freelance design cl ients Mojo, Total Film, Zest, Toni&Guy, Debenhems, Nintendo, Fabulous Magazine, Q, T3, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Asda, Sky magazine.

del gentleman 07879 650913 del.gentleman@hotmail.co.uk design art direction

makes his way to the basement studio for NME’s photoshoot and chat. Right now, he is every inch the pop star – and everybody here knows it.

This is handy, because ‘Lupercalia’, his fifth album, will undoubtedly be hailed his poppiest yet. A grand statement on love, lust, relationships, shagging and desire, it is also his most grown-up offering. Aged 27, Patrick has, he says, finally settled down. He will refer to his partner, William, as his “true love” more than once during our interview, and it’s painstakingly obvious that his life has totally changed since the world-weary, battle-hardened cry that sounded with 2009’s difficult, isolated album ‘The Bachelor’.

“I’m treating myself a lot better nowadays,” he beams, before taking us through the keyhole to the heart of Chez Wolf, the humble Southwark abode he shares with William. “I found out Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in the house next door. It’s beautiful. I’m really getting into London again, and I was born in [nearby] Waterloo, so it’s like I’m really returning to my ultimate roots.

“I’m sure everyone else will be like, ‘Oh that’s such a boring thing to be inspired by’, but when it’s lacked so much in your life it just becomes the most exciting, wonderful thing ever. To unpack a box! To see a few seasons come and go from the same place! You know, to pick up a Hoover for the first time since you were 13!”

Is Patrick Wolf good at doing the hoovering? “Kind of. But I’m more into cooking. Rum stew,

Baileys bread and butter pudding, that sort of thing. It used to basically be anything with alcohol in it, but I’ve

PHOTOS: DAVID EDWARDS

“I can relate to what

lady GaGa’s done, for

sure. It’s very experImental

pop musIc”Patrick Wolf

26 March 2011 NME 29

The wolf is back, and this time he’s getting his teeth into love. Matt Wilkinson meets a reinvented Patrick Wolf to chat

Frankenstein, bestiality and how it feels to be loved by Lady Gaga

patrick Wolf would like it to be known that he is not into bestiality. He is in a rather chipper mood though, and is about to explain what he got up to for a full 13 hours yesterday. “So basically,” he begins

with an air of nonchalance, “I hired a live wolf and I was covered in loads of pythons and corn snakes. It was really good actually.” There is a slight pause here. “Wait,” he says. “Actually, I think it was only 99 per cent wolf. You’re not allowed the real ones in this country.” Life’s a bastard sometimes, eh?

So where does one pick up such a beast, we enquire. “Hastings – you can hire them. It’s symbolic of the eroticism on the new album, which is based around the she-wolf. The wolf acted as my lover, but like I say, it wasn’t bestiality. It was actually all very innocent and...” He pauses again. “...romantic.”

In case you haven’t noticed, Patrick doesn’t do shy and retiring particularly well. We first meet him a short while before the animal anecdote (which actually relates to the cover artwork for his new album ‘Lupercalia’, rather than the Adult Channel version of Pet Rescue). He’s waiting in the lobby of a huge central London office block, his tall, loping frame currently topped off with a flush of ’70s red Bowie hair that easily outshines everyone else in the vicinity, from the hordes of besuited staffers to the overbearing film crew nearby who – weirdly – are making a Listerine TV ad. Despite not remotely being part of either of these worlds, Patrick is momentarily at the centre of both. He draws stares from every direction as he Patrick’s is clearly

suffering from a wind problem

del gentleman 07879 650913 del.gentleman@hotmail.co.uk design art direction