The appearance of this renowned artist on the music scene some 20 years ago marked the advent of a more romantic and flamboyant style. And his new album, 'Unfollow the Rules', is proof that his talent hasn't lost any of its brilliance. 

It&#39;s been eight years since Rufus Wainwright released his last album, 2012&#39;s Out of the Game. Eight years he spent working in other fields, most notably on his second opera and setting Shakespeare&#39;s sonnets to music. Not to mention marrying his partner,&nbsp;J&ouml;rn Weisbrodt, and raising his now nine-year-old daughter Viva.

Taking nearly a decade off to breathe fresh air and contemplate other&nbsp;skies is a gamble in these times when&nbsp;new music seems to flow&nbsp;ceaselessly and artists seems to be&nbsp;here today,&nbsp;gone tomorrow. But Wainwright&#39;s latest album, Unfollow the Rules, is&nbsp;proof that sometimes it pays to take time off&nbsp;from constant creation.&nbsp;

Replete with sweeping strings, bold&nbsp;woodwinds, and lush backing vocals, against which Wainwright&#39;s rich tenor soars, the album brings together all the hallmarks of his music in a thrilling rollercoaster of emotions.&nbsp;

To mark the release of Unfollow the Rules, we speak to Wainwright about this new album, his creative process, and how his love of opera influences his music.&nbsp;

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Was it important to you to take time off&nbsp;before publishing another&nbsp;album?

This project is a little different from previous ones. Before, I followed a specific system: make an album,&nbsp;followed up by a tour, then return to the studio to produce another album, and so on. But with this record, I first had to find its emotional anchor,&nbsp;build the rest around that, and then figure out what was the best single for radio.

I was tired of the pace imposed by the industry. In recent years, I&#39;ve written operas and adapted Shakespearan sonnets without ceasing to write new songs. I left it to my producer, Mitchell From, to decide which ones would form a coherent whole.&nbsp;I didn&#39;t want to get overly&nbsp;involved in his decisions. We wanted to continue the legend&nbsp;of Rufus Wainwright, with a&nbsp;singular sound that could represent my entire universe.

Without a doubt, coming back to Los Angeles, the place where&nbsp;my career first began, and the&nbsp;desire be a part of that&nbsp;dynasty of musicians living in California, such as Randy Newman, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell,&nbsp;were among the factors&nbsp;that influenced my writing of these new songs.

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From the perspective of 20 years later, what do you think of your beginnings?

After spending a few years in Montreal and Los Angeles, I moved to New York. It&nbsp;was&nbsp;a pretty disastrous&nbsp;period. What I was doing was miles apart&nbsp;from the aesthetics of that&nbsp;time, of the city back then with its heroin chic, grunge,&nbsp;and nihilistic side. And&nbsp;I was wearing bow ties and singing&nbsp;operatic arias! I didn&#39;t feel comfortable, and even if I wasn&#39;t willing to give up everything, I felt&nbsp;discouraged.

Then I arrived in Los Angeles, and it felt like the gates to heaven were opening. Everyone liked what I did, and I signed to a big record company, called Dreamworks.&nbsp;I felt more like&nbsp;myself amidst LA&#39;s&nbsp;musical history, as embodied by Harry Nilsson, the Beach Boys, and Van Dyke Parks. And when I returned to New York with a record under my belt, they loved me.&nbsp;

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Where do you live today?

In Los Angeles. Like a flower, I need the sun! The landscape also&nbsp;inspires me, which is good. We spend a lot of time driving around in our car.

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How has opera&nbsp;influenced your work as a songwriter?

I have become a kind of Robin Hood of music. I take from the rich in order to make them richer! I write opera because I love the art form&nbsp;and its dramatic scale. I love working with an orchestra and&nbsp;singers, and the idea of losing myself in a fantasy world. But when I come out of this experience, there I find pop music. These two worlds need each other more than they&nbsp;imagine. At this point, they know only a little of each other!&nbsp;Could opera be simpler and&nbsp;more accessible, and could pop music be more sophisticated, more romantic, and more flamboyant?

