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Music

A Very Forthright Conversation with Rufus Wainwright

The age-proof singer opens up about meth, operas, and the benefits of being a gay musician.

Photos by Sean James

For someone who’s spent their entire life in showbiz, Rufus Wainwright has aged with uncanny grace. The 40-year-old singer, born to beloved folk singers Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, admittedly had some hiccups along the way—during his early twenties Rufus fell into a hard-partying lifestyle, dabbling with meth—but today he’s a baroque pop songwriting staple in the adult contemporary world, with an ever-expanding discography. Wainwright has recorded ten solo albums, written an opera and is in the process of writing another, and recently released a best of album dubbed Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright. “With the best of collection, it’s really a chance for me to reflect on what’s happened so I can make some decisions about the future,” he says on the phone, while in Lithuania. He’s feeling particularly reflective when we talk, sharing on everything from how cruel the opera world can be to Breaking Bad and working with Burt Bacharach.

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What are you doing in Lithuania?
Touring and promoting the new Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright album, as well as spreading word about my opera campaign. I’m raising money with Pledge Music to record my first opera, Prima Donna. So I’m spreading that word and also the Rufus Wainwright: Live From the Artists Den DVD. I never seem to have a lack of subjects [Laughs].

How’s the opera coming along?
It’s finished. I’m raising money to record [it]. I’m also working on another opera about the emperor Hadrian in Rome. That’s pretty early days. That won’t be premiering until 2018, so I have a bit of time to have eight pop hits in the meantime.

What have you learned from putting together an opera? How’s it different from putting together an album or tour?
I learned two things: One positive, one negative. Let’s start with the negative. I had never worked in the opera world before so I had a lot of preconceived notions that it was this incredibly warm and welcoming, artistic wonderland. Of course, when I got into the world I realized how rigid and disciplined and mean it is. [Laughs] The final project is fantastic but it was a rude awakening. So it made me appreciate pop more. It’s more youthful and so forth. That being said, the actual act of writing for an orchestra and fabulous opera singers and trying to create a narrative kind of blows making records out of the window because there’s just so many facets to hook into. You can really express yourself on so many levels.

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Is your family traveling with you while you’re in Lithuania?
My sister Lucy is with me. She’s my half-sister and she’s singing with me. I’m also promoting a family album that I do with my sister Martha which is Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle, where I’m singing my mother’s songs with people like Norah Jones and Emmylou Harris. It’s a project very dear to my heart. There’s always a bit of a family nebula following me around.

Since you come from such a musical family, would you encourage your daughter to go into music?
It’s no wonder that millions of people clamour to get into the music world, because if you can really make a living in it, there’s nothing better. Very few people can stand the pressure but if you can it’s great. I would totally understand her wanting to do it but I don’t want to force her and frankly the family could use a lawyer or two, or a doctor. [Laughs]

How involved in Leonard Cohen in your family dynamic? [Leonard Cohen is the biological grandfather of Rufus’ daughter]
Leonard is a living legend and he has really worked hard to develop his own personal universe that’s about his songwriting and his wardrobe. He’s a real kind of solitary figure. He’s a wonderful man and it’s always a pleasure to see him. But we don’t chum around. My dad is also kind of an uptight WASP, so it’s sort of the same thing. You know, men. [Laughs]

It’s obviously harder for women to age in the music industry. What are some of the challenges for men that people might not see from the outside looking in?
Oddly enough, I don’t really suffer from this because I’m a gay man but I would say that for a lot of men in their forties, fifties, and sixties, when they’ve made it in the music business it’s very hard to keep a relationship going because there’s a lot of chicks who dig a great older male musician. It can seem fun and fabulous and exciting, but I think it’s also very time-consuming and gets in the way of the life you’ve been trying to build with your wife and kids. It’s a bit torturous. Me being gay, it’s different because gay men have no interest in music whatsoever, really, when you think about it, so I’m kind of off the hook. As a man, one from the outside might think that it’s easier but the truth is, if you’re given more, you’re given more rope to hang yourself with.

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You’ve aged so well. Was there a point when you didn’t think you would?
Yeah, I had a very decadent period in my teens and all of my twenties really. That was a lot of fun and totally worth the scars but on the other hand I definitely had a sense near the end that I had to put my house in order and focus on maintaining my voice and wits and I guess my looks to a certain degree. When you’re a singer, it’s really necessary to keep your voice going. You have to take care of it—especially with the music I sing. If I was a headbanger, it might have been a different aesthetic I would have had to maintain. With my stuff, I really have to hit those notes and hit them beautifully, so I have to take care of myself.

At one point you struggled with meth. Is that the period that you’re talking about?
Yeah, that period. I would definitely say I had a propensity and would have been addicted to meth if I had time to delve into it. Once I came into contact with that drug, I knew that my days were numbered in terms of what direction I was going to take. It was either going to be off the cliff or to the farm. Some people can do it for years and lose their teeth and eyeballs and I’m happy that I didn’t admire that too much.

You were experimenting with meth before it landed on the mainstream’s radar.
When I was doing it, it was really rampant in the gay world but not a lot of people were open about it or talking about it. I felt it necessary at the time to really sound somewhat of an alarm. I was in no way responsible for halting anything but I was definitely part of a movement to wake up from this plague -- especially because you know what gay men had been through over the past few decades. We were on thin ice. Now it’s Breaking Bad.

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Have you watched the show? What are your thoughts on it?
I haven’t watched it that much. A part of me is sensitive to the subject and also to be honest a part of me is much more into watching MSNBC, unfortunately. I get addicted to Rachel Maddow so Breaking Maddow is sort of my show.

You’ve worked with so many amazing artists over the years. What’s been your favorite collaboration?
My favorite is always working with my sister Martha because we grew up together and we’ve sung together for years and it’s always such a wild experience. But that aside, I would say the next would be Burt Bacharach. He accompanied me on the piano for a couple of shows and we did some TV together and that to me was really wild because I’m such a huge fan of his work. The idea of him playing piano beside me—I never got over how amazing that was.

Do you have any plans to get back into acting?
I don’t pursue that avenue but I’m not opposed to it 100%. I think acting is very difficult. Just look how many times Madonna has tried to do it. It’s silly to me. So I’m weary of it but I wouldn’t refuse. It’s somewhat close to my nature, which is filmic.

How challenging was it to decide what would go on Vibrate: The Best of Rufus Wainwright?
I had a lot of help from my friend Neil Tennant from the Pet Shop Boys. They drafted a list first and then I went over and jiggered it and came up with what I wanted. It wasn’t that hard. We focused on what the general public would be drawn to and what a person who knew nothing about me would put on. There’s a whole other Wainwright subgenre of very unusual, mysterious, esoteric material which some day might be fun to put forth. But we wanted the hits.

Did you ever think you’d be putting out a best of album?
Yeah. I knew I was in it for the long haul. My father put out a best of and my mother sadly died too young to do that. I always had a sense that I’d stick around and have different periods and that’d include a best of.

Marissa is on Twitter. Follow her - @marissagmuller.