Showing posts with label Rufus Wainwright. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rufus Wainwright. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Natalie Merchant talks about Louise Brooks, & Rufus Wainwright too

Earlier this week, Salon ran an interview with Natalie Merchant regarding her just released sixth solo album. This self-titled and self produced collection of 10 new and original songs is her first offering in 13 years. Two of the questions in the Salon interview address the singer-songwriter's interest in Louise Brooks. The complete interview can and should be read here.

There are a lot of proper names on this album: Ladybird, Lulu, Maggie. Are these real women or fictional characters?

They’re composite characters, but I choose a name that will identify them, then I use that technique of stepping into their lives. “Ladybird” and “Maggie Said” are both conversations with these women I’ve created. So they’re composite characters, except for “Lulu.” That song is about a specific person, the silent screen star Louise Brooks.

What inspired you to write a song about her?

I just think she had an extraordinary life. Now that I’ve reached 50, I feel like I’m beginning to understand the journey that people take through their lives — the significant events that make you and form you. I’ve always had an interest in biographies, especially about famous women. I want to know so much about them. Did they have children? Did they have conflicted relationships with their parents? Did they have to move frequently? Were they drawn to urban spaces or rural spaces? What inspired them as artists?

I read Louise Brooks’ autobiography a couple of years ago, “Lulu in Hollywood.” I grew up near where she spent the last 20 years of her life, in Rochester, New York. My best friend Mary Beth and I used to have a fantasy. We couldn’t drive, but when we were teenagers we wanted to take the bus to Rochester and have tea with Louise Brooks. The song echoes that sentiment, but reading her autobiography allowed me to visit her in a different way. She never had children and could never keep a marriage together, and she felt like a failure in her career. Yet she endures. She rose and fell and fell and rose again. And just when she was at this low period in her life, when she was living hand to mouth and living in a studio apartment in Manhattan, there was a revival happening of her films. She didn’t even know it.

Natalie Merchant (Credit: Dan Winters)

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And earlier this month, Out magazine ran an interview with Rufus Wainwright regarding his latest (gay) opera commission, why Helena Bonham Carter inspires him, and the reason performing with 'slutty straight boys' was a perfect antidote to a heavy period of his life. One of the questions in the Out interview address the singer-songwriter's interest in Louise Brooks. The complete interview can and should be read here
I was also curious: In the concert, you put on a paper Helena Bonham Carter mask on for a bit and I wondered what it was about her. We've been asking people what their spirit animal is, and I wondered if she was your spirit animal in some way?

Well she is definitely a spirited animal. [Laughs] That's for sure. She's amazing. I admire her and have a slight crush on her as well. You know, what I love most about her is she's whip smart, so intelligent. She has depth. Besides being a fantastic actress and fantastic beauty, she's also really witty, intelligent, and kooky broad. And I love that about her.

So how would you answer that question: what is your spirit animal?


My spirit animal is Louise Brooks from Pandora's Box. That character she plays in the film, Lulu. That's why I wrote Songs for Lulu, she needed to be appeased.

Rufus Wainwright (Credit: Sean James)

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Both artists can be heard on RadioLulu, the Louise Brooks-inspired, silent film-themed online radio station from the Louise Brooks Society streaming music of the Teens, Twenties, Thirties and today. RadioLulu plays Natalie Merchant's "Lulu," from her new self-titled album, and Rufus Wainwright's "What Would I Ever Do with a Rose?" from his 2010 album All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Rufus Wainwright comments on Louise Brooks

In an article on Straight.com, Rufus Wainwright commented on Louise Brooks and his recent CD, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. In an interview, Wainwright said this about the "Weimar-era icon":

“I was definitely thinking of Louise Brooks in Pandora’s Box,” says the piano-playing singer, calling from a San Francisco stop on his current tour. “But Lulu has become many different people over the past few months. It’s the concept of the ravaging, destructive beauty who kills you with a smile—something I worship and at the same time am frightened to death of. When I started touring, though, I felt like I was Lulu. Or my mother or Shakespeare’s Dark Lady would become Lulu.”

Friday, August 6, 2010

Rufus Rufus Rufus on Lulu Lulu Lulu

Yesterday, I posted an article to the Huffington Post website about Rufus Wainwright and his quite understandable interest in Louise Brooks. I recently had the chance the interview Rufus about the actress and his new CD, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu. He is on tour in support of the new record.


