Welcome Back To The Ball : The Line of Best Fit meets Rufus Wainwright

His unique and nasal laugh fills the corridors of the office where our meeting is scheduled to be held – his humour infectious, his passion palpable and his heart worn firmly and proudly on his finely tailored sleeve. Rufus Wainwright is in London to discuss the journey which led to the creation of his latest album Out Of The Game, a journey which has seen ups as dramatic as the downs were deep, a journey exploring loss, gain, bounteous new territories and the talents of a new musical ally. Out Of The Game marks a bold and colourful return, and Rufus is delighted.

“I’m really looking forward to getting a band back!” enthuses a wide eyed, jovial Wainwright. “Because I was doing the opera and then I had All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu which was totally solo, piano, voice, so for the last couple of years it’s really just been me… me against the world! So I’m really looking forward to getting a band back together again. You know, being around rock people. Rock and rob ‘em!”

It’s been two years since we had a new album from Rufus, the last being 2010′s All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, a record released just two months after the death of his beloved mother Kate. The past few years have also seen Rufus release his acclaimed Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall as well as writing and creating his widely publicised opera Prima Donna. He became a Dad, he became an uncle, he fell in love. An awful lot has happened over the past few years, in what could be described as the most turbulent years of an already sufficiently turbulent life.

Out Of The Game marks the seventh studio release from Rufus Wainwright, an album which plays host to the many layers and facets that we’ve come to know and love of Wainwright’s repertoire. There’s an overwhelming sense of vibrancy, a joyous kind of energy and a buoyant sense of excitement. But there’s also a softness, a deep feeling of consideration and a constant, underlying sadness.

“Most of the material is very new in terms of only being written several months before we started recording, but there are a couple of songs that are very old, demos from other albums that didn’t make the cut. It was mostly Mark who sifted through some of my ancient material and found some unpolished gems. Some of those are on there as well so it’s sort of a mix between my latest dramatic lifestyle and my old, somewhat lascivious one, and everything in between.”

The mention of ‘Mark’ brings the story of the album’s producer to the forefront, a certain Mr Ronson, brought on board to produce this latest effort.“I’ve known him for a long time now, it’s coming on for about three years. I guess that isn’t that long actually…” reflects Wainwright. “But I put the question forth and Mark promptly answered ‘yes, that’d be amazing’, and we just kept the dialogue going. And over a couple of years – because he was busy and I was busy – we seemed to be continuously engaged in this idea and finally, my schedule cleared and his as well, it became time to make the next album, the opera was put to sleep briefly, before being wildly woken up again two months ago in New York! So it all clicked, we went in and made the record and it was a really amazing experience – a deeply personal relationship was created between him and I.”

As our conversation continues and the topic of this collaboration is explored further, there’s an unmistakable warmth and fondness that creeps into the tone of Wainwright’s voice. Theirs is a relationship that clearly had a profound effect on not only the creation of the record but also on Wainwright himself. “We related to each other tremendously and I consider him one of the best friends that I’ve ever had at this point. It’s a ‘two long lost brothers’ kind of tale between us in a lot of ways. I think it’s nice because we’re very enamoured with each other. He’s married and straight and I have a beautiful fiancé yet there’s a kind of crush that we share on the ideas that we both represent. I can flaunt and faun over the legend of Mark Ronson and I think he does the same with me a little bit. We’re two dreamers, I think.”

A tremendously acclaimed producer, Mark Ronson is about as sought after-an-accomplice as one could think of. Artists fall over themselves trying to get him on board with a project, so what exactly is it that he brings to the creation of an album, and what is it that makes him such an attractive collaborative prospect? “Well he’s very into songs, he likes a good song. And I hopefully delivered a few. For me, on a technical level, besides the big inspiration for the sessions being me trying to please him,” explains Wainwright, unleashing his trademark bellowing laugh, “he was just really unsparing in terms of the quality of the sound of the album. He really needed the bass to thump and the drums to pump and the guitars to… chunk! And to break through the barrier without scaring everyone away. He wanted a warmth surrounding the sessions and he really paid attention to all of the minutia of what’s entailed in that process. Which I know nothing about. So it sounds great – it’s all on tape, all recorded in very classic rooms… and not even famous studios, just rooms that he knew had created great songs before and that he loved personally. We actually recorded in the same place that Amy recorded.”

