Interview with Rufus Wainwright: "I'm David to Lady Gaga's Goliath"
 |
| © livepict.com |
Are you nervous as you 're getting ready to face the discerning London audience?
Well, I've enjoyed the ride so far...The experience remains something beautiful, but it's time to let Prima Donna take its course. I've been rehearsing All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu at the same time, and I have to say that makes me way more nervous! Staying alone with my piano feels much harder than playing with an orchestra or a band.
Do you feel that Prima Donna was a satisfactory attempt on your part, even though it divided critics when it first staged [in Manchester]?
It came out exactly the way I wanted it. I'm very satisfied with the production. It was received with a standing ovation, the audience applauded enthusiastically. A big part of the audience had never been to the opera before – and that is always a good thing. Look at Verdi's or Wagner's first operatic attempts – and Prima Donna, of course, stands right up there with them [laughs]! Well, you could at least say that it's way better than Verdi's first attempt [no laughs]. We all have to start somewhere... The orchestra and the singers say that they love performing my music and that's all that counts in the end.
All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu is a minimalist work. Did you conceive it as an answer to Prima Donna's operatic baroque?
They both came naturally. It's in my nature to constantly question myself: “Are you really that good or is there a hidden trick there somewhere?”. Writing on my piano has been a real challenge. And it happened at a time when some catalytic events dominated my life, whether that was my first opera, my mother's deteriorating health, or my collaboration with Robert Wilson [Rufus and the acclaimed avant garde director staged Shakespeare in Brecht's theatre in Berlin]. The creative rush has been amazing – and, sometimes, also very traumatic. My piano became my only refuge, my cocoon, a place where I could retreat alone with everything that was happening at the moment in my life. Like a good sword, it had two sharp edges! I had to put a lot of strength behind this solo album.
Could you say creativity was for you a sort of therapy? Music is medicine?
The role of music as medicine worries me: Sometimes it makes you even crazier than you used to be! What I know for sure is that from where I'm standing right now – and this has to do with my mother, above all – I have to move on. Music is the vehicle that helps me to go through the sadness and lifts me up. Music carries all my emotions with it. It's very helpful in a lot of ways, but it's only a vehicle. It's not a magic potion that will chase all the nightmares away.
Both your parents are famous folkies [father Loudon Wainwright III is also a respected singer/songwriter] and that immersed you into music from a very early age. When did you first feel that you have come into your own?
A catalytic event, that helped me find my voice musically, was accepting my homosexuality, somewhere around the age of 14. When I realized without a doubt that I was gay, becoming part of the folk scene was no longer a piece of cake – you know, the planet Bob Dylan, where my parents lived, was a heterosexual world above all. I ended up doing more “devilish” things: singing Nina Simone, Maria Callas, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland. I felt the need to identify with much more feminine, romantic, mythical characters, as opposed to the very pedestrian, macho folk and rock 'n' roll music.
A lot of people say that poor economic conditions go hand in hand with poor creativity. How are things looking to you from the inside in the current state of financial affairs?
I have to say I admire Lady Gaga for her direct attack on the world of music commerce and the way she managed to capture everyone's attention in one fleeting second. You have to give her that! On the other hand, my own idols are much more human and vulnerable. I want my music to be David to Lady Gaga's Goliath... Well, I don't think that'll be too successful! But anyway, I just hope that, many years from now, my last album will be a point of reference for singer/songwriters to say that something different was happening back then.
You have won a lot of awards, but lately it's been common knowledge that very few of the winners actually deserve them. How much of a reward are they to you personally?
You have won a lot of awards, but lately it's been common knowledge that very few of the winners actually deserve them. How much of a reward are they to you personally?
Well, my father waited till 2010 to win a Grammy and he's sixty-three. He's been waiting his whole life. I suppose something similar will happen to me... Life begins at sixty!
Interview by Danai Molocha for Athinorama weekly, Athens, Greece, June 2010
Vylet: Lightning From LA
I recently discovered Vylet, a "musician, never a muse", who paints hazy, dreamy pop portraits of Los Angeles life. There's a dark, melancholic streak in her sweet-flavoured, shimmering synths that gracefully balance between ethereal and baroque.
Her video Lightning, which came out earlier in June, is dominated by a kind of youthful, faded glamour, with longing vocals pouring over mesmerising, cinematic pop lines.
A Taste of Lola Marsh's Debut Remember Roses
Israeli pop-folk duo Lola Marsh sweeped indie fans away with the nostalgic imagery of 2016 EP You're Mine. Now (as in June 9th 2017) the time has come for their full-length debut Remember Roses, featuring the EP's most delicious bits, while adding seductively hazy narratives and lush arrangements.
The video for You'Re Mine plants Lola Marsh in the Middle Eastern desertscape, letting Gil Landau's smart melodies and Yael Shoshana Cohen's sensual, somewhat sinister vocals here fully blossom.
Look out also for the dark and lyrical She's A Rainbow, the alluring Sirens and the playful Wishing Girl - better even if you hear them live with a full band somewhere between Vienna, Los Angeles and Athens, Greece.
The video for You'Re Mine plants Lola Marsh in the Middle Eastern desertscape, letting Gil Landau's smart melodies and Yael Shoshana Cohen's sensual, somewhat sinister vocals here fully blossom.
