Ana Matronic became obsessed with robots after watching ‘Star Wars’ because C-3PO reminded her of her dad.
The Scissor Sisters member shared how her lifelong love of sci-fi began when she was barely three years old.
The 47-year-old singer told Danielle Perry on the Absolute Radio podcast ‘Elevenses with Danielle Perry’: It started with ‘Star Wars’, which was the first film I remember seeing in the theatre, right around age three, not even age three. And I remember really clearly thinking that C-3PO was a lot like my dad. And we would joke that he was kind of like him and kind of like, uptight and fastidious and persnickety and super gay.”
The ‘Dance Devotion’ BBC Radio 2 presenter said the 1977 classic – which has since spawned numerous sequels, prequels, and stand-alone stories – was representative of an “era of sci-fi explosion on TV” that she adored and cites as a great influence to her art.
The glam rocker – whose real name is Ana Lynch – said: “And you know, that era, growing up was an era of just sci-fi explosion on TV. There was Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica, and I really credit the Cylons with kind of a big part of my aesthetic love because they were always filmed in that like, disco star filter.”
Ana loved the “glints of stars off their metal and the whoosh” of “LED light going on. The vocoder voice and everything.”
She felt that it “formed a generation” name-checking Daft Punk as probable products of that pop culture wave.
During university, the one-time New Order collaborator fell in love with and felt “fulfilled” by ‘The Bionic Woman’, the legendary television show starring Lindsay Wagner.
The ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’ singer explained: ‘When I was in college, me and my girlfriend Abby were really into anything that was like, super 70s. And right around this time, the Sci-Fi Channel started airing reruns of the Bionic Women on TV. And that fulfilled my sort of 70s, dark wood-panelled, Naugahyde love, and then, of course, there was you know, the central figure of this cyborg lady, who’s ‘my goodness, she’s so strong!’. And that sort of, you know, 70s feminist thing.”
The Grammy-nominee – who splits her time between London and New York – also shared that she and her older sister were obsessed with the Muppets, labelling the puppet pig “an excellent body-positive glamorous role model”.
The three-time BRIT Award winner reflected on other influences – such as the model Betty Page, the fashion designer Helmut Lang and David Lynch – and the LGBT community; expressing her gratitude to all things “queer”.
Ana – who has previously ruled out having her sexuality labelled but whose bandmates, Jake Shears, 43, and Babydaddy, 45, both identify as gay – told Danielle: “I mean to put in a blanket way, it would be the LGBTQIA plus, plus, plus, plus, plus community. So much of my inspiration and passion comes from the act of people getting together to both, kind of make their own world and escape the outside world and create something that resembles the utopia of their own creations.
“When I think of the things that inspire me, disco music, Vogue and wizards, that’s all, that’s all queer.”