Kentucky born and bred southern gentlemen, Jake Shears and Babydaddysurged north to experience the brilliance of New York City’s gay nightlife. Growing up together, they would also party together, and then musical bond as ‘The Fibrillating Scissor Sisters’, with Babydaddy composing the songs and Jake writing the lyrics. It would be at Disneyland however, that The Scissor Sisters would discover their soul. Meeting Ana Matronic at a screening of Michael Jackson’s Captain EO, the boys were invited to perform at ‘Knock Off’; a weekly cabaret event that Ana promoted and ran from The Slipper Room. With Shears dressed in character as "Jason the Amazing Back-Alley Late Term Abortion" and Babydaddy on keys, Ana would join them onstage. The improvised performance was a magical turning point: ‘Fibrillating’ was dropped simply for ‘The Scissor Sisters’ - so named for the sexual position between two women- and Ana was recruited; her comedic wit and stunning good looks a wonderful addition. Del Marquis was bought onboard for lead guitar duties and Paddy Boom took on the drums, and The Scissor Sisters were set to take over the world. Three hit records, a new drummer in Randy Real and top selling songs later - including a collaboration with Elton John on ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’ –and The Scissor Sisters have literally eaten the world.
QBabydaddy, as the dark horse in the background and the music man of the group, what makes for great live music?
ALive music for us is all about the energy. I’m spoiled - I get to be lazy and let the two front people do most of the work. I’ve seen the feel of the power of the energy and connecting to an audience can do – Ana and Jake cover that really well. That connection is there with us no matter what size venue we’re playing. Not many bands have anyone like Jake - the way he sings and run around the stage like he does. But fewer bands have someone like Ana who is there to please the crowd with her wit. She’s a comedian and just a great all round performer. Jake and I are the centre of the studio band. When we come on stage, I’m able to turn things over and let them do what they do really well. It’s a good give and take.
QWhere do you take inspiration from?
AIt comes from a lot of places. I think a lot of time it comes from the energy of having someone in the room, whether it’s Ana or a new producer. A lot of those things inspire us. Inspiration could mean anything from a track we hear, to a line in a book we read, or a moment in a film we want to catch the vibe of. It really does come from anywhere with us. What I do for inspiration is just get in and work and write a lot. One of the biggest challenges to the way I play guitar or bass is Jake sitting over my shoulder and telling me to play something a certain way. And it’s something I can’t just do or just figure out. But I do it until the skin is falling off my fingers. That’s a great way to learn - to be around demanding people. Jake is a very challenging person to write with, because he has ideas, and he wants someone to makes them real - we do it for each other. He’s not as much of an instrumentalist as me – he can tinker around on a piano. I’m not the best piano player myself but I’m a bit better with guitar. So when he hears a guitar line, he can’t pick up a guitar and play it necessarily. He tells me what he wants and he sings it for me and says play it like this, and make it a bit more of that, or he’ll speak in some kind of strange language; like make it just make it a little more steely – I don’t even know what that means. But I’ll try to translate that. Hopefully I do a good job of making those things come to life for him. Jake is the really the one who digs up new things and sends them my way. Music is such a big part of my life. Some people are constantly digging and listening to music and getting new inspiration. For me, I get home from ten hours in the studio and it’s the last thing I want to do. So I turn on a movie or read a book and get my inspiration from those things. A lot of my inspiration still comes from what’s my past. And those things I continue to listen to that I’ve loved for my entire life that shaped who I was musically. They’re still important. There’s plenty to get from those things. There are tricks people are doing now in production that have never been done before; like auto tune for example. I’d much rather get my inspiration from the way people write songs.
QThe Scissor Sisters is such an all encompassing and embracing band, from the messages of their songs to the glamorous costumes and shows: was this the vision?
AOr did it just evolve? We did come together with some basic ideas about what we wanted it to be. We wanted to play some great music to our friends in the beginning. We were trying to perform to and entertain our friends – that’s what it was all about in the beginning. We wanted to do something that was larger than life. We wanted to make something that was bigger than the tiny clubs we were playing in. The message was all around us at that time. It was very gay, freaky, weird, interesting crowd we were around. And we wanted to speak to those people.
QWhat do you want The Scissor Sisters to be known as?
ATo some people it’s an inconsequential dance act – and that’s my worst nightmare for people to think about us that way; that we’re just a gay band. My legacy would be someone who made music and connected with people. Who didn’t just do it for a minute and give up; or just had one hit and gave up. I want people to know we’ve gone through a whole evolution. I want to be remembered as a song writer. That’s so important.
QThe Sisters have accomplished so much. What obstacles are there to challenge you all now?
AI don’t know if any band feels if they’ve accomplished or gotten to the point where they don’t have to worry about anything anymore. Even someone like Eton John you think he’s lived the richest career of any musician that’s alive, and still fights to have an album that means something; still fights to have the biggest shows ever. We want to be a band comfortable with the size venues we play all over the world. Great venues in Australia, England, a lot of Europe – America is a small audience for us strangely enough; and there are countries we’ve never been to before. Those are our goals – to expand our fan base. But you start from smaller venues when you go to a new country. We want to make it accessible. We want a legacy. Right now we have a few albums we’re really proud of. But a few albums is not a full band history.We have been talking about the future and maybe take a bit of a break. We realized we haven’t taken a break in the 10 years since we started. A lot of people see that this band went away for three years between albums, but not a lot of people realise we were working that whole time. And when I say work, I mean by going into the studios five days a week and write songs and try to make the best album possible. And when we don’t do that, we’re on tour; we’re promoting our record. I see that we’ve had a very consistent career – and we’ve worked very hard. And it’s very interesting to see that it’s been eight years since the release of our first record. And it’s been non-stop and been very exciting.
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