In his new single ‘Vulture’, London troubadour Patrick Wolf calls on the vulture to come and take all his dead meat. Here he tells Garrett Bithell how the love of a good man has changed his whole outlook on life.

"For a long time I hadn’t really dated anyone or kissed anyone. I hadn’t entertained the idea of being in a relationship. It’s hard on the road to even imagine forming any kind of permanent relationship with anyone. And that whole rock and roll cliché of having one-night liaisons with fans – that’s my idea of hell to tell you the truth. I love the idea of domesticity and intimacy. I’m a romantic; I’m not interested in fucking about. I did that a lot when I was a teenager.”

So says London-based troubadour Patrick Wolf, who has become something of a new renaissance man since his debut album Lycanthropy in 2003. The multi-instrumentalist – he can play 18 at last count – has wooed the avant garde set with his fiercely original repertoire that traverses genres from romantic folk to techno pop, often fusing electronic sampling with classical arrangements.

Wolf is set to release The Bachelor, his fourth LP, this month. It is the prelude to The Conqueror, which will be unleashed at some point next year. As Wolf reveals, The Bachelor is pre-love, The Conqueror is post-love. This primal dichotomy reflects how his entire outlook changed after meeting his current partner, William. He moved swiftly from hating love to being in love.

“If you’re doing a three year tour, of course you end up being a bachelor,” Wolf says. “I wanted to spend some time off the road in order to see if I could actually form relationships again with people. Or kiss someone. Or cook dinner for someone. Or go out on a date and talk – and not just be lost in show business.

“And I met somebody – without even putting lonely hearts ads out! I just bumped into someone and there was an instant love connection.”

Lead single ‘Vulture’, and its bondage-inspired leather-and-chains video clip, has polarised fans and novices alike. It’s certainly a provocative and visceral track. Croons Wolf in the chorus: “And all my dead meat yearns for the vulture’s return”.

“It’s about reaching a point of sexual depravity and feeling maybe a bit disgusting afterwards,” he muses. “And then just wanting to be reborn – and maybe find your innocence again. So you’re calling out for the vulture to come and take all your dead parts so you can grow new parts of yourself back. That’s where I was.”

Wolf collaborated with arthouse-film darling Tilda Swinton on The Bachelor, and she contributes four spoken-word pieces. “Tilda is really like the godmother of this album,” he says. “I was quite exhausted towards the end of it having to speak up to the people around me for making the album. Everyone thought I had gone crazy. It took someone like Tilda, who doesn’t have any commercial expectations of me, to go ‘I think what you’re doing is really great’. It gave me motivation to keep moving.”

Indeed, Wolf’s fearlessness has often landed him in hot water – most recently at a Madonna stadium concert in London, of all places.

“The security guards found it was offensive for two boys to kiss, yet very normal for a man and a woman to kiss,” he tells. “And evidently, the people around us felt the same.

“When you do stadium performances you’ve got to realise they’re not actually rock stadiums – they’re places for football. So their security guards are used to dealing with football hooligans, not boys in hot pants and sequins dancing to Madonna with a glass of cider. They just don’t get it!

“Madonna attracts everyone from rainbow-flag-cowboy-hat-wearing guys to soccer mums, and it’s like opening all the gates at the zoo and letting them all eat each other.”

Patrick Wolf will be touring the country later this year. Check out patrickwolf.com and myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf for details. The Bachelor is out now.