Hello and welcome to Soda Jerker on songwriting.

I'm Brian, joined by Simon, and with us for episode 289 is the dual creative force behind a larger-than-life American band,

who first made their name on the New York Underground Club scene of the early 2000s.

Just a few short years later, they conquered the British charts with their unique brand of uplifting impossibly hook-laden pop. The group announced an indefinite hiatus towards the end of 2012,

but as this episode drops, they're about to embark on their first concert tour in well over a

decade to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their smash hit self-titled debut album. We're very

happy to welcome Scisszer Sisters Jake Shears and

Scott Hoffman, aka Baby Daddy, to the show. Jake and Baby Daddy first met in the late 90s, but it

was a couple of years later, while they were both living in New York, that the seeds of their

musical partnership was sown. Scott had taught himself how to use Logic on his Mac in his Brooklyn

apartment, and the two of them initially wrote and recorded silly songs together just for fun.

At the invitation of their friend and future bandmate Animatronic,

they made their live debut as dead lesbian and the fibrillating Scissor Sisters

and an open mic at the slipper room on the Lower East Side,

just 10 days after 9-11.

I believe they treated the assembled patrons

to a song called Bicycle of the Devil that night. Apparently so. They gradually got more serious

about their songwriting and continued trying out their original material on a regular basis

at other venues around the city. In the process, they both simplified the name and filled out

the line-up with the addition of guitarist Del the name and filled out the lineup with the addition

of guitarist Del Marquis and drummer Paddy Boom. Things really started to click into gear for

Cesar Sisters, as they were now called, in the latter half of 2002, when their dance cover

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