And now ladies and gentlemen, Mr PATRICK WOLF !!

[KiteKat]

And now guess who just ordered tickets for Cologne in August . No idea if I'll be able to go but... OH MY FU CKING GOODNESS!!! PATRICK WOLF!!!!!!!!!! *faints again*

 

you absolutely must!!!!

 

with all teh new "electronic" album one suggests it might sound rather "diluted" onstage - but I think it sounds even more grand live- dunno how to xplain....better go and listen

[Petra]

you absolutely must!!!!

 

with all teh new "electronic" album one suggests it might sound rather "diluted" onstage - but I think it sounds even more grand live- dunno how to xplain....better go and listen

Haha, no I just meant that I don't know whether I'll still be in the country then.

 

And I just found a link (Which *I* didnt upload)

[KiteKat]

and I ve fallen in love with "bluebells" after Koko - I always thought twas a beautiful song, but only there I could actually "feel" it...maybe twas the lighting and the whole visual, and the sound buildup towards the end that did it for me, dunno...

[KiteKat]

Haha, no I just meant that I don't know whether I'll still be in the country then.

 

And I just found a link (Which *I* didnt upload)

 

teh album has leaked 23d, and I was wondering why he was singing all teh new songs on 25th (since he only did vulture, damaris, theseus and couple of others before )

 

oh, and in teh end he did a little "f-teh industry" speech and said smth like - whatever, download it away

(and again - I didnt know about the leakage yet and was wondering what the whole speech meant...)

 

so PLEASE PLEASE - give smth to bandstocks!!!

Edited May 1, 2009 by KiteKat

[Petra]

from http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/apr/19/patrick-wolf-interview

 

 

The interview: Patrick Wolf

 

He's Britain's most innovative, radical, creative and, yes, ridiculous, pop star, whose overt sexuality, visual flamboyance and unusual lyrics set him apart from all his contemporaries. He tells Miranda Sawyer how, at 16, and after enduring years of bullying for being effeminate, he quit school, left home, changed his name and embarked on 'a mission to prove everybody wrong'.

 

Before I interview Patrick Wolf, I go to see him in London's gay nightclub Heaven, where he is playing a gig for the faithful. And, crikey, he really is something. Making his entrance in a long cloak, skinhead boots and blond ponytail, over the course of the evening he gradually strips down to a strap-and-buckle body harness and leather trews. At one point, he wears a burka; for his encore he dons full-face glitter and winged cape. James Blunt he ain't.

 

The music is equally dramatic, switching between industrial electro, Russian-tinged folk and acoustic yearning. Patrick plays the accordion, sings like a fallen angel. It's hard to tell if he's channelling David Bowie, Nina Hagen or the Count from Sesame Street but the overall effect is both confrontationally sexual and slightly giggle-inducing. And it is sincere. Patrick is a man whose songs come from the heart, whether that heart beats beneath black feathers or an S&M truss.

 

Only 25 and already on to his fourth album, Patrick Wolf is unlike any singer-songwriter around. More radical, more talented, more confounding, more ridiculous. There can't be many artists who manage to combine posing in a recent Burberry campaign with joining Charlotte Church in a duet on her TV show, supporting Arcade Fire and shimmying into Elton John's Black Tie and Tiara Ball wearing a silver sequinned cardie and silly trousers. Though he hasn't quite yet become our own Queen of Pop - he tells me that, when he brought out his first album, Lycanthropy, in 2003, he was shocked that people couldn't see that he was, in fact, the new Madonna - he's well on his way to becoming something far more interesting than regular old Madge.

 

Like Madonna, he's always changing; unlike her, he doesn't piggyback on other people's talents. He has no need. He plays umpteen instruments, including the ukulele (he made his own theremin aged 11); he's a trained composer ("I hear music in my head as loud as if it's playing through earphones"); and he styles all his looks, which range from Dickensian waif to Hoxton playboy. His latest album, The Bachelor, is the first where he's allowed himself to collaborate, principally with Alec Empire, formerly of Atari Teenage Riot, and Fiona Brice, a string arranger. Folk musician Eliza Carthy is on there; Tilda Swinton has a speaking part on a couple of tracks. Patrick also went to Paris to work with Thomas Bloch, world expert on the cristal baschet, an amazing 1950s instrument made of glass rods.

