Not content this year with releasing a huge, 19-CD box set, nor fathering his first child with the daughter of Leonard Cohen, Rufus Wainwright is working on a new album – with scenester producer Mark Ronson – and it will be more ‘danceable’, apparently.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Wainwright revealed he was working with Ronson, who recently finished the new Black Lips album.
Wainwright said, “We’ve been in for three days, and I already look 20 years younger… I have to start looking around for motorcycle outfits or something, I feel so damn cool.”
He also said the songs were heading in a more upbeat, poppy, dance-happy direction, saying, “I just want to make something that you love, driving around in your car listening or losing your mind to on a dance floor. Something to serenade us through these very, very troubling times.”
He also said that his new daughter, Viva, is having an influence on his new work. He said, “There’s nothing like impressing a little girl – nothing quite as lovely, and sometimes nothing quite as difficult. I’ve written three songs about her already.”
The new album, still in its very infant stages, will be the follow-up to his intense 2010 album All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, a collection of sparse songs released in the wake of his mother’s death.
The box set, meanwhile, is set for release on July 18, an epic collection that covers his entire career to date and also included DVDS, live albums, documentaries and books.
