“I would say, ‘You’re a fan of Sparks, right?'” Says the filmmaker for ‘Shaun of the Dead’ about the connections he made to his debut documentary ‘The Sparks Brothers’.
Edgar Wright spent a lot of time (and others) talking about the beloved pop cult duo Sparks. “If you spoke to any of my friends, they would say that if I had joined Sparks, they would be there for the next hour while I tried to explain to them how amazing Sparks was,” he says.
After a fateful 2017 show at El Rey, where his fellow filmmaker and Sparks fan, Phil Lord, suggested that he make a definitive Sparks story, the Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead The filmmaker found himself directing his first documentary, conducting 80 interviews with everyone from Duran Duran and Flea to Patton Oswalt and Mike Myers.
The Sparks Brothers will be released on January 30 as part of this year’s virtual Sundance Film Festival. “In a way, this documentary is exempting me from that duty,” he says of his self-imposed role as a Sparks evangelist.
Along with Ron and Russel Mael of Sparks, Wright speaks to The Hollywood Reporter about how to get images from Twitter and what other artists can learn from the musicians’ history.
Edgar, how did you meet Sparks as a fan?
Edgar Wright I think they were part of my life. I knew who they were since I was five, because I saw Sparks on Top of the Pops when I was five in the “Number One in Heaven” period. Even at the age of five, the image of Ron and Russell on stage or looking at the camera was seductive, a little intimidating and fun. Later, in the mid-90s, Sparks was a hit in the UK, this time with a dance record. Again, Ron and Russell appeared a lot on TV and had an amazing music video for this track, “When Do I Get To Sing ‘My Way'”, but they didn’t look any older than the last time I was properly confused. After that, I became a real hardcore fan in this millennium. From 2002 onwards, [they] launched this series of albums that were really ambitious and challenging and as good as what they had been doing before, which is not the natural path for most bands that they have been doing for decades. Most bands that have existed for decades, like the Rolling Stones or The Who, at some point become a band of great successes. Almost like a tribute band to themselves. And Sparks was not doing that.
How did you meet?
Wright Two things happened. Um, I remember when I was writing Baby driver, I was in an office in the parking lot and was talking to my friend Michael Bacall, the screenwriter, and he knew a Sparks song, “All I Ever Think About Is Sex”, but he didn’t know any more. So, I started playing tons of Sparks for him. And at some point, after listening to about four Sparks songs in a row, I thought, ‘Is Sparks on Twitter?’ I found their account and it said that Sparks follows you. I have known them since I was five and imagined that they were like the JD Salingers of rock and didn’t even live on this planet. The fact that they have a Twitter account and they followed me and I was amazed. So when I texted them, Russell responded in about five minutes because he was also in Los Angeles. And 24 hours later, I was having breakfast with Ron and Russell at Russell’s home in Beverly Hills.
In 2017, after Baby driver had left, me and [Lego Movie director] Phil Lord went to see them together at El Rey in Los Angeles. I was standing on the VIP porch between Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols and Tony Basil of the famous “Mickey”. And I was looking at the crowd, who were between 16 and 60 years old, and I found the appeal of the band at all ages and who was there infinitely fascinating. And I told Phil, I said, the only thing that is preventing this band from being as big as it should be is a documentary, some kind of overview or defining documentary. And Phil Lord said, “You should make this movie.” And I said, “I will”, very confidently.
Ron and Russell, why did you think Edgar was the right person to make this definitive Sparks documentary?
Russell Mael We were obviously aware of all of your films and fans of all of your films. We had been hesitant in the past to have a Sparks documentary made by someone we didn’t think had the sensitivity to convey what Sparks was in the right way. Because we always feel that what we do creatively, our music, speaks louder than discussing what we do. So when Edgar proposed to do this to us, we said it would be incredible. We think about the sensitivity of what Edgar does cinematically, there is a parallel with what Sparks does musically.
Ron Mael It’s not like we’re looking for someone to make a documentary about Sparks. We would be happy to continue without a documentary. But this situation was ideal. Edgar was willing to treat each of the [musical] periods as being important. Until today, filming festivals just before the pandemic, filming really recent festivals with young people there. That was something that really meant a lot to us. It wasn’t just a trip down memory lane.
How did you find and collect archival footage?
Wright We had an incredible archiving team working on it, but there are things that people are watching. Sometimes the son of a German TV director says, “I have a 35mm film that is here.” I put the word on Twitter and said that I’m doing this documentary if you have any footage. A lot of things happened, some things that nobody had ever seen before – people had filmed a 1976 super-8 tour.
And furthermore, in terms of respondents, I don’t mean that it was easy because it was a very Herculean task, but I will say that everyone wanted to talk about it. There were people who were notable fans of Sparks and then there are people I just assumed they would be. And, for the most part, I was right. There are some people I called – like Neil Gaiman, Mike Meyers, Patton Oswalt, Beck, Flea – and I would say, “You are a Sparks fan, right?” What talks about their work is how, like me, many people who were fans of Sparks are passionate supporters and so it was just to record that. I think there are about 80 interviews in the film and there is only one that I didn’t do in person. I was definitely impressed the first time I met Ron and Russell in 2015, but there were a lot of people in it, it was like, oh my God, I’m interviewing Todd Rundgren today or I’m interviewing Duran Duran or Vince Clark. I don’t think I realized that maybe some other directors or documentaries don’t do all the interviews.
Russell I think Edgar’s way of doing the interviews was the key to this documentary. He put people at ease so they could talk casually about their feelings. It was not a dry and tense situation. Everyone was really talking and I think that was noticed.
This documentary is about Sparks and its history, but also about art and independence. What do you all expect artists, be they filmmakers or musicians, to get out of it?
Wright Well, I have to say that I didn’t necessarily plan it, but the only thing that is timely about the release of this film right now is that music artists are going through an especially difficult time. Nowadays, most musical artists only make money from the performance of life because streaming is not performing as it should. Controversial, but true. So, there are many artists out there who are going through a very difficult time. I think something in the documentary that I think any artist, not just musicians, would take away from that is just perseverance and persistence of vision is the key. I would say that in the documentary there are probably about ten points in the documentary that other bands would have connected with and it is a testament to Ron and Russell’s tenacity and self-confidence that they went through these moments to get even better.
Ron We always feel that what we do is a cause. We really feel that our material has to be released, on any scale. We had things that spread and things that only reached a limited number of people. We always refuse not to have our voices heard in any way. That is really the energy behind what we are doing.
MRC is a co-owner of The Hollywood Reporter through a joint venture with Penske Media entitled P-MRC.