 

It all sounds extremely ambitious, particularly as last year he was dropped by his major record label. "They wanted me to have Mark Ronson as my producer," he shrugs. "And I didn't want to." Before he went he racked up an enormous cab bill - he can be very grand, Patrick - but then his accountant told him off ("For the usual: living a champagne lifestyle on lemonade money") and he reined himself in.

 

He tells me this with a wry smile as we drink cups of tea and eat digestives. Patrick's press cuttings and performances had led me to believe I'd be talking to a full-on diva, Grace Jones meets Violet Elizabeth, but he's proving delightful: polite, amusing, a bit shy. We're in his one-bedroom flat, in Borough, which he rents with his boyfriend, William, who works in radio and on Patrick's merchandise. They've just moved in; they furnished the entire place from car boot sales and second-hand shops. The landlord lives in a six-storey place across the courtyard. "He keeps saying he's going to introduce us to his houseboy, Julian," grins naughty Patrick. "We can't wait."

 

After he was dropped he set up his own label and brought out The Bachelor himself, asking fans to invest in him via Bandstocks.com to meet some of the costs. At one point he had so many songs that he planned to make a double album. But that would have been too expensive, plus the tunes fell naturally into two types; so now he's bringing out the darker set as The Bachelor and then, when he's raised enough money to finish off the next batch, he'll release The Conqueror, which will be more upbeat.

 

We spend a good hour talking about the lyrics on The Bachelor: they're far from usual, inspired by family ancestry, a friend's suicide, Appalachian mountain poetry, modern politics. At one point Patrick pretends to be an out-of-control computer, over some beats he made on an Atari when he was 16. He says, "I'm always searching for the new taboo", and has a knack of tickling people where they'd rather not be touched at all. His latest single, "Vulture", is a prime example. Dark, DAF-esque, but very catchy, it is accompanied by an online video that sees Patrick roll around saucily in a buckle-me-up jock-strap. It's a long way from the primary colours and school-boy shorts of the promo for 2007's "The Magic Position", his biggest hit. "My mum saw it and she was like, 'Oh, Patrick, what are you doing?' You know, I had my picture taken for the Burberry campaign, and I look like a gentleman, very classy. And then two months later I get my bum out for my video. She wasn't happy."

 

To Patrick, however, the video is an artistic expression of where the track came from, which is a lost weekend that he spent in LA, "experimenting with certain practices". "If a woman made a video like that it would be celebrated as sexy and artistic," he points out. "I do it and I'm a stupid faggot. It's not as though this is it, my final look. This is just a step on the way, so that when I'm 80 I can look back and see a life full of different characters and images that I've explored."

 

Although he's played around with his sexuality throughout his career - he currently identifies as gay but was in a relationship with a girl for a long time and once told an interviewer: "I don't know whether I'm destined to live my life with a horse, a woman or a man" - that's not what makes Patrick interesting. It's not even his one-man-Radiohead approach to making music. What's fascinating about him is his wilful, almost suicidal, desire to go his own way.

 

At 16 he informed his parents that he was leaving home and did so two days later, changing his surname from Apps to Wolf, supporting himself through busking and bar work until he got a record deal with an independent label. He made his first LP entirely solo. "I was really stubborn. I thought, I'm gonna be like Kate Bush, produce, choreograph, be in the charge of the artwork... I wanted to establish my own identity. I threw everything I had into that album. I threw everything out apart from it: I cut off my family, my education, any chance of financial security."

 

 

[Petra]

He dismisses the area where he was brought up as "the suburbs", though it was actually Clapham, south London, and he had a liberal, artistic upbringing. His dad was a musician-turned-BBC man; his mother, a painter. She took Patrick and his elder sister, Jo (now a musician and film editor), to see art exhibitions when they were very young: Damien Hirst, Egon Schiele. For music, there was classical or jazz: no pop until they were 10. Whenever he or Jo had problems they were encouraged to write a letter to a good fairy or a bad goblin. "It was an idyllic childhood, a fantasy world."

