By James Turano
Rufus Wainwright has a voice best described as “cashmere wood”—soft, fine, and delicate, but with a solid, hardened edge. And his songwriting matches it: a mysterious mix of heartfelt, honest, and raw ballads and sturdy pop/rock ravers. He’s instinctively carved a space that only he inhabits.
Even his name, “Rufus” sets him apart. He’s cool to the core.
Rufus Wainwright regularly stirs his cauldron of creativity, defying both simple categorization and artistic limitations. Wainwright revels in fantastically filling his deliberately diverse songs with hints of musical passages that give a cheeky wink and a reverential bow to the past.
He’ll often reach back decades, even centuries, for his muse, unapologetically borrowing brushstrokes from Ravel’s Boléro, a Verdi opera, or a Gershwin tune to fill his canvas of challenging and refreshing original music-scapes.
And if that sounds a tad hyperbolic, it’s worth recalling that Elton John once declared Wainwright was “the greatest songwriter on the planet.”
He is no stranger to Ravinia’s environs, returning on August 11 for the sixth time, dating back to 2004.
Wainwright’s new, adventurous “Want Symphonic” program makes its US debut at Ravinia, centered on his career-transforming albums Want One and Want Two, released in 2003 and 2004, respectively. By commemorating this 20th anniversary with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Lee Mills, and with new symphonic arrangements by Sally Herbert and Max Moston, Wainwright revives these bold bounties in an essential sonic celebration.
Wainwright, who turned 50 in July, was born in New York state but lived his early years in Canada. His parents, two respected folk music stalwarts, Loudon Wainwright III and the late Kate McGarrigle (later divorced), raised him and his younger sister, Martha (also a noted singer-songwriter), in a household where music was in the blood and filled the family coffers.
His self-named 1998 debut album garnered positive critical reaction and promising industry buzz, due to the enthusiastic support of his record label’s legendary exec, Lenny Waronker. He followed it up in 2001 with the album Poses, which won Canada’s Juno Award for Best Alternative Album.
But it was 2003’s Want One that thrust Wainwright’s career into high gear. The wildly ambitious, musically boundless collection found Wainwright combining various and seemingly conflicting musical styles into a smorgasbord that challenged and charmed.
Wainwright effortlessly and unabashedly blended strokes of sound that included pop, rock, opera, classical, cabaret, baroque, burlesque, Broadway, Bacharach, chamber music, and Gene Kelly musicals.
It established Wainwright’s deserved reputation as a genius, genre-bending chameleon. With expressively eccentric, charging songs including “Oh What a World,” “I Don’t Know What It Is,” “Movies Of Myself,” “14th Street,” and “Beautiful Child,” Wainwright created adventurous, opulent, excessive, lofty, and layered confessional compositions that harmonically soared.
Equally impressive were the album’s honest, reflective, and raw ballads, which all meditatively meandered in mood in meaning, including the desperately droning “Vibrate,” plus “Pretty Things,” “Go Or Go Ahead,” “Natasha,” and the emotionally laced and stinging ode to his father, “Dinner at Eight” (which David Bowie described as the best father/son song ever written).
With the similarly oblique and searching sequel, 2004’s Want Two, Wainwright again explored and experimented, beginning with the six-minute, string-laden, soaring hymn “Agnus Dei.” It continues with a more plaintive tone than its predecessor, and though still musically extravagant in its aim, stirs the soul lyrically in songs like the school crush of “The Art Teacher,” the Jeff Buckley tribute “Memphis Skyline,” the revealing “Gay Messiah,” “Peach Trees,” and “Little Sister.”
An outspoken social and gay activist, Wainwright married his longtime partner, Jorn Weisbrodt, in 2012 and is a father. He struggled with drugs and alcohol for years but has embraced his sobriety for more than a decade. Speaking from Los Angeles by phone, Wainwright proved that in his music and in his life, he always has something to say.
Is the Want One album’s 20th anniversary the main reason you’re revisiting it and its 2004 sequel in a live setting?
I’m in a period of musical contemplation. I’ve made a few albums now that have returned to several sources in my life. I moved back to Los Angeles where I started my career—my latest release [Folkocracy] goes back to the music of my childhood, and now these Want records are 20 years old. Those were such impactful albums—they broke me big in Europe and in the UK and it ricocheted back to the US. I still listen when they come on my iPod.
Many artists don’t listen to their older music.
I will listen to it, partially. I’ve always been into creating art in my career. I do like to hear the progression that has occurred. My first album was easy to present—I had been writing songs for 10 years and I had a lot of material. [Laughs.] The sophomore effort [Poses] thankfully was well received, and it accomplished what I set out to do.
The third one, yes, I do feel I blasted it out of the park. A lot of pent up emotion and frustration went into it—and many years in a haze of drugs, alcohol, and rock and roll—which I loved but I had to pay a price for. The Want records were a template to slay those dragons in my life and become a man. They are important records for me personally.
You’ve never shied away from celebrating the past, such as your Judy Garland tribute show and album, or your lyrics sprinkled with sly cultural references.
I am not an iconoclast. I admire iconoclasts, and they are important, especially in the arts. But I am not one of them. I am into restoring a sense of romanticism and melody and grandeur to the form. Yes, I do respect what has come before, but I am not afraid to toy with them.
Was there an initial plan to make something so bold as the Want albums?
I was going through a lot of big personal experiences. I went to rehab before I made it. Some of the songs were written before rehab when I was crazy. But later, I had a clean head. I also met my future husband during that experience. I was progressing to the next level of my life.
It became apparent Want One was my masculine, valiant side, trying to figure out the world. And Want Two was more feminine, internal, mysterious, and sentimental.
I moved two steps forward in my songwriting, and all the elements came to me. Marius de Vries was the producer, and it was the perfect fit. I was promised by my record label I would be given a chance to develop and blossom by my third and fourth albums. I took them at their word. I worked hard to get to that point, and I ran with it.
The songs on Want One didn’t sound like anything on the radio in 2003; did you feel it was a risk, career-wise?
I experience a mental blackout or whiteout when I am making a record. Of course, I think it’s going to be this huge pop success and it will be what the public will want, and it will make me millions of dollars! I totally fool myself. [Laughs.] Then, I look back a few years later and realize that was so not what was happening in the mainstream, and how could I have imagined that?
There’s a very funny story. By the time I finished Want One, DreamWorks went out of business, and I went to Interscope. I met with Jimmy Iovine [the record label mogul], and I played him “I Don’t Know What It Is,” the second song on the album. He listened and said, “It’s really good. But I don’t know what to do with it!”
Twenty years later, the album is considered a masterpiece, so your instincts proved correct.
I’m glad I didn’t compromise. I like to play the long game. Also, the success of the Want One album has a Chicago connection. My publicist, Barbara Charone, is a Chicago native, but she has lived in London for years. She heard Want One and called me and said, “I have to make this album a success.” She suggested we rerelease it in England and give it a big push. She’s the one who got Elton John on board early, plus getting stories in important UK music magazines like New Musical Express. Barbara still has that tough “Chicago personality” to get things done in all the best ways. She kept her promise.
Was there pressure to enter the “family business” while growing up?
Not a pressure, but I was gung-ho about music at an early age. My father noticed I had talent, but my mother was completely on top of it—she made sure I practiced the piano, she sang harmony with me, and took me on tour. There never was any question I would pursue music in some way.
I stayed up all night listening to music on vinyl records as a young kid. I did attend a music conservatory, but I was never a great student. But I always cared. I think you have to care.
What can we expect from the new “Want Symphonic” program?
This will be kind of a world premiere—it will be the first gig of the celebration of the Want records. So that’s fun, and I am excited to do it at Ravinia. I’ve done great things there over the years, so I’m looking forward to coming back.
The rehearsal with the CSO is usually the day of the show, so it’s nerve-wracking and crazy. It’s incredible how fast and adept they are, but they definitely will be working for their money, that’s for sure! [Laughs.] This music is a tall order.
I am also glad I will have Matt Johnson with me as a drummer. Orchestras have percussionists, but this music needs a real rock drummer. However, to best resurrect the spirit and grandiose sound of the Want records, a full orchestral show is necessary.
Are the Want records timeless or of their time?
They have their own place. I can never recapture that time. They are so lavish, lush, and luxurious. There is so much going on. We used two separate orchestras. It felt huge at the time. We mixed it once—but it was too big, so we mixed it again. They aren’t the highest form of my artistic endeavors but were peakish records for me and my career.
And now I am entering into new territories that are well-suited for the wild journey that I have had—namely the theater. I have started to eye the Broadway stage and write a musical. And I have been doing that. It’s been a long time coming, and I’m very excited about it. This unusual journey I have had will be an asset. So now I can make millions of dollars and have 20,000 Broadway hits!
