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Rufus Wainwright

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Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter. He is the brother of Martha Wainwright and the son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. Since 1998, he has recorded five albums of original music, several EPs, and numerous tracks included on compilations and film soundtracks.

Biography

Early years

Rufus Wainwright was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to folk singers Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, who divorced while he was a child.

He began to play the piano at age six, and by age 13 he was touring with his sister Martha, mother Kate, and aunt Anna as the "McGarrigle Sisters and Family." His song "I'm A-Runnin'", which he performed in the movie Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller, in which he also played a minor character, earned him a nomination for the 1989 Genie Award for Best Original Song at the age of 14 [1]. He was also nominated for the 1990 Juno Award for Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year [2].

He lived in Montreal with his mother for most of his childhood and briefly attended McGill University, where he studied both classical and modern piano. Some of his songs feature his mastery of French. Wainwright still maintains a residence in Canada.

He came out as gay while still a teen. In the November 11, 1999 issue of Rolling Stone, Wainwright said that his father recognized he was gay. "We'd drive around in the car, he'd play 'Heart of Glass', and I'd sort of mouth the words, pretend to be Blondie. Just a sign of many other things to come as well".[3] However, he would later say that his "mother and father could not even handle me being gay. We never talked about it really".[4]

Wainwright became interested in opera throughout his adolescent years (for instance, his track Barcelona features lyrics of Giuseppe Verdi). He also became an enthusiast of such performers as Édith Piaf, Al Jolson and Judy Garland.

At age 14, Wainwright was raped in London's Hyde Park after picking up a man at a bar.[4] He remained celibate for seven years after the incident. He later spoke of that night in an interview: "I said I wanted to go to the park and see where this big concert was going on. I thought it was going to be a romantic walk in the park, but he raped me and robbed me afterwards and tried to strangle me".[5] He claims that he survived only by pretending to be an epileptic going through a seizure.[6]

Rise to Fame

After becoming a fixture on the Montreal club circuit playing Cafe Sarajevo every week, Wainwright cut a series of demo tapes, which were produced by Pierre Marchand (who also produced "Poses"). The tapes found themselves in the hands of DreamWorks executive Lenny Waronker, and the label signed him. Rufus moved to New York City in the spring of 1996 and began playing at the club Fez to build an audience. After playing there for a while, he moved to Los Angeles in the fall of '96 to record his first album with producers Jon Brion and Van Dyke Parks. He released the self-titled Rufus Wainwright album in the spring of 1998; the record received much critical acclaim, and was recognized by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the best albums of the year. He was also named by Rolling Stone magazine "Best New Artist" of the year. Wainwright toured with Sean Lennon in the summer of 1998, and later that year began his first headlining tour. In December 1998, he appeared in a Gap commercial singing "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" The promotion brought much more attention to his career and increased his album sales dramatically. On March 1, 1999 in Hoboken, NJ at Maxwell's, Rufus started a headlining tour that took him til mid May. By summer 1999 he had taken some time off to live and put music on the back burner. He lived in the Chelsea Hotel in NYC for six months, during which he wrote most of his sophomore album. On June 5, 2001, Poses, Wainwright's second album, was released, bringing a comparable amount of critical acclaim as his debut, though Wainwright was less than pleased with the record's sales.

From 2001 to 2004, he toured with Tori Amos, Sting, Ben Folds, and Guster, as well as headlining the 2001 and 2002 tour in support of "Poses." He often performs with his sister Martha Wainwright (now herself an emerging artist) on backup vocals. Despite a growing cult following and critical acclaim, Wainwright has experienced only marginal commercial success in the United States, although the release of his Release the Stars album saw increased media attention there.[7]

Addiction

In the early 2000s, Wainwright became addicted to crystal meth, during which time he went temporarily blind from his usage of the drug. By 2002, his addiction had reached its height. In what he deemed "the most surreal week of his life", the singer played a cameo role as a drug addict in Absolutely Fabulous; spent several nights partying with Barbara Bush (the President's daughter); and had a "debauched evening" with his mother and Marianne Faithfull, Sang with Antony from Antony and the Johnsons on September 24, 2002 for Zaldy's spring 2003 collection and all the while, having recurring hallucinations of his father. He soon decided that he "was either going to rehab or I was going to live with my father. I knew I needed an asshole to yell at me, and I felt he fitted the bill".[8]

File:Rufusmirror.jpg
Wainwright backstage

Upon realizing that he needed some sort of guidance in his life, he telephoned friend Elton John, who convinced him to check in to rehab at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. There he detoxed and underwent therapy. He has not confirmed or denied if he has stuck with sobriety.

