New York act Scissor Sisters, with its signature OTT electro-glam look, burst into the music scene in 2004 with a self-titled debut album. Made up of Jake Shears (vocals), Ana Matronic (vocals), Babydaddy (bass, guitar, banjo and keyboards), Paddy Boom (drums) and Del Marquis, this band have recently produced some rather dancey, fabulous and kitschy tunes (again) in their sophomore effort Ta-Dah. Marquis talks to us about the music and what success has bestowed on them.
How did your love for music start? Have you always known you wanted to be a musician?
I have an older sister and older brother. I borrowed their albums, and begged them to take me to concerts, and that started an insatiable appetite for music. I never knew I would be a musician. It was more of a daydream, I thought I would move on and do something else. (I studied in a design school and worked as a designer previously.)
Is there any guitarist that inspires you a lot?
Robert Smith, ’80s rockers, and moody guitar players inspire me. But right now, I am equally inspired by great songwriters or piano players.
Scissor Sisters shot to fame with the remake of “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd. What inspired you guys to record that track?
We are all Pink Floyd fans to different degrees. At that time, it was more of an exercise to just record it and when you do a cover, there’s not much point in sounding just like the original. It wasn’t a conscious effort to make it a hit, but we all recognised that it was a good cover, and it got us lots of attention. But we don’t want it to overshadow our other songs at the same time.
OK, let’s talk about the new album Ta-dah by Scissor Sisters then. What kind of issues do the lyrics deal with this time round?
Jake wrote a love song, and there will be songs from a third perspective, songs about nothing at all and songs about death. It’s about different points of view.
Some people say your music is electro-dance, some say it’s pop, others say it’s rock. Do you care about such labels?
Not at all. But I think pop music is a good category. It encompasses EVERYTHING!
Many people dig Scissor Sisters’s wild stage antics. Do you think that stage antics help people to notice you more, or do you think that causes people to take you less seriously?
There are certain people that look at us, and are completely put off by our music. But when you are performing live, you want to capture attention. Else you might as well stay home. And we are excited when we play live, we feel a lot of adrenaline and what people see on the stage is the result.
Would you say success came easy?
The fact that success came at all is amazing. But we toured a lot, and we worked very hard for it. Touring is definitely tiring, but we’ve just started this time, so we are still fresh and new. Both touring and playing live, and staying in the studio and making music have their merits and drawbacks.
Sum up Scissor Sisters in a few words.
We are about the celebration of life.
