Rufus Wainwright celebrates new album with a documentary

GRAMMY Award-nominated singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright has announced the launch of RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: UNMAKING UNFOLLOW THE RULES, a behind-the-scenes documentary chronicling the extraordinary creation of his eagerly anticipated new album. The short film, directed by Jeff Richter of Earthquake Productions (Guns N Roses, Lenny Kravitz, De La Soul) is available via NPR Live Sessions HERE. UNFOLLOW THE RULES arrives via BMG on Friday, July 10; pre-orders are available now HERE.

WATCH RUFUS WAINWRIGHT: UNMAKING UNFOLLOW THE RULES

Wainwright’s ninth studio LP and first new pop album since 2012, UNFOLLOW THE RULES finds the artist at the peak of his powers, entering artistic maturity with passion, honesty, and a new-found fearlessness while remaining as creative, bold, and mischievous as ever. Produced by Mitchell Froom (Crowded House, Paul McCartney, Richard Thompson, Suzanne Vega, Randy Newman) at a variety of legendary Los Angeles studios – including Sound City Studios, United Recording, and EastWest Studios – the album serves as both bookend to Act I of an extraordinary career which, like UNFOLLOW THE RULES, began in the studios of Los Angeles, but also now as the first lines of a remarkable new chapter. Inspired by middle age, married life, fatherhood, friends, loss, London, and Laurel Canyon, songs like the acclaimed single, “Damsel In Distress” and the powerful, album-closing “Alone Time” find the gifted singer-songwriter ready to tackle new challenges, yet compelled to confront his past by making sense of how he has grown both as a musician and the contended family man he has become.

UNFOLLOW THE RULES has already been met with remarkable praise from some of Wainwright’s friends, fans, and fellow artists. “This is pop music on a grand scale; sweeping, symphonic, unabashedly emotional and fearlessly agnostic in style and delivery,” says Sting, while Cyndi Lauper described the album as “Rufus’ PET SOUNDS. It sounds like a culmination of everything he has done. It’s a great album, catchy and intelligent.”

An ingenious, compellingly charismatic live artist, Wainwright hopes to see his fans later this year on his epic UNFOLLOW THE RULES Tour. For scheduled dates and other information, please visit rufuswainwright.com/tour.