Rufus Wainwright: "Ireland has a way of choosing me"

Acclaimed singer-songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright returns to his family's folk legacy with a new album, Folkocracy.

The 15-track record pays tribute to some of the genre’s greatest songs, including Harvest, Arthur McBride, Cotton Eyed Joe, and Wild Mountain Thyme - all infused with Wainwright’s signature operatic style.

He joins RTÉ Arena’s Seán Rocks to talk about the inspiration behind the project and how Arthur McBride proved one of the more challenging tracks to sing.

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Listen to Folkocracy by Rufus Wainwright

He also talks about why he’s spending his 50th birthday in Dublin and how his late mother, Kate McGarrigle, played a special part in the album’s closing number.

Opening the conversation, RTÉ Arena's Seán Rocks plays a track from Folkocracy, Harvest, which is a new spin on an iconic Neil Young song. He highlights the immense instrumentation on display, something Wainwright agrees has already won him favour.

"I’m very happy with it," he says, "and actually, yesterday, I found out from a friend that Neil Young really likes it. He’s happy with the version, which is rare for him to do, apparently. So yeah, I think it’s a success."

Is it ever nerve-wracking to take on iconic songs like Harvest for an ambitious project like Folkocracy?

"I’ve sung Harvest for years, and I wouldn’t say it’s that challenging of a musical composition. But it’s certainly such a beautiful piece of music. And my voice just adores singing it. So there’s no challenge in that," he says.

"It just dawned on me: "I'm from that world. I know how to do that. That is my inheritance in a lot of ways.’"

"The big challenge, of course, now that we’re talking to you in Ireland, was me taking on Arthur McBride. That’s the big challenge! Which I’m very happy with my version. It’s completely different from Paul Brady’s, whose version I adore as well. But yeah, I took on a few heavy hitters."

Instruments like the fiddle, guitar, and bass all play central roles in tracks like Harvest, something Wainwright says was very central to the project.

"That was sort of the main objective of this album was to promote the folk philosophy, which is people just gathered around, playing instruments and singing at the same time and trying to harmonize. Everything done in one take, very simply and very direct, which, oddly enough, in this day and age is quite unusual. Which is funny."

With collaborators like Chris Stills, Andrew Bird, Chaka Khan, John Legend, and Nicole Scherzinger, to name but a few, what was the process for choosing the songs and the singers for the album?

For Wainwright, there were two core "perks" of his career he drew from.

"I’m very much like my parents in the sense that I am a musician’s musician," he says. "I have always been very appreciated by my peers or certain legendary people as well. I’ve always prized that deeply, so I took advantage of that a bit."

"But also living in LA, and living in Hollywood. Despite all the gun violence and forest fires and smog, it is an amazing town in terms of calling up Chaka Khan or John Legend and seeing what they’re doing in the afternoon if they want to cut a track. It’s an industry town."

On Arthur McBride and "taking hold" of his folk legacy

Returning to the song Arthur McBride, Wainwright jokes that there’s a funny story to that song, saying:

"I’m very good friends with Paul Brady. I used to go visit him as a little kid with my Dad back in the 80s in Dublin. And I would ask him to play Arthur McBride often – sometimes repeatedly, like two or three times, which is a heft amount of times, just because I was so obsessed with the song."

Wainwright explains that years later, he performed the song for a friend in Vienna, who was an opera singer. While appreciating the original, she suggested that he should do a version in his own 'Straussian’ style, a challenge he willingly accepted.

"It's a very operatic song. What I wanted to illustrate, which I think is sometimes missed when you just run through it, is how violent it is," he says. Parts of the song, such as with the sergeant, were "brutal," and his aim was to look at these events through an "operatic lens."

Those undertones are present in many of the other tracks featured on Folkocracy. Seán Rocks notes that despite the beautiful arrangements of songs like Down in the Willow Garden, the darkness of the lyrics is extraordinary.

"I’m fascinated by that juxtaposition," Wainwright agrees.

"I think a lot of these songs are like Trojan horses. They come in these sweet packages, but then when you actually focus on what’s happening, it’s pretty sinister. But that’s probably why they’ve lasted so long because they can sneak in!"

While he might feel most at home in opera and classical music, what do these styles of music offer Wainwright on a project like Folkocracy?

"Especially in terms of this album, the story goes that I started off in the folk tradition. In fact, I've been in pop for many, many years, but I’ve never quite mastered the genre, though I’ve done fairly well here and there. That’s kind of how I make my bread and butter."

"I'm very good friends with Paul Brady. I used to go visit him as a little kid with my Dad back in the 80s in Dublin. And I would ask him to play Arthur McBride often – sometimes repeatedly, just because I was so obsessed with the song."