 

Holidays were spent in Ireland with his mother's family. He was very close to his grandfather, who told him that there were fairies in the garden shed. Patrick could see their lights, flickering in the night: he didn't realise it was his grandad, smoking. He had violin lessons at seven and was a choirboy, though he insists that it was his sister who could really sing: "I just ran about ruining parties through being really hyperactive. I never got parts in plays: I was too melodramatic. Always showing off, making people cry, spoiling things with my desire for attention."

 

Everything changed for Patrick when he went to secondary school: a private all-boys affair in Wimbledon, very academic and sporty. He was horrendously bullied.

 

"It starts with just three people and it spreads," he says, calmly, "until it's 30 people throwing things at you, shouting, beating you up and chasing you down the street. And you think it's your fault, because of who you are. It's your identity so it's your problem. And I wasn't sure if I was gay or bisexual, I wasn't really thinking like that. Obviously I wasn't as macho as the rest of the school but I was just being myself."

 

He would bunk off, painting his toenails so he'd get chucked out of swimming lessons, filling his time with making music and writing his fanzine. Through the latter, in 1997, he interviewed Minty, Leigh Bowery's art-rock group: during the meeting he broke down and told them how awful his life was. Fantastically, they let him join their band. Patrick first performed at Heaven aged 14, playing theremin for Minty.

 

Small recompense. His school life was still terrible. When Patrick asked his supposed mentor for support, he was told, "Well, look at you, what do you expect?" "With gay or bi people, I think education still wonders if it's a nature-versus-nurture thing. If you were black, they'd know they couldn't change you, and racist bullying would never be condoned, but if someone is quite feminine or knows they might be gay at 13, they think they can change you with a bit of rugby."

 

The bullying eventually stopped when Patrick was 15 and his mum saw him being chased down the road. She immediately pulled him out of school, eventually going to court to get the fees back: "It was important for my parents to feel that they hadn't wasted four years paying for an education that ****ed their child up."

 

But it had. The only private establishment that would take Patrick afterwards was the do-whatcha-like boarding school Bedales. He was given a music scholarship and his own room: the only boy ever allowed this. He was considered too damaged to share. Bedales saved him, he says. Lily Allen was there, too, along with "all the other freaks that no other school would take. It was brilliant, being thrown in with all these characters. Before then, my freak status was something that I was made to feel ashamed of. Suddenly it was celebrated, like, 'Oh my God, I love your platform shoes!'" He laughs. "Though, by that point, that wasn't the reaction I wanted any more."

 

Patrick spent his time baking bread, playing the harp and making demos to send to record companies. Unlike his contemporaries, who were aiming vaguely towards university, he knew what he wanted to do. "People underestimate what bullying can do to your ambition. The more I was told that I would be a failure in life, the more I knew that the moment I was 16 and could legally get out of the education system, I was going to show them. I was going to be a superstar. I was on a mission to prove everyone wrong."

 

By everyone, he included his poor parents, who were still very concerned about him. Especially because after he left Bedales, he started dating a 39-year-old man. His mum and dad didn't approve, though Patrick interpreted this as them choosing to stand in the way of his becoming a pop star. Nine years on, they're close again, but his mum still worries about him.

 

"I think she thinks I'm an easy target. Which I am. I put myself out there with no irony or cynicism, so when people are horrible, it's easy to take it personally. But, you know, the sun still comes out in the morning. I can't worry too much if what I'm making is too gay or too straight or too this or too that. I like to throw myself into places I'm not entirely comfortable in. It's all experience, isn't it?"

 

He tells me about going to this year's NME Awards, in his leather trousers and big vulture cape. The indie-boy crowd sang "YMCA" at him. "But look at the lead singer of the Killers [brandon Flowers, who's also wearing feathers at the moment]. He's seen as rock'n'roll. It's because I've got a boyfriend now. There was no comment when I was living with a woman, even when I was being extremely camp, in hot pants."

