RUFUS WAINWRIGHT UNVEILS LONG AWAITED NEW ALBUM UNFOLLOW THE RULES SET FOR RELEASE APRIL 24 AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW NEW SINGLE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS STREAMING NOW
“Like the rarest and greatest artists, Rufus Wainwright captures life in all its reckless glory and painful beauty…sometimes even in a single song. Any Rufus fan knows this: as soon as you hear him, you can’t imagine a world without him.” – Cameron Crowe, Rolling Stone
Singer-songwriter supreme, Rufus Wainwright has announced the release of his long-awaited new album. UNFOLLOW THE RULES arrives on Friday April 24 via BMG and is available to preorder now.
Unfollow The Rules is heralded by today’s premiere of new single Damsel In Distress, available for streaming and download along with an official companion video, created by award-winning animator Josh Shaffner.
“Damsel In Distress is an homage to Joni Mitchell in some ways,” says Wainwright, “particularly the structure. My husband and I now live in Laurel Canyon. I wasn’t that familiar with Joni’s music but Jörn became obsessed and took me on a journey into her music. We ended up hanging out with her and I get now why she’s one of the greats. So it’s part Laurel Canyon, part a song about a personal relationship that I’m trying to come to terms with, but mostly my Mitchell virginity being broken.”
Wainwright’s ninth studio LP and first new pop album since 2012, Unfollow The Rules finds the artist at the peak of his powers, entering artistic maturity with passion, honesty, and a new-found fearlessness while remaining as creative, bold, and mischievous as ever. Produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Paul McCartney, Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, Randy Newman) at a variety of legendary Los Angeles studios – including Sound City Studios, United Recording, and EastWest Studios – the album serves as both bookend to Act I of an extraordinary career which, like Unfollow The Rules, began in the studios of Los Angeles, but also now as the first lines of a remarkable new chapter. Inspired by middle age, married life, fatherhood, friends, loss, London, and Laurel Canyon, songs like Only The People That Love and the spirited, symphonic Hatred find the gifted singer-songwriter ready to tackle new challenges, yet compelled to confront his past by making sense of how he has grown both as a musician and the contented family man he has become.
“What I would like this album to symbolise is a coming together of all the aspects of my life which have made me a seasoned artist,” says Wainwright. “My aim is to emulate the greats of yore whose second acts produced their finest work – Leonard Cohen when he made THE FUTURE, when Sinatra became Sinatra in his 40s, when Paul Simon put out GRACELAND. Pop music isn’t always about your waistline. Many songwriters improve with age. I’m flying the flag for staying alive!”
Unfollow The Rules was preceded late last year by the romping first single, Trouble In Paradise, available now on all DSPs and streaming services HERE. The rhythmically complex track arrived alongside a gender-blurring companion video, directed by award-winning Canadian photographer and filmmaker Mia Donovan and streaming now via YouTube. Trouble In Paradise was greeted by international media attention and unanimous critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone enthusing, “Over lush pop rock orchestration reminiscent of Billy Joel, Wainwright saunters through a vocal performance that lends a lavish edge to his wry lyrics.” “The new song dazzles, dances and blossoms into something altogether delightful,” declared Cool Hunting. “Wainwright fans will be pleased,” The Times of London hailed Trouble In Paradise for its “soaring harmonies and woozy romanticism.”
Unfollow The Rules has already been met with remarkable praise from some of Wainwright’s friends, fans, and fellow artists. “This is pop music on a grand scale; sweeping, symphonic, unabashedly emotional and fearlessly agnostic in style and delivery,” says Sting, while Cyndi Lauper described the album as “Rufus’ pet sounds. It sounds like a culmination of everything he has done. It’s a great album, catchy and intelligent.”
Long applauded as an ingenious, compellingly charismatic live artist, Wainwright has only just left Australian shores after charming audiences at Perth Festival and Odeon Theatre (Hobart) last week. He’s also slated a wide-ranging global tour schedule for 2020, including international headline dates, top-billed festival performances, and more, with a full-scale North American headline tour soon to be announced. For updates and additional information, please visit rufuswainwright.com/tour.
Praised by the New York Times for his “genuine originality,” Rufus Wainwright has established himself as one of the great male vocalists, songwriters and composers of his generation. The New York-born, Montreal-raised singer songwriter has released seven studio albums to date with, three DVDs, and three live albums, including the fantastic Grammy nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall.
