Sparks

With 28 albums' worth of songs to choose from, “hopefully there will be some surprises”.

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Russell and Ron Mael never stand still. Since the birth of Sparks back in 1972, the singer and keyboard player siblings have operated within multiple genres, including pop, rock, new wave, synth-rock and disco, but always sounded like only themselves. We caught up with Russell prior to their latest tour, based on new album MAD!.

Sparks have released twenty-eight albums across seven decades, toured and explored side projects. Your parents must have instilled a very strong work ethic in you both

Our work ethic comes from ourselves and each other. We enjoy what we do and always want to be doing something adventurous and special that excites us. Then we know we will be satisfied creatively, and hopefully our fans will be happy too.

Sparks do things that other bands would run away from. For example, in 2008 you played a 21-night run in London featuring all 20 albums released to that point in their entirety. Where does that sense of ambition – of crazy danger, if you will – come from?