 

He doesn't really care. "The people I'm inspired by were always searching for the most groundbreaking thing. Like Stockhausen, he was the scum of the classical music world, or Hector Berlioz, who would create a symphony and everyone would get up after five minutes and leave the auditorium. I want to ramp things up a bit. And a love song can be inspired by any gender or sexuality. I feel things slipping backwards. Equal rights, once established, have to be protected."

 

To this end, whenever he employs people, he positively discriminates, so that even his roadies are not white, straight males, which is some achievement.

 

He is so hardcore, Patrick; so unwilling to compromise his ideals or vision that I find him both inspiring and incredibly touching. Still, in the end, his obdurance has served him well. He's not loaded, but he's doing OK: he owns all the rights to his music, other than for the last LP, "and I can always go on tour to make money".

 

Which is what he's about to do; to promote The Bachelor and to raise funds so he can record The Conqueror. Not forgetting Bandstocks. I've already pledged a tenner, figuring that if I put money in Patrick, at least something interesting will come out of it. "Oh, my biggest worry is to be boring," he says earnestly. "I'd rather be scary and confusing than mediocre." Fat chance of that. Come on, everybody! Invest in Wolf!

 

 

From cub to wolf

Early life Born Patrick Apps on 30 June 1983 in Ireland to painter mother and jazz musician father. Grew up in south London, where he still lives. Begins writing songs aged 12. At the age of 14 begins performing the theramin with Leigh Bowery's band Minty. Changes his name at 16 after becoming interested in werewolf mythology.

 

2003 After being spotted by Faith and Industry Records in Paris, debut album Lycanthropy is released.

 

2007 Appears in a Burberry advert after his third album is released.

 

2008 Splits from Universal Records, and sells £10 shares on bandstocks.com to finance his upcoming album, The Bachelor, to be released in June.

 

He says "My career is my child, it keeps me going. Patrick Wolf is my Frankenstein."

 

They say "If you were looking for a new Bowie, Patrick Wolf is proving himself the Thin White Duke's successor in more than just his extravagant dress sense. He swims against the tide." NME

[KiteKat]

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=patrick+wolf+moscow&aq=f

[A. Clay]

You Must Know: Patrick Wolf

 

"Patrick Wolf -- think a male Lady Gaga with a dash of Mika and a hint of Robyn --

has an upcoming album called 'The Bachelor' coming out,

and I'm a little discombobulated . . . . "

http://blogs.nypost.com/popwrap/archives/2009/05/patrick_wolf.html

Edited May 5, 2009 by A. Clay

[Iridaceae]

You Must Know: Patrick Wolf

 

"Patrick Wolf -- think a male Lady Gaga with a dash of Mika and a hint of Robyn --

has an upcoming album called 'The Bachelor' coming out,

and I'm a little discombobulated . . . . "

http://blogs.nypost.com/popwrap/archives/2009/05/patrick_wolf.html

:shocked:Patrick is far more talented than Lady Gaga, and I don't really understand the comparison with Robyn and Mika either.

 

Anyway.. I love Patrick Wolf! I think I'm going to buy bandstocks..

His new album is already on youtube(I've not heard it completely because I'm feeling bad for him as it isn't out yet:blush-anim-cl:), I've heard Hard Times tho and I really love it, it's going to be his new single:). I'm also really addicted to The Tinderbox (b-side of vulture).

[-Jennie-]

Ooh completely forgot to post here the other day. I saw him at a little free gig in the cafe in Selfridges ... not many people were there and they only allowed a 2-row audience in front of the stage. I was in it I told him how I liked the new stuff etc and he said he could 'just eat me' right now... In the end, he didn't eat me, but he did decide to LICK my face..as in right from my chin to my forehead. So random but don't really expect anything less from him!

 

Accident and Emergency/Happy Birthday/Poker Face/Just Dance

 

Bluebells

 

Hard Times

 

[KiteKat]

:roftl:

"....your appetite is so dangerrrouuuus!!!"

