FEATURE:
Leave It Open
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
Kate Bush: A Dream Interviewee
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THROUGH the course of my features…
PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Rasic/Getty Images
about Kate Bush, I have read a lot of interviews and done as much research as possible. I have never written a feature about Kate Bush as an interviewee! When reading through magazine interviews through the years and listening to ones for radio – and watching the few T.V. ones -, I am always charmed and blown away by her. Bush is someone who has been under the media microscope since her debut single, Wuthering Heights, was aired in 1977 – it was officially released in 1978, but it found its way onto the air beforehand. I am going to include some recorded interviews and share some snippets from written ones, as it is wonderful to hear her speak and radiate. Even in magazine interviews, you can feel that warmth and charm come through. Even when she is faced with more personal or challenging questions, Bush always responds with calm and professionalism. Bush is asked a lot of the same questions, and I guess that is an issue every artist faced. She does get similar questions asked, but you never get the feeling that she is bored or batting the question away. In fact, Bush is always open, and she leaves this sense of mystery lingering – you never feel like you know everything about her, even when you consider the sheer number of interviews she has been involved with!
I have heard the same thing from a lot of people: simply listening to Kate Bush speak is a nurturing and relaxing experience! She is so warm and engaging, one is helpless to resist. Whilst this feature might seem like an excuse to praise Bush and point one in the direction of her work (in part, it is!), I think we overlook the promotional cycle and how difficult it can be for artists. Many musicians are not fan of interviews and are unwilling to give a lot away. Some give the same answers to every question, and you can tell that their heart is not really in it. If anyone asked which artist would I like to review above them all, Kate Bush wins without a doubt. It is not just because I adore her music and it would be fascinating to ask her about it; there are so many stories – from those who have interviewed her – regarding her hospitality, friendliness, and rapport. One only needs to listen to a sample interview (I shall drop some in soon) to pick up on that. This all makes me wonder, like so many, whether we will ever hear her interviewed again because, unlike some artists, Bush only conducts interviews when she puts something out. The last time we hear her interviewed was 2016, when the vinyl/C.D. of Before the Dawn (Bush’s sell-out 2014 residence in London) was released.
PHOTO CREDIT: Alamy
After so many years of being interviewed, and being asked similar questions, Bush treated everyone with warmth, and she delivered something different every time. I guess one cannot get too caught up as to whether a new album will ever arrive, as part of the excitement is waiting and being surprised when you least expect it. A lot of people are desperate to hear new Kate Bush music but, oddly, I just want to hear her speak! It has been over eight years since her last album – 2011’s 50 Words for Snow – and, since then, she has re-released her back catalogue and book of lyrics (which she didn’t promote through interviews), and she has, like us all, been part of the COVID-19 pandemic. If one is new to Kate Bush or they are struggling to get to the bottom of her work, I would suggest spending some time listening to interviews with her on YouTube, or doing a search of written interviews, as Bush lets us into her world, but you also feel a little closer to this remarkable, iconic and decades-lasting artist. I am not sure why I am suddenly digging into the interview archives, but I do really love the way Bush engages with those she is interviewed by. In the first year or two of her career, she did face some rather condescending (male) interviewers, but she was also asked about her family, background, and songwriting process. I think, as the years rolled on, Bush began to become a bit wary of the press and interviews.
With every album, she needed to do some promotion, but I think she preferred being in the studio and was not always comfortable being so personal – one can understand and appreciate that! The past couple of albums – Director’s Cut and 50 Words for Snow of 2011 – were met with a blizzard of interviews - Bush letting a lot of journalists into her home and conducting radio interviews with British and North American stations. It is heartening to see that generosity coming from Bush, as one might suspect she would wind down interviews as she is so far into her career. I guess she was very proud of 50 Words for Snow (rightfully so!), and she released the album on her own label, Fish People, so wasn’t taking directions from EMI; Bush doing things her own way and less restrained and guided. I am not sure, but it was great to see her speaking to so many people even if, inevitably, the same questions came up – many revolving around the fact Stephen Fry and Elton John were on the album; others asked her about Snowed in at Wheeler Street, and whether she based that on a real place etc. I am going to quote from a few interviews, and I might jump back and forth regarding chronology. One of my favourites is when Bush was interviewed by Q Magazine in 1993 to promote The Red Shoes; the magazine ran a quote, “Booze, fags, blokes and me”, on the front cover!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982
Whilst the interview is not as racy as that quote implies, it is fascinating to see how different interviewers approached her, and what questions were being asked at different times. I love the Q interview, as it is a varied and great interview where Bush is asked about The Red Shoes/her work…but she also got a chance to show different sides of her personality:
“Would you make a good therapist?