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How do you connect&nbsp;these two experiences?

Writing an opera requires a bit more dexterity, you have to be able to take a step back and&nbsp;consider the work as a whole, and&nbsp;to be more collaborative. It&#39;s a Herculean task, but a very rewarding one. Writing pop, as far as I&#39;m concerned, is about exploring my own selfish concerns, of delving into my ego, my heart&nbsp;and my mind, and expressing it&nbsp;without offending anyone. And convincing them to listen. I found it was good for my ego to work with other musicians, and to open up to other people. All these pop stars like Lady Gaga and&nbsp;Kanye West, they seem lost in&nbsp;the contemplation of themselves.

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Do you feel that you have a civic duty to take a stand on political and&nbsp;social issues, or is your music sufficient on its own?

As an American, I absolutely cannot be indifferent to what my country does, whether it is regarding foreign or domestic politics, because&nbsp;even not voting has an impact. I&#39;m kind of&nbsp;old-fashioned, I believe fundamentally in the power of an album, of these dozen songs, of this hour of music, which is about the length of a symphony, which&nbsp;offers an emotional journey and&nbsp;a sensitive experience,&nbsp;and from which we emerge changed in some way, more empathetic, and more attentive to the world. It is not&nbsp;a space where you only feel safe,&nbsp;you can also feel uncomfortable, since it allows you to let go completely.

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Ever since you started out, your songs have spoken&nbsp;explicitly about your life. Do&nbsp;you imagine writing exclusively from this angle?

That&#39;s an issue that&nbsp;fascinates me. These days, I&#39;m&nbsp;passionate about the work of Randy Newman. His songs have nothing to do with his life at all. Which has&nbsp;never seemed like a possibility to me before. I have always considered writing in the denominational mode, of realism. I have chosen this path, and I do not think I will stray from it. But it is true that writing opera has made me consider what was best for the characters and for the story. It was&nbsp;a good exercise.

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What is your relationship with social media?

With the help of my husband, we manage my&nbsp;Instagram account. I find it a light medium, kind of harmless. I don&#39;t read all the comments, but there is no controversy and&nbsp;no debate. I am also on Facebook, which is for old people, but I am old! Reading posts that are written by eccentrics who use Facebook as an outlet is quite entertaining. But&nbsp;I stay as far away from Twitter as possible.

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What is the starting point of your&nbsp;songs?

Taking a long walk across a&nbsp;city often gives me ideas for songs. Walking helps me to unlock inspiration when I think I&#39;m running dry. But I also believe in work: every morning, I head&nbsp;to the piano. I also like the idea of someone ordering music from me, because it helps me&nbsp;get out of my&nbsp;comfort zone. I often dream&nbsp;about&nbsp;songs too, and when I wake up, I record the melodies on my phone.&nbsp;

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It&#39;s not just the industry that has experienced a revolution, now the public also has a totally different relationship with music. Is that of concern to you?

I am optimistic by nature, but success is always difficult to achieve.&nbsp;Many people aspire to become&nbsp;rich through music, but that is a dangerous illusion. If you don&#39;t, you&#39;ll likely go crazy. Such a materialistic approach bothers me a lot. As Patti Smith once talked about, what matters is your personal work, not what is on the radio.

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Of all your experiences as a musician, which has meant the most to you?

My pop records. I know I will never be Wagner or Puccini, although maybe one day I will write something that will still be listened to a century in the future. After a long absence, I feel I&#39;ve returned&nbsp;to the heart of my existence, and I am grateful to find a bed in which to lie down.

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Rufus Wainwright: Unfollow the Rules (BMG) 
<a href="http://www.rufuswainwright.com">www.rufuswainwright.com</a>

Rufus Wainwright Opens Up About His New Album, His Creative Process, And His Love Of Opera

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