Sparks On Their 28th Studio Album ‘MAD!’

Sparks, brothers Ron and Russell Mael, have released their acclaimed new studio album, MAD!, on Transgressive Records. Musically there are nods to new wave, synthpop, art rock and electronic opera – all genres Sparks had hands in pioneering or straight up invented. Ultimately, however, MAD! is a modern record that belongs in and speaks to the modern world, which is all the more remarkable when you consider the vintage of its creators.

Very few artists have had as much influence on decades of popular music, or remained as committed to artistic innovation, as Sparks. In the decades since their Todd-Rundgren produced debut in 1972 the duo has moved through numerous genres and phases, including Art-Glam, Neo-Charleston, electronic disco (essentially inventing the synth duo), synthpop, sampler opera and movie musicals. The only common threads, throughout each era, are the exquisite wit of Ron’s lyrics and the complexity of his arrangements, paired with Russell’s heavenly voice.

Ron Mael is one of our most acutely perceptive observers of social mores. In a different discipline – dramaturg, cartoonist, novelist, cineaste, chronicler – he’d be a Moliere, a Hogarth, a Fitzgerald, an Altman, a Swift. He just happens to work within the medium of popular song. His brother Russell Mael has the asset of a talent to put those observations across in a uniquely arresting manner, captivating as a frontman and gifted with a countertenor voice of extraordinary range. The alchemy between Ron on keys and Russell on vocals is simply what they do. And they’ve rarely done it better than on MAD!. It was a real honour to speak to Russell Mael about their new album MAD!

Congratulations on the album. Truly fantastic, absolutely love it. You’ve got to be really pleased with how it turned out.
Yeah, yeah, we’re really proud. Thank you for your comment. We put a lot of time and effort into making our twenty eighth album not sound like it’s coming from a band with twenty album, wanting it to feel as provocative, challenging, and striking as anything we’ve ever done. That was our goal, and we’re happy to see it’s being so well received.

Does it get easier, or does it get harder?
No, it actually gets harder. When you’ve had that many albums and created this universe that Sparks has, you want to find new and fresh ways to continue working within those stylistic, lyrical, and sonic elements.
But it’s our duty to find fresh ways of presenting those ideas. The more albums you make, the harder it gets to keep conveying that universe in new ways. But we work really hard at it.

Does that create a little bit of pressure as well?
Yeah, especially now that Sparks is experiencing a real upturn in awareness worldwide. That’s partly due to Edgar Wright’s documentary a couple of years back, and also Annette, the musical film we wrote, which reached different audiences, many who weren’t previously engaged with Sparks. Now that we have this new audience, often younger and more diverse, we really feel that pressure,not letting them down. We don’t want people to feel we’re resting on past laurels. The new album is what matters. We want everyone listening to accept it on its own and not think about the rest of our catalog. So yeah, there’s pressure to make sure we’re delivering something fresh every time.

How does the whole process for Sparks start? Do you have a vision in mind for where you want to take an album, or does that take shape once you’re in the studio?
It’s more the latter, we start without any preconceived idea of what we want to do, other than making something special and striking. Only after we’ve worked for a while do we realise there’s a cohesion to the album, it makes sense as a whole. We didn’t go into this album with a defined concept, our only goal was to create something that surprised us first and, hopefully, surprised the audience too.

Did you find that the ideas came easier once you were in the studio?
Yeah. Once we started working on it, then once a few things started to click, you get more confidence that this is going to be really good .

How was it in the studio? What was the energy like? Was it an exciting time for you both?
Absolutely. We have a few different ways of working now. Sometimes, Ron brings in a fully formed song, and we focus on recording it as well as possible. Other times, the two of us are in the studio noodling trying to come up with something just from nothing, and see if it leads to something that can later be shaped into a song. The third way is that I work on my own, creating instrumental backings that Ron can can try to add a melody line or help shape it more into something that sounds like it can be a cool piece
Those are the three basic ways we work now.

Were there any challenging moments that took a bit of problem-solving to get through?
Not really. We’ve done fifteen albums entirely on our own, producing, engineering, and mixing, so we’ve developed a strong understanding of the process. We’ve also learned from some of the best producers, Tony Visconti, Giorgio Moroder, Muff Winwood, and Todd Rundgren. Those experiences gave us best tutorials in production. Over time, we gradually gained confidence that we could handle this on our own, and now we we really feel really self-contained in a certain way. But we really feel like we’re we’re getting stronger and stronger, being able to work on our own in this kind of way.

Do you write just enough songs, or do you go through lots of different ideas before deciding what makes it onto an album?
It depends. There were probably a couple of songs that didn’t make the grade and would usually be left off for a reason. That was the case with this album that if it didn’t excite us we let it go. We know that we’ll come up with something else. What what you hear is what we want everybody to hear.

Does your inspiration come from anything in particular?
It comes with being observers of the world, you know, like just observing people and situations, and especially with Ron’s lyrics, where he works with a lot of detail. Sometimes, songs almost become mini movies, stories built around small, even mundane, situations that are amplified through both sonic treatment and lyrical framing. Take A Long Red Light, for example. On the surface, it’s just a single phrase, but in the context of the song, it evolves, going through different permutations and building toward a big finale. We love taking situations like that, something universal, like sitting at a red light and feeling frustrated and turning it into something bigger than expected.

Sonically, how would you describe this album compared to some of your recent releases? There’s quite a shift in Sparks’ sound.
I’d say it’s more than subtle, this album is pretty aggressive in its sonic approach. Everything is more hyped up. Even the more melodic songs feel really aggressive and forward sounding, and more in your face. I think it’s a lot more aggressive than we’ve done, but we think it’s also kind of fitting with the title of the album. The name felt even more apt once we sat down and listened through the full record multiple times.

Does this already have you thinking about album number 29???
It’s a little early for that! The album’s only been out three days, we’re taking a moment to breathe first. We’re taking three days off, and then we’ll start thinking about it at some point.

Back in 2023, we were lucky enough to see you play live in Australia. Any there any plans to tour Australia again?
We’re really pushing to make it happen! That last tour was special, playing in four cities, Adelaide, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Fantastic shows, incredible energy. There are discussions happening right now about getting us back over, so hopefully, we’ll have some positive news soon.

Interview By Rob Lyon

MAD! is out now through Transgressive Records. Stream, Download, Buy HERE…