Artist, musician and singer Rufus Wainwright is reunited tonight with his Barcelona in a concert that he will offer at the Palau de la Música (9pm), and where he will present songs from his latest album Unfollow the rules.
In what is the penultimate concert of his European tour, part of the Guitar Bcn festival, the Canadian will perform in a quartet format, with Brian Green (guitar), Alan Hampton (bass) and Jacob Mann (keyboards), in a more pop key than in his last visits and a different staging. subscribers of The vanguard they have a 15% discount on the price of the tickets, if they buy them at Vanguard Tickets.
Joe Biden
“I am a big fan of yours; the Ukraine crisis has shown that he seeks peace and prudence”
He could be seen last July at the Peralada Festival, alone with the piano. Now what will be seen and heard?
It’s a great show based on my last album, from which we’ll be playing quite a few songs, as well as some of my favorites. And in the tradition that I have had for years I have also prepared a great end special, very crazy, funny and pleasant. And I say crazy because it is important that there are crazy things in the world right now.
The musicians who accompany him are fundamental pieces.
Although they are not exactly the same as the ones I recorded with Unfollow the rules yes they are the ones with which I made a later version, Unfollow the rules. The Paramour session recorded in a Los Angeles dance hall in the first wave of the pandemic.
Rufus Wainwright, at the Grammy ceremony last year
Precisely, during this you developed a great activity.
Along with the sadness of people dying and the world in a sense collapsing, the pandemic was a very positive period for me. I had been leading a very busy life for many years, traveling endlessly around the world, and I felt quite exhausted. So when the pandemic came, I entered a very profitable period. I wrote quite a few songs, and a musical that will be announced very soon but I can’t say anything about it. It is something very big. Another thing I did, something really wonderful, was to recover my side as a cartoonist, because I am also an illustrator by academic training and I was able to immerse myself again in that world that I had practiced when I went to university . And in fact, we used a lot of what I made for the merchandise and the album release. And, of course, I was able to fully dedicate myself to my daughter.
Have you felt the vital need to step on stage again?
I have that feeling much more right now, especially because of what is happening now in Europe, and the whole conflict in Ukraine. There is an urgent need to be grateful for what we have, for the fact that we are healthy, that we are able to enjoy music, which is something more vital than ever. When I give concerts now I notice how people are really very happy to be there because they know that everything can disappear now, in a second. People know that this can happen and I hope it never happens. That is why now is the time to go out and enjoy music and life, because everything can change very quickly: this is not the time to stay home and get bored.
And about the war in Ukraine?
I obviously support the Ukrainian people, and I think that Putin should be fired now.
Speaking of politics, how did you feel when Joe Biden won the presidential elections?
Let me tell you that I am a big fan of yours. I think that the way in which the crisis in Ukraine is being handled is fantastic: on the one hand for safeguarding and joining forces with the Ukrainian people, and on the other for knowing how to make the Ukrainians understand that we do not want the Third World War. He is showing in this crisis that he is a person who seeks peace, prudence and careful decision-making.
During the concert he gave at the Peralada Festival last year
Unfollow the rules when it appeared in 2020, was considered his first pop album in many years. Do you think so?
I think it’s Rufus Wainwright’s first atypical pop album, because a pop record of mine is not a pop record as it’s commonly known. It has been my contribution as a musician mainstream because in all these previous years I have moved in a musical universe without any limits, from sonnets by Shakespeare, to opera and songs by Judy Garland… But, I insist, it is different from what we understand by pop.
A very Californian record, yes it is, isn’t it?
Much much. My husband and I moved to California about six years ago to be near my daughter. Also, let’s not forget that I started my career twenty years ago in California. Now I thought it would be nice to go back to one of the old studios where I worked back then, even do it with some of the same musicians, and with them create a sound that can only be created in California.
In this sense, would you consider yourself a Californian musician first and foremost?
No, I wouldn’t say. But the truth is that California was the first place that accepted me as I am, after feeling miserable in New York. And in my early days, I had a hard time in Europe. And I would tell him that after California there would be Spain, I would tell him that the Iberian Peninsula adores me. I am very grateful.
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