Scissor Sisters are cut out for the UK

BY GLENN GAMBOA | Newsday Staff Writer

October 19, 2006

The Manhattan-based Scissor Sisters can't figure out why they've caught on big in England. (Photo by Joseph Gultice.)

The Scissor Sisters, who are still based in Manhattan, say they feel more at home in England these days.

"They have really adopted us as their own," said singer Jake Shears, calling from a tour stop in Chicago. "It's always fun to play New York, and we have a lot of friends in the crowd, but London just feels like more of a homecoming show for us, now. There's more love there."

"Love" may be an understatement. The Scissor Sisters' eponymous debut album, with its flamboyant '70s pop strutter "Take Your Mama" and the discofied cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb," came from nowhere to become Britain's biggest-selling album in 2004. Their latest album, "Ta-Dah" (Universal Motown), and its first single, "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'," have both already hit No. 1 there, beating out American chart-toppers Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé.

"I have no idea why it's so different," Shears said. "But I'm not losing any sleep over it. We're perfectly happy. Even without the success in England, we're really proud of what we've done. It's more than I've ever expected. If you told me five years ago that we would have an album in the Top 20, I would've said you were crazy."

That said, Scissor Sisters aren't about to give up on America. "It's a matter of access," said the Arizona-born Shears. "People don't know we exist. We don't get played on the radio in America because we don't sound like anyone else. I love that we get blasted for sounding derivative, but the radio is full of songs with people imitating one another."

"I Don't Feel Like Dancin'," which features Elton John on piano and backing vocals, sounds like a throwback to John's "Honky Tonk Chateau" days and is one of the year's catchiest singles. It fits well in the hippest of nightclubs or the broadest of mainstream shows, such as "Dancing With the Stars," where the band - Shears, singer Ana Matronic, keyboardist-bassist Babydaddy, guitarist Del Marquis and drummer Paddy Boom - recently made a memorable appearance. (Boom will likely sit out the next few concerts as he deals with serious back problems.)

"Someone asked me, 'Is that you guys selling out?' and it really isn't," Shears said. "That one was for the kids. It's for the 12-year-old version of me sitting in front of the TV watching. I think any teenage kid in North Dakota should have just as much business liking us as a 20-something hipster from Chicago."

Shears said the band is proud of "Ta-Dah," which he sees as "more cohesive and more of a true album" than its predecessor, and wants as many people as possible to hear it. "It's a daily battle to get the guts to make anything," he said. "This album is not as frivolous. There's more at stake on it. This is now our livelihood.

"I'm extremely proud of it," Shears continued. "It gives us a future."

WHEN & WHERE Scissor Sisters plays Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom, 311 W. 34th St., Manhattan, at 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $38 through Ticket- master, 631-888-9000.