Rufus Wainright, son of folk singers Loudon Wainright III and Kate McGarrigle [of the McGarrigle Sisters], was born in New York on July 22, 1973 and grew up in Montreal.  He has a sister named Martha, and two half siblings.  now that we got that excitement covered, onto the music!!! Rufus Wainwright began playing the piano at the age of 6.  At 13, he began touring with his mother, sister and aunt; they called themselves McGarrigle and Family.  At age 14, he wrote "I'm A-Runnin" [which is the most precious song on the planet if you hear the original version].  From this song, he was nominated for a Juno [most promising artist] and a Genie [best song in a film].  It is  a well-known that Rufus has a deep fondness for classical music -- especially opera. He has a strong appreciation for the operatic work of Giuseppe Verdi. He has expressed interest in composing his own opera sometime in the future. Some songs have been written about Rufus.  Here they are: Rufus is a Tit Man ("Unrequited",1975; Loudon Wainwright III) First Born ("Dancer With Bruised Knees", 1977; McGarrigle Sisters) Father/Daughter Dialogue ("Grown Man", 1995; Loudon Wainwright III): Rufus is mentioned. Laurel & Hardy ("Martha Wainwright" EP, 1999; Martha Wainwright) After he cut his first demo with producer Pierre Marchand, his father, Canadian folk giant Loudon Wainwright III, passed it on to legendary arranger Van Dyke Parks, who in turn saw that it found its way to Dreamworks executive Lenny Waronker.  Some say Rufus found his way to a record deal easily, but the only difference between him others who find themselves easily at the top is that Rufus deserved it.  Soon enough, Rufus released his debut solo album Rufus Wainwright, which was greeted by rave reviews from every corner.  He proved to the world that with his piano, he is a prodigious talent with a knack for songwriting.  Three years later, Rufus released Poses which features the singers rich, vaudevillian voice and piano playing.  In Rufus' words, Poses is about: Creating a world that I could escape to. During this whole record, I really wasn't in love with anybody, whereas on the last record I was very much in love. So this time out, I was looking for love, and I fell in love with someone who doesn't exist. It's still a very romantic album that deals with human relations and such, but it does it as more of a mythic ideal than as anything that's actually going on in my life. Rufus Wainwright's music is not just pleasing to the ear, but each song is an elaborately written piece of work.  Whether telling a story, or just listing his likes and vices; he is truly a phenomonal lyricist.  The most important thing for me is lyrics. I have to say, honestly, I love Radiohead and a lot of the emotional, romantic bands coming out.  But one of the major problems is that I can't understand a word they're saying! So I tried to keep lyrics first and tried to have a little more stealth in terms of song structure and melody. Usually I'll start with a little melody line, and I start singing phonetically, like in fake German.  And words slowly appear out of that.  Religious people speak in tongues. This is my nonreligious tongue. German can sound so sweet and soft and so harsh at the same time. It's a great language to sing in. Those vowels and those snotty sounds can sound like a kitty's purr. What are Rufus' goals for his album Poses? Basically, I'm hoping to demolish the mechanism of pop created by the evil empire. It's like David and Goliath: This record will be a well-polished stone thrown at the forehead of the seven-headed . . . um . . . four-, five-headed monster known as the Backstreet Boys. How many of them are there?