INTERVIEW: THE SPARKS BROTHERS

Interview

The Sparks Brothers

The release of Edgar Wright’s extraordinary and exciting documentary The Sparks Brothers, along with Leos Carax’s film Annette, gave CHAP French correspondent Jean-Emmanuel Deluxe the chance for a cheerful chinwag with two mighty brothers whose artistic, human and sartorial journey is a force to be reckoned with

“We don’t understand why in 2021 celebrities have to be associated with a designer company. Like no-one having any imagination outside being dressed by a fashion brand. They are being given clothes to wear for the night and then they give them back. So they don’t even own the clothing”

n these forced globalization times where, if

Iwe are not careful enough, we may all end up wearing, listening and eating the same things from Newcastle to Kuala Lumpur via Rouen, Sparks’ long career represents a glimmer of hope. ‘Neither quite the same nor quite another’, to use Verlaine’s lines, Sparks recall a huge host of different images. Depending on your decade and geographical location, Ron and Russell Mael are at the same time a glam, a disco and a tongue-in-cheek cabaret act. They are known for collaborations with Rita Mitsouko, Franco-Belgian pop icon Lio, Jane Wielding of Go-Go’s hall of fame, Georgio Moroder, Tony Visconti and

Todd Rundgren, among many others. Motion Pictures and Sparks have nurtured similarly diverse relationships, resulting in aborted projects with both Jacques Tati and Tim Burton, and in 1977 the film Rollercoaster, widely considered a bit of an odd turkey (though starring Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark).

As we discover by watching Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright’s new documentary, since their teenage years the Mael brothers have nurtured a real fascination for the auteur cinema of France and classic British pop. This is why for the British they are a little bit English, and for the French like friendly cousins from America. After many ups and downs, Sparks are finally being recognised up at the level of excellence where they belong. The brothers are slow burners, finally getting their grand prize of artistic recognition, and with no acrimony, for they are, above all, elegant souls and, dare one say, gentlemen.

JEAN-EMMANUEL DELUXE: Where did you get your sense of sartorial elegance? RUSSELL: When we first started, we loved British bands more than what was happening in our Los Angeles hometown. We thought that they had a real sense of style that didn’t exist where we were. Los Angeles for us was more represented by the Laurel Canyon sort of style, which was stuck in day-to-day clothing. We never associated ourselves with that sort of attitude and we preferred the British bands, who were so exotic to us and always dressed up, like the Move, the Kinks and the early Who. They were wearing ruffled and nehru shirts. They had their hair done in ways that no-one in LA would have dared. Early on, those were our role models. Then after a while, after trying to emulate stylistically those British bands, we veered into our own territory. Especially Ron, with his unusual persona and look.

How did you manage to stay stylistically relevant while not being too influenced by clothing fads? RON: I think Russell and I are two separate cases. I was the one in the original band that wasn’t able to follow that British band look. It looked great on the other four people in the band, including Russell, but ludicrous on me. So I went for a different look that was more natural to me. I was fortunate because I was able to maintain over time a similar kind of look to what I had back in the 70s. Through the years Russell has gone through various style evolutions much more than I did.

What determined your moustache evolution? RON: I really liked silent comedians. My preference was always for Buster Keaton, obviously Charlie Chaplin, and Oliver Hardy. It was not very trendy but it was what appealed to me. Unfortunately, in a certain sense it also took on negative political connotations, concerning an infamous Austrian leader who will go unmentioned. After something like five years I realised that the moustache was getting in the way of our music, for some people. So I went for a more conventional single line moustache à-la Ronald Colman and Adolphe Menjou.

Where do you pick up your clothes? RON: Maybe I’m getting too specific, but from a trouser standpoint I buy much larger sizes than what I should buy. That’s counter to the slim fit look that everybody else has, but it suits my personality better. I’m fairly conservative when it comes to clothes but I’m not a fashion label snob. Sometimes I’m surprised when people think that what I’m wearing is designer outfits. In reality my tastes are pretty simple. Basically it’s just all about choosing what’s right for you. I’m lucky because I can dress kind of anonymously. If you wear the right tie you can make almost anything look good.

“After something like five years I realised that the moustache was getting in the way of our music, for some people. So I went for a more conventional single line moustache à-la Ronald Colman and Adolphe Menjou”

Photo of Edgar Wright and the Sparks brothers by Jake Polonsky

RUSSELL: We were always surprised that at awards shows, for instance, both women and men, no matter how big stars they are, have to follow certain rules. Like Meryl Streep representing Prada or Jenifer Lopez for Chanel, whatever… We don’t understand why in 2021 everyone has to be associated with a designer company. Like no-one having any imagination outside being dressed by a fashion brand. They are being given clothes to wear for the night and then they give them back. So they don’t even own the clothing, unless they want to buy it. That whole philosophy seems so unmodern. We travel a lot to places like Japan, Korea and France, where you can find ‘prêt a porter’ that is as interesting as designer clothes. People always compliment us on what we’re wearing and ask who designed it. Well, it’s by nobody you’ve ever heard of!

During the Cannes Festival, we were so surprised to witness that for every photoshoot there’s somebody like Tilda Swinton in her Hermes look, with the name of the brand right behind her. We were thinking, ‘Oh come on, people! You know you don’t have to be the pawns of those big designer companies.’ Sometimes they make nice clothing, which is fine. But it seems like all the journals want to put that in their stories, what designers these stars were wearing that evening. It’s so old-fashioned and against the idea that stars are in positions of power and instead are indebted to a fashion brand.