Musically Rufus has collaborated with artists including Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Robert Wilson, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, Pet Shop Boys, Heart, Robbie Williams, Jessye Norman, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting, and producer Mark Ronson, among many others.
Rufus has made a name for himself in the classical music world. His much acclaimed first opera, titled Prima Donna, premiered at the Manchester International Festival in July 2009 and was performed in London, New York, Paris, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong among others. Rufus’ second opera based on the on the story of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and Antinous premiered in October 2018 at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and won a Dora Award for Outstanding New Opera.
Rufus has also distinguished himself by playing original orchestrated pop songs, his orchestral settings of 5 Shakespeare Sonnets and pieces from an extensive classical repertoire with orchestras around the world such as the Chicago Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Residentie Orchestra, Orchestre National de lIle de France, the orchestra of the Teatro Real.
He has appeared at many of the world’s greatest concert halls and festivals including Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera, Teatro Colon, Hollywood Bowl, the Elbphilharmonie, the Olympia, Glastonbury, Roskilde, and the Kennedy Honors
He has written and recorded songs for a wide variety of movies and TV shows including Brokeback Mountain, Shrek, Judy, Meet the Robinsons, The Aviator, Moulin Rouge, and Boardwalk Empire.
He and his sister Martha Wainwright continue the legacy of their mother, Canadian folk icon Kate McGarrigle, and raise funds for the Kate McGarrigle Fund funding sarcoma research and a music therapy program.
Wainwright is currently working on a number of films, podcasts and musical projects and lives in Los Angeles with husband Jörn Weisbrodt and shares custody for his daughter Viva with her mother Lorca Cohen.
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT UNFOLLOW THE RULES
Release Date: Friday, April 24 (BMG)
TRACKLISTING
(written track by track available on request)
ACT I
1. Trouble in Paradise
2. Damsel in Distress
3. Unfollow The Rules
4. You Ain’t Big
ACT II
5. Romantical Man
6. Peaceful Afternoon
7. Only The People That Love
8. This One’s For The Ladies (That Lunge)
ACT III
9. My Little You
10. Early Morning Madness
11. Hatred
12. Alone Time
RÜFÜS DU SOL ANNOUNCE ‘LIVE FROM JOSHUA TREE’ ALBUM + FILM FEATURING IMMERSIVE DESERT PERFORMANCE OF SONGS FROM GRAMMY-NOMINATED ALBUM ‘SOLACE’ AND MORE – OUT MARCH 6
Double GRAMMY-nominated Australian trio RÜFÜS DU SOL have today announced LIVE FROM JOSHUA TREE – a live album and film featuring an immersive desert performance of songs curated from their critically acclaimed studio albums SOLACE, BLOOM and ATLAS, recorded and shot in the sprawling desert plains of Joshua Tree, California, with both live releases set to drop globally on March 6. The title-track from their GRAMMY-nominated album SOLACE is the first to be released today, with fans able to get their hands on the anticipated audio and video of the song – straight from the 45-minute feature – simply by preordering the album on iTunes or presaving the album on DSPs; with Solace being a fitting debut as it captures the band’s emotive gravitas amongst the powerful energy of the desert landscape.
In a 45-minute immersive film traversing the depths of the band’s famed shows and critically acclaimed studio albums, RÜFÜS DU SOL: Live from Joshua Tree brings their emotive live experience from the global stage to the screen. Featuring never-before-heard material set amongst the allure of the Great American West, the sensory film is an homage to the band’s arrival as a global creative force. Watch the trailer for RÜFÜS DU SOL: Live from Joshua Tree here: https://youtu.be/e6PrnsDRCiY
“The idea for a film was born out on a writing trip in Joshua Tree when we were trying to finish SOLACE. We stayed up all night writing as the sun rose, this creeping light over the valley made its way into the room. We climbed these wild rock formations to a little vista at the top, about 100 feet above where we were writing and sat to take in the sunrise. We were listening to tunes on a speaker and someone put on Time by the Pachanga Boys. Watching dawn break with this epic 15 minute journey playing out, we started joking about putting together a sunrise set in the desert where we would play to no one,” explains drummer James Hunt. “People talk a lot of shit in the desert at 5am, but walking around this alien world at dawn, we definitely felt there was something calling us back out there. So over an 18 month period, we workshopped ideas and locations and finally were able to to put time aside to shoot in September last year. It was decided sunset would be more practical for our crew. We originally planned for it to be a live stream, but as the idea grew and the production got bigger and bigger, it organically morphed into a film. It’s something that’s taken two years to pull together and something we are so excited to share with the world and make available everywhere.”
