Thanks to Krishnan and Ron and Russell for an awesome interview. Hippopotamus and A Steady Drip Drip Drip is up there with the best music of their career. And the new song with Todd Rundgren, "Your Fandango" is fantastic. Don't retire, Sparks!
Loved this, Sparks have been a massive part of my life since I was 14 years old. I'm 53 this year and every new album they release is still surprising uplifting clever and fresh... Incredible really. Being a sparks fan is like being in a special club, the best club on earth, and the love for the 2 of them shown at their live shows is truly something magical. Thank you so much for this. Wonderful.
Exactly! "Being in a special club", as mensioned now about the new documentary 'The Sparks Brothers' by Edgar Wright, and Sparks' fans; "like Freemasons", "have a secret hand shake" 😂! Something like that. I hope that the documentary, which I haven't seen YET, but I will the moment it's possible, will open people's eyes, and the club of "Free-Sparkers" will increase!
It's just cool to hear them describe the process on how they write write their songs and music, and the fact that they're still around still making the kind of music they want to make after 50 years in the music biz is just amazing.
One point why I admire Ron and Russell so much is the fact, that they're so close to each other and understand each other without words. That's very special to me! And that's also the reason why it hurts me to listen to them telling how they're keeping social distance to each other. They shouldn't have to do that! 🙁😢
@@sandorx4 Why do you think they should have to do it? And of course it's good that they do it, they're not stupid. But as brothers who love each other so much they shouldn't have to in my opinion.
@@girlfromgermany Your statement was moronic. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Social distancing is paramount. You think the virus makes an exception for love?
Brilliant interview with two of my all time musical heroes!! Thanks for a very thoughtful and incisive interview. This is one of the best I've ever heard with Ron and Russell!! Thanks sharing this with all of us Sparks fans.....and others who have yet to discover and appreciate them!
KIMONO MY HOUSE.......should be up there with the classic albums in history. Interesting thing is people don't really know much about them, always been very secretive and quiet.
First band I discovered "on my own" at the age of 11 just after "This Town..." charted here in UK. I love how they are still as fresh and quirky as they were back then. They are well established in my "top five" favourite bands of all time I also love their long term affiliation with UK.
I'm NOT saying that I am the brightest person on this planet, 🤣🤣, but I agree so much with Russell "Getting rid of stupidity, would be a start". I love these guys! 🥰🥰😍😘
Looking forward to the long awaited Edgar Wright documentary the Sparks brothers , both Ron And Russell have been so influential over the years for many bands and feel privileged to have worked with these really nice guys in the late 70s
Me too! Saw them live London 1974. Have loved them ever since, well until their recent 'highbrow' stuff.The interviewer tried hard to get inside their heads; but how can you break down 50 years of inspiration into a podcast? And really, Ron+Russ are as exasperatingly inscrutable as ever. Pop icons.
Great interview. I enjoyed getting to know Ron and Russ. Since I watched the documentary I had quite an extensive amount of listening to do to catch up. Such a joy !
I rediscovered them little by little during a couple of months. At first I only listened to what I had heard before; 'Kimono My House' and 'Propaganda'. I used to play the albums once in a while, but at that point I hadn't, my receiver were so filled with cat and dog hairs it got overheated 😂😂😂. So thanks to RUclips I started to find out more about Sparks, and when 'Hippopotamus' just had been released I had a random suggestion for the whole album. Started with the title track... 😂😂 I was stunned for a few seconds. Then thought "This is a song for kids!?" THEN I heard "a painting by Hieronymus... BOSCH!", and realized that this wasn't for children. It didn't take many words, now when my brain could focus, to get a big smile over my face, and I was as much in love with the band then, as I was in the late seventies, and actually not stopped. I had that feeling of wellbeing every time I listen to Sparks over the years. And that voice 💓! 😁! I didn't know they still were active, not even that they were alive! When I started to dig around in everything they had done during my absence was overwhelming! The more I heard, the more my love and respect grow. It was a couple of wonderful months when I played album after album, in chronological order, mesmerized of the variety of styles and how they built the songs, how songs like 'Brenda's Always In The Way' and foremost 'My Baby's Taking Me Home' don't FEEL repetative, and of course, the lyrics! I felt like I had come HOME, this music spoke to me, like nothing before. And that voice... 💖💖💖💖💖🥰
@@annabackman3028 You really should join us on FB! 😀 There's the official fan group "Reinforcements" by Sparks HQ and you could also join the group that I founded with another fan called "Hot, Hotter, Sparks" 😄 @Mark Gilbert's group "Plagiarism" is also a great group where fans share their creative work, such as cover versions of songs or drawings for example.
