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closeThursday, Nov. 05, 2009
Rufus Wainwright contending with 'middle fame’
By PRESTON JONES
dfw.com
ELLIS PARRINDER
Rufus Wainwright has bounced among record labels during his career. ELLIS PARRINDER
There’s a sense of summation to Rufus Wainwright’s latest project, a live album titled Milwaukee at Last!!!.
The CD and DVD document an August 2007 concert in Milwaukee, during a tour for his most recent studio album, Release the Stars. Milwaukeeat Last!!! neatly encapsulates the 36-year-old singer-songwriter’s eclectic output over the past six years, from his piercing pair of Want albums to his dalliance with Judy Garland’s catalog.
"I think it definitely represents a peak in terms of my tough, aggressive and spunky rise to middle fame," says Wainwright, laughing, "and what I’ve had to do stagewise in order to survive the worst era in the recording industry ever. It’s what the music business has made of me, which is a consummate showman and a versatile freak."
Indeed, the music business doesn’t really know what to do with a multitalented performer like Wainwright. Equally comfortable belting Irish folk songs a cappella, crooning tender ballads or turning out raunchy rock songs with soaring choruses, the New York native has bounced among various record labels over the course of his critically acclaimed career.
While he has never been forced to alter his idiosyncratic style, Wainwright has also had to contend with "middle fame."
Record labels "gave up dictating to me a long time ago, whether it was Geffen or Interscope or any of those people," says Wainwright. "That’s just the way it’s been, and I thank the industry for not squelching my flower."
Newfound inspiration
As he transitions away from the turbulent, raw material of the Want albums and Release the Stars, Wainwright will make his solo debut at Bass Hall on Saturday. The show, part of a brief run of dates, will feature some of the new material slated for his next record.
"It’s a solo piano/voice record," says Wainwright. "I’m just focusing again, in terms of my songwriting, on my various musical moods in a very basic way. After that, I’d love to make a big pop record so people can come and do whatever they want with me."
Stars hinted at his blossoming relationship with the "very intelligent and very supportive" German concert manager Jorn Weisbrodt. Wainwright says his boyfriend has stoked the creative fires, pushing him into fascinating new territory.
"I think what it’s done — and this next album deals a lot with that actually — it’s created a duality," says Wainwright. "On one hand, I have decided to live a more honest and healthy existence, and that’s been amazing, and I have a wonderful relationship with my boyfriend, but that being said, there’s still that dark character within me as well. I have two people living in me . . . and that gets a little confusing, but in the end, I think it’s — I like a party."
While he scales back his pop compositions, Wainwright is also gearing up for the North American premiere of his debut opera, Prima Donna, an experience he describes as "seminal in my development as an artist."
The piece, which is bound for Australia and England after its bow in Toronto, drew mixed reviews this year, but Wainwright says working on Prima Donna "changed everything for me" and he eagerly awaits another crack at the art form.
Beyond 'middle fame’
Call it another example of duality: a singer-songwriter who wants to strip his songs of excess artifice, but who wouldn’t mind making a living doing any number of outsize, grandly baroque ventures.
"I would love to write a musical someday and make some real money," says Wainwright. "I’d also like to work more with my family, maybe make a French record or sing some of my mom [Kate McGarrigle]’s songs; I’m a big fan of my mom’s work. Also, if some Hollywood agent or studio or moviemaker gave me some fun, huge role that I didn’t have to kill somebody for, I wouldn’t mind that either."
Perhaps Wainwright’s artistic life is best viewed as one in perpetual evolution, an ever-hungry mind reeling from one creative exploit to the next, never settling and always searching for the best, most pure expression of his anxious soul.
In Wainwright’s view, that endless quest beats the alternative.
"I would be probably hanging out on the street corner looking at firemen or something," he says. "It’s a good thing I’m doing music."
[Record labels] gave up dictating to me a long time ago. . . . That’s just the way it’s been, and I thank the industry for not squelching my flower."
Rufus WainwrightPreston Jones is the Star-Telegram pop music critic, 817-390-7713
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