Since its release in 2018, SOLACE has been streamed over 150M times while the trio took to a worldwide tour with more than half a million tickets sold globally. Bringing their grandiose performances to iconic venues like Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Red Rocks, LA State Historic Park and Alexandra Palace, the band has earned two GRAMMY nominations, an ARIA award, and widespread notoriety for breaking ground in the live electronic genre. During their SOLACE run, RÜFÜS DU SOL produced an intimate video series in which they shared behind-the-scenes memories and moments that shaped the album in a nine-part collection on YouTube that can be viewed here.
The RÜFÜS DU SOL: Live from Joshua Tree album is set for release on March 6 via Warner Music, and the Live from Joshua Tree film will be released on YouTube on the same day.
Solace is available to stream, and the Live from Joshua Tree album is available to preorder and presave on DSPs now.
RÜFÜS DU SOL: Live from Joshua Tree Tracklist
1. Valley of the Yuccas (Live from Joshua Tree)
2. Eyes (Live from Joshua Tree)
3. New Sky (Live from Joshua Tree)
4. Desert Night (Live from Joshua Tree)
5. Solace (Live from Joshua Tree)
6. Underwater (Live from Joshua Tree)
7. Innerbloom (Live from Joshua Tree)
8. No Place (Live from Joshua Tree)
AUSSIE HIP HOP LEGENDS BUTTERFINGERS ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE ‘DANCING (TO THE BEAT OF MY OWN DRUM)’ OUT TODAY + NEW ALBUM ‘BAD NEWS’ OUT MARCH 30 + MASSIVE NATIONAL ALBUM TOUR
Australias favourite musical misfits and auteurs of Aussie hip hop, Butterfingers are back, breaking hearts and bones (mostly their own) with a killer new single, Dancing (To The Beat Of My Own Drum), out today, January 30. Confident and with more ecstatic energy and sharp lyrical wit than ever before, Dancing (To The Beat Of My Own Drum) is classic Butterfingers. After a fourteen-year long album release cycle, this hectic new track is the first taste of a brand new Butterfingers album, Bad News, set for release on March 30. The beloved group will be celebrating the new record with a monumental national tour across April, May and June of 2020, kicking off in Fremantle at Mojo’s Bar on April 20, then moving through Perth, Scarborough, Bunbury, Burleigh Heads, Brisbane, Sunshine Coast, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Frankston, Canberra, Sydney, Newcastle, Mt Gambier, Adelaide, Townsville, and wrapping up in Cairns at Gilligans on June 6.
With typical rhythmic brilliance and clever, incisive lyrics, Butterfingers’ new single Dancing (To The Beat Of My Own Drum) will delight dedicated fans and will appeal to the masses too. This track is rocky, powerful, and there’s no holds barred here – from start to finish, Dancing (To The Beat Of My Own Drum) is like lightening in a bottle. Speaking on the song’s inspiration, band leader and frontman Evil Eddie Jacobson explains, “We’ve drawn from a lot of different artists and genres over the years but this new track and album is born from our most recent influences, which range from alternative rock to grime and trap. Of course we’ve put our twist on all of it and it’s still definitely Butterfingers! Dancing (To The Beat Of My Own Drum) is that scene in the film when the protagonist slays the dragon, if you know what I mean. It’s just about that feeling when you’re absolutely sure and confident with who you are and what you’re doing, that no one else’s opinion matters anymore.”
With a new found vigor and a swag of new material, Butterfingers are officially back in the saddle and continuing to bend genres and the boundaries of good taste with a rare blend of obscenity, wit and charm. True to form, the new album Bad News encompasses hip hop, punk, reggae, drum & bass, stoner rock, electronica and just about anything that makes you want to shake your bones, into a cohesive mash-up all of their own creation. From potty-mouthed gutter rhymes to heartfelt crooning odes to love lost, this is an album that will keep old fans happy and will entice new followers at an alarming rate.
With a host of industry awards, multiple ARIA award noms, a bunch of features in Hottest 100 countdowns, and playing just about every major festival on the Australian circuit over the years, Butterfingers have continued to develop their unique and supremely high energy and fun sound throughout their career. And Bad News is testament to this dedication to growth. As Eddie enthuses, “The whole album is one complete story and it’s about where we’ve been and what’s happened in the last 14 years since our last album. It’s not as literal as a regular concept album, but each song represents a scene. The story within the album covers everything from self loathing, facing bankruptcy, battling drug addiction, failed friendships/betrayal, heartbreak – and then overcoming all that to make a rad album!”
