Movies

Sparks Fly: Ron and Russell Mael, beach boys of lotusland, get ‘MAD!’ on their latest album

BBG News

Ron and Russell Mael, hailing from Los Angeles, are a scarcely found kind of individuals, native to the city itself. Growing up in the 1960s on the Westside of L.A., before it was known as “310” or west of the 405 Freeway – as the north-south highway had not been constructed yet. Their childhood was filled with sports like beach volleyball, radio blaring 93 KHJ, and high school football for Russell, which might lead one to underestimate their intellectual aura that has long been associated with their band. This intellectual aura, over the past few years, after producing albums filled with eclectic, unyielding, and witty tunes since 1971, is gradually shifting towards broader acknowledgment, edging closer to mainstream acclaim.

The Maels attribute their recent surge in energy to cinema, particularly the 2021 Edgar Wright documentary titled “The Sparks Brothers” and the film “Annette,” which premiered at Cannes in 2021. In this movie, the creator-brothers were seen beaming on the red carpet alongside director Leos Carax and stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard. Next up for them is a “half-musical” collaboration with John Woo, known for his film “Face/Off.

If the public perception and longevity of musicians has changed, Sparks’ music continues to be innovative, intellectually stimulating, and extravagantly catchy pop, frequently stemming from bright experiences and bittersweet recollections that subtly find their way into the lyrics.

Ron suggests that while there may be thematic similarities, they intentionally steer clear of using any form of nostalgia musically.”

Or, if you prefer a more colloquial style:

“Ron’s not talking about feeling all sentimental or anything. Themes maybe, but in the music department, he and his team make it a point to avoid being too nostalgic.

The JanSport Backpack” carries a longing melody with harmonies that echo the Beach Boys, a band from the West Coast who often reflected youth culture in their music. If the speaker is pining for the girl associated with the JanSport Backpack, then the lover in “My Devotion” has her name etched on his shoe, as Russell sings.

Ron mentioned that it might not be exactly nostalgia speaking,” I mused. “Perhaps we’ve grown in certain aspects, but in others, we remain the same as before – still leaving our names on each other’s belongings, revisiting a time long past.

One song expresses an unexpected affection for a frequent source of annoyance to numerous Golden State Warriors – the infamous 405 Freeway, humorously portrayed in the “Saturday Night Live” skit “The Californians”. The track titled “I-405” offers a fast-paced, dramatic, and cinematic exploration that beautifully encapsulates the tumultuous emotions simmering beneath the tedium of gridlock.

In a casual conversation, sitting alongside his brother in Russell’s vibrant recording studio filled with fascinating pop culture trinkets, Ron expressed that he tends to view I-405 in a unfavorable light due to memories of traffic jams. Everyone seems to have their own harrowing tales associated with it.

In a moment at the Getty Center, when twilight was setting in and cars were moving with an odd, LA-style romance, Ron recalls. This sparked the idea for the song. From afar, there’s a certain beauty, and he believes that’s one of Los Angeles’ secrets. You need to reframe ordinary sights, like a car wash, as something extraordinary, which is different from Europe where everything is clearly ‘Art’.

Russell agrees, ‘We really appreciate supermarkets. It’s a bit disheartening when they disappear. Even department stores are starting to feel like antiques. The Beverly Center seems eerily empty these days. Soon, it might all vanish completely.’

If not through gentrification and L.A.’s tendency to consume its own, then natural calamities were responsible. The Jan. 7 Palisades fire destroyed part of Ron’s high school and their family home on Galloway Street in the Palisades following their father’s demise. Almost every house in the entire neighborhood, known as the Alphabet Streets, a working-class area during the Maels’ residence, was turned into a heap of debris.

In simpler terms, Russell stated, “They included some bird’s-eye views showing the street layout with names, and then it was destroyed. It’s perplexing because it looked like a typical suburban area, and one would assume such places couldn’t catch fire so easily.

