Patrick Wolf really is in a class of his own. Dropping out of school young, leaving his family and changing his name all to embark on a do-or-die music career, this 20-something idealist and musical crusader still seems set to change the world. Just don’t get in his way.
When I chat to Patrick it’s about quarter to eleven on, I’m assuming, a brisk British evening. Patrick’s a busy boy and I’ve interrupted his recording time. And time is precious. After all, we’re eagerly awaiting the latest instalment of Patrick’s two-part saga, The Conqueror.
“Basically, have you seen Shakira’s video She Wolf?” he asks. I laugh down the line, loving the analogy I assume is on its way. “You know where she goes into the cupboard and she’s got a dance floor there?” he continues. “Well, my walk in wardrobe I converted into a studio. So I’ve got all my recording equipment. I’ve got my expensive new…” Patrick lists a few things, gleefully.
“At night time, when my day life is finished, I go straight into my cupboard and lock the door and I record my music. I’m kind of doing the thing of running on very little sleep and the moment my partner’s in bed then I just get straight into the studio.”
And what does Patrick’s – œday life’ entail? “I run a record label. I have an international popstar career to be maintained and tour and do interviews and find the time to basically be a human being on the side, you know?”
I would like to sympathise with the young man, but I’m not a pop star and I like to sleep. Patrick lets out a clipped laugh, and I’m not entirely sure he’s joking about the maintenance part, but I can imagine it takes up most of his day.
Performing and producing pretty much non-stop – “I don’t like holidays. The moment I start a holiday I feel like I’m being lazy and I have to get back to writing.” – Wolf seems to have an abundant creative flair that manifests itself visually as well as musically. A quick look at the long line of incarnations and – œlooks’ this 26-year-old has been through and you start to get a better picture of the transformative nature of Patrick Wolf the performer.
“I decided that The Bachelor was definitely a blonde record,” says Wolf. ”[My hair] is strawberry blonde and I’ve bleached my eyebrows. I’m kind of channelling Pete Burns and Boy George at the moment.”
While Mr Wolf is all about fashion and couture, posing in the past for Vanity Fair and Burberry, he may not like to admit it, but it seems he’s a business man too. “Flying out to Australia and Japan is always a very expensive thing to do and I have very heavy outfits,” says Patrick of his December tour. “Most of my outfits are made out of leather or wood, or metal, so we have to make sure we find out a way to make the plane not crash on the way over.”
And it seems money is on Mr Wolf’s mind. He may have left Universal for creative freedom, but producing records isn’t easy or cheap, apparently, and Patrick is feeling the pinch. He says he won’t be using the fan investment group Bandstocks to fund The Conqueror, but it will be released through his label, Bloody Chamber Music. “Well, you know, money is the big issue within the music industry at the moment, because no one buys records. And the revenue coming into the industry at the moment is depressing, really, for most artists and musicians and studios and record labels. But, you know, the good art will survive.”
When I ask Patrick about the YouTube hit he created – if you haven’t seen it, it seems very typical Mr Wolf, equal parts lovely and maniacal. When the venue cuts the PA Patrick gives them a piece of his mind, and a flying microphone stand. He says he doesn’t recall the night. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I can’t remember. I’ve done lots of things this year, I can’t remember half of them. I’m a very busy man.”
Patrick does admit, though, that he is unapologetically provocative. “I’ve always been, I think, an antagonist. Kind of, trying to shake up a conservative mindset and deal with the repressed parts of society. Since I was 12, I’ve been on kind of a personal identity battle against the people who told me I wasn’t worth the time of day because I decided I wanted to look the way that I felt, and I dress the way that I feel. I say the things I want to say. I’m just not a repressed kind of person, never have been.” Watch the YouTube clip and you’ll understand.
Wolf says the abandon with which he’s thrown himself into being different also includes his sexuality. “I’ve been very sure about my sexuality since I was very young and definitely I get what I want. I believe in equality for all people, but I don’t think we should be marginalised just because we don’t have a traditional way of thinking about, or feeling, about the world, you know? I guess there’s a lot of identity politics in my work. Kind of, sticking up for the underdog and sticking up for people who are pushed to side of society because the white straight man who rules in most industries these days.”
I ask Patrick about the way in which he selects those who work with him, citing a report that said he wouldn’t work with white heterosexual males. Patrick says that isn’t the case, but that he respects those who’ve had it tough. “I have a lot more fascination with creatures that have had to really fight for their respect in the world, rather than being given it with a silver spoon. There’s an expectation to be the traditional male stereotype, which the music industry is 99 per cent full of. So I kind of give out my job opportunities to people that might not have been given a chance, or that are disrespected or patronised by the music industry.”
I ask Patrick if he’s still with that man who threw his chicken away in our last interview, but he says he can’t remember that either. “I was probably very drunk. Most of the time when I do these interviews for Australia – usually they’re really early in the morning, or it’s past midnight when I’m probably inebriated. So it’s kind of like, take your pick. I don’t remember anyone with a chicken, but I can imagine…” laughs Patrick. ”’Cause that’s what I do when I’m drunk, you know, throw chickens about.”
It’s getting later and the more we talk, the more dire Patrick’s outlook becomes. “I think I’ve been interviewed for ten years straight by people. Literally, about 80 per cent of my life [is spent] having to talk about myself,” says Patrick when I ask about the personal nature of his work, writing about suicide and revolution for The Bachelor. “I have an international following, and I have to talk about my work a lot. A lot of the time, I never get to talk about my work. A lot of people ask private questions about my life – and after doing two years of that, you just kind of say, “fuck it” I’m not going to waste my energy being so guarded about everything.”
I bid the singer farewell for his closet and tell him I hope to be in the audience for his Sydney show. I do omit, however, that I’ll be practising my duck and weave lest The Metro, heaven forbid, cuts the PA.
The Bachelor is out now on Speak N Spell. Patrick Wolf plays these shows on his December tour.
Wednesday 9 December – The Metro Theatre, Sydney
Thursday 10 December – The Zoo, Brisbane
Friday 11 December – Meredith Music Festival
Saturday 12 December – Capitol, Perth
Monday 14 December – Prince Bandroom, Melbourne