@@girlfromgermany, AGAIN YT didn't notify.... 🙄 "Thanks, but no thanks anyway" 😉It's not that my orders come from high above me, not even a foot or two above me. It may happen a lot of fun stuff there, but I still don't want to open a FB account. If it wasn't because of Sparks I hadn't been on Twitter. I have been pretty good at limiting myself to Sparks there, but FB is different, and knowing myself I would be stuck there. It's like when you have a kid, telling him /her he/she CANNOT eat sweets and put a bowl with candy on the table. That will work for this time, then the kid has his/hers fingers in it😂! That's me. 😥 I guess that NOT having FB give me approx two - three hours more time to spend on other things. I might be forced to one day, if I decide that I want a new dog, and the only kind that I could think of, which I don't know so much about, is a Retro Pug / Retro Mops. And it seems that the only way to get in contact with people who have a Retro Mops or even breeds them is through FB. IF I really want a new dog. Which I'm not sure of. So perhaps in a year or so. Added: Or do you (or anybody else?) have, or know someone who has or breeds Retro Mops (Möpse?) / Retro Pugs? (In Swedish it's singular one "mops", plural many "mopsar". I think I saw "Möpse" somewhere, interpreted it as plural.)
Legends. Love these guys.. I bought one of my first 45 singles at 8yrs old.. It was beat the clock by sparks.. Known these guys all my life.. Thankyou.
Wow, that was an excellent interview. Krishnan asked the good questions; Ron and Russell seemed to have enjoyed it. "I've always thought of you as performance artists..." Yes! Stay safe, stay Sparks. (Also, am never "First!" to comment, but here the 500th "Like". So where are the rest of you people viewing this, and what's with the 15 thumbs down?!?)
Krishnan Guru-Murthy is a highly respected UK journalist & this humorous, lengthy, in-depth podcast interview with Sparks is one of the best I've ever heard. Krishnan would have been 4 when 'Kimono My House' came out in '74 but he knows his Sparks stuff. Thank-you for this brilliant interview.
Sparks surfes beyond the system with no compromise on the quality and on Art all along those years. They were also visionary with song such as "never turn your back on Mother Earth" by example ! This is a bless that both brother evolved in the same way...
did anyone else notice the anime figures in the glass case in Russle's space? LOL I have loved sparks all my life. May they continue for many more decades to come.
I'm old enough to actually remember the sheer impact of this extraordinary pop group. To British people who remember that time as the sixties turned into the seventies, it seemed amazing that this band was American and not British or European - such was their degree of 'Carnaby Street' sophistication. They found, it seems, their perfect groove in the UK charts - surprising that they didn't carrying on living in the UK permanently. What happened to that fantastic guitarist they had at the time they made 'This Town'. Long live these guys and their talent. Old Grey Whistle Test episodes should re-shown forever - they were so cutting edge with whispering Bob! For some reason the You Tube app on my phone keeps bringing up 'This Town' as the first play - wonderful!. I know I'm going to offend but they are kinda right about Gilbert and Sullivan - I'd far rather - as a Sparks fan - hear Gilbert and Sullivan than boring, whiney old Bob Dylan!
Well done! Although my personal musical "point of entry" is from the "eclectic loud guitar" thematic direction, I have always (and I mean back to the early '70s) found their music appealing and valid. A collab project with them would be interesting--at the very least--just for the surprise of hearing what would come out of it...
Sparks are the only band I expressly went to see twice. Great performers...I think a band like Ghost are the only modern band I can think of whose humour also goes so well with their music and the whole package maybe transcends popular tastes in a good way....
Thanks for posting. I've started learning about Sparks lately because of the documentary that's pending release. Interesting act. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
Figures Todd Rundgren would understand Sparks uniqueness when the record industry didn't get it!I've been a Sparks fan since 70s a fanatic fan when kid and still am fan!When they talk about Kimono my house its such an unusual sound and album and humor 😅! But even before that Sparks sounded unique!Kimono as they say IS timeless there's nothing like it! Not to forget the constant changes in their styles!