To the east of highway 405, the Maels went to UCLA during a time when culture was on the verge of change. Ron caught a glimpse of some of Jim Morrison’s rather impressive student films at this university, and the brothers remember that, “UCLA back then had an extraordinary policy for booking events; you could see Jimi Hendrix, Alice Cooper, The Mothers of Invention, Canned Heat. It wasn’t a big deal; people would just say, ‘Let’s go check them out.’ Nowadays, you need to spend a lot of money and even put your house up for collateral to see anyone,” Ron remarks.

Russell shares, “We’ve always had a fondness for that genre of music, but we never imagined ourselves becoming professional musicians. It’s simply because it’s the kind of music we truly cherished.

By the time he turned five, Ron had already started learning piano and even performed a recital at the Women’s Club in Venice, which was close to where the Mael family lived at the time. At Paul Revere Junior High, Russell earned first place in a Shakespeare Festival for his performance of a sonnet.

After those golden times, we, the brothers, started exploring music together. Russell’s robust, sometimes dramatic vocals and electrifying stage persona complemented my unique, quirky demeanor and skillful wordplay with keys. “I’m not sure if you’d call it a band,” Ron clarified. “It was an attempt at becoming a band. We played at some college event at UCLA once.

“We also played a pizza place in Westwood,” Ron remembers.

Russell chuckles as he says, “Shakey’s Pizza – we were the headliners that night! Yes, it was free pizza for us. After honing our skills on the local Westwood circuit, we moved on to performing regularly at the Whisky a Go Go. That’s when we became known as Sparks officially.

Despite the Sunset Strip no longer being in its heyday of Doors and hair metal, and with a distant horizon for such music, it wasn’t overly inviting to Sparks. However, Elmer Valentine, the founder of Whisky, had an unreasonable fondness for our band according to Ron. “The audiences, when they did attend, didn’t particularly care for us and we were far too loud,” he added. “But he persistently booked us. We would often open for acts like Little Feat.

In a critique by Richard Cromelin for the L.A. Times, it was pointed out that Sparks’ style in their 1973 show wasn’t paired with the necessary freedom or spontaneity. However, for Sparks, this ‘freedom’ wasn’t and isn’t essential. Instead, the captivating tunes like “Angst in My Pants” and “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For the Both of Us,” delivered with Russell’s exuberant, flawless vocals, drive their electrifying live performance.

Over the past four years, the Maels have been delighted to move beyond their former label as a secret favorite, thanking “Annette” and “The Sparks Brothers” for helping them gain more recognition. As Russell explains, these works drew in people from the film industry who were unaware of the band before. This new audience is younger and quite diverse, he adds.

As a true cinema enthusiast, I can’t help but appreciate the latest offerings from this group, especially their albums that date back to the 1970s such as “Kimono My House.” However, unlike someone who was there at that time, its significance isn’t quite the same for me. It’s refreshing to see they don’t fixate on a specific ‘golden age’, be it the ’70s in London or the ’80s in L.A., or any era in between. Instead, their focus remains broad and inclusive, which I believe keeps their music vibrant and relevant for all generations.

A fresh perspective on the band has sparked an unusual level of excitement and vigor, which might be surprising coming from septuagenarian veterans like the Gallaghers or the Davieses. Unlike many rock brother duos such as the Maels, they operate as a unified team. Compared to their private lives, which can be secretive, their professional bond is more transparent, albeit slightly. We’re in the room where their latest album, “MAD!,” was produced, and while both brothers contribute to lyrics and production, Ron appears to be the primary lyricist. There seems to be minimal collaboration when it comes to lyrical themes or specifics.

Russell mentions that he found out about it on the very day when it was time for him to begin singing. He was then given his lyrics, to which he replied, “Sir, here are your lyrics.

To put it simply, the opening track on the album, “Do Things My Own Way” by Sparks, can be seen as their personal manifesto, reflecting their long-held ethos. In this song, Russell sings about being independent and choosing to act according to his own will, expressing it as “I’m unattached / Completely content / I’ll do things my way.

So would it ever be “our own way”?

The Maels laugh. “Not as long as I’m writing the songs,” quips Ron.

“Good question, though,” says Russell with a smile.

Ron chuckles as he comments, ‘We saw Sparks split apart,'” he continues, “And on our ‘Best of’ album, we could record a track that belongs to us.

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2025-05-28 13:32

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