Interview: Scissor Sisters

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Scissor Sisters are back; finally!

After a storming Pyramid stage return to Glastonbury last month, where they were joined by pop princess Kylie Minogue, a chart-bothering new album and a heavy tour schedule it seems they are back with a vengeance.

The band chatted ahead of their performance at Malta Music Week.

So, can we expect any more surprises in the style of Kylie appearing on stage?
"Kylie is hiding in my bra; she's so small she's in my bra; because you know were lesbian lovers now according to the British press. So she's been hiding in my bra all day," quips Ana Matronic

Jake Shears sums up the view everyone pretty much already has of the band: "When we perform there are always surprises. It's always a surprise what's going to come out of Ana's mouth."

The Glasto gig pleased, not only fans; but gave the crowd and tabloids something to gossip about. Matronic and Kylie stunned fans by appearing to share a sexy kiss on stage.

"Everybody thinks that we like made out or something? (towards Jake)She kissed him too! It was totally closed mouth; I was just giving her a goodbye peck."

Jake blames the photographers: "Anna's picture looks a lot more intimate. It was the camera angle, it was so weird. (to Ana) But you did enjoy it."

Matronic is vocal in her approval "Who wouldn't?!"
"When I found out we were singing together, the first thing I thought was these hips wanna bump that famous bootie. That was the best part of the whole thing. She was leaving the stage so I leaned back and gave her a goodbye kiss. You (to Jake again) gave her the same kiss but somehow it didn't look so dirty."

Scissor Sisters worried us all for a while as they silently disappeared from view - the dancing appeared to have stopped for good. Jake Shears travelled to Berlin during the hiatus and pins a lot of the albums success on the escapism he experienced on the trip: "It was a city I knew, I had gone to it various times over the years but I'd never kind of lived there for a while. It was a city I knew I could go to and be myself and be anonymous and be by myself and meet interesting people, meet other creative people. I knew I could go to other clubs and listen to great dance music. Also it was spring time so it was a lovely time to go there. Berlin was such an important time for me, so much that I don't think this record would have even started without me just going there and letting loose for a while".

The new album Night work was released on June 28 and went straight into the album chart at number 2.

"The title of the record just came from; well we wrote a song called 'night work' and it kind of felt like what I had been doing when I went to Berlin. It wasn't like work-work, it was a good kind of work. It was just sort of what I had been getting up to there," said Jake.

Ana Matronic explained a different take on the title of the album: "Work is a very important word in the gay community in America."

"It can mean; say your girlfriend looks amazing and you say 'miss thing, work you look fierce, or someone is working it on the dance floor."

"Or your friend is getting all these guys coming up to her and giving her numbers you say I don't know what it is tonight but wooork!"

According to Jake the word 'work' even stands when you flip the coin: "Or if some woman is like walking down the freeway next to your car looking absolute hell you just say work-day time destruction!"

"It's a really important word, it denotes work but also in the gay community it denotes a certain amount of joy and fabulousness," explains Ana.

The new album is definitely a transformation from the softer cheesy pop the eccentric foursome are famous for. 'Fire with fire,' stormed the charts as a party classic with catchy lyrics and an addictive (for the Scissor Sisters anyway) bass line. The dirty and the sordid tracks come later on in the album with songs such as 'Sex and Violence,' and 'Skin this Cat.'

"It's a party, a dance album. It's a lot more focussed than our other records. It's a good time. I wanted to make something you could put on at a party and not have to take it off, there's nothing you have to skip you could just have it on, its super high intensity. My one worry about it is I didn't want the record to become exhausting. I was worried that if it was all going to be super up tempo then it could exhaust the listener. That was something we were really careful about doing; making sure that it did have minute peaks and values so it really could be listened to on a whole without getting tiresome to the ears."

"It's a less shrill album, I'm seeing a lot less falsetto. It's a lot sexier than stuff we've done before, it's a very sexual, slinky, fun album with that sadistic streak to it. There's a little bit of a dark side to it; I think it's really hot."

In an interview with a Dutch magazine Jake Shears was reported to have said the new music is the kind couples would have sex to; it had to be asked it Jake himself had tested this theory: "I can't imagine anything grosser to me than making love to someone with myself singing in the background. It just gives me the creeps; it's like incest or something."
Ana Matronic agreed: "I'd rather put on Christmas music and I hate Christmas music."

The Scissor Sisters never fail to impress with their outrageous style and frequent lack of clothing. The new album cover is no exception and the perfectly toned rear of a muscular male on 'Night work's' front has been a topic of discussion with many fans: "I figured people would assume it's mine. That ambiguity of people wondering is it or is it not always kind of works in its favour. It's a good ass. I'm working very hard to make my own ass be of equal value to that ass."

Scissor Sisters are back in full swing; expect more leather all in one's, beats to make even your parents feel like dancing and funky glam rock songs which will bury themselves so deep in your mind you'll never be able to stop singing along. Most of all though; look forward to seeing Jake Shears looking as fine as ever and ripping his clothes off on stage.

Interview: Scissor Sisters

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