Scissor Sisters talk sex and Splendour

26 July 2010

by Poppy Reid

Ask the Scissor Sisters what their new album is about and the answer is simple - "sex”.

Of course, with a band name derived from a sexual manoeuvre and a new album entitled Night Work, it's not a surprise that sex on their minds.

The release of album number three has ignited all sorts of chatter about its vivid innuendo, which according to Babbydaddy makes Night Work their most honest collection to date. “We are a sexual band, we love looking good, we love feeling sexual and feeling sexy onstage. It’s all about sex; I don’t know if anyone’s getting laid more than usual…” It’s 11am in London and Babydaddy - born Scott Hoffman - is lying in a hotel room bed talking frankly about music and sex and Elton John and escapism and letting go; I’m playing connect-the-dots.

“It’s always something you have to consider when trying to sell records, that people aren’t going to necessarily be prepared for your honesty. But you know what, we’ve made a career off of being honest,” the 33-year-old points out as he elaborates further on this new album, an album largely based on the Sisters’ work before the band got together. “I think it’s an extension of what we do now and all the jobs we’ve had in the night-time. Jake used to be a go-go dancer and those were the days he used to have to go out and earn his money dollar by dollar.”

Hardworking ethics aside, it wasn’t an easy road to realise the vision for this album. During the recording process Babydaddy showed friend and past collaborator Sir Elton John some of what they had been working on. “When I played him a bunch of demos he told me we needed to get back to work. He said he didn’t feel enough energy in it.” Not an easy thing to hear after 18 months work on about 80 songs,

“I don’t know if it felt great then but it’s what I expect out of my friends,” the multi-instrumentalist reminds himself. The rejection must have hit hard because not long after, frontman Jake Shears did a Bowie (David that is) and took flight to Berlin. “When Jake was feeling a little bit frustrated and fed up with the process he escaped to Berlin and went and got inspired by the nightlife and the music. It ended up being a great thing for him,” Hoffman says. “We went right over to London to work with him and Stuart Price after that, it all came together from that moment on.”

Stuart Price, a renowned UK dance music artist and producer, is storied for helping reinvent artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue. Price took over the production reins from Babydaddy and Shears. “Maybe we were a little resistant towards him because we were so used to doing things ourselves. I think in the end we were sold on him because he was such a special person, he would bring fun back into this project.

The result is twelve tracks colouring twelve different nuances of unadulterated sex. With lyrics like “My sneak up from behind, it’s gonna blow your mind,” and “Sting me like a bee, oh I want you to fuck me,” it’s fairly blatant what the electro-glitter group have been getting up to.

However, behind all the connotations lies a theme that stays constant throughout. “Sex and Violence is a song that’s inspired by murder actually. It was inspired by American Psycho. We were making a night time record and this is one of those things about night work; kind of luring people to the dark side.” Apparently Scissor Sisters’ aren’t all glitter and disco balls, “One murder in there isn’t such a bad thing,” laughs Babydaddy.