(well, twas just "tasting" tho )

[S&M]

You Must Know: Patrick Wolf

 

"Patrick Wolf -- think a male Lady Gaga with a dash of Mika and a hint of Robyn --

has an upcoming album called 'The Bachelor' coming out,

and I'm a little discombobulated . . . . "

http://blogs.nypost.com/popwrap/archives/2009/05/patrick_wolf.html

Lady Gaga doesn't have even a fraction of his talent and I can't see any of the others singing something like 'The Childcatcher' or donning leather bondage gear, so I say a big fat 'no' to those comparisons.

 

I told him how I liked the new stuff etc and he said he could 'just eat me' right now... In the end, he didn't eat me, but he did decide to LICK my face..as in right from my chin to my forehead. So random but don't really expect anything less from him!

:bow:

[S&M]

"Exciting information for you now, with regards to the new album… The Bachelor limited edition is available NOW and is completely exclusive to Bandstockers. Numbers are limited, so hurry on over to the Bandstocks shop now!

 

The Bachelor limited edition will feature a beautifully crafted box set, complete with a heavyweight slipcase that features the album cover in all of its glory without any title or logo. Inside of the slipcase is a perfect bound 28-page book, which tells the story of the album with the use of photos and lyrics throughout.

 

Remember, if you aren’t already a Bandstocker, you can still buy stocks. Just head on over to bandstocks.com to do so, and you will be entitled to privileges like these and much more in future.

 

Love,

 

Team Wolf"

 

 

Ooh yeah, I've finally bought Bandstocks and pre-ordered the limited edition boxed version of the Bachelor.

[Petra]

"Exciting information for you now, with regards to the new album… The Bachelor limited edition is available NOW and is completely exclusive to Bandstockers. Numbers are limited, so hurry on over to the Bandstocks shop now!

 

The Bachelor limited edition will feature a beautifully crafted box set, complete with a heavyweight slipcase that features the album cover in all of its glory without any title or logo. Inside of the slipcase is a perfect bound 28-page book, which tells the story of the album with the use of photos and lyrics throughout.

 

Remember, if you aren’t already a Bandstocker, you can still buy stocks. Just head on over to bandstocks.com to do so, and you will be entitled to privileges like these and much more in future.

 

Love,

 

Team Wolf"

 

 

Ooh yeah, I've finally bought Bandstocks and pre-ordered the limited edition boxed version of the Bachelor.

Me too, me too! 15 Pounds that are worth it and there are even more than 4 songs on the CD ().

[S&M]

Me too, me too! 15 Pounds that are worth it and there are even more than 4 songs on the CD ().

Well, 25 pounds since you need to buy Bandstocks first.

 

But yeah, worth every penny!

[Petra]

Well, 25 pounds since you need to buy Bandstocks first.

 

But yeah, worth every penny!

Well, yes. I actually didnt think of that so far . But it's for a good thing!

[S&M]

HAS ANYONE LISTENED TO THE WHOLE ALBUM YET?

 

I just did.

 

So good.

 

So f*cking good.

 

So f*ckingly brilliantly good.

 

I'm having a complete fangurl moment.

Edited May 10, 2009 by S&M

[Petra]

HAS ANYONE LISTENED TO THE WHOLE ALBUM YET?

 

I just did.

 

So good.

 

So f*cking good.

 

So f*ckingly brilliantly good.

 

I'm having a complete fangurl moment.

I havent so far. I have the files though but I'm not listenting to them until I have the final album with the booklet in my hands. I don't like the file-business (also because I just downloaded these somewhere instead of properly buying them) and.. well, I'll wait. But good to know it's good .

 

I just bought some Maximo Park CDs and that's what I'm listenting to now. As soon as Patsy's new work arrives, it'll take over my player .

[Nadine]

I've only heard a few songs, but I really love them. The Bachelor, Hard Times and the Tinderbox are pure magic.

[Suzy]

Patrick Wolf is coming to Toronto!

 

Tickets are on sale starting today for a mere $20 - a small venue called the Mod Club where I first saw Mika in March 2007!

 

But June 17th?.....What if...what if Mika is in North America by then? Then what?

