FEATURE:
The Kate Bush Interview Archive
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Harbron
1978: Harry Doherty (Melody Maker)
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RATHER than simply drop in…
interviews without much commentary, I am highlighting Kate Bush interviews through the years that interest me. As I have been returning to The Kick Inside and 1978, it has got me thinking about interviews from around that time. Whilst it would have been exciting for Bush to have her music out there and getting it to people, perhaps the interviewing and media side of things was less exciting. It needed to be done - though one can hardly call the whole thing fun. Even though there was this sense of obligation and repetition – a lot of people in interviews asking the same questions -, Bush made every interview interesting. Especially in those early days, there would have been a lot of emphasis placed on her looks, in addition to the unusualness of the vocals. Even though Bush took a few years to get her work worldwide and, in some people’s words, ‘find her own voice’, she had a lot of big and important fans early on. The interview I want to spotlight today is from Melody Maker of June 1978. Bush was interviewed by Harry Doherty. There is a wonderful website that archives interviews from Bush. The Melody Maker one is very engaging and intriguing. Among other things, Bush talked about new-found fame and a sense of pressure/expectation that her success has created:
“Kate Bush is doubtless the success of '78. Should you have difficulty in swallowing the talent of Ms. Bush, then consider that she counts many established songwriters and new wave leaders among her early fans. Bob Geldof, not usually noted for dishing out praise elsewhere, swears by her.
Kate Bush is taking a break from the arduous task of writing songs for her second album. It is not coming along too well. She is finding it a bit stifling to write to demand, but is sure that once the intenseness of sitting at her piano returns, so will the songs.
The trouble, of course, stems from the rush of acclaim that greeted "The Kick Inside," which, with half a dozen examples of classic writing and singing, was more a sign of potential than actual realisation of it. "Wuthering Heights" was the proverbial smash, and suddenly the whole world went crazy. Kate made a valiant and successful attempt at keeping it all under control.
The songs for the debut had been written over a period of three years. Because of a number of fortunate encounters, first an inheritance and then the record company (EMI) advance, she could concentrate solely on her writing and dancing without worrying about finance.
Dave Gilmour, of Pink Floyd, was impressed enough by her potential to put up the money for proper demos, and Andrew Powell, usually noted for his orchestral arrangements, stepped in to produce her album. With all the business taken care of, Kate was able to "educate" herself.
"Train myself for the ...ah...Coming, I guess. I really felt that I wanted to get some sort of bodily expression together to go with the music. Music is a very emotional thing, and there's always a message, and your purpose as a performer is to get it across to the people in as many ways as you can."
The "Coming" came and Kate Bush took everybody by surprise, including herself and EMI, by breaking through immediately. She had insisted that "Wuthering Heights" be the first single, as much for business reasons as artistic ones.
"I felt that to actually get your name anywhere, you've got to do something that is unusual, because there's so much good music around and it's all in a similar vein. It was, musically, for me, one of my strongest songs. It had the high pitch and it also had a very English story-line which everyone would know because it was a classic book."
EMI had wanted to go with another track, "James and the Cold Gun," a more traditional rock'n'roll song. But Kate was reluctant, just as they were with the new single, "The Man With the Child In His Eyes," which, musically, is a complete contrast to her first hit. The record company would have opted for a more obvious follow-up in "Them Heavy People."
"I so want "The Man With the Child In His Eyes" to do well. I'd like people to listen to it as a songwriting song, as opposed to something weird, which was the reaction to 'Wuthering Heights.' That's why it's important. If the next song had been similar, straight away I would have been labeled, and that's something I really don't want. As soon as you've got a label, you can't do anything. I prefer to take a risk."
The relationship with EMI has been good. Kate has been astonished that they've allowed her so much say. But she was very insistent that she should be involved in every facet of her career, to the point where, at such a young age, she had almost been self-managed, with help from friends and family.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in a promotional photo for Wuthering Heights/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
"I've always had an attitude about managers. Unless they're really needed, they just confuse matters. They obviously have their own impressions of a direction and an image that is theirs, and surely it should come from within the actual structure rather than from outside. I often think that generally they're more of a hindrance than a help."
"The songs for the first album were written over a two-to-three year period, and now I've got a two-to-three month period for this one. It's ridiculous, and my admiration for people like David Bowie and Elton John, and Queen -- although I'm not into their music -- grows all the time. It's incredible how they do it. They do it all. They record and tour and promote.
"That's awesome to me. Incredibly so. I mean, I'm on a little level compared to that. It amazes me that they can keep their brains in a logical order without their speech getting all tangled because there's so much going on."
So what happens when you reach that situation? (There are plans to tour next year.)
"I don't know how I'll cope, but when you're in the situation it's very different. I would have thought it impossible to do what I'm doing now a few years ago, but now I'm here, it doesn't seem that amazing because, really, it's just doing your work on whichever level it is, and I'm really lucky for all the work I've been given."
But you've not had to struggle?
"Yeah, that's true, and it's a little frightening. There was only a struggle within myself. But even if your work is so important to you, it's not actually your life. It's only part of your life, so if your work goes, you're still a human being. You're still living. You can always get a job in Woolworth's or something.
"I suppose I would find it very hard to let go because for me it's the only thing that I'm here to do. I don't really know what else I could do that I would be particularly good at. I could take a typing course, loads of things, but I wouldn't actually feel that I'd be giving anything.
"I think you can kid yourself into destiny. I have never done another job. It's a little frightening, because it's the only thing I've really explored, but then again, so many things are similar. They all tie in. I really feel that what I'm doing is what everyone else is doing in their jobs.
"It's really sad that pressures are put on some musicians. It's essential for them to be human beings, because that's where all the creativity comes from, and if it's taken away from them and everybody starts kneeling and kissing their feet and that, they're gonna grow in the wrong areas."
Everybody associates the whole star trip with material gains.
"But it's wrong. Again, the only reason that you get such material gains from it is because it's so media-orientated. If it wasn't, you'd get the same as a plummer.
"I worry, of course, that it's going to burn out, because I didn't expect it to happen so quickly and it has. For me, it's just the beginning. I'm on a completely different learning process now. I've climbed one wall and now I've got another fifteen to climb, and to keep going while you're in such demand is very hard. It would be different if I had stayed unknown, because then it would be progressing”.
There is more to the interview. I wanted to drop in bits that especially caught my eye. There are an awful lot of interviews from 1978. I am not sure how many people are aware of the print interviews – seeing as we can easily see YouTube ones (taken from T.V. and radio), maybe people do not search for print interviews. It would have been daunting for a teenage Kate Bush to be thrown into this conveyor belt of interviews and promotional duties. I am going to wrap up in a minute. I will continue this series, as there are acres of interesting print interview from 1978-2016. At times, it must have be awkward and frustrating to have journalists focus in on things like her looks, throwing in weird questions or belittling her work and lyrical themes. The Melody Maker interview allows Bush to talk about the ephemeral nature of success. Hearing her, in 1978, worrying that the attention will burn out and that she had all of these challenges to tackle. Rather than it being an anxious or negative interview, it is a window into the thoughts of a very honest musician not hiding behind a façade or reading from a script. It is another wonderfully memorable interview from…
A massive archive.