FEATURE:
The Pink Floyd Influence…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
Inside a ‘Lost’ Kate Bush Interview from 1985
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I have explored some…
‘lost’ interviews before, but I am not sure that I have covered this. I have included 1985 interview where I ran some features to mark forty years of Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love in September. Now, I have found an interview online that has not been seen by most Kate Bush fans. In an interview for Cash Box in a Manhattan hotel room in December 1985, Paul Iorio spoke with an artist who, at this time, was possibly at the peak of her career. Kate Bush did travel to America for promotion, though she was not there often:
“Iorio: You write about that emotional exhaustion on the second side [of "Hounds..."], with waves being almost an emotional metaphor for drowning.
Bush: It's very personal -- and we're sort of getting into psychiatry here! I'm sure there are all kinds of levels here like that. Actually my attitude in writing this album is a very positive one... I wanted the music to launch us all into the next era rather than be an emotional dark thing.
I think each album does have a different energy, otherwise you'd be doing the same thing again and not experimenting anew... Albums are such autobiographical material, not in the material but as an expression of what you're like at the time. And I was feeling kind about mankind and how nice people were rather than the demon side of things...
Iorio: Now that you've come out into the world and are doing appearances and interviews, has your view changed on mankind in general?
Bush: [Laughs] No, I still feel pretty positive, actually. It's really great for me that the album is being accepted...You would like people to enjoy it, but obviously you can't force them to. I feel very happy...
Iorio: In '78, you actually got your contract because of David Gilmour --
Bush: Yes.
Iorio: And this was a period when a lot of punk bands were being signed. How did you ever get a contract?
Bush: When I was signed, that was before the punk thing even happened. Punk was happening at the time of my first single.. Yes, I agree it was completely different than what was happening with punk music but perhaps that's why it works... I think that music is something that surpasses trends, fashions; music is something much deeper...
Iorio: How about concept albums? What were some of your influences?
Bush: ...The only concept for me that I thought worked was [Pink Floyd's] "The Wall." I think the third side of that is just brilliant, the best thing Floyd has ever done. So good. I mean, "Comfortably Numb" is perhaps the classic Floyd song. And Roger Waters' production and the sense of him being in there I found really fascinating... I was surprised at how many people kept referring to [The Who's] "Tommy" and "The Wall." And, really, they are very different. And I wonder if it's because they're concepts that they get labeled together. Do you think?
Iorio: Who do you like now? If you were home, who would you put on the turntable?
Bush: I listen to very little music, particularly contemporary. If I listen to it, it's going to be my own music, some arrangement or something. I spend so much time listening that the way I relax is by watching things, a comedy, that's my way to wind down.
Iorio: What comedy?
Bush: I don't know if you have it here [in the U.S.]: "The Young Ones."
Iorio: No.
Bush: Really good stuff. "Fawlty Towers," you must have that don't you here?
Iorio: No, we don't.
Bush: Oh, no! You don't know what you're missing! You know John Cleese.
Iorio: Oh, yeah!
Bush: He did this whole sit-com that was about someone called Basil Fawlty, one of the funniest things. I'm so surprised you don't have that here. You don't know what you're missing, you poor people. It's brilliant stuff. [Monty] Python is great, but this has made John Cleese beyond Python. Whenever John Cleese appears, they consider him Basil Fawlty.
Iorio: What are your favorite [films]?
Bush: "Don't Look Now"... I think is one of the best films ever made... You have so many things you don't understand, but by the end of the film, one of those has been tied up neatly. I really love Hitchcock; I think he was a complete genius, to me one of the best directors. Such a sense of how to put things together. I really like Terry Gilliam's work. Do you remember "Time Bandits"?
Iorio: That was a big one...
Bush: He's made three films, one before that, and one, actually, "Brazil," that, as far as I know, wasn't released here [in the U.S.], which is crazy, because it's such a good film and was released everywhere else. Neil Jordan. Have you heard of his stuff? [I nod.] He did a very interesting film called "Angel." He's Irish and his work has a great sense of the Irish culture, the whole rural sense of Ireland. And I love Kurosawa's films. And comedy films. "Young Frankenstein." It's funny but it's also an incredibly beautiful film, it's so well done. I think [Mel Brooks] was one of the first people, too, to play with black and white, when color was what everyone was using. Beautiful. Gene Wilder is so funny.
Iorio: How about Woody Allen?
Bush: I really like Woody Allen, but there are a lot of his films I haven't seen. My favorite one is "Play It Again, Sam." I thought that was so funny. But there's a lot I haven't seen.
Iorio: You mentioned Irish cinema. How about Irish music? You have Irish [music] on the second side of the ["Hounds of Love"] LP. How did you get into Irish folk?
Bush: I think it's probably the biggest influence musically that I've ever had. My mother's Irish. And when I was very young, both my brothers were very into traditional music, English and Irish. They were always playing music, so I was always brought up with it. And they were playing instruments. And I think when you're a kid, you're very open to all things musical...It's only in the last couple of albums that I've been able to express my influences in Irish music through my work.
It's funny when you write a song -- it's easy for me now -- but there's almost a second stage where you take control of the song. You start writing it, and if you're not careful, it just finishes itself and it might not be what you wanted. It's very strange, it takes over itself. It has its own life.
I've just never really been able to write something where I could present the Irish music in a very obvious way. And I think the second side of the album, it was a perfect vehicle to involve the Irish musicians I worked with on the last album in a more involved way, to use them to create that atmosphere...
Iorio: What songs have you written that wrote themselves?
Bush: That's a difficult question.
Iorio: Some must have taken some time. Others probably took off automatically.
Bush: Oooo. Yes, that's right. A lot of songs are like -- wolllaahhh! And that's it. And other songs -- it's like stages. It maybe takes three or four days to get the song structurally together. But then I could spend a couple weeks finishing off the lyrics. Each song is so different...It has its own personality. Some are really grumpy. Some are really quite easy. It's extraordinary. You can put some things on a track, and it will just reject them, it just won't work. And you can put them on another track, and it works really well.
[Bush offers me an Irish cigarette.] Do you want one of those?
Iorio: Oh, I was dying for you to ask! [I read from the pack:] "Cigarettes can seriously damage your health." So in Britain you have the same warnings?
Bush: You have them here, too, don't you?
Iorio: We have modified ones. There are rotating warnings. They have, like, "[Cigarettes] can cause complicated pregnancy." Another says, "Quitting now can seriously increase your chances of having a normal life." They have rotating warnings. But yours are standardized ones?
Bush: Absolutely. They're on every packet. That's an interesting idea, actually: putting different [warnings]....Maybe you'll listen to one of them! [laughs]
Iorio: The headline: Kate Bush -- Candid on Cigarettes"!
Bush: [laughs] Oh, God.
Iorio: Suppose this becomes a number one hit in America. What's the first thing you're going to do?
Bush: Buy an SSL. Get back to the studio!...An SSL is the best mixing console you can get. I'd get one of those. And change the room a but and get some more equipment in”.
I wanted to spotlight this interview, as it is one that I have not included on my site before. Kate Bush gave a lot of interviews in 1985, but this one is particularly interesting. Hounds of Love is this masterpiece that was a worldwide success. If some of Bush’s albums have not endured and are not talked about too much, Hounds of Love is a remarkable work that still sounds utterly wonderful…
AFTER all of these years.