Ron Mael Quotes

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Ron Mael

Profession : Musician

Birth : August 12, 1945

We actually were passionate about the British bands.

Ron Mael

I have a huge interest in sports, and I study the way athletes operate throughout their careers.

Ron Mael

It's almost as if the most successful people don't put too much effort into being so brilliant at what they do, that they're just doing extraordinary things. The truth, however, is they're putting more and more effort into maintaining their levels of excellence.

Ron Mael

In the U.S., many people thought what we were doing was frothy, silly, just not serious enough. The kind of pop role-playing we were aiming for was out of place in American pop culture.

Ron Mael

While I try to avoid terms like 'high' and 'low' culture, I would agree that Sparks are attempting to be both a 'mere' pop band and also to have some artistic aspirations.

Ron Mael

I feel there are Sparks songs that are somehow both commenting on a song while at the same time being the song. In a sense, this is breaking down the fourth wall of hiding behind the traditional song form and speaking past the song to the listener.

Ron Mael

The device of speaking directly to the listener is as old as Shakespeare's asides and probably much older than that. Still, we try to balance those moments with many more moments of utter sincerity and I believe the same is true in 'Annette.'

Ron Mael

The artificiality of a movie musical is something we feel really comfortable working within.

Ron Mael

We would have loved to have stayed in the U.K. but we're creatures of California and we missed the ocean and most of all the sun.

Ron Mael

Even before we had a band, the merging of music and movies just seemed so perfect.

Ron Mael

To be sitting on a movie set in Brussels and watching Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard singing something you wrote - it's surreal, way beyond what we expected.

Ron Mael

We think it's important to do something that's polarizing.

Ron Mael

I don't think it's especially praiseworthy that even in those periods when things around us were kind of dire, we were working on the music. There isn't an alternative; that kind of work ethic is all that there is.

Ron Mael

It's a secret club, people that have a certain sense of humor, and it doesn't matter whether it's a romantic situation or a creative one.

Ron Mael

Well, some people assume when Russell is singing that it is coming from his feelings, but sometimes he's just playing a character.

Ron Mael

It's important that people realize that, with what we do, we aren't necessarily the ones saying what's being said. It's a character within the song.

Ron Mael

Even when something's funny, it has to be well-written, too. So we are really aware of the craft part of pop music. We really have a respect for the genre and feel that it's valuable. It's legitimate in its own way and it has as many possibilities as any other kind of music.

Ron Mael

It's always hard to analyze the effect of your nationality and your surroundings or anything like that. I think in some ways we failed to become the textbook British band, but we kind of turned into something else - and it wasn't even intentional.

Ron Mael

We kind of have a cranky side of ourselves, so when people get upset about what we're doing, we kind of feel that we're on the right track. But it's really difficult using humor in pop music. Sometimes it can appear that you're frivolous or there isn't any depth in what you're doing. But we always tried to have humor anyway.

Ron Mael

When we started it was only for the fun. We never had any thoughts of legacy or anything like that. It was a thrill to have one album released. Music was only a fun thing to do for us, I was studying graphic design and Russell film - but it gradually became something more than the other stuff.

Ron Mael