“Then there was also a kind of homage to the seventies, which I think is worn quite lightly on this album, but I think is definitely there. It falls in line with hallmark of reinterpreting older genres but it’s not forced, it’s more just a nod to that. Because I still think that the album and the songs and the general vibe is pretty current as well. He’s a wizard at that kind of thing.”

On to the title of the record, Out Of The Game, a title which, like the message underlying a large amount of Wainwright’s music, is a nod to his status in the world. It’s a title with depth, evidently a title with significance, and a title which is home to plethora of interpretations. So is it intended to be a positive title or a negative title?

“I think it’s a tongue in cheek title,” he replies with a wry smile. “It’s about myself, especially when you consider that this is the most commercially viable record that I’ve ever made – whether it actually does anything is a whole other issue! But that being said, it’s like ‘I’m out of the game, but before I leave, here’s what you’ve always wanted, motherfucker. So there!’ But there’s also, for me, a more literal way of looking at it too where this album and my whole existence and all that I’m made of is from ‘the game’. I’ve been in the game my entire life and this is the end product of that. Kind of like out of the gates, or the closet or whatever. It’s a departure.”

Son of celebrated musician Loudon Wainwright III and acclaimed Canadian songstress Kate McGarrigle, Wainwright was born into a life of creativity and has played the role of a songwriter and musician since the early days of his life. Not one to rest on his singer/songwriter laurels however, Wainwright has proved himself to be an artistic explorer – the adjective ‘prolific’ personified. Whether he’s recording covers albums, composing operas, writing solo records, or appearing at one of his many acclaimed performances, Rufus Wainwright is and has always lived the life of a creative. He’s been reported as saying that inspiration can strike at the most unexpected of moments, and the writing of this album would prove no different.

“I had plenty of ! Various toilets, horse tracks, hospital bedsides. I don’t have a problem with inspiration! I wish I did, I wish I could stop being so god damned inspired all the time! But it just seems to pile on and then I have to dump it down somewhere. And certainly, all that aside, whether it’s the death of my mother or the birth of my daughter or being in a long term relationship, real estate or whatever, there’s a lot to pine about and so I guess I’ve just worked really hard all of my life to open up those channels and keep them clear and be susceptible to the muses when they’re screaming at you. Not everyone’s like that.“

The mention of his mother’s death brings an immediate and noticeable change to the tone of Rufus’s voice. Kate McGarrigle, mother to Rufus and Martha, passed away of cancer in January 2010, an event which Rufus openly admits that he’s still struggling to come to terms with.

“In reality, I’m still dealing with my Mom’s death. It’s only been two years and I thought after one year it’d maybe start to ease up, but I’ve actually found that it’s gotten a little more intense now. The last tour I went on was right after she died and I don’t remember half of that period. This’ll be the first tour where I’m really cognisant and I’m going to have to deal with that accordingly. So… one big life issue at a time! But I’m very much enjoying Viva’s amazing life. Viva Catherine Wainwright Cohen.”

Changing the subject from one leading lady in his life to another, brightness is immediately restored to Rufus’s demeanour as conversation turns to his daughter. Born in 2011 to Wainwright and Lorca Cohen, the daughter of legendary songsmith Leonard Cohen, Viva’s birth was an important event for many reasons. Important for providing Rufus with a central focus to distract from the upset surrounding his mother’s departure, and for onlookers and fans, representing the union of two of the world’s most prestigious musical families.

“I’m loving , one and a very little bit, now. I really had no expectations because this was never really planned. It’s something that arose while my mother’s health was deteriorating and my mother herself kind of proclaimed that it should happen. She got wind of it and in no uncertain terms demanded that I go through with it. For several reasons; one, to have a child, another, that she was about to die and I think also just because of Leonard Cohen being one of the greatest songwriters that ever lived. It’s a very old fashioned situation I feel that we’re in, even though it might look super modern with the gay couple and a straight woman, but it can also be looked at as two families within the same workforce forming an alliance.”

