Scissor Sisters - Bursting The Bubble

Scissor Sisters are improbable superstars in the homogenous realm of contemporary pop, but superstars they are. 3D’s Cyclone got on the phone to New York to tell Babydaddy 'she’s gonna need his love'.

The New Yorkers hinted at taking a hiatus when their eponymous debut was a surprise smash but, after gigging at Live 8, they're resurfacing with Ta-Dah. The colourful ensemble, first in Australia for 2005's Good Vibrations, returned to headline Splendour In The Grass this past July. Scissor Sisters performed a sideshow in Sydney but bypassed Melbourne, to the dismay of fans.

Ta-Dah is more cohesive than Scissor Sisters' debut. It's a full, euphoric album. The group have come into their own. "We definitely learned a few tricks," Babydaddy, aka Scott Hoffman, states. "Suddenly we're a band and, with the recording of our first album, we weren't a band the whole time. We were actually two guys in a studio, then two guys and a girl, and growing into what we were, and we were recording all that time. So what you're hearing on the first album is a lot of experimentation and a band who didn't really know they were a band at the time. This is our proper album, in a way - not better or worse, but a proper album by a band that now goes on tour and plays live."

Indeed, Scissor Sisters haven't forsaken their love of kitsch. The lead single, I Don't Feel Like Dancin', featuring a jaunty Elton John, is a celebration of disco camp. "We're such big fans of his music and of his legacy," Babydaddy enthuses of Elton. "He's been such a great supporter of us."

Scissor Sisters laud pop history with another playful tribute, Paul McCartney. "It's a homage to him, of course, but more importantly it's about a love for your heroes."

Kiss You Off sounds like Duran Duran, circa Rio, and, as with Elton, Scissor Sisters have supported the New Romantics on the road. Of all the Scissor Sisters, Babydaddy says, Ana Matronic (Ana Lynch) is the Duranie.

However, for Babydaddy, Ta-Dah conveys a subtext - a darkness manifest in the ambivalent lyrics to I Don't Feel Like Dancin'. This flowed on from the pressure the band experienced to replicate the success of Scissor Sisters. "It was a lot of pressure - and we pressured ourselves immensely to make this a great album."

Jake Shears (Jason Sellards), once a stripper in NY's gay scene, conceived Scissor Sisters as a performance art vehicle with the multi-instrumentalist Babydaddy around 2001 and, in relation to the songwriting, they comprise the core. Shears encountered the wacky Ana, then active in counter-cultural cabaret, at a Halloween party. The line-up was completed by guitarist Del Marquis (Derek Gruen) and drummer Paddy Boom (Patrick Secore).

Scissor Sisters issued the single Electrobix independently, with a subversive cover of Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb as the B-side - and it was this that generated a buzz. From the outset Scissor Sisters had aspirations beyond the avant-garde milieu. Babydaddy affirms, "I think we always had these higher hopes to grow out of that and become proper performers and become a proper rock band."

They were reputedly courted by Norman Cook, but eventually signed with Polydor in the UK. Cook stated that his Southern Fried fell short of matching the major's bid by five grand. Ask Babydaddy about Cook's overture and, curiously, he denies all knowledge. ("Hmm - you know what, I'll leave that perhaps.")

Scissor Sisters broke with the resurrected Comfortably Numb. Their 2004 debut referenced glam rock, '70s disco and '80s pop with its sense of abandon - and unabashed decadence. They brought the burlesque revival into the mainstream before the Pussycat Dolls. Importantly, Scissor Sisters expressed, too, an admiration for good, old-fashioned songcraft. They're the 2000s' Culture Club.

Despite their disparate backgrounds, Scissor Sisters hold together. Babydaddy concedes that they "butt heads every once in a while," but that's where the discord ends. "We're like a little family. I know no one wants to hear that - they want all the drama and the 'Oh, we all hate each other,' but, no, we get along really well. It would be kinda lame if we were faking it all."

Between albums the group members have collaborated with outsiders. Ana guests on New Order's current album, while Jake performs with Andy Bell on his Electric Blue and has also recorded with Canadian electroclash fave Tiga. Jake and Babydaddy co-wrote Kylie Minogue's I Believe In You. More recently, they've hooked up with Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry. The glossies are indicating that Scissor Sisters have been back in the studio with Kylie, but Babydaddy is non-committal. "There is nothing really to say. I think we really wanna get back together with her. We've been working on our own album, so there's really nothing to report, unfortunately. Hopefully there will be a reunion."

Certainly the Scissor Sisters' writing team enjoy production - and they're open to offers. But Babydaddy confesses he still doesn't know how the soliciting works. "We don't really feel like we're a hot commodity - we just follow what we're interested in doing," he says. "As far as Kylie's concerned, it was someone who excites us and someone who was really cool and we like her music and it just happened - and that's how we expect things to happen in the future.

"I don't know where we're gonna end up with collaborations, but we really wanna keep doing it.

"We're very apprehensive about anything happening... Nothing's real until it happens." Above all, Scissor Sisters hope to continue with their side-projects, utilising downtime on the road. "We also don't want this to be our entire life forever - that'd be boring," Babydaddy says.

Scissor Sisters are yet to leave any impact in conservative America, with Walmart banning their first LP for risque language, and on their website they cite the UK as their "spiritual home". In the same way that US radio programmers shunned Madonna's Confessions On A Dance Floor, Scissor Sisters have slipped under the radar.

"I don't know what people make of us, especially in America - I think people see us as an 'underground' act," Babydaddy posits. He imagines they have something in common with cult American acts like The B-52s. Ironically, Scissor Sisters are marginalised Stateside by bling-bling urban artists. "People just don't wanna accept that America is coming out with bands that see things a little bit differently, that aren't singing about expensive cars and jewellery and stuff like that."

Scissor Sisters aren't fazed. "We'd rather be subversive than have to tone it down for puritanical American audiences." In fact, many in the US assume that Scissor Sisters, Anglophiles or not, are British. "Absolutely!" Babydaddy exclaims, amused. "We were just written up in Spin magazine, it says 'the UK diva Ana Matronic', and we're like, ‘Don't these people know yet?’" Obviously not.

WHO: Scissor Sisters
WHAT: Album Tah-Da out on Universal
WHEN: Out now
MORE: www.scissorsisters.com

CAMP ROXY
Glam rock is back, with Cut Copy's Dan Whitford among those club DJs spinning classic Roxy Music. Scissor Sisters, fans of everything Anglo, have produced material for Roxy's reunion LP after meeting frontman Bryan Ferry. "It's more Roxy Music than it is us!", Babydaddy reveals of the two songs in question. "I think it was our interest to step back a little and act as producers... So we'll see what comes out of that. We're just as curious as everyone else as to what that's gonna be!"