Rufus Wainwright may be Canadian, but don’t hold that against
him. Over the past six years and three albums, Wainwright has
impressed audiences with his simple and quiet melodies encompassed
by powerful orchestration and his raspy voice.

The son of folkster Loudon Wainwright III, Wainwright said that
being a child of a musician shaped him greatly.

“It made me pretty loud and desirous of attention,” Wainwright
said. “It makes you deal with your emotions aloud.”

Wainwright said that being a musician was not his first choice
for an occupation.

“I went to art school for a while and did a bit of acting, but
music was really the focal point, the driving force,” he said.

As Wainwright grew up, his musical tastes started to differ from
that of his peers.

“When I was 14 years old, I got really into opera. I only
listened to opera and stayed that way for, like, 10 years,” he
said. Now past his opera phase, Wainwright recently released his
third album, Want One, to both critical and public acclaim.
Wainwright said that with this album he was better able to get the
sound in his head.

“I tried to make the record I heard in my head, not what a
producer thought,” Wainwright said. “I heard a lot of symphonies,
harmonies and a lot of weird chords.” Wainwright went on to say
that, as previous producers tried to whittle down Wainwright’s
sound, Want One’s producer, Marius deVries, let Wainwright open up
and integrate the new ideas.

So prolific was Wainwright during these recording sessions that
he ended up with enough recorded material for two full albums.
Originally conceived as a double album, it was soon decided to
break the works into two separate albums.

“The record company was not too keen [on the idea],” Wainwright
said. “Due to the elaborate production, it might be taxing trying
to listen to the whole thing.” Wainwright came to accept the
change, as it reminded him of the style of Victorian literature,
letting things out bit by bit rather than all at once. He said his
dream is that the second album, appropriately called Want Two, will
be released by the November elections.

“It encapsulates my feeling under the Bush monarchy,” Wainwright
said. “Want One is a more personal album, dealing with my internal
mental state, while [the new record] shows the world itself is
pretty dark.”

He went on to say that he is unsure of the release date because
of the recent merger of his record label, Dreamworks, into the
Universal conglomerate.

For those who simply can’t wait for the new album, Wainwright
might play these new songs when he comes to the Pageant this
Sunday. Tickets are $22.50 in advance and $25 on the day of the
show. It looks to be quite worth the ticket price.