SPARKS

AS SPARKS RETURN WITH THEIR 28TH ALBUM, RON AND RUSSELL MAEL TELL CLASSIC POP ABOUT TAKING THE LONG WAY ROUND TO ICON STATUS – AND WHY, IN THEIR SIXTH DECADE, THEY HAVE NO INTENTION OF SLOWING DOWN. “OUR APPROACH WAS TO ASK, ‘WHAT WOULD NATURALLY BE THE SORT OF RECORD WE WOULD MAKE AT THIS STAGE OF OUR CAREERS?’ – AND THEN NOT DO THAT...”

PAUL KIRKLEY

Sparks are back with latest album MAD! via their new home on the Transgressive label

© Munachi Osegbu

Three decades after Sparks asked, a touch forlornly,When Do I Get To Sing My Way?, it seems we may finally have an answer.

No, pop’s favourite Dadaist siblings haven’t suddenly decided to give us their take on the Sinatra showstopper. They’ve actually gone one better and created their own musical victory address in the form of recent single Do Things My Own Way – a propulsive manifesto for marching to the beat of your own drum that takes the sentiment of My Way and does it... well, their way.

“I think that’s always been our mantra of sorts,” reflects Russell Mael, who has been giving voice to his older brother Ron’s songs for more than 55 years now. “We don’t walk around with a banner saying, ‘Here’s our mantra’. But we’ve always had that belief that you’ve got to go your own path no matter what – otherwise you’re just fooling yourself. You have to stick to your creative guns. Always.”

There have been times during Sparks’ long and winding career when sticking to their creative guns bordered on self-sabotage. But in more recent years, the brothers have been cruising through their late imperial phase at full sail, enjoying a sustained period of success and adulation in which all of their creative stars have finally aligned. Hence Do Things My Own Way ’s – entirely justified – celebration of artistic self-belief.

“It seems so strange to us, if we stand back from it, that we’re playing bigger venues than we’ve ever played, and that people seem to be embracing our music more than they did decades ago,” says Ron. “It’s great that that’s happening. But sometimes you scratch your head and say, ‘How is this possible?’ Because we don’t feel we’ve done anything different.”

Today, the brothers have joined Classic Pop to discuss their new album MAD! – which we have all agreed, after some counting on fingers, is their 28th long-player. Because of scheduling issues, the plan was for Ron and Russell to talk to us individually, which somehow didn’t feel quite right for a duo who, by their own admission, are musically “inseparable”. But thankfully, no sooner have we exchanged pleasantries with Russell at his L.A. home than up pops Ron, Zooming in from his house nearby.

As we speak at the end of January, the wildfires that have ravaged the city have just about been contained. “We were lucky,” says Russell. “I was close to having to evacuate one day, but there was no damage in the areas where we live. When you look at the places that got hit, though... It’s hard to even comprehend.”

Among the most badly affected neighbourhoods in L.A. was Pacific Palisades, once home to the adolescent Mael brothers.

“Our mantra since 1972, amplified in 2025” – Sparks’ Do Things My Own Way single

“That whole area is completely levelled, including the home we lived in,” says Russell. “It looks like a war zone. My elementary school was trashed, half my high school was burned... The movie theatre and the supermarket are gone. It’s really sad.”

L.A. STORY

For a band famously dubbed “the best British group to come out of America”, Sparks’ hometown is actually fairly fundamental to the duo’s identity. As Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos put it in Edgar Wright’s 2021 feature documentary The Sparks Brothers: “If you want to understand them, see them through the prism of Hollywood.”