Sparks tell us about new album ‘Mad!’, Trump’s America, and dreams of working with The Last Dinner Party

nme.com:

Sparks have shared new single ‘Drowned In A Sea Of Tears’ and spoken to NME about how it’s becoming impossible not to be influenced by global politics, as well as sharing their hopes of collaborating with The Last Dinner Party.With Russell and Ron Mael preparing to release new album ‘MAD!’ on May 2, lyricist Ron has admitted that Donald Trump’s re-election as US President has been part of a trend in Sparks’ music that saw them title a song ‘Please Don’t Fuck Up My World’ on 2020’s album ‘A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip’.“We have beliefs about certain things, but we don’t express them in explicit ways,” said Ron. “We don’t want to be lecturing or sloganeering, but if it can be done in a way that’s a little more subtle?

Those events are hard to avoid everywhere in the world now, but especially in the US.“You can’t escape that kind of feeling.

We try not to be directly influenced by outside events, but you can’t help but have it have some kind of effect on what you’re doing.”‘MAD!’ is Sparks’ first album for their new label Transgressive, and follows 2023’s ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’.

Following the singles ‘Do Things My Own Way’ and ‘JanSport Backpack’, today sees the release of new preview song ‘Drowned In A Sea Of Tears’ – check out the video below.‘MAD!’ will be followed by Sparks working on their second film, X Crucior.