I plan on posting another article / interview sometime next week which will be more of a general interest piece. The current article, headlined " 'I am the victim of such a lascivious beauty': Rufus Wainwright on Louise Brooks" includes Wainwright's comments on the silent film star. Check it out at www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-gladysz/i-am-the-victim-of-such-a_b_672089.html

[Photo above courtesy of Kevin Westenberg / www.rufuswainwright.com ]

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Keeping up with Rufus Wainwright and Lulu

As mentioned earlier on this blog, singer / songwriter Rufus Wainwright has a new album coming out in the USA on April 20th. It's called All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, and its on the Decca label. The album title is a reference to Shakespeare's Sonnet 43 and Wainwright's own concept of Lulu, which he describes as a "dark, brooding, dangerous woman that lives within all of us." In particular, the Lulu to which Wainwright refers is Louise Brooks, who starred as Lulu in the 1929 film Pandora's Box.

All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu is available to pre-order in two formats, a standard jewel case and pre-order only digi pack which features an exclusive bonus track. The album was written by Rufus Wainwright, produced by Wainwright (with Pierre Marchand on three songs), and mixed by Marchand.

Wainwright will be touring all across Europe in the Spring to promote the album. Wainwright also has concerts planned for Canada in June, including a June 21st gig at the Theatre St. Denis. That is the same venue where a young Louise brooks danced as a member of the Denishawn Dance Company in April, 1924. And on November 22nd, he will return to the historic Royal Albert Hall in London for an exclusive one off concert. For more info on Wainwright previous work and upcoming concerts, visit his website at http://www.rufuswainwright.com/

Stay tuned for further details about this story as things develop.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Rufus Wainwright records "All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu"

The big news of late in Lulu-land is that acclaimed singer / songwriter Rufus Wainwright has recorded a new album - his sixth studio work (due in March) called All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu. That's according to an article on the Orange County Register website.

The article by Ben Wener notes, "Songs for Lulu, as a concept, was inspired by, as he put it, 'any kind of reckless woman in your life, in your imagination … or in yourself.' For Rufus, that figure is the great silent-film actress Louise Brooks, as seen in G.W. Pabst’s 1929 film Pandora’s Box. In his mind, she’s wandering the streets of Berlin singing his songs, while Fred Astaire dances nearby. It’s a compelling setting –- I look forward to sinking into it when the record arrives."

Not much else is known about this tantalizing project.

However, there's already a Wikipedia page devoted to the forthcoming album, though it doesn't reveal much. The Wikipedia page states "The first part of the title, "All Days Are Nights", comes from the final couplet of William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 43" ("All days are nights to see till I see thee..."). When asked about the reference to "Lulu", which appears in the second part of the album's title, Wainwright stated in a November 2009 interview that Lulu is a "dark, brooding, dangerous woman that lives within all of us", similar to the Dark Lady character in Shakespeare's sonnets. Wainwright claimed that his Lulu was Louise Brooks in the 1929 movie Pandora's Box."

The interview the Wikipedia entry refers to is one that took place with the musician last November on radio station KUT in Austin, Texas. That interview can be heard on this page. I've listened to it and during the interview Wainwright briefly mentions Brooks and the album. Like Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing (among other rock/pop musicians), Wainwright has turned his passion for Louise Brooks into music.

The Wikipedia entry also notes that in order to promote the album, Wainwright will begin a tour in April, 2010 with a series of 10 concerts throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. There are no indication as yet if Wainwright will tour the United States.

However, the singer's website at http://www.rufuswainwright.com/ reveals that on February 12 of this year he will be performing at the Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, New York.

That is the same historic venue where on January 15, 1923 Louise Brooks herself performed as a member of the Denishawn Dance Company. Still a teenager, Brooks danced alongside company members Martha Graham, Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis. And in the audience on that special occasion was a lovely young Poughkeepsie teenage girl, Lee Miller - the future Surrealist photographer.

Wainwright's February 12th concert in Poughkeepsie will bring things full circle - as artist meets muse on the stage of history and inspiration. [The Louse Brooks Society blog will bring its readers additional details as this story develops.]
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