The Want Albums

His talent has been widely recognized and praised by such artists as Elton John, Morrissey[citation needed], John Mayer[9], Alanis Morissette[10], David Ryan Harris[9], Leonard Cohen][citation needed], and Sting,[11] and he continues to influence artists like Keane, and Scissor Sisters.[12]

Wainwright's album, Want Two, from which four songs were released as the EP Waiting for a Want, was released by DreamWorks/Geffen on November 16, 2004. It is a companion/sequel to the 2003 release Want One. His latest, a live iTunes Sessions EP entitled "Alright Already", was released March 15, 2005. A DVD entitled "All I Want," featuring a biographical documentary, music videos, and live performances, was released internationally in mid-2005. The same year was also notable for two major contributions as solo vocalist to a pair of important records: the Mercury Prize winning Antony and the Johnsons' I am a Bird Now and Burt Bacharach's At This Time.

The Want One and Want Two albums were repackaged as Want for a late November 2005 release to coincide with the start of a British tour. The version of Want One is that which contains the two extra songs "Es Muß Sein" and "Velvet Curtain Rag". The Want (Want One and Want Two combined) package in the UK has two new extra tracks: "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" and "In with the Ladies", which replace "Coeur de Parisienne — Reprise d'Arletty" and "Quand Vous Mourez de Nos Amours" from 2004's augmented edition.

Music

Wainwright is a singer with complete security of intonation, even over a dense accompaniment. In addition to being a pianist, he can also play the guitar, often switching between the two instruments when performing live. While some of his songs feature just Wainwright with his piano, his later work is often accompanied by rock instrumentation or a symphony orchestra, displaying complex layering and harmonies with an operatic feel. Wainwright is an avid opera fan, and the influences on his music are evident, as well as his love of Franz Schubert's Lieder. Some of Wainwright's songs have been described as "Popera" (Pop Opera) or "Baroque Pop".[citation needed]

Work in film, broadcasting and on-stage

In addition to his role in Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller, Wainwright has appeared in the films The Aviator and Heights. He has also recorded tracks especially for films, including Brokeback Mountain, I Am Sam, Moulin Rouge and I'm Your Man. Rufus is managed by Barry Taylor and Paula Quijano, and his publicist is Barbara Charone.

In 2005 a DVD called All I Want was released, including a full-length documentary, All I Want: A Portrait of Rufus Wainwright, performances at Central Park SummerStage and Cambridge Corn Exchange, studio sessions, music videos, and two bonus Easter Eggs, a twelve-minute documentary from 1998 featuring Rufus and his family, and a short tribute to the McGariggle Sisters featuring Rufus and Martha.

In May 2006, Rufus was one of three special guests (the others being Robbie Williams and Frances Barber) to star with the Pet Shop Boys in a concert at London's Mermaid Theatre where he covered "Casanova in Hell", a track from the latest Pet Shop Boys album Fundamental. The critically acclaimed show was broadcast on the UK's BBC Radio 2 and repeated on BBC Radio 6 and released as a CD, Concrete in October 2006, that included Rufus's contribution.

On June 10 2006, Wainwright was heard on NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday in an interview with Scott Simon. The segment concerned Wainwright's sold-out pair of Carnegie Hall concerts June 14/June 15 2006 in which he performed the entire Judy Garland concert album recorded there in 1961.[13]

It was recently revealed that Wainwright has been commissioned by Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb to write his own opera.[14] He has stated that it will be called "Prima Donna," and it will be the story of a day in the life of an opera singer. There are four characters. He is, thus far, writing the libretto in French.

His live performance on-stage in London at The Old Vic theater in May 2007 was favourably reviewed. [15]

Themes

Wainwright's music contains several recurring themes, which have continued to evolve across his entire body of work. His lyrics are filled with allusions to opera, literature, pop culture, and, more recently, politics (in songs such as "Waiting for a Dream", "Gay Messiah", and "Going to a Town"). Many of his songs contain references to his love for men, seen quintessentially in "Harvester of Hearts". He describes many points along the emotional path of falling in love, from initial infatuation and fleeting glance ("Foolish Love") to outright love, casually confirming that the object of his affection is male. In "The Art Teacher" he sings about love for a man but from the point of view of a schoolgirl who has fallen in love with her Art teacher. He met his current boyfriend, Jörn Weisbrodt, a German concert manager for the Berlin State Opera, during summer 2005.

Family is drawn into his work quite commonly, as seen in "Beauty Mark" (about his mother Kate McGarrigle) and "Little Sister" (about his sister Martha Wainwright and step-sisters). The song "Dinner At Eight" was written after a major fight he had with his father, Loudon Wainwright III.

Perhaps the most subtle theme evident in his music is that of religion, which perhaps culminates in Want Two with both "Agnus Dei" and "Gay Messiah." However, he uses religious imagery in many of his songs ("Greek Song") but only occasionally writes explicitly about religious ideas ("Gay Messiah").

While not blatantly obvious, many of his songs deal with his use of crystal meth and the rehab afterward ("Go Or Go Ahead", "Baby"). Wainwright is also fascinated by travel, trains, and distant geography ("Oh What A World" and "April Fools").

