Friday 25th June 2010 by Jason Gregory | Photos by Carsten Windhorst

Keeping It Up All Night: Scissor Sisters

Gigwise Editor Jason Gregory meets Jake Shears...

Photo: Carsten Windhorst

Scissors Sisters have come along way since their formation in New York at the turn of the century. As well as release two critically acclaimed albums – 2004's 'Scissor Sisters' and 2006's 'Ta-Dah' – the band have developed a reputation as one of the biggest and most respected live acts in the world.

Ahead of the release of their new album 'Night Work', produced by Stuart Price, and appearance at this weekend's Glastonbury festival, Gigwise Editor Jason Gregory spoke to the band's frontman Jake Shears to discuss the album, their live reputation and what it was like working with well-known friends like Kylie Minogue and Sir Ian McKellen.

Shears also had one or two words on another New Yorker: Lady Gaga.

Gigwise: 'Night Work' sounds like an album that you had fun making. Is that a fair assumption?

Jake Shears: “Oh yeah, totally. Once we started this record it was just the perfect energy between us and Stuart, and I was feeling really inspired and sexy. Every morning I woke up and I was just so excited to go into the studio. We had a fucking blast. We laughed our asses off the entire time.”

You must be pleased about the good album reviews bearing in mind that you’ve been away for four years?

“It is, it is a really good feeling. It feels really validating to be and I’m really proud of it. And I’m really proud that people seem to be seeing the record for the great album that I think it is. And the reason why it took us so long is that we didn’t want to put out anything less. I really felt strong that the most important thing with us making another album is that there had to be a reason for it to exist, and we did not want to make another record just because we had to.”

The 'Ta-Dah tour was notoriously gruelling. Did that take anything out of you as a band that you felt like you needed to regain?

“The kind of performing that we do is really intense and no matter what, after a long-cycle, a long bout of touring…We love playing live so much, and Ana (Matronic) and I do it especially do it with such a ferocity that it’s unavoidable - especially for me - not to get insanely depressed when we stop. And I’ve just kind of come to accept that now as part of the highs and lows of what we do, and it’s worth it to me. But it’s hard coming home and there’s nobody in your living room clapping for you every night. It’s an intense psychological thing, and hopefully I’ll get better dealing with it as time goes on, but it’s definitely a big struggle.”

It’s been well documented that you scrapped an entire album before you eventually wrote ‘Night Work’. Was that the effect of having just come straight of tour, because you went straight into writing, didn’t you?
“Yeah, and I didn’t quite know who we were at that point. The band had kind of ended up in this real, sort of, squeaky clean, very mainstream world, which is great. You know, I love the fact - and always want our music to speak to a really broad spectrum of people - but I sort of felt like the band had lost its sex drive in a way. And I think that it was just necessary for us to get that back if we were going to make something good.”

How big was going to Berlin to write the album ?

“It was the most necessary thing I’ve ever done. It was really…the ideas for the album really sprouted from there, me being able to let myself go and have fun, and be a regular person that didn’t feel attached to this project that was much bigger than myself, was a really a very important thing. I think had I hadn’t have…it was just a sudden instinct that I knew that I had to essentially run away from everybody and just get out of the studio for as long as I felt like it. It was impossible for me to go write or tinker in the studio because I didn’t have one over there - I was by myself. It was so important.”

It’s a real club album - like coming up and down with the highs and lows of the DJ in a club.

“Yeah, yeah, and that was a real conscious thing. We wanted to make it a party record through and through. I didn’t want this is to be a kind of array of different genres, I didn’t want to genre hope so much. I mean, I think there’s a lot of variety on the album but I didn’t want to do any drastic right turns or left turns, I wanted it to really work as one cohesive journey.”

You worked with Sir Elton John on your last album and Sir Ian McKellen appears on ‘Night Work’. It must be nice to be able to work with your friends now?

“It’s amazing, it’s amazing. I love collaborating with people and I love being with truly talented…I’m very attracted to people who excel at what they do, so it’s just one of my favourite things to collaborate. I’ve got a track on the new Kylie record that I wrote with her and it’s really satisfying to me. I feel very fortunate to be able to utilise other people’s talent and match them up with my own.”

In a recent interview Lady Gaga said you guys had been a big influence on her music. What do you think about that? And what do you think of her as an artist?

“I think she’s great and I’m so proud of the fact that she gives us credit for influencing her. I’m really chuffed about it, it’s a great thing. I think she’s wonderful and she’s been great for…you know, anything that gets people excited about the pop music landscape - or just the music landscape in general - is a really very positive thing, and I’m proud of that. I think that she’s a great thing for us. Hopefully artists can keep opening doors for each other. There were plenty of artists before us that were inspiring and influential and all that, and if we’ve done that for somebody who’s become as successful as she has, then that makes me really proud.”

Your live shows have a huge reputation over here. Do you intend to maintain the element of spectacle for your new tour?

“I always feel like hopefully for the most part that the spectacle has really relied on our performances. There’s no muppets, there ain’t no muppets coming out. It’s a bit more sophisticated and there’s a lot more shadow play, and it’s still going to be really exciting. I think they’re going to be dancier than ever. I mean, the setlist now that we’re pulling from all three albums the shows are incredibly intense and sweaty and up-tempo, so people really need to be prepared for an onslaught of fun music. I just think the bands sounding tighter than ever, we sound fucking great.”