"I really don't know. When I was little, I really wanted to be a psychiatrist. That's what I always said at school. I had this idea of helping people, I suppose, but I found the idea of people's inner psychology fascinating, particularly in my teens. Mind you, it's probably just as well I didn't become one. I would have driven all these people to madness. I'm better off just fiddling around in studios."
What newspapers and magazines do you read?
"I don't, really. I find them all slightly biased and angry in their own ways, and generally I prefer the radio or the television, especially where news is concerned. I know the television is biased too, but it doesn't seem as sort of characterised as the press. And magazines I don't read at all, I'm afraid. I did for a while and found them quite boring and slightly manipulative. I thought a lot of magazines were trying to -- or if not trying to, then ending up, making you feel inadequate. I didn't think a lot of healthy things were going on in them. I had friends who got magazines regularly and they were getting more and more concerned about them, more and more obsessed with the articles and the quizzes. It took me a long time to grow out of The Beano, though, so perhaps I'm just not grown up enough for magazines."
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979
Which of your old songs make you wince?
"My God, loads. Absolutely loads. Either the lyric's not thought out properly or it's just crap or the performances weren't well executed. But you have to get it in context. You were doing it at the time and it was the best you could do then. You've got to live with it. Some of those early songs, though, you think, 'What was I *thinking* about? Did *I* write that?'"
Have you got into grunge yet?
"Err, no. I like a lot of diverse music, but nothing really wild. Nothing very odd. I don't watch The Sound of Music every night or anything...But what is unexpected these days? I like classical music, but I wish I was more eloquent with it. I hear things and think, 'That's beautiful,' but don't know what it is. As you get older, you do get more into instrumental music, don't you? It's as if as you get older you don't want people telling you what they think or what you've got to think or do. Also, those great composers really knew what they were doing. A lot of contemporary art is made by people who haven't got any talent. Art made by talentless people can sometimes really work, but it's not the same as real craft."
Do you worry about getting old?
"I don't actually worry about aging, but I am at a point when I'm older than I was and there's a few things I'd like to be doing with my life. I've spent a lot of time working and I'd like to catch up. Over the next few years I'd like to take some time off".
As much as I love hearing Bush talk about her latest album and the process, when interviewers go off piste a bit and broaden their horizons, I think that is when we learn more – Bush always provides great answers and approaches every question with thought. When Kate Bush spoke with Len Brown of NME in 1989 to promote her album, The Sensual World, the two went into depth - and there is a lot we learn about Bush and her approach to her work. Many musicians might wince when they are asked about their age and getting older, but Bush’s response to passing thirty (she turned thirty a year before The Sensual World came out), is intriguing:
“Many mumbles have breathed their last since Kate Bush first arrived on our screens, flouncing about in dry ice and funeral shroud, oddly crowing 'Wuthering Heights'; obviously different and apart from any musical movement before or since. But whereas the all-conquering, universally acclaimed Hounds Of Love affair at least slotted into the-then pop world, The Sensual World is clearly even more out of step with the current piss poor post-SAW scene.
Probably because it's got a slightly ethnic feel, founded on Kate's use of Irish and Bulgarian musics and musicians in the creative process. Perhaps because she's been free from pop for so long. Maybe because she's crossed the threshold of 30?
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional image for 2011’s 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
"God! Yes, I'm sure it's all tied in with it," she laughs. "I think it's a very important time from 28 to 32-ish, where there's some kind of turning point. Someone said in your teens you get the physical puberty and between 28 and 32 mental puberty. Let's fact it, you've got to start growing up when you're 30, it does make you feel differently, I feel very positive having gone through the last couple of years".
I want to quote from a 2011 interview Bush provided to John Doran when promoting 50 Words for Snow as it proves that, so many years after she entered music, she possessed (and still does) such grace, interest and humour! It is an interesting interview, as Doran seems detached and tired at times – nothing to do with Kate Bush -, and Bush responds really well:
“I think that if I lived outside of London, maybe in the countryside where it doesn’t turn to a mixture of slush and hazardous black ice, I might like it more. Also, I’m very tall and for whatever reason I just fall over when it’s icy, I always have done. It’s very dangerous I think.
