Rufus Wainwright has said he is exploring the idea of recording an album in French.
“I’ve thought a lot about it,” he told NME. “I was brought up in Montreal and went to French schools for years. I’d been spending a lot of time in France and hanging out with a lot of young, hip Parisians.
“I’m itching at some point to make a French record – but one that’s very avant-garde and a total left-turn from this American, Anglo-Saxon songwriting. It would be very dark and something that the kids might get lost in.”
Wainwright, 46, drops his ninth album of original material, Unfollow the Rules, on Friday. Its original April release date was delayed due to COVID-19.
The singer has made clear his thoughts on U.S. president Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
“It’s impossible to minimize the ineptitude and pure evil of this administration – in terms of just not caring about anybody’s lives,” said Wainwright. “At first they said it was only the old, the sick and the dying who were at risk. Now they’re saying, ‘Well, if young people get it then they won’t die’. These kids are going to have scarred lungs.
“The amount of what I can’t describe as anything other than evil in our government is pretty breathtaking.”