I'm sorry, but on what planet is it reasonable to mention Morrissey in the same sentence as Wagner? I appreciate Russell's attempt to circumvent the question, but Ron's answer seems unnecessarily cruel. What "odious views" has Morrissey expressed that warrants a comparison with fucking Wagner?
Sparks generally don't fit into any genre of music, Ron is the most creative writer i've ever heard, who cares how it come about, Russ is a fabulous singer and frontman, they're ain't many people like this, a handful
“ IN THE FUTURE “ 😃❤️ In the future the Rolling Stones will be purely a Business based on Music or their Art from 50 years ago . Is this what Americans mean by ‘ Corporate Rock ‘ ?
I think you have missed something here. Covid-19, a k a corona. Self isolation. The guys are not in their twenties anymore. They are respectful to eachother, they don't want to risk spread the virus to the other. If that concern was available in people in general, the situation had probably been different all over the world. 🙄 (Ron was born in August 12, 1945. Russell in October 5, 1948.)
@@annabackman3028 Or, I could have been making a joke by referring to the Rosemary Clooney song 'Come On-A My House' which was the titular inspiration for Sparks' 1974 hit album 'Kimono My House'. So who 'missed something' here?
Thanks to Krishnan and Ron and Russell for an awesome interview. Hippopotamus and A Steady Drip Drip Drip is up there with the best music of their career. And the new song with Todd Rundgren, "Your Fandango" is fantastic. Don't retire, Sparks!
They won't, retirement is wrong for them-and for us for them! Hooray. Great questions and info too.
Uncompromising, uncommercial, fun, unconventional and always trying to do something new. Artists in the best sense of the word.
Loved this, Sparks have been a massive part of my life since I was 14 years old. I'm 53 this year and every new album they release is still surprising uplifting clever and fresh... Incredible really. Being a sparks fan is like being in a special club, the best club on earth, and the love for the 2 of them shown at their live shows is truly something magical. Thank you so much for this. Wonderful.
Great comment, I discovered Sparks in the 70’s as a child hearing them in the radio and been a huge fan ever since.
Best wishes
Exactly! "Being in a special club", as mensioned now about the new documentary 'The Sparks Brothers' by Edgar Wright, and Sparks' fans; "like Freemasons", "have a secret hand shake" 😂! Something like that.
I hope that the documentary, which I haven't seen YET, but I will the moment it's possible, will open people's eyes, and the club of "Free-Sparkers" will increase!
It's just cool to hear them describe the process on how they write write their songs and music, and the fact that they're still around still making the kind of music they want to make after 50 years in the music biz is just amazing.
@MATRIXMAN355, Yesterday they anounced they are already recording another album!!! 🤩😍💖 💖 💖 💖 💖 💖!
Look on Twitter etc😃🤩
@MATRIXMAN355 Brilliant.... I just hope I get to see them live again..... Soon
Russell and Ron are still great and innovative and they will never go out of style.
this pair have always been icons of music, very underrated
NO.ONE.IS.UNDERRATED.YOU.TARD.
Underrated? Don’t be silly!
@@HarryFlowerrs well they are hardly talked about as often as they should be
I grew up with this band in the 70s - I look 50 years older - they look the same !
Sparks are fantastic
One point why I admire Ron and Russell so much is the fact, that they're so close to each other and understand each other without words. That's very special to me! And that's also the reason why it hurts me to listen to them telling how they're keeping social distance to each other. They shouldn't have to do that! 🙁😢
They should have to do that, and they are wise enough to do it.
@@sandorx4
Why do you think they should have to do it? And of course it's good that they do it, they're not stupid. But as brothers who love each other so much they shouldn't have to in my opinion.
@@girlfromgermany That's just moronic. Thankfully, they are smarter than that.
@@sandorx4
I really don't get what you mean with "That's just moronic". But maybe it's also not that important.
@@girlfromgermany Your statement was moronic. We are in the middle of a pandemic. Social distancing is paramount. You think the virus makes an exception for love?