KB: [laughs] Are you a kind of glass half empty kind of guy?
My glass used to be completely dry. Now it’s half empty but I’m working on making it half full… No, I’m joking, of course I like snow, it’s simply marvelous stuff. But obviously there’s been a great thematic shift between Aerial and this album.
KB: Yeah”.
“Yeah, ‘Misty’, which has the reference to the girl's affair with a snowman, the wet sheets, the idea of him melting in her hands and on her bed.
KB: Yeah. [massive pause] I’m sorry John, did you ask me a question? What was the question?
I asked if there was a sexual undercurrent to this record, which is ostensibly quite childlike and innocent?
KB: To that song, yeah. Yeah, because of the story that’s being told. But with the other tracks… I don’t know…
Listen, thanks very much. It was great to talk to you and I’m sorry for being half asleep at the start of the interview.
KB: That’s alright, I know what it’s like having a little lad. What’s his name?
Little John.
KB: Little John… How cute! Well, you just enjoy it, they grow up so quickly. It’s exhausting but my god… there’s nothing like it. Now you go and have a nice cup of coffee my love! Ha ha ha! Bye-bye!”.
In 2011, Bush spoke with FADER and, even though she was asked why she doesn’t give too many interviews – she said she prefers for the work to do the talking -, again, you can feel a very personal bond between Bush and the interviewer (Owen Myers); I think she makes every person who interviews her feel like they can explore and go deep:
“Your songs usually write from the point of view of a character, rather than from an autobiographical point of view. Do you feel it frustrating if people assume that your lyrics are confessional?
No. I'm really very happy if people can connect at all to anything I do. I don't really mind if people mishear lyrics or misunderstand what the story is. I think that's what you have to let go of when you send it out in the world. I'm sure with a lot of paintings, people don't understand what the painter originally meant, and I don't really think that matters. I just think if you feel something, that's really the ideal goal. If that happens, then I'm really happy”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Phil Dent/Redferns
Although she has been asked about her lyrics and how personal they are, she is still happy to answer those questions, and she adds new perspective with every answer. The final interview I want to grab from sort of takes us up to date – it is a 2016 interview with Andy Gill of The Independent, where she discussed the Before the Dawn live album and the process of putting the stage shows together. Bush has always been asked about performing live and why she didn’t do it again after 1979 – when her Tour of Life was taken around the U.K. and Europe -, but it was interesting to hear her speak about that subject a couple of years after she completed her second huge live commitment:
“She was helped, as director, by her experience making videos and short films, an interest which effectively supplanted her interest in live performance. Despite being one of pop’s more naturally gifted and inventive stage performers, Kate had not done live shows since her initial tour in 1979, a hiatus that led to her reputation as something of a recluse.
“It wasn’t designed that way, because I really enjoyed the first set of shows we did,” she says. “The plan at the time was that I was going to do another two albums’ worth of fresh material, and then do another show. But of course, by the time I got to the end of what was The Dreaming album, it had gone off on a slight tilt, because I’d become so much more involved in the recording process. And also, every time I finish an album, I go into visual projects, and even if they’re quite short pieces, they’re still a huge amount of work to put together. So I started to veer away from the thing of being a live performing artist, to one of being a recording artist with attached visuals”.
Looking through the interviews archives not only provides an illuminating insight into one of the music world’s most interesting artists; even though Bush is a private person and does not bring her personal life into interviews too much, we get to learn a lot and explore the pages of an icon. I do hope that we get to hear and see more interviews from Kate Bush (in addition to some great music!), because I would love to know how she has adapted to the current COVID-19 situation – though I guess it has not hit Bush as hard as other people! As much as anything, discovering how Kate Bush tackles her albums and what inspires her gives impetus and guidance to fans and musicians alike. She is in her sixth decade as a recording artist and, as she turns sixty-two on 30th July, I think she will have a lot to share. Whatever happens from now going forward, I think Kate Bush’s interviews are as important and revealing as her work; like two different sides to this wonderful artists. As I have said in this feature, hearing or reading a Kate Bush interview provokes so many emotions, and it is calming in these tough times. If you have some time free, I recommend you go through the archives and learn more about Bush, her music, and, well, her as a person. Over forty years after she gave her first interview, Kate Bush is this wonderful blend of the grounded…
PHOTO CREDIT: Alamy
AND the enigmatic.