenhagen
4 – Grona Lund Tivoli, Stockholm
6 – Uber Eats Music Hall, Berlin
8 – Teatro Degli Arcimboldi, Milan
12 – BBK Live 2025, Bilbao
15-16 – National Stadium, Dublin
18 – Playhouse, Edinburgh
19 – The Halls, Wolverhampton
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John Earls
NME
