Scissor Sisters: the interview, part 3

Scissor Sisters' user-friendliness has gone some way to concealing their avant-garde heart. One fellow pop star for whom that adventurism constitutes the essence of the band is Lady Gaga, who personally requested they support her on her US enormo-tour. Although Scissor Sisters are already headlining venues as big as Lady Gaga off their own backs, they're clearly thrilled to be involved in her cultural takeover…

You're kindred spirits with Lady Gaga. You must be looking forward to the shows…
JS: I'm just really excited; it's nice to always experience new things, and we're going to be playing to a shitload of people who have no idea who we are. And it's also an opportunity to play for a lot of people who will be very accepting and open-minded. So it's really exciting the idea of once again converting fans. I think we're really good at it, and it's a great challenge.

AM: At this point — culturally — she is a gateway drug to all this other stuff, whether you're talking about music or art or design, she is representing all these different ideas culturally and she is providing an avenue for people go a little deeper, which I think is really great.'

And politically, too, whether it's retiring from Twitter in support of World Aids Day or her very public stance on Don't Ask Don't Tell [the US Army's notorious strategy for minimising institutional homophobia]…
AM: Yeah, I think it's great.

Are you more excited by the fact that there is a grassroots campaign against that policy, or pissed off at the lukewarm official response?
AM: Well, it's a mixture of both, but I have to say I'm disillusioned with the US government at this point. I wouldn't say I'm exactly at the point where I want to fly a plane into the Pentagon, but… [Makes 'I'm thinking about it' face — but we're sure she's just joking, Pentagon-based readers, so there's no need to send any Predator drones.]
JS: It seems like a really tired argument at this point. 'We're still talking about this? This discussion is still going on? Are you kidding me?' All civil rights issues really boil down to the same principle: the equality of personal freedom. It's depressing that society has to fight the same battle again and again…
JS: Yeah. And in 50 years' time, we all know that these people — and by 'these people' I just mean those who have problems, or pretend to have problems with homos — are going to be on the wrong side of history. They just are. We're gonna look back, and they're all gonna look like assholes. So a part of me just thinks: 'Wow, a lot of these politicians are going to look… evil.' Just like you look back at politicians in the '50s that couldn't deal with immigration… and you just look back like: 'You fucking Aryan Nation white supremacist piece of shit.' I think we're going to look back at these people and think something very similar.

Scissor Sisters play the Gan-Ban 10th Anniversary Special at AgeHa on Thursday, February 10