RON: We did a collaboration with Rita Mitsouko and, aside from their musical angle, their style was so incredible. They were close to Jean-Paul Gaultier but they would combine all sorts of things. In particular Catherine Ringer, who was mixing some Gaultier with basic clothes from Monoprix and other cut-price stores. That kind of idea was so refreshing to us. They ended up being more stylish than others who were totally dressed up by a designer.

In The Sparks Brothers film, your love of French cinema is very well featured. Do you see an evolution from la Nouvelle vague to Annette?

Edgar Wright filming with the Sparks Brothers in Tokyo

RON: There still are people kind of carrying on that tradition. Not specifically stylistically but in their way of thinking, like Leos Carax, Gaspar Noé and Olivier Assayas. Maybe it isn’t quite like la nouvelle vague but they are still trying to reinvent filmmaking. Universally, films have turned more and more into franchises. During the nouvelle vague days there was an acceptance of experimentation and a general spirit that is less prevalent now. So the kind of directors that are working in their very independent ways deserve more respect. I don’t mean independent film, but directors working independently from the outside forces of commercialisation. We were really fortunate to be able to work with one of those kinds of directors. Leos Carax was so uncompromising in making Annette. Contrary to the typical Hollywood situation, he didn’t have 10 or 12 films in development, juggling them all at the same time. He was only focused with his one film for eight years. So we give him so much credit for that.

Carax, like you for your albums, has always made a point of having the final cut. RUSSELL: Absolutely. That’s something that comes across a bit in the documentary. Where, for better or worse, we do have the final cut on our music and have to stand by it. So if it works for an audience that’s all the better, and if it doesn’t we only have ourselves to blame. But at least we were doing what we felt was absolutely right and had the most integrity for ourselves. Obviously when you’re doing a film it’s more of a collaborative process, as by nature there’s a director. In our case it was even more of an unusual situation, because the project was brought to him alongside a strong creative

“As an artist you should just be going on your own path, whatever happens. Hoping you have some luck. Of course there has to be hopefully a little bit of talent as well. But so much of it is out of your hands that the only thing you can control is what you do creatively”

One more shot for the road, lads!

group and to the Sparks. So it was our music and our story. But we got along creatively so well with Leos. We were all in sync concerning our beliefs about what a movie musical should be.

You had your up and downs career wise, but you kept up working every day. Lio was telling me how much she was touched and impressed how you seemed unaffected when she visited you in the 90’s, even thought all your hard work for Tim Burton had been junked. RUSSELL: We were really happy that Edgar Wright was able to convey that. Among his many themes throughout the documentary, that’s really an important one. As an artist you should just be going on your own path, whatever happens. Hoping you have some luck. Of course there has to be hopefully a little bit of talent as well. But so much of it is out of your hands that the only thing you can control is what you do creatively. So you just have to stick to your own vision. We have gotten some really great and heartwarming feedback from a lot of young people who have seen the documentary. They said it was so inspirational for them, whether they knew the Sparks or didn’t know us before having watched the film. It seemed to help them see that if the Sparks could do it on their own terms, then they can try to do it on their own terms too. That’s really a nice theme that came out from the documentary

As you know, French film critique is still an important player. Were you wary of their reactions during the Cannes film festival? RON: We have been cinema buffs for so long that a publication like Les cahiers du cinema is like a lofty kind of thing for us. So being accepted in a general sense by somebody like that meant a lot. We know the history of that publication and the history of French critics that became directors. We were aware that Annette was polarizing the critics but we embraced that. I don’t want to speak for Leos, but I think he does agree with the fact that if you’re not doing something that is polarizing then it’s not really strong. It’s not coming from a position of a real unique vision. In America, the critical thing really isn’t as important. Russell speaks French very well and I don’t, but I somehow sense that there’s a seriousness and a deep love of cinema that French film critics have.

Edgar Wright bookended by his two eccentric heroes

This is an element that is missing from most columnists in America. It’s almost like a historical thing, the idea that if somebody is a really good film critic they can also be a really good writer. The level of writing in America for film criticism is really low now. Everybody can just blog and everybody thinks that they’re a film critic. So I really like the seriousness of French film critics. Obviously if somebody is directing negative things towards you, then maybe you feel differently on that day, but in a general sense I really embrace that kind of feeling. As it’s all being done in the sense of trying to elevate quality films, whether you agree with what they’re saying or not.

RUSSELL: We breathed a sigh of relief and happiness at the end of the premiere night screening of Annette at Cannes. We knew the horror stories of certain films, even Fellini’s La Strada being booed at the end of a Cannes screening. So we were going, “Oh no, I hope it’s not going to be like that!” even thought obviously now La Strada is a classic movie. So when there was this really rapturous ovation that came after the credits, we had a huge collective sigh of relief and happiness. At least from the audience perspective, it was really well received. In your live shows I have seen some really precise mise-en-scene, not unlike film and theatre directors might do.

RUSSELL: We are of two minds. We both like the periods when we’ve used things like interaction between us and video projections. We’ve also liked when we just presented ourselves as a band. But even during these performances, people tended to think they’re really theatrical, just because of mine and Ron’s personalities. Along with the nature of the music being sort of theatrical in certain cases.

When can we see the Sparks live again? RUSSELL: We will play a big show at the Roundhouse in London on 17th April next year, then at Le Casino de Paris on 19th April. After that we will do a world tour, performing two already sold-out nights at the Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Then we play two nights in New York. Altogether we will play 18 shows in America and then we’re probably going to Asia after that. We have a full schedule coming up with live shows. n

The Sparks Brothers documentary and Annette are both in selected UK cinemas