ROCK ’N’ ROLL CONFIDENTIAL
Sparks
Ron and Russell talk Cate Blanchett, creative obstinacy and wanting to be sued.
No flash in the pans: Sparks’ (left) Russell and Ron Mael stay true to their creative vision.
Munachi Osegbu
THEY’RE IN their sixth decade of making albums, but Ron Mael, 77, and his kid brother Russell, 74, are as, well, sparkling as they ever were. This month, the sui generis Los Angelenos play two nights at the Royal Albert Hall and, in July, headline the biggest venue of their career, the Hollywood Bowl. Their most recent albums, 2017’s Hippopotamus and 2012’s A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip returned them to the British Top 10 for the first time since 1975, while album number 26, the splendid The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, is both quintessential Sparks and not quite like anything they’ve done before. “The important thing,” explains Russell, “is that it’s as compelling as something we did 20 albums ago.”