Post by jay on Nov 11, 2009 14:36:00 GMT
here.
Patrick Wolf's first three albums painted him as a man apart from most singer-songwriters doing the rounds, as did his outspoken comments about pop rivals La Roux, Mika and the rest. He left Polydor subsidiary Loog under something of a cloud after 2007's The Magic Position, but managed to raise enough cash from fans to release his fourth LP, this year's The Bachelor. Ahead of his one-off concert at the London Palladium this Sunday, we picked Patrick's formidable brain about everything from Lady GaGa to Jan Moir.
What can you tell us about your London Palladium show?
"It's kind of like a retrospective - like when a painter has a retrospective of their work. It's a little bit of every album from the last seven or eight years. It's a totally one-off extravaganza for two hours with costume changes. It's what I want all my shows to be like in a couple of years when I'm hopefully doing arenas."
Alec Empire from Atari Teenage Riot worked on your album and he's going to be joining you onstage. How did your collaboration come about?
"I met Alec about three years ago when I was in Berlin. He was at a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion concert, got a bit bored and came to my show next door. He was like my mentor - like on The X Factor - and he really encouraged me to be brave and experiment and be myself. He guided me through my time with Polydor - a time when I was getting a lot of shit for experimenting."
Did Polydor really want Mark Ronson to produce your album?
"Mark is a friend and that came from me actually. I thought it would be interesting to get a different ear on the work I was making, because it was the opposite of what Mark usually does. He came into the studio and told me there was nothing he could do because he loved it and thought it was perfect. That was very kind of him."
So what were the problems with Polydor?
"The issues with Polydor are numerous, endless, countless... but Mark wasn't one of them. They wanted me to be the new Mika. When I got a boyfriend, they suddenly went, 'How are we going to market you as a gay artist?' But I'm not a straight or gay artist. I'm just a musician. It was a bit of a boring time and there was a lot of typical record company bullshit."
Did Jan Moir's Gately article show the media's homophobia towards gay popstars?
"It's quite a subtle and dangerous thing. It's the same struggle that women have had. You don't get a lot of respect because people marginalise your identity. I still find it very strange that mentions of me in the tabloids always have the prefix 'flamboyant' or 'gay'. I'm still seen as something different and I see myself as somebody who's as normal as the rest of the world. I didn't read the Jan Moir thing because I've experienced that in my everyday life enough. I don't really want to read it in the Daily Mail because it just depresses me."
'Hard Times' from your album is a protest song - what are you protesting against?
"I don't see my opinions as controversial. I'm just being honest about the way I feel. I don't really want to get known for being a protester. There's this idea of 'demographics' with artists and I don't get it. It's like, 'I can't say this or I'll lose 10% of my audience'. I don't give a shit about that, but I do speak about things that lots of us discuss down the pub. The difference is, I do it on the internet or in interviews."
How are you different from other artists?
"Lots of them are still on the first part of their journey. I've been going for quite a while now and I've explored many different ways of making music. I have an international following and I make my own music videos. I do my own artwork and I run my own record label. I'm not saying I'm superior - I'm just a different kind of musician. I have nothing against any of those musicians, but it'll be interesting to see if we're still talking about them next year. I don't think we will be. I don't mean La Roux. I think she's really great and I love her pop songs. I think she's a good popstar."
Do you think you could be an arena-filling musician in the future?
"It depends on the work that I decide to put out. I decided with The Bachelor that I wasn't really interested in being in the top ten. I think Lady GaGa is a total genius for writing those kind of songs. I don't think it's some subconscious thing. I think it's a conscious decision to bring in all the hooks and the choruses. There's a real craft to writing pop music like that. It's just deciding whether I want to do it next year or if I want to do it five years down the line. I've got to get it in before the face-lift!"
Finally, is it true that you created your own theremin when you were 11?
"It is indeed. It's still in the attic of my parents' house. I used to be obsessed by the theremin. I really, really wanted to play it in an orchestra and compose for that instrument. Theremins weren't really manufactured around that time - you're talking about 1995 or something like that - so I had to make my own!"
