For more than 40 years and 22 albums LA’s Sparks has been associated with lavish orchestration and unpredictable changes in genre.

But for this latest tour the Mael brothers are stripping their extensive back catalogue down to just Ron’s keyboards and Russell’s swooping falsetto vocals.

“It was a way to have Sparks’ songs and Sparks’ lyrics come to the fore,” says Russell over the line from California. “It means people can see what was going on without the trappings of Sparks’ recordings and hear what we think are really strong lyrics.

“When people say about the singer-songwriter approach, it seems to be a bit mellow and soft, more introspective. We want to keep the aggression and energy of what Sparks is, but also show that beneath it all there is actually really good songwriting.”

It is going to be an interesting project for a band which has embraced glam rock, chamber pop and even electronic dance music with disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder on the 1979 album No 1 In Heaven.

But it is not the first challenge the pair have set themselves. Four years ago they decided to play their entire album back catalogue live over the course of 21 nights at London’s Carling Islington Academy.

The shows culminated in the unveiling of their then-new album Exotic Creatures Of The Deep at the Shepherds Bush Empire.

“At the end it was something we were really proud of having undertaken and accomplished,” says Russell. “It allowed us to be able to see more closely what we had been through and our whole career.

“We normally don’t like looking backwards, we like staying fresh and taking on new challenges musically.”

Surprises

In total the band learnt about 250 songs for the 21-night run, and Russell admits there were surprises along the way.

“It was very eye-opening in a pleasant way,” he says. “Because some albums maybe haven’t been a big commercial success, sometimes you think they are lesser albums. Most of the time I don’t think it was our fault that the music wasn’t a hit.

“We were able to go back to the neglected stepchildren and ask why they were neglected. What we discovered was that they weren’t bad children at all.”

The UK was the natural location to host the shows as the country where Sparks first made an impact.

“We were having a lack of any real support here in LA,” says Russell, remembering the band’s move to England in 1973 the year before breakthrough album Kimono My House.

“It was a visionary of sorts who sent us to England – they said our approach and sensibility would be embraced by the UK.

“Almost instantly there was a positive reaction to what we were doing. We have toured around the world since – certain areas tend to know us by certain albums – but the UK has still always been very embracing of Sparks, and we are very proud of that.”

Rehearsing for this new tour, Two Hands, One Mouth, presented its own challenges, particularly for Ron who has to work out how to compensate for the lack of drums and guitars.

“He’s having to bring the drive to the music and so rethink the arrangements,” says Russell of his brother, whose quiet on-stage persona reflects his personality offstage.

“We never discussed anything regarding what we wanted to do on stage. It evolved. He felt better being more static, which is more in keeping with the way he is normally. Sometimes people don’t believe it is really the way we are – you have to live with Ron your whole life to know.”

Speaking up

Ron will be uncharacteristically talkative for one part of the show, performing a monologue from Sparks’ latest album called The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman. The album was initially a play commissioned by Swedish public radio.

“They were doing a series of radio musicals,” says Russell. “One of the producers was a real fan of Sparks and gave us carte blanche to come up with anything creatively we wanted to do, as long as it was Swedish-themed.”

The musical tells the imaginary story of legendary Swedish director Ingmar Bergman coming to Hollywood in the mid-1950s.

It was performed with a 14-strong cast as a live show at the LA Film Festival last year.

“It’s a real passion of ours to make a film of it,” says Russell. “We don’t want it to be one of the sad, neglected stepchildren.”

Sparks’ next project is set to follow a similar musical path. “We don’t want to do just another 12 songs by Sparks on an album,” says Russell.

“It’s going to have another storyline of sorts, although I can’t be very specific right now. We’re going off into the unknown.”

  • Brighton Dome Concert Hall, Church Street, Thursday, October 25. Doors 7pm, tickets £20. Call 01273 709709