Ron Mael

Ron Mael
Mael onstage with FFS, 2015
Background information
Birth name	Ronald David Mael
Born	(1945-08-12) August 12, 1945 (age 71) Culver City, California, U.S.
Genres	Art rock glam rock new wave synth-pop disco power pop
Occupation(s)	Musician songwriter composer record producer music programmer film director
Instruments	Keyboards synthesizer
Years active	1963–present
Labels	Bearsville Warner Bros. Island Atlantic Curb Virgin CBS Elektra RCA Roadrunner Lil' Beethoven
Associated acts	Halfnelson Sparks FFS Franz Ferdinand
Website	allsparks.com
Notable instruments
RMI Electra Piano Farfisa organ Ronald Stage Piano Fairlight CMI

Ronald David "Ron" Mael (born August 12, 1945) is an American musician, songwriter, composer and record producer.

Mael's music career spans more than 50 years. With his younger brother Russell, he formed the pop band Sparks in 1971, which was renamed from Halfnelson.

Ronald David Mael was born on August 12, 1945, in Culver City, California. The Mael brothers grew up in Pacific Palisades – a relatively affluent suburb of Los Angeles – with their father, Meyer Mael (of Russian and Austrian Jewish descent), who was a graphic designer and caricaturist for the Hollywood Citizen-News, and their mother, Miriam (née Moskowitz), a librarian. After being educated at Palisades High School, both brothers enrolled at the UCLA; Ron began a course in Cinema and Graphic Arts in 1963 while Russell studied Theater Arts and Filmmaking between 1966–1968.

Ron Mael plays the keyboards and synthesizers and writes most of the songs for Sparks. When the band hit the peak of its popularity in the 1970s, he was well known for his strange appearance, often remaining motionless over his keyboard which was a sharp contrast between Russell's animated and hyperactive frontman antics. Ron's conservative clothes and unfashionable, Charlie Chaplin-esque toothbrush moustache attracted much attention, as does his current pencil moustache. Onstage, Ron alternates between playing the keyboard and engaging in comic mime routines, often in connection with projections on backdrop.

The pair appeared as themselves in the 1977 disaster film Rollercoaster, performing live. They also appeared in episode twenty-two of season six of the Gilmore Girls.