Wainwright wrote the song "Millbrook" about his high school, Millbrook School, in Millbrook, NY. This song was also the inspiration and namesake of the Los Angeles indie band Millbrook.[16] The song "Matinee Idol" from the same album was written about the late River Phoenix.

The song "Memphis Skyline" is a tribute to the late singer Jeff Buckley, who drowned in Memphis in the Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi, on May 29 1997. The two met each other briefly in the '90s when Wainwright was an up-and-coming act. By this time, Buckley had already released his first album (Grace), and was well on his way to stardom. He has said that he had been irritated that Buckley played at Sin é, a café on the Lower East Side, as he [Wainwright] was rejected three times by the club. The two met several months prior to Buckley's drowning, during a gig Wainwright was playing. Buckley supposedly helped out with some technical problems, and the two chatted over beers for a few hours. The song references "Hallelujah," a Leonard Cohen song which Buckley notably covered, and which Wainwright later did likewise.

The song "Tulsa" recollects Wainwright's meeting with The Killers lead vocalist Brandon Flowers in the town of the same name, leading to rumours that the pair were briefly lovers.

The song "Sanssouci" was inspired by 18th century Prussian monarch Frederick the Great's Rococo summer palace outside Berlin.

Discography

Albums

Compilations, EPs, etc.

  • Waiting for a Want (EP; 2004, DreamWorks) — available only on iTunes
  • Alright, Already: Live in Montréal (EP; 2005, DreamWorks/Geffen) — available only on iTunes
  • All I Want (DVD; 2005)
  • Want (2005, DreamWorks/Geffen) — repackaging Want One and Want Two as one album, with two extra tracks

Singles

  • "I Don't Know What It Is" (2004, UK #74)
  • "Crumb by Crumb" (2005, UK #49 - airplay chart only)
  • "Hallelujah" (2007, UK #148)
  • "Going to a Town" (2007, UK #2)

Contributions

Awards and nominations

Genie Awards

  • 1989 - Nominated, Best Original Song, I'm A-Runnin' [17]

Juno Awards

Source is the Juno Awards database[18]

  • 1990 - Nominated, Most Promising Male Vocalist of the Year
  • 1999 - Won, Best Alternative Album; Rufus Wainwright
  • 2002 - Nominated, Best Songwriter; "Poses," "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk," and "Grey Gardens"
  • 2002 - Won, Best Alternative Album; Poses
  • 2005 - Nominated, Adult Alternative Album of the Year; "Want Two"

Other

Trivia

Rufus Wainwright is, through his father, a direct descendant of Peter Stuyvesant,[19] the last Director-General of the colony of New Netherland and a major figure in the early history of New York City.

In an interview with British newspaper The Observer,[20] Rufus Wainwright listed his top ten gay icons. Wainwright selected Judy Garland as his first choice, claiming that she was not merely a gay icon but citing her as something of a "a gay beacon. A gay saint". Singers Kate Bush, Stevie Nicks, Kylie Minogue, Prince, Dusty Springfield and Morrissey were amongst his nine remaining choices.

Multimedia

See also

References

  1. ^ Genie Awards Database Retrieved 17 March 2007
  2. ^ Juno Awards Database search for "Rufus Wainwright" Retrieved 17 March 2007
  3. ^ "rants & raves - Brief Article". Advocate, The. December 7, 1999. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  4. ^ a b "WAINWRIGHT FEARED BEING HIV POSITIVE AFTER RAPE". Contactmusic.com Ltd. February 22, 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  5. ^ "Rufus Wainwrights Rape Tragedy". Female First. March 1, 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  6. ^ Goldstein, Richard (August 25, 1999). "A Torch Song Named Desire". Village Voice LLC. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  7. ^ "The Superfabulous World of Rufus Wainwright". New York Times. June 4, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-06.
  8. ^ "Crystal clear". Observer Music Monthly. February 20, 2005. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  9. ^ a b "John Mayer Blog". Retrieved 2007-05-08.
  10. ^ "Alanis Morissette Interview". Retrieved 2007-04-12.
  11. ^ "At home with Sting". Metro Life. May 06, 2004. Retrieved 2007-03-28. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "The stars come out for Rufus". Observer Music Monthly. February 20, 2005. Retrieved 2006-11-23.
  13. ^ Cromelin, Richard (May 24, 2007). "Rufus Wainwright waxing operatic". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-05-24.
  14. ^ "Rufus finally gets his opera commission". Roger Bourland. February 12, 2006. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  15. ^ Clarke, Betty (May 31, 2007). "Rufus Wainwright - Old Vic London". The Guardian. Retrieved 2007-06-01.
  16. ^ "Millbrook". MySpace. Retrieved 2006-10-20.
  17. ^ Genie Awards Database Retrieved 17 March 2007
  18. ^ Juno Awards Database Retrieved 17 March 2007
  19. ^ "Loudon Wainwright III". All Music Guide. Retrieved 2006-10-27.
  20. ^ "The ten gay icons". The Observer. Retrieved 2006-12-21.
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