"But recently, when I was watching the Grammys, I realised how many folk categories there are. And how there's a whole plethora of acoustic sections in that awards show. And it just donned on me: "I’m from that world. I know how to do that. That is my inheritance in a lot of ways.’"

With his mother passing and his father growing older, he says that he is starting to "take hold" of his legacy in folk, which in many ways, laid the foundations for this project.

"Of course, I’ve been in the opera world now for several years, and I’ve always used that sensibility in my songwriting. The genres start to spill into each other. I guess that’s partially always been my cup of tea. People expect that of me."

Discovering the meaning behind folk lyrics

The variety of arrangements found on the album is undeniable, especially in tracks like Nacht und Träume, where Wainwright’s operatic roots are clearly found. But as host Seán Rocks points out, there’s not a word of German sung. Were these kinds of decisions deliberate?

"My husband is German. He was born in Hamburg. And he’s very particular about pronunciation. So I just don’t try!" Wainwright explains.

"You know how marriage is; you just have to give up on certain things and embrace others. German is one I had to give up on."

Another unexpected arrangement on the album is Cotton Eyed Joe, featuring Chaka Khan. "It’s a total lift from another version that I heard, a Nina Simone version," he says.

"It’s not one of her well-known versions. She’s done it a few times, but this is from a live concert, and I’ve only heard it once on the recording. So I tracked it down."

While the arrangement is an homage to Simone, the research carried out throughout the project helped expose the darker, more "brutal" lyrics of folk anthems.

On the topic of lyrics, do songs like Going to Town, which feature the lyrics "I'm so tired of America," represent how he feels in the current climate?

"I wouldn’t say at the moment it’s that sentiment," he says. "I think it’s more the over-arching feel, the repeated abuse that we kind of experience here, where’s there’s such hope, and then such sadness, right after each other – that we get exhausted by."

"At the moment, though, in this week, Trump is being indicted. And it does seem like the wheels of justice are moving somewhat. So it’s not a time to, you know, be bereft this week. But next week? We’ll be tired!"

Wild Mountain Thyme & Kate McGarrigle's banjo

Although working with a string of legendary collaborators on the album brings with it its own unique and varied sound, there is an undeniable sense of family felt throughout Folkocracy.

This is evident in the album’s final track, Wild Mountain Thyme, which Seán Rocks says is 'hugely emotional’ to listen to.

For Wainwright, the reason behind this is not just the family members themselves who are singing but also one special instrument in particular.

"That one especially is emotional because Chaim Tannenbaum, who is playing the banjo, is actually playing my mother’s old banjo," he explains.

"I’ve always identified my mother with that instrument. That and the piano, but the banjo, oddly enough, more. Just symbolically. So that was necessary."

"There was talk at one point of going up to Canada, spending a couple of weeks up there recording with the whole family, and really getting that down. I would love to do that at some point again. So there will be more folk coming at a certain point."

"But as we got closer to making the record, I realised that I actually just wanted to just see it through my lens from where I am in California. That being said, if I hadn’t have had a family moment on there, a bonafide one, it would have been weird."

With sisters Martha and Lucy, cousin Lily and Aunt Anna all featuring throughout the album, does music give their family a unique opportunity to connect?

"As we all know, I've had ups and downs with my Dad, for instance. We happen to be in a very good place right now. But it’s taken a lot of energy, and time, and some therapy and all that, to rectify it" he says.

For the singer, music is a catalyst that allowed this to happen, saying: "[Music] forces us to come together and just concentrate on something other than what’s actually maybe going on, but nonetheless, celebrate."

As Wild Mountain Thyme features so many family members, what was that recording like, especially considering the role his mother’s banjo played?

"For me, it was a sense of relief to lean back and let my family do their magic. Certainly, it was very emotional, but more comforting than sad."

"It felt great," he says. "I was kind of exhausted, and you can actually hear it a bit in my voice at that point because I had done a show the night before. So I was ready to kind of take the back seat, which I do. Everyone gets a verse. Martha ends the song."

"For me, it was a sense of relief to lean back and let my family do their magic. Certainly, it was very emotional, but more comforting than sad."

Performing in Ireland on his 50th birthday

Fans of Rufus Wainwright will be pleased to know that he’s set to play at the National Concert Hall in Dublin on Saturday, July 22nd.

But that date has even more significance, as it just so happens to be the singer’s 50th birthday. While the timing may be mere coincidence, Wainwright says that Ireland has "a way of choosing me often, for such events and momentous occasions" and that he feels it will be a "pretty amazing evening."

Folkocracy is out now. Listen to the Rufus Wainwright interview in full on RTÉ Arena on Friday, June 16th from 7pm, and listen to more from Arena here.

Rufus Wainwright: "Ireland has a way of choosing me"

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