Edited May 13, 2009 by Suzy

[BonjourMika1990]

GOING TO SEE PATRICK IN CHICAGO ON JUNE 15TH!

[S&M]

"As announced previously, the special edition of The Bachelor is available to pre-order now from the Bandstocks shop, completely exclusive to those of you who have invested in shares. The Bachelor limited edition version will feature a beautifully crafted box set, which comes complete with a heavyweight slipcase that features the album cover in all of its glory without any title or logo on it whatsoever. Inside of the slipcase is a perfectly bound 28-page book, which tells the story of the album from beginning to end with the use of photos and lyrics throughout. Numbers are limited to 1000, and they will be signed and hand-numbered by Patrick so please be quick to ensure you get your paws on a copy of this strictly exclusive and very exciting addition to your album collection. If you would like a copy and you don’t yet have a share, please go to Bandstocks.com to sign up if you’re in the UK, and you can join the tribe at TWIN if you are outside the UK."

 

I didn't know they'd come signed.

 

Also:

 

"Rough Trade Records are also offering the first 500 people to buy a copy of the album from their shop exclusive copies of The Spinster EP, which features 5 brand new tracks from Patrick, tracklisting as follows:

1. The Bachelor (Balalaika Mix)

2. Teignmouth (Lone Bachelor Demo 2003)

3. Vaeety Braeu

4. Pigeon Song (Live at Shepherds Bush Empire)

5. Who Will? (St Bredes Church Karaoke Mix)"

 

I want the Spinster EP but since I've already pre-ordered the album I guess it's not worth it for me.

[Petra]

Patrick Wolf is coming to Toronto!

 

Tickets are on sale starting today for a mere $20 - a small venue called the Mod Club where I first saw Mika in March 2007!

 

But June 17th?.....What if...what if Mika is in North America by then? Then what?

 

Go to see Patrick! !

 

GOING TO SEE PATRICK IN CHICAGO ON JUNE 15TH!

 

!!!

[greta]

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4136690

 

A butterfly attempts to escape my guts as I climb the stairs to Patrick Wolf's riverside flat. With notoriously difficult (read also: exceptional, eccentric, explorer-like...) artists there's always a chance they'll misinterpret a question before you've finished it and start bashing you in the face, Björk-vs-'ratzi stylee. Or there's the distinct possibility, especially at 11am on a wet Monday morning, you'll be greeted by silent indifference verging on belligerence, especially if you happen to catch one of them before their first caffeine hit of the day. There's also the chance they read something on your site and wanna get their rant on like Ryan-Adams-vs-Pitchfork.

This is before factoring in the smaller fanboy-related matter of Patrick creating landscapes which I've lived and lost myself in for many of my darkest days.

Then there's the tall matter of ringing the door bell and shaking hands with the towering, lightly glittered blonde, musician-cum-otherworldly-popstar. There's the sitting down, drinking tea (without spilling it everywhere), eating biscuits, surveying the loft-space - it has assorted stage wear and distinct spaces for living and recording. Oh and the small matter of opening my gob, pressing record on the dictaphone and beginning the interview about The Bachelor...

DiS: Do you hate doing interviews or do you quite like them?

PW: Oh, I guess it’s second nature now, really.

DiS: I suppose it has to be…?

PW: Well, I’d say maybe more like third nature - after: shows and live… behaviour, performing, videos, artwork and everything. First nature is of course making music but I’ve become very used to it now, on my fourth album. Even before I did my first EP I was around a lot of performance art where you have to constantly – even at music college, doing composition – justify your actions, you know? So it’s a little bit like that for me. And after the end of today it’ll be the third day of this album, and it goes on until 8 o’clock at night, so…towards the end of the day you’ve been asked the same question six times. But it's early and you’re the first of the day!

