He's F-I-E-R-C-E!!!
Patrick Wolf knows how to keep his fans in suspense including us at SUPERSWEET; we hang on the end of the phone line, waiting for the holding beeps to finally materialise into the chirpy welcome from the man himself. 2008 was Patrick's year out of the limelight, alienating press and all things invasive in his life simply saying "F*** It, I'm going to be Patrick for a year and I can honestly be a good songwriter again."
So rested and happy, 2009 finds the dazzling singer come out of his cocoon, ready to launch probably his most personal album yet. SUPERSWEET only needs to prompt Patrick and his chatter flows without restriction, even confessing his "conservative new year" where he made a "funny coloured" Pina Colada concoction and was in bed by twelve fifteen, set to work further on his new album.
This time around, Patrick has cut his ties from major label Universal for his own label Bloody Chamber Music and if that wasn't bold enough, he's putting the production costs in the hands of his fan base. Through bandstocks.com, the much loved singer is placing the album to allow direct involvement with the fans, where "you get to be an investor and stakeholder in the album". Patrick reveals how his "laywer actually just set up bandstocks, he talked me through what it really was about and it seemed like a perfect way. Almost like in the seventies and where you had fan clubs and you got special CD's through the post [SS: like Take That?], Yeah, I had it with the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles! It's a return to that".
SUPERSWEET wondered what made Patrick take such a risky direction: "I think it was a mixture of knowing that I had immense amount of support and a very loyal, dedicated set of listeners that have grown a lot over the last two albums and I can basically always rely on that I can always go on tour for the rest of my life and having little sets of audiences, so I came to think, this is how a record label should be." Yet ultimately, Patrick asserts he wants to do the opposite to a major label and respect the fans, "I was very disappointed in the way that things work in the major label world where it's like "£500,000 on a record and let's hope for the best. They don't actually care where it's going and the intricacies of your audiences who will buy it".
Patrick Wolf's creative approach doesn't stop there releasing his album Battle* in two parts, "The first disc, which will be coming out in the next couple of months is Battle Part One: Bachelor. The second disc is called The Conqueror. The Bachelor is inspired by the lack of love that I had in my life for a long time. I was the friend who had been single for three years, like the proper male Bridget Jones. I was getting so sick of it; you get to that point where you are like 'I am going to be alone for the rest of my life'. So I thought, 'It's fine, I'll get a cat, I'll take up knitting in my spare time, and just forget about sex and just stick to white wine and gin.' On top of that I was touring, so I felt like a lonely travelling business man"
Evident by his upbeat demeanor, the singer reveals openly how love has changed him to produce the second disc of Battle, in all a rather romantic way. SUPERSWEET is sure Patrick is smiling down the phone as he remarks, "Right at the end of writing about all of these songs at that state of mind, and influenced in all that kind of solitude, then like a movie, you bump into someone, eyes meet across a crowded room. I've been with that person for over a year and a half and we moved in together over seven months ago. I've become super domesticated, waking up next up to the same person every day and that's what the second disc is influenced by, a total flipside feeling of bachelordom". In fact, we can't get enough of the singer's personal approach which is one likely way the fans keep coming back for more: "I just want to be a proper human being that talks non-stop; I have no ways of stopping myself from giving away information!"
Hearing whispers about actress Tilda Swinton's presence in the album, SUPERSWEET wondered how Patrick Woolf turned to use such an eclectic movie star. "Although there is a lot of misery in the lyrics and a lot of negativity, I needed there to be a little bit of hope in the album. I was going to read these little monologues myself. I sounded really dreadful; it just sounded like I was just badly rapping," Realising that "it's meant to be a monologue for an actress." Patrick luckily grasped tickets to a Q&A for Julia, starring Swinton. Dressing up to the nines coincidently in "almost the exact outfit she was wearing,", Patrick went for it and told her about the track, "I felt so stupid, like how I remember running after someone from Blur when I was 13 and thinking I'm so sad and so cheesy." Yet with a swift email from the actress, Battle resulted with four monologues from her on the album, three on the first, and one on the second disc. Laughing, Patrick said how Tilda is even "doing an impression of my mum. My mum was calling up her friends saying (puts on a higher voice) 'I've got an Oscar winner playing me?!'"
Known for being vocal about artists receiving little money for their successes, SUPERSWEET was curious to know if bandstocks.com is really about getting the money Patrick Wolf deserves. With confidence he asserts how bandstocks.com is really to fund the people who helped make the album: "A lot of people had to work for free, for favours, because they believed in the project. I don't want to be rich, or have a luxurious lifestyle, I just want to make sure that while I'm spending 9 months of the year making an album, that I can still feed myself for the next year and have a normal life, I have no qualifications for anything, if I wasn't doing this or it all went wrong, I would be sandwich maker! That's the only thing I am qualified to do, except be Patrick Wolf. Life is a gamble and making a record is a gamble, everything you do in the industry is like the national lottery, all I have to worry about is making the best record I can, and hopefully people will hear it."
*On 19th February, 2009, it was announced that the album will now be called "The Bachelor".
Words: Gemma Dempster
Illustration: Frida Wannerberger