Look out also for the dark and lyrical She's A Rainbow, the alluring Sirens and the playful Wishing Girl - better even if you hear them live with a full band somewhere between Vienna, Los Angeles and Athens, Greece.
Juana Molina Introduces New Video Paraguaya
The always intriguing Argentine artist released her seventh album Halo on May 5th.
The following video for Paraguaya opens the door to an album that declares Molina, once again, as an intriguing and curious experimentalist, exploring the fascinating sonic fields of alternative pop and latin folk.
The following video for Paraguaya opens the door to an album that declares Molina, once again, as an intriguing and curious experimentalist, exploring the fascinating sonic fields of alternative pop and latin folk.
Tony Conrad: Completely In The Present
There's so much to be said about Tony Conrad.
Holy unpredictable and unconventional avant-gardist surviving (by choice) on cheap rent in '60s New York, he was casually and regularly surrounded by the likes of experimental filmmaker Jack Smith and a budding Velvet Underground.
Tyler Hubby's documentary Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present includes insightful interviews with the likes of John Cale and downright mad clips of Conrad's visionary, ground-breaking practices - among which were his fondness for time-defying drones and mega statements like how he wanted to bring the death of composition.
There's still a couple of days that you can catch it on Mubi (via the 7-day free trial, if you don't want to opt for the membership) - or, simply find it wherever you can.
We need more people that can subvert what we thought we knew about music, art, and reality itself for that matter. He will be much missed.
The mind-blowing drones of Outside The Dream Syndicate
X Japan - A Live Blast From The Past
X Japan bring ultimate metal madness and live music ecstasy with this thundering performance from 1990.
Boom Boom Satellites - Broken Mirror
A little reminder of what a killer guitar is all about in this power-clip from the Japanese duo.
Suarasama Ensemble in an Alchemic Journey
A band of ethnomusicologists from Indonesia show how blending fresh ideas with tradition can be an inspirational way forward.
.
Pharmakon - New Album and Upcoming Tour
Margaret Chardiet, a.k.a. Pharmakon has been breaking barriers between performer and audiences since the mid-'00s, when she was surfing, as a teenage noise-maker, the New York scene.
Several cassette-tapes, CD-R releases and two albums on Sacred Bones Records later, she has also made quite a bit of noise around her name. Her upcoming third album, Contact, is out on 31st March, and will be followed by a tour of Europe and North America. The release celebrates her tenth anniversary in extreme, experimental sound and is packed with Pharmakon's signature shrieks, shrills and Banshee screams in a backdrop of power electronics and perfectly executed industrial chaos.
London welcomes Chardiet on April 25th at Electrowerkz, in what we expect to be an exercise in sublimely uncomfortable, ground-breaking listening.
Here comes a taster of what's coming up, via Pharmakon's performance at The Print Shop as part of Mike Kelly's Night at the Museum at MOMA PS1.
Casual Nun: Would You Care For Some Green Tea?
London psych quintet Casual Nun have just released their new video Green Tea in typically heavily hypnotic, ear-wrecking mood. Mickey Dreamkey's black and white video of found footage in no way limits the mind-bending journey.
EL VY - I'm The Man To Be
Suggestive lyrics, sarcastic humour and funky sex beats.
This is EL VY - The National's vocalist Matt Berninger together with multi-instrumentalist/producer Brent Knopf. And they seem to be in a great mood. Watch the video and try to keep up to Berninger's moves of utter cool (well, that was kinda sarcastic too..).
Tipo Uísque - How Could You Pretend I Wouldn't Notice?
Mega synchronisation between old dance footage and Rio de Janeiro's Tipo Uísque's alternative rock.
Enjoy - and learn some good moves:)
Enjoy - and learn some good moves:)
Empress Of Emotive, Retro-Inspired Electronica
There's nothing wildly exceptional about this video's visual narrative - but, with bare ornamentation, it does play wildly on Empress Of's highly emotive vocals and addictive synths. Just a girl on stage dancing shrouded in a kaleidoscopic '80s palette is sometimes all you need for an inspirational video.
Simple, but to the point is utterly effective (DIY artists with limited budget, take note).
Simple, but to the point is utterly effective (DIY artists with limited budget, take note).
Kovacs - My Love
Echoing Amy Winehouse with her wild, unconventional aesthetics and emotive vocal depth, the Dutch singer Kovacs gives here breath-taking lessons on love.
Nana Ou-Yang: A Hell Of A Cellist at 15
The emotional maturity and beauty coming out of Nana Ou-Yang's cello is astonishing, thinking that she's only 15, combining classically-trained charisma with an accessible pop perspective that speak volumes. She's in love with the arts, and it shows in a cleverly displayed, enticing way that makes the rest of the less artistically-inclined world can understand too.
The following video sees Nana and her pianist give devilishly strong deliveries as masters of different arts, from contemporary dance to painting and traditional performance, parade before them.
Different arts coming together and starting a dialogue, each in their own language, luring viewers in and galvanizing them to take up, let's say, wood-carving, or maybe Taiwanese folk dance?
The following video sees Nana and her pianist give devilishly strong deliveries as masters of different arts, from contemporary dance to painting and traditional performance, parade before them.
Different arts coming together and starting a dialogue, each in their own language, luring viewers in and galvanizing them to take up, let's say, wood-carving, or maybe Taiwanese folk dance?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)