DiS: Good! When you started making music it was very much in your bedroom, and you’ve now had to adapt to bigger stages, different audiences that do and don’t know who you are. Is that something that you’ve embraced? Because on the one hand you seem to reference classical music and on the other it’s Madonna, and just looking at these [rom-com, Care Bears and art-verging-on-porn] DVDs as well…

PW: Oh no, no don’t! Tilda Swinton was going to come over for tea and I was just like, ‘What the **** are we going to do about, like, all these’

When I make an album, there’s so much emotional confession going on during the day, and I’m lost in like, string arrangements, and beat programme stuff, which really takes a lot of heart, and a lot of focus – creative focus – I need to lock myself away with the Lady Gaga album or, go through the ‘girls’ night in’ DVD collection from Woolworths…or wherever it is now.

DiS: You mentioned Britney on stage at an album preview show the other night, which always seems to have been slightly there in your music, buried but that side of you has certainly crept out increasingly, especially over these past two albums?

PW: It’s not ironic, at all. I really do enjoy listening to her. With this album, I became really interested in Danja, Timbaland’s protégé, and all the vocal effects he was using – obviously utilising Pro Tools and Ableton to a real extreme within pop music. And that was kind of where, like on album one, it was actually a lot more influenced by all the old records by Planet Mu, Reflex and all the experimental one-offs on FatCat. And I don’t know what’s happened. Maybe on album four I’ve been listening a lot more to Mariah Carey produced by Danja; Britney produced by Danja. There’s been a big American R’n’B influence on this album.

DiS: Is that like the art of mass communication, that art ofpop, something you’ve been quite intrigued by? Like how to communicate with a universal crowd? It seems like you’ve made a transition in the past few year's, with an album not for yourself, but for what someone a bit like yourself might want to listen to? Don’t get me wrong, I don't think you've shifted but perhaps the scale of things has changed?

PW: I don’t think… It’s half and half. When I go ‘okay: it’s time to really make an album, to finish an album, and finish songs’ – say I’ve written a song on the piano or my acoustic stuff here, and then I have to climb up the ladder and start programming it, it’s not changed too much at all. I’m just no longer living in a little hostel, and I’ve managed to sustain a business. Everything’s a lot easier for me now, and I don’t have to panic if I’m spending twelve days in a row working on a song, for example. I’ve got myself in a comfortable position following the touring I’ve done over the years, and owning my back catalogue, and having this business… I can be as selfish with my time as I want, you know? Now it’s all finished – the album got sent off to the factory the other day and it’s almost like ’Oh God! It’s the end of that free time…’ Now you’re onto like, wake up, six hours of interviews, and this is the part where I have a bit more creative license.

I’ve learnt not to lie or make stories up. I remember on my first album I was so ashamed of coming from Wandsworth, that I just started talking about my great-grandfather’s friend who has a lighthouse, and I was just alluding stotires that I was born like, on a windswept cliff. And I think I was just really ashamed of being from South London. I just wanted to be international. Or Kate Bush…

DiS: You just didn’t want anyone to think you had any roots, it seemed…

PW: Yeah. I just didn’t want anyone to connect me to anything. I didn’t want to be connected, at all. I almost accidentally created an enigma for myself, and by the time I was on Universal, with that amount of press and that amount of speculation, there’s no room for enigmatic behaviour. You just can’t do it, basically, so I protected a lot of my private life for the first couple of albums, and now it’s like…I don’t know. I’m a rambler, so…

[greta]

DiS: So you touched a bit on the business side, and obviously this record’s coming out in a different way – which seems different to the way music is currently funded and released. But it doesn’t seem different to the way music was funded when people first started recording music, and it doesn’t seem that different to taxes paying for sculptures or artworks on ceilings…

PW: Yeah.

DiS: Do you feel like people are making a big deal over it, when it feels quite natural, maybe? I know some of it’s obviously people buying the album now and they’re just happening to pay in advacne, so you’ve got the money to cashflow things?

PW: I’m in a really lucky position, with the whole Universal fiasco. Basically, I always say to any new musician, have a fantastic lawyer with you, even if you don’t have a record deal – even if you haven’t done your first show – make sure you find an amazing lawyer. Someone that’s passionate about your career, because they will save you. Like, what you think you’re doing at the age of 18, could affect whether you have to give up music at the age of 30, or 80, or have to sign on when you’re 35. And I’m so blessed to have had a lot of good lawyers in my career so far.

