POP has never been a dirty word for Rufus Wainwright.
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However, by the same token, the intensely ambitious American-Canadian singer-songwriter has always striven to be recognised as something more.
Undoubtedly influenced by the high expectations that the Wainwright lineage fosters. You would be hard pressed to find more musically-fertile branches in the world of pop than the Wainwright family tree.
Rufus' father Loudon Wainwright III, late mother Kate McGarrigle, sister Martha Wainwright and half-sister Lucy Wainwright Roche are all acclaimed artists in their own right.
But Rufus Wainwright has always possessed an Oscar Wilde-style flamboyance and flair that was entirely his own.
After developing a world wide fan base through a series of acclaimed baroque pop albums such as Rufus Wainwright (1998), Poses (2001), Want One (2003), Want Two (2004) and Release The Stars (2007), Wainwright has spent much of the past decade immersed in the classical music world.
He's written two operas Prima Donna (2009) and Hadrian (2018) and released an adaptation of Shakespeare sonnets Take All My Loves: 9 Shakespeare Sonnets in 2016 which featured collaborations with Martha Wainwright, Florence Welch, William Shatner and Carrie Fisher.
Prima Donna premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009 and was performed in London, New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong among others, while Hadrian - which tells the story of Roman Emperor Hadrian and Antinous - won a Dora Award for Outstanding New Opera.
Despite the success, the freedom of pop music remained an attractive proposition. During the development of Hadrian, Wainwright was steadily amassing a collection of baroque pop songs in the style of his 1998 debut.
The result is the album Unfollow The Rules, which will be Wainwright's first album of original pop material since 2012's Out Of The Game.
"The songs were written while I was in the opera world combating critics and conductors," Wainwright tells the Newcastle Herald while in COVID-19 isolation in his home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles.
"I was really knee-deep in that struggle of classical music, which is pretty intense and profound.
"I found, for me, that songwriting became a kind of safe place where I could express myself and feel satisfied fully by my ability.
"I think the songs are imbued with that sense of relief. There's a lot of relief."
The three released singles promise a real return to form for the 46-year-old, who has announced that Unfollow The Rules is the final part in the first act of his career.
Damsel In Distress is influenced by his recent discovery of Joni Mitchell's music, the lush Trouble In Paradise is written about Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and Peaceful Afternoon was penned for his husband, German arts administrator Jorn Weisbrodt.
The title track was inspired by Wainwright's 11-year-old daughter Viva, whose mother Lorca Cohen, is the daughter of legendary songwriter Leonard Cohen.
Wainwright says the song Unfollow The Rules was the moment he realised this new batch of songs were special.
"After I wrote that song I would occasionally sing it for friends, and people were usually taken with it and once I recorded it and sent all the demos to [producer] Mitchell Froom, he definitely immediately said it was 'the tent pole of the album'.
"It was one of those towering numbers that would keep this circus going."
Marriage and fatherhood has tempered Wainwright. During the early years of his career Wainwright could be volatile and famously went temporarily blind after a five-day bender on crystal meth, Special K and ecstasy in 2002 during the height of his drug addiction.
"There's the realistic aspect where both my husband and daughter require a song each for every album I produce, so I have to put in that extra bit of effort, which I enjoy tremendously," he says, when asked how his family has affected his songwriting.
"I get to write love songs. Aside from that, I don't know how much it's changed me as an artist.
"I would say it's definitely given me greater perspective of just what's important in life and how my music really comes second to my life, which I took a long time to figure out."
Wainwright's obsessiveness for perfection is legendary. During the two-year production of his debut album he recorded 56 songs on 62 rolls of tape at a cost of more than US $700,000.
Unfollow The Rules had a more spontaneous spirit and a "less is more" approach by capturing the energy of songs within several takes.
If Unfollow The Rules is the final part of act one in his career, where is he heading next?
"I would like to get a little more avant-garde and spend some time in Europe and maybe do a weird French album, which is completely unlike anything I'd done in the past," he says.
"This album is the chance for me to wipe the slate clean and do something very unusual as it's the book end to my first album. The new act will be very unexpected."
Rufus Wainwright's Unfollow The Rules will be released on July 10.
Josh Leeson
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
Josh Leeson is an entertainment and features journalist, specialising in music, at the Newcastle Herald. He first joined the masthead in 2008 after stints at the Namoi Valley Independent and Port Stephens Examiner and has previously covered sport including the Asian Cup, A-League, Surfest, cricket and rugby league.