During the break, Evil Eddie released a solo album, Welcome To Flavour Country (2010), spawning standout track Queensland that received great critical acclaim and charted in the triple j Hottest 100. Taking a step back from the limelight, he joined and released an album with Brisbane thrash punk outfit Spitfireliar as lead guitarist. Now bringing Spitfireliar bass player Bradzilla back with him, along with ex-Wolfmother drummer Tony McCall, 2020 looks to be the year that propels Butterfingers back into the Australian consciousness with fresh zest and their greatest material to date.
As ever, there’s a lot for fans to look forward to at the upcoming shows, as Eddie reveals, “We all know how hard it can be to win a crowd over with new material, no matter how awesome it is, so even though we’ll be playing a fair chunk of this new stuff we obviously aren’t going to ignore the back catalogue either. It’ll be a nice blend and the energy will be pretty hectic!”
Butterfingers is Evil Eddie (vocals, guitar), Olly Thomas (keys, samples, percussion), Bradzilla Cochrane (bass) and Tony McCall (drums).
Dancing (to the beat of my own drum) is available now
Bad News is set for release on March 30 through Bewilderbeats
Tickets to the Bad News Tour will be available for a fan presale on Thursday January 30 and will go on sale to the general public on Monday February 3. Hit up the band’s website for more information: http://butterfingers.info
BUTTERFINGERS – BAD NEWS TOUR
THU, 16 APR 20 | MOJO’S BAR, FREMANTLE, WA (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113224
FRI, 17 APR 20 | BADLANDS BAR, PERTH, WA (18+)
Tickets available from https://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/Default.aspx?Event=113225
SAT, 18 APR 20 | INDIAN OCEAN HOTEL, SCARBOROUGH, WA (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113227
SUN, 19 APR 20 | PRINCE OF WALES HOTEL, BUNBURY, WA (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113228
FRI, 24 APR 20 | MO’S DESERT CLUBHOUSE, BURLEIGH HEADS, QLD (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113229
SAT, 25 APR 20 | THE TRIFFID, NEWSTEAD, QLD (18+)
Tickets available from https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/butterfingers-album-tour/119387
SAT, 02 MAY 20 | NIGHTQUARTER SUNSHINE COAST, QLD (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113231
FRI, 08 MAY 20 | ALTAR, HOBART, TAS (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113232
SAT, 09 MAY 20 | ROYAL OAK HOTEL, LAUNCESTON, TAS (18+)
Tickets available from https://tickets.oztix.com.au/outlet/event/a2d551f0-8f52-417a-a258-3e8ef8578227
FRI, 15 MAY 20 | HOWLER BAR, BRUNSWICK, VIC (18+)
Tickets available from https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/butterfingers/119276?skin=4406
SAT, 16 MAY 20 | PELLY BAR, FRANKSTON, VIC (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113234
THU, 21 MAY 20 | UC HUB, BRUCE, ACT (18+)
Tickets available from https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/butterfingers-album-tour-2020-canberra/119409?skin=UCLive2019
FRI, 22 MAY 20 | THE LANSDOWNE HOTEL, CHIPPENDALE, NSW (18+)
Tickets available from https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/butterfingers-album-tour-2020/119288?skin=thelansdowne
SAT, 23 MAY 20 | CAMBRIDGE SIDEROOM, NEWCASTLE, NSW (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113237
FRI, 29 MAY 20 | SHADOWS, MT GAMBIER, SA (18+)
Tickets available from https://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/Default.aspx?Event=113238
SAT, 30 MAY 20 | CROWN AND ANCHOR, ADELAIDE, SA (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113239
FRI, 05 JUN 20 | OTHERWISE, TOWNSVILLE, QLD (18+)
Tickets available from https://moshtix.com.au/v2/event/butterfingers-townsville/119419
SAT, 06 JUN 20 | GILLIGANS BACKPACKERS HOTEL & RESORT, CAIRNS, QLD (18+)
Tickets available from http://butterfingers.oztix.com.au/?Event=113243
DISCOGRAPHY
2003 – Everytime EP
2004 – Breakfast at Fatboys
2006 – Deeper You Dig
2010 – Welcome To Flavour Country (Evil Eddie solo release)