Like a Royal marrying a Royal, I suggest?

“Or like the guy from the flower shop marrying the person from the fruit stand so that they can have the whole block!”

When listening to Out Of The Game, there’s one track which typifies the style and tone of the album. It’s a song that’s both deeply personal and deeply funny, but at the same time, heart wrenchingly sad. That song is called ‘Montauk’.

“It’s a dialogue with my daughter, presumably when she’s a little older and understands what I’m talking about. It’s just saying that she’s always welcome to come visit whenever she needs to, and that both Jörn and I will be waiting for her there and we’re looking forward to that. And also to explain some of the parameters that she may encounter (“one day you will come to Montauk/and you will see your dad wearing a kimono/and see your other dad pruning roses/hope you wont turn around and go”) and to let her know that she’s certainly a major part of that debate. And then in the end of course I bring up my mother, who is now always with us. And I give a little lesson about death, which I think is something you have to teach your children about at some point. You don’t have to dwell on it, but I’m from a good Irish family on my mother’s side and they were always talking about death so I grew up with that constantly around. But Viva’s part Jewish, her mother’s Jewish and they’re not so into talking about death. But we’ll figure out the right approach!”

Although still very much mourning the loss of his beloved mother, the arrival of Viva and the happiness that Rufus has found with fiancé Jörn is clearly visible. The Rufus that we meet in 2012 is confident, relaxed and seemingly at peace with himself, in contrast to the man we would’ve been faced with had we met Rufus Wainwright ten years ago, around the release of 2001′s Poses, as he plunged into the depths of a drug addiction which rendered him temporarily blind. What would the Rufus of ten years ago think if he were to hear Out Of The Game?

“I’d be very happy. I’d be really, really proud of myself. I think that’s what I have to hold on to in this onslaught of artistic challenges. Especially after doing the opera and the Garland album and my own work, where I’ve always gone out on these limbs and for better or worse, I’ve experienced the slings and arrows of discontent. Or triumph. Either. But at the end of the day, I do have to look back at that little boy who was so eager, so ambitious, so excited, so awestruck by what was available and kind of keep some of that innocent spirit with me now and just be able to sit down and smell the roses for a second. That being said, that’s not as easy to do as one would think. Mind you, I do have a rose garden now so I know where to go!”

After dipping his toe into the frosty waters of classical music, and with so much happening in his personal life, what was it that made Rufus decide that now was the right time to release a new studio record? “After the opera was done, I’d had it up to here with trumpet players who are great, but boy can they ruin an orchestra!” says Wainwright, once again unleashing that unmistakable laugh. “So I was looking forward to hanging out with guys and girls who were still into being silly and pretending to be young and cool… even though nobody’s cool! So that whole kind of mad-cap existence, coupled with the fact that it’s so much more profitable than the classical world! Fact! So it was a good homecoming.”

“Before I’d written the opera, I’d been in the pop world for most of my life and I’d always had a slightly snobbish view of the whole affair in thinking ‘Well, this is fine and dandy but the real great music is being created in the concert halls of Europe, and one day I’ll be there amongst the Greats’ and then I went and tried that, and actually succeeded at getting my foot in and then realised that actually, it’s a long process and in order to even scrape the surface, I’ve got to keep trying and battling. But in the meantime, and I will continue to do that at some point, but in the meantime, boy do I love pop music more than I used to now. And on a very deep level too. The whole concept of individual creativity and heart and societal influence – that belongs to popular music and it’s great to be a part of that.”

A homecoming feels like an apt way of describing Rufus’s return with this album. There’s a sense of lightness, a playfulness and an overwhelming feeling of pride and joy which emanates from the opening notes through to the closing resonances. But in typical Wainwright fashion, a foot is always kept firmly on the ground, an eye kept on the road and remembering those who mean the most is made the central focus of each melody and lyric. Out of the game? Certainly not. Wise to the game, that’s for sure. Winning the game? Absolutely no doubt about it.

Out Of The Game is released on 23 April through Polydor.