Love these guys: always a rocket ship to the 4th dimension 💫.... phenomenal .
Brilliant interview with two of my all time musical heroes!! Thanks for a very thoughtful and incisive interview. This is one of the best I've ever heard with Ron and Russell!! Thanks sharing this with all of us Sparks fans.....and others who have yet to discover and appreciate them!
Cannot wait to see Edgar Wright’s documentary Sparks Brothers
Sparks have been a part of my life from the beginning to the present and will continue into whatever future i and them have.
KIMONO MY HOUSE.......should be up there with the classic albums in history. Interesting thing is people don't really know much about them, always been very secretive and quiet.
KMH did make the list of 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die (sorry if I mangled the title)
I got this album when it was released . Knew these guys music was different with a slight prog rock angle . Mozart would fancy them .
@Lawrence Windrush You know it Bro !!!!! Play it loud on #11 !!! Try Nina Hagen " TV Glotz or Windy O' , Wet leg , Princess Chelsea .
First band I discovered "on my own" at the age of 11 just after "This Town..." charted here in UK.
I love how they are still as fresh and quirky as they were back then.
They are well established in my "top five" favourite bands of all time I also love their long term affiliation with UK.
I'm NOT saying that I am the brightest person on this planet, 🤣🤣, but I agree so much with Russell "Getting rid of stupidity, would be a start".
I love these guys! 🥰🥰😍😘
Still excited to see SPARKS! The 1980's was a great time for music. I have never viewed keyboardist Ron speak
Nice to hear some interesting questions. Great interview. Thank you.
Looking forward to the long awaited Edgar Wright documentary the Sparks brothers , both Ron And Russell have been so influential over the years for many bands and feel privileged to have worked with these really nice guys in the late 70s
Thank God for Todd Rungren.
I’ve been a fan for 46 years. Simply the best ❤️
Me too! Saw them live London 1974. Have loved them ever since, well until their recent 'highbrow' stuff.The interviewer tried hard to get inside their heads; but how can you break down 50 years of inspiration into a podcast? And really, Ron+Russ are as exasperatingly inscrutable as ever. Pop icons.
Great interview with two continuously progressive creators. Thanks Krishnan
show tunes for stoners and chefs. gentle yet high strung. love you guys
Gotta love Sparks.
Saw them a few times over the years. Most recently promoting the "Hippopotamus" album in a small NYC club...excellent show!!
Great interview. I enjoyed getting to know Ron and Russ. Since I watched the documentary I had quite an extensive amount of listening to do to catch up. Such a joy !
Great interview with 3 great people. Sparks have changed my world. Thank you 🤩🎼🎸🎆
I agree. Since I re-discovered them in December 2019 I'm a happier person! 😀 They're really very special and unique. Wunderbar! 😊
I rediscovered them little by little during a couple of months. At first I only listened to what I had heard before; 'Kimono My House' and 'Propaganda'. I used to play the albums once in a while, but at that point I hadn't, my receiver were so filled with cat and dog hairs it got overheated 😂😂😂. So thanks to RUclips I started to find out more about Sparks, and when 'Hippopotamus' just had been released I had a random suggestion for the whole album.
Started with the title track... 😂😂
I was stunned for a few seconds. Then thought "This is a song for kids!?" THEN I heard "a painting by Hieronymus... BOSCH!", and realized that this wasn't for children. It didn't take many words, now when my brain could focus, to get a big smile over my face, and I was as much in love with the band then, as I was in the late seventies, and actually not stopped. I had that feeling of wellbeing every time I listen to Sparks over the years. And that voice 💓! 😁!
I didn't know they still were active, not even that they were alive!
When I started to dig around in everything they had done during my absence was overwhelming! The more I heard, the more my love and respect grow.
It was a couple of wonderful months when I played album after album, in chronological order, mesmerized of the variety of styles and how they built the songs, how songs like 'Brenda's Always In The Way' and foremost 'My Baby's Taking Me Home' don't FEEL repetative, and of course, the lyrics!
I felt like I had come HOME, this music spoke to me, like nothing before. And that voice... 💖💖💖💖💖🥰
@@annabackman3028
You really should join us on FB! 😀 There's the official fan group "Reinforcements" by Sparks HQ and you could also join the group that I founded with another fan called "Hot, Hotter, Sparks" 😄 @Mark Gilbert's group "Plagiarism" is also a great group where fans share their creative work, such as cover versions of songs or drawings for example.
@@girlfromgermany, AGAIN YT didn't notify.... 🙄
"Thanks, but no thanks anyway" 😉It's not that my orders come from high above me, not even a foot or two above me.
It may happen a lot of fun stuff there, but I still don't want to open a FB account. If it wasn't because of Sparks I hadn't been on Twitter. I have been pretty good at limiting myself to Sparks there, but FB is different, and knowing myself I would be stuck there.
It's like when you have a kid, telling him /her he/she CANNOT eat sweets and put a bowl with candy on the table. That will work for this time, then the kid has his/hers fingers in it😂! That's me. 😥
I guess that NOT having FB give me approx two - three hours more time to spend on other things.
I might be forced to one day, if I decide that I want a new dog, and the only kind that I could think of, which I don't know so much about, is a Retro Pug / Retro Mops. And it seems that the only way to get in contact with people who have a Retro Mops or even breeds them is through FB.
IF I really want a new dog. Which I'm not sure of.
So perhaps in a year or so.
Added:
Or do you (or anybody else?) have, or know someone who has or breeds Retro Mops (Möpse?) / Retro Pugs?
(In Swedish it's singular one "mops", plural many "mopsar". I think I saw "Möpse" somewhere, interpreted it as plural.)
@@annabackman3028
Yeah, Möpse is the German plural of Mops. But no, I don't know any dog breeders.
Legends. Love these guys.. I bought one of my first 45 singles at 8yrs old.. It was beat the clock by sparks.. Known these guys all my life.. Thankyou.
Wow, that was an excellent interview. Krishnan asked the good questions; Ron and Russell seemed to have enjoyed it. "I've always thought of you as performance artists..." Yes! Stay safe, stay Sparks. (Also, am never "First!" to comment, but here the 500th "Like". So where are the rest of you people viewing this, and what's with the 15 thumbs down?!?)
Krishnan Guru-Murthy is a highly respected UK journalist & this humorous, lengthy, in-depth podcast interview with Sparks is one of the best I've ever heard. Krishnan would have been 4 when 'Kimono My House' came out in '74 but he knows his Sparks stuff. Thank-you for this brilliant interview.
Sparks surfes beyond the system with no compromise on the quality and on Art all along those years. They were also visionary with song such as "never turn your back on Mother Earth" by example ! This is a bless that both brother evolved in the same way...
The number one song in heaven was one of my favourites when I was a kid 😊
Best Sparks interview ever.
finally a good interview to the Mael brothers! Thanks
Yes I really enjoyed that interview, Loved them back in the day and definitely have to check them out now :)
Highly rated,immensely talented and hugely influential band and have been for over 5 decades,Class is permanent!
did anyone else notice the anime figures in the glass case in Russle's space? LOL
I have loved sparks all my life. May they continue for many more decades to come.
He's hardly changed since the 70's!
I assume you mean Ron? 😉
@@annabackman3028 I do :)
best interview in ages,,,great questions thank you !
Thanks for this awesome interview!!
Wonderful interviewing. Thank you.
The Mael brothers are a treasure to be celebrated! Local boys from beach city in LA! Your needed now more than ever! Thank you!!!
That was a great interview. You could see that they enjoyed it too! 🕶🎹
I'm old enough to actually remember the sheer impact of this extraordinary pop group. To British people who remember that time as the sixties turned into the seventies, it seemed amazing that this band was American and not British or European - such was their degree of 'Carnaby Street' sophistication. They found, it seems, their perfect groove in the UK charts - surprising that they didn't carrying on living in the UK permanently. What happened to that fantastic guitarist they had at the time they made 'This Town'. Long live these guys and their talent. Old Grey Whistle Test episodes should re-shown forever - they were so cutting edge with whispering Bob! For some reason the You Tube app on my phone keeps bringing up 'This Town' as the first play - wonderful!.
I know I'm going to offend but they are kinda right about Gilbert and Sullivan - I'd far rather - as a Sparks fan - hear Gilbert and Sullivan than boring, whiney old Bob Dylan!
Took me over 40 years to realize they are Americans. Blimey!