The first person I called when Universal turned around and said, ‘this album’s too weird; you’re too much of a troublemaker – you’re not conventional enough for Universal Records, etcetera’ – I was like, ‘thank you, thank you!’ – it was such a compliment. I put the phone down, was like, ‘yes!’ But then I was like…I looked at my flat, looked at my boyfriend, looked at the kitchen cupboard, and was like, ‘Oh ****. What am I going to do?’

My plan was to do-a-Prince and go on tour for two years, release the record for free, which was about 80% finished at that point – and they’d paid for it all. Basically, I’d made a very expensive record – twelve-piece strings, gospel choir, everything recorded in a beautiful studio with the best mics and the best engineers – sort of the opposite of the last three albums in a way. The last time I was recording a drum kit in a nice studio was with one little radio mic, trying to create a garage-y sound, whereas this one is pristine. I’m really, really proud of the way it sounds and the people I’ve worked with...though a lot of people were waiting to be paid. A lot of people had worked on favours, and I’m not one to scam people, you know – I want to be good to people who I worked with on the record. So I thought I’d go on tour and raise money for the record that way, but it was such a shame, as we were up to the last hurdle, and it was just…okay: time to look for another record deal. And there were lots of people who had been interested and excited, but because I’d got to this point where I had this album I could potentially finish with 100% no compromise – and looking at the way the industry is now, where even independents are looking for this 360° deal thing – or, most are – and I’d always owned my merchandise and everything, my whole life had been making sure no-one touches any of these things, I just thought: I’m going to get in real **** now. But then I found out from my lawyer that Universal owed me the album anyway, contractually.

(SNIP! Off the record stuff removed else DiS will need to find a good lawyer...)

I always used to idolise Kate Bush for having all these arguments with her record label yet always managing to get the record out, and I thought I could do the same, but it just…I always think of Pulp as well. I always think they’re fantastic for getting to album seven or eight. I love all their early records, and to keep on going as a band; I think it’s harder for a band, who have so many units to support as they go along. I don’t know how they did that. I think it’s amazing, and really inspiring. But for a solo artist…you can’t split up with yourself, you can only quit.

There was a point two years ago when I was thinking of giving up publicity, there was a point when the thelondonpaper was photographing me and the Daily Star was writing about me in gossip columns, and it was going a bit over the edge of – what’s the name of that girl who was getting her fanny out all the time? Chantelle? Chanelle? I felt like a musical Chanelle, and I just really didn’t like it. And it was getting that way with the media and press in other countries, and I just suddenly thought – this is zapping my energy for what I ought to, what I have to be doing, which is writing songs.

DiS: It detracts from what you are.

PW: Totally. And it’s so easy to get out of a taxi, and your PR person’s called thelondonpaper, and you don’t even know all this ****’s going on. You get out and they’re right in your face, asking if you’re having sex with Agyness Deyn, and you’re like: ‘This is the worst person I wanted to be when I was 18.’ So I wanted to delete the public thing. But then everyone thought I was talking about quitting music forever, and, if you see what I wrote on the internet, it was totally the opposite. I could never quit doing what I do. That was never the idea. When Universal dropped me I was like well, I’ve done one and two without them and even album three was pretty much finished before they picked me up. So why should this stop me? I could still be doing record company negotiations right now, looking at a 2010 release, which would just literally screw me up. I need to stay productive and creative and touring.

DiS: You’ll probably end up writing another four albums in that time…

PW: Exactly. I mean, the fifth album is 60% recorded – it’s the second part of the album – which I plan to finish really soon to come out in the beginning of 2010, so I really have to get my creative rhythm going. Otherwise I’ll sit here eating Krispy Kremes everyday, getting really fat, and probably won’t even be able to get in the studio. It’s not good. I have to keep creative.

 

Check back later this week for Parts 2 and 3 of this feature where Patrick talks about everything from pop co-writers to Bjork, Bright Eyes, Alec Empire right the way through to lyrics involving chopping off your penis.

The Bachelor is released on June 1st. For more info and to hear some tracks visit myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf.