Patrick Wolf
At only 25, Patrick Wolf is poised to release his fourth album, The Bachelor, next month.
Blending elements of indie folk and electronic, the record is one half of a double album with its successor The Conqueror due out next year.
The Guide spoke to Wolf ahead of his gig at the Roadmender.
"Hello Northamptonshire," he begins, "You know my album's got quite a link to your county.
"My boyfriend grew up in Bozeat and I spent some time in Kettering with his brother and his wife.
"I was returning to a lot of my family roots on this album, trying to
explore a lot of things which were not to do with showbusiness and more to do with the people around me.
"I went up to the World Conker Championship. It was a great day and I ended up recording sounds and samples for the record."
The Bachelor charts the time before Wolf met his partner, a time he describes as "single and quite lonely."
"I guess it's quite an aggressive album – when you're single you have so much time you your hands to get politically and socially active and aware of the world around you," he adds.
"You challenge things a lot more as you're not in a place of total love
and comfort."
After a childhood in south London during which he endured bullying at school, Wolf left home at 16.
He had begun writing songs when he was about 12.
Two years later he began performing with Leigh Bowery's band, Minty.
After being spotted by Faith and Industry Records in Paris, he released his album Lycanthropy, which was followed in 2005 by Wind In The Wires and 2007's The Magic Position.
The Bachelor marks a first for Wolf, who teamed up with Eliza Carthy for collaborations and worked with former Atari Teenage Riot frontman Alec Empire.
"Black Down is probably my favourite track," he says, talking about the record. "It's a song for my father which is trying to renegotiate a
relationship with him.
"I want to support my family better, I want to make my sister
proud, I want to make my father proud.
"It's a return to my family, really, after everything I caused when I was a teenager and the reckless behaviour of my early 20s and thinking
I wanted the pop star life."
He explains he wanted to find childhood heroes to work with: "I wanted to use it as a way to grow and learn new sounds," he adds.
"There's a slight aggressive element to the album, a bit more of a
vigilante approach to the songs.
"Alec was the perfect person to help me challenge my aggression."
Wolf's 'pop star' life has seen him touring almost continually since he
was 19.
However, after the release of The Magic Position he decided to take
time off from touring in an attempt to regain some normal rhythm to his live and "do decent human being things.
"It really helped my songwriting," he adds.
"I was feeling really thrown around the world. I've travelled so much but I'm such a homely person – touring can do funny things to you head."
Wolf currently lives in South London with his partner William, in a
home he describes as sanctuary where he could cocoon himself in
forever and just look out at the garden.
Touring aside, Wolf is currently putting the finishing touches to The Conqueror, which he says deals with more stories in the present tense.
With the next couple of years and albums already mapped out for him,
Wolf explains he hopes to simply carry on writing.
"The thing has always been to be 90 years old and have a life of albums behind me," he explains.
"That's all I want to achieve in life.
"I've no desire to have a property empire or adopt a Turkish baby.
"I just want to document my life, keep living to the extreme and see
where this journey takes me."
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Friday 25 May 2012
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