I always thought they were Swiss!
I don't know why though...
Well done! Although my personal musical "point of entry" is from the "eclectic loud guitar" thematic direction, I have always (and I mean back to the early '70s) found their music appealing and valid. A collab project with them would be interesting--at the very least--just for the surprise of hearing what would come out of it...
Really good interview, love sparks! 💙
Great interview you let them complete there thoughts and treated them with respect. Look forward to seeing more of you interviews
Brilliant interview to a Brilliant band. Love Sparks
This Sounds Amazing
Sparks are the only band I expressly went to see twice. Great performers...I think a band like Ghost are the only modern band I can think of whose humour also goes so well with their music and the whole package maybe transcends popular tastes in a good way....
Very good interview!
Thanks for posting. I've started learning about Sparks lately because of the documentary that's pending release. Interesting act. Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
An excellent interview. :)
Wonderful interview ..
I'm 60 now, but I always thought Sparks are a British thing !!
Followed Sparks since young boy unique is what they are!
Proper Legends.
Figures Todd Rundgren would understand Sparks uniqueness when the record industry didn't get it!I've been a Sparks fan since 70s a fanatic fan when kid and still am fan!When they talk about Kimono my house its such an unusual sound and album and humor 😅! But even before that Sparks sounded unique!Kimono as they say IS timeless there's nothing like it! Not to forget the constant changes in their styles!
Great interview, Thank You..
I saw them i Stockholm october 1975. They had just released "Indiscreet", and to me they peaked then, they where just great
I loved watching this interview!
The Rt Hon. Krishnan doing yet another excellent interview.
Brilliant.
I would love to see Ron and Russell collaborate with Mark Mothersbaugh and the survivors of DEVO.
An excellent interview
Nice interview.
Excellent!
Loving Ron's Jordans on his shelf wonder if there match worn🤔
Excellent interview.
The very best ❤️
Great interview!
I'm sorry, but on what planet is it reasonable to mention Morrissey in the same sentence as Wagner? I appreciate Russell's attempt to circumvent the question, but Ron's answer seems unnecessarily cruel. What "odious views" has Morrissey expressed that warrants a comparison with fucking Wagner?
its odd that Krishnan brought it up in the first place
Sparks, the New York Dolls and Meat Loaf owe it all to Todd.
Does Ron have one of Mr Roger’s trolleys? Someone from the Sparks camp please answer!!!
Sparks generally don't fit into any genre of music, Ron is the most creative writer i've ever heard, who cares how it come about, Russ is a fabulous singer and frontman, they're ain't many people like this, a handful
What a fabulous interview
“ IN THE FUTURE “ 😃❤️
In the future the Rolling Stones will be purely a Business based on Music or their Art from 50 years ago . Is this what Americans mean by ‘ Corporate Rock ‘ ?
31:39 😀
Why doesn't Russell say to Ron, "come on over my house"?
I think you have missed something here. Covid-19, a k a corona.
Self isolation.
The guys are not in their twenties anymore. They are respectful to eachother, they don't want to risk spread the virus to the other.
If that concern was available in people in general, the situation had probably been different all over the world. 🙄
(Ron was born in August 12, 1945.
Russell in October 5, 1948.)
@@annabackman3028 Or, I could have been making a joke by referring to the Rosemary Clooney song 'Come On-A My House' which was the titular inspiration for Sparks' 1974 hit album 'Kimono My House'. So who 'missed something' here?
@@davidcopson5800, Sorry, haha 😂, yes of course!! 😁 💖
@@annabackman3028 And I was trying to write something for the girl with everything!
@@davidcopson5800 😁
Really loved the interview 🇮🇪👍
His mustache troubles me....I dont know why,but if does
...then you're not a Sparks fan...🙄
This is far too long for a one hit wonder band. Just analyse "this town aint big enough" and leave it at that.
lol they have many albums which are consistently strong from beginning to end
If I knew so little I'd keep my mouth shut.
@@Stefing I live in England. Tell me another hit single that they had here please.
@@cliveymasters3643 hit singles are a function of what the radio stations choose to play, not a reflection of the quality of the music made
@@cliveymasters3643 3 UK Top 10 singles
12 UK top 40 singles
4 UK top 10 albums.
"One hit wonders."