Russell Mael

Singer

1948-10-05

Quotes by Russell Mael

• We've always believed action speaks louder than words. I think that's helped maintain a certain aura about Sparks. People only really know us through our music.

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• There's a lot of bombast in Sparks' music.

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• I really love 'Spirited Away,' it's just got an amazingly haunting atmosphere, and the technique is so non-Hollywood CGI - it's really refreshing to see other beautiful styles of animation that don't have to be the Hollywood bombast.

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• The unfortunate thing with COVID is that Ron's been working separately from me, but it hasn't stopped the flow of things.

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• People have always commented along the way that, 'You guys are always so visual in what you do.' The songs have always had a lot of visual imagery in them that's not necessarily orthodox subject matter or themes or the way those themes are treated are kind of unorthodox. They could be taken as little mini films without the visuals.

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• As long as it elicits some kind of thought on the listener's part, that's good. If no one's paying attention to the lyrics it's a different situation. Ron especially puts a lot of care and time into them, it's not just wallpaper in the background.

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• No, I did not provide the backing vocals for The Kinks's 'Waterloo Sunset' - as much as I like the record.

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• Leos focused on 'Annette' for eight years. He's not the type of director who'll have 10 films in development at any one time. He had this one film going for the entire eight years. We knew his focus was on the same wavelength as ours. And with that kind of intensity and passion, it had to turn out to be something special.

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• There's just a certain sensibility to Ron's lyrics that's been consistent since day one, album one, through to the 'Hippopotamus' album. A world view that's unique.

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