Patrick Wolf's first three albums painted him as a man apart from most singer-songwriters doing the rounds, as did his outspoken comments about pop rivals La Roux, Mika and the rest. He left Polydor subsidiary Loog under something of a cloud after 2007's The Magic Position, but managed to raise enough cash from fans to release his fourth LP, this year's The Bachelor. Ahead of his one-off concert at the London Palladium this Sunday, we picked Patrick's formidable brain about everything from Lady GaGa to Jan Moir.
What can you tell us about your London Palladium show?
"It's kind of like a retrospective - like when a painter has a retrospective of their work. It's a little bit of every album from the last seven or eight years. It's a totally one-off extravaganza for two hours with costume changes. It's what I want all my shows to be like in a couple of years when I'm hopefully doing arenas."
Alec Empire from Atari Teenage Riot worked on your album and he's going to be joining you onstage. How did your collaboration come about?
"I met Alec about three years ago when I was in Berlin. He was at a Jon Spencer Blues Explosion concert, got a bit bored and came to my show next door. He was like my mentor - like on The X Factor - and he really encouraged me to be brave and experiment and be myself. He guided me through my time with Polydor - a time when I was getting a lot of shit for experimenting."
Did Polydor really want Mark Ronson to produce your album?
"Mark is a friend and that came from me actually. I thought it would be interesting to get a different ear on the work I was making, because it was the opposite of what Mark usually does. He came into the studio and told me there was nothing he could do because he loved it and thought it was perfect. That was very kind of him."
So what were the problems with Polydor?
"The issues with Polydor are numerous, endless, countless... but Mark wasn't one of them. They wanted me to be the new Mika. When I got a boyfriend, they suddenly went, 'How are we going to market you as a gay artist?' But I'm not a straight or gay artist. I'm just a musician. It was a bit of a boring time and there was a lot of typical record company bullshit."
Did Jan Moir's Gately article show the media's homophobia towards gay popstars?
"It's quite a subtle and dangerous thing. It's the same struggle that women have had. You don't get a lot of respect because people marginalise your identity. I still find it very strange that mentions of me in the tabloids always have the prefix 'flamboyant' or 'gay'. I'm still seen as something different and I see myself as somebody who's as normal as the rest of the world. I didn't read the Jan Moir thing because I've experienced that in my everyday life enough. I don't really want to read it in the Daily Mail because it just depresses me."
'Hard Times' from your album is a protest song - what are you protesting against?
"I don't see my opinions as controversial. I'm just being honest about the way I feel. I don't really want to get known for being a protester. There's this idea of 'demographics' with artists and I don't get it. It's like, 'I can't say this or I'll lose 10% of my audience'. I don't give a shit about that, but I do speak about things that lots of us discuss down the pub. The difference is, I do it on the internet or in interviews."
How are you different from other artists?
"Lots of them are still on the first part of their journey. I've been going for quite a while now and I've explored many different ways of making music. I have an international following and I make my own music videos. I do my own artwork and I run my own record label. I'm not saying I'm superior - I'm just a different kind of musician. I have nothing against any of those musicians, but it'll be interesting to see if we're still talking about them next year. I don't think we will be. I don't mean La Roux. I think she's really great and I love her pop songs. I think she's a good popstar."
Do you think you could be an arena-filling musician in the future?
"It depends on the work that I decide to put out. I decided with The Bachelor that I wasn't really interested in being in the top ten. I think Lady GaGa is a total genius for writing those kind of songs. I don't think it's some subconscious thing. I think it's a conscious decision to bring in all the hooks and the choruses. There's a real craft to writing pop music like that. It's just deciding whether I want to do it next year or if I want to do it five years down the line. I've got to get it in before the face-lift!"
Finally, is it true that you created your own theremin when you were 11?
"It is indeed. It's still in the attic of my parents' house. I used to be obsessed by the theremin. I really, really wanted to play it in an orchestra and compose for that instrument. Theremins weren't really manufactured around that time - you're talking about 1995 or something like that - so I had to make my own!"