Spring Break
The Daily OrangeQ and A: Rufus Wainwright
By Nic Corbett
Posted: 3/6/06, 2:46 AM EST Section: Pulp
Daily Orange: How would you describe your music and its progression through the years?
Rufus Wainwright: I would say my music is brilliant personified - no, I mean, I'm just trying to be a songwriter really who is also conscious of the various moods that can be portrayed by the art. If anything, I think over the years, my songwriting has kind of grown like a tree in terms of doing different things in different directions - there's a side of me that's more simplistic and then there's a side that's trying to maintain a certain complex sophistication and then there's another side that wants a hip (sound). I think if anything it's sort of branched out.
D.O.: How would you classify your music?
R.W.: I've never been able to and neither has anybody else. And I think that's why I've sort of survived a very kind of rough business. Nobody's been able to define me and therefore shoot me down.
D.O.: How do you get the inspiration for your lyrics?
R.W.: Toil and victory. Just the various experiences that really I've had this honor to have. I've lived a really, really dramatic life in many ways. Artistically, both my parents are in the business, so I learned from a young age how to interpret reality in song. So any experience really I can write about and toil if I have to.
D.O.: I understand you wrote one song and sung two songs on the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack. Could you tell me about how you got involved in the project and some of your thoughts about the buzz around the film?
R.W.: I have one song called "The Maker Makes," which I wrote for the film. I actually came into contact with that script years ago, because originally Gus Van Sant was going to direct the film and I knew him pretty well, so he asked me to read it and I actually had written another song for it during that period. So I knew about the whole concept for a long time. When it came time for this whole project to get off the ground … I think on one hand I was in a perfect position because I was sort of branching out to be more simplistic and more pure in my writing, so therefore I went in a sort of country direction, and then also I am pretty versed in gay antics.
Rufus Wainwright: I would say my music is brilliant personified - no, I mean, I'm just trying to be a songwriter really who is also conscious of the various moods that can be portrayed by the art. If anything, I think over the years, my songwriting has kind of grown like a tree in terms of doing different things in different directions - there's a side of me that's more simplistic and then there's a side that's trying to maintain a certain complex sophistication and then there's another side that wants a hip (sound). I think if anything it's sort of branched out.
D.O.: How would you classify your music?
R.W.: I've never been able to and neither has anybody else. And I think that's why I've sort of survived a very kind of rough business. Nobody's been able to define me and therefore shoot me down.
D.O.: How do you get the inspiration for your lyrics?
R.W.: Toil and victory. Just the various experiences that really I've had this honor to have. I've lived a really, really dramatic life in many ways. Artistically, both my parents are in the business, so I learned from a young age how to interpret reality in song. So any experience really I can write about and toil if I have to.
D.O.: I understand you wrote one song and sung two songs on the "Brokeback Mountain" soundtrack. Could you tell me about how you got involved in the project and some of your thoughts about the buzz around the film?
R.W.: I have one song called "The Maker Makes," which I wrote for the film. I actually came into contact with that script years ago, because originally Gus Van Sant was going to direct the film and I knew him pretty well, so he asked me to read it and I actually had written another song for it during that period. So I knew about the whole concept for a long time. When it came time for this whole project to get off the ground … I think on one hand I was in a perfect position because I was sort of branching out to be more simplistic and more pure in my writing, so therefore I went in a sort of country direction, and then also I am pretty versed in gay antics.
