FEATURE:
The Summer of ’89: “Kate Bush Is Not Me”
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed at her home in south-east London on 13th September, 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Kevin Cummins
The Icon’s Extraordinary Interview with German Rolling Stone
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AN interview…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush thoughtful in a promotional shot for The Sensual World, autumn 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
that most people might not know about, German Rolling Stone spoke with Kate Bush in 1989. The year she released The Sensual World, it was a time when Bush was putting more of the personal into her music. Four years after Hounds of Love, Bush’s life and music had changed quite a lot. I bought the MOJO Collectors Series: Kate Bush Essentials magazine. It is a complete guide to Bush and her music. Looking inside the albums and rarities, right through to her live spectacles and so much more, one part of the magazine that caught my eye was this interview from 1989. Kate Bush speaking with German Rolling Stone. Conducted in the attic of an old manor house-turned-Olde Worlde hotel in the Kent countryside – close to Kate Bush’s childhood home in West Wickham and the studio where most of The Sensual World was recorded -, there are some interesting exchanges and moments throughout the interview. I will come to a few of them. 1989 was a year when Bush was promoting quite heavily. A range of different magazines spoke to her about the new album and how she was getting on. The first question involved making albums. Whether they are made according to some “inner clock”. Bush replied that that she does have an inner clock which she does not have control over – “It’s not so much fun for me to spend so long making an album”. Bush has discussed how long it takes making albums. You could see why, after 1993’s The Red Shoes, she would step back and want time out. How involved it is making an album.
I was interested hearing Bush’s response to the question about an album starting point and how it happens. Hounds of Love sort of started in 1984. It was after the exhausting process of making 1982’s The Dreaming. For The Sensual World, Bush explained how she wrote a few songs very quickly. She felt how these were rubbish: “I realised that what I was writing was not what I wanted to say”. She tinkered and, like a script, worked on it a lot to get it right (“nit-picking”, in her words). The opening to the interview stated how Bush’s answers “are often vague, like’s she just thought of them, punctuated with a dentist’s-gas giggles and cat-like stares”. Not sure if this is a compliment or something a bit insulating, it showed how Bush was still being insulted and seen as weird or child-like over a decade from her debut album! German Rolling Strone did ask about whether Bush was most creative when happy or sad. Bush said ‘happy’. The happiness after a period of struggle and misery is especially inspiring. Bush said that happiness and sadness are interlinked. That a lot of her favourite books and films are happy-sad – that they have tragi-comic elements or there is a mixture of these polemic yet interconnected emotions. A questions as to whether Kate Bush was creating a character for her songs or it was the real her – ”You put it through a character or situation and you explore it like that” -, there was one question that really stood out. In terms of the response and the line of enquiry it opened up.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with the Trio Bulgarka
Following an oddly-worded and slightly odd question – that many men, the interviewer asked, see Bush as a “cross between a little sister for whom they have supressed incestuous feelings (yep, that was actually said out loud!), to the pure, bread-baking virgin who might unleash passion at the right person” -, it did get back on track. The fact that the interview walked away unharmed and got to continue speaks to Kate Bush’s grace, discipline and, sadly, used to being asked such creepy and misogynistic questions! However, when asked if she wanted to be “the Sleeping Beauty or the Perfect Woman”, it sort of hinted at the mythological impression of Bush or someone who wants to project themselves as this flawless woman. How much of what she does is dispelling myths and false impressions. Whether the songs are trying to project her in a certain way. Bush replied that she is not a perfect woman at all – that she has flaws and faults. She felt positive when she was described as part-virgin, part-sister in that question (which must have been a relief in terms of tension in the room!). Bush responded with a quote that actually was the headline quote for the interview: “Kate Bush is not me”. What she meant was that she sees herself as a writer rather than a performer. Someone always moving. Not wanting anyone to hold onto a persecution. She said how she has always performed but is not comfortable with it. Much preferring to be behind the camera. She had directed some of her own videos at that point. Maybe this realisation led her to write, direct and star in the 1993 short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve.
There were a few other curious answers. When the interview was conducted, Kate Bush was now in her thirties. Saying how she wanted to be at home and spend time making The Sensual World at home, the interviewer asked if that had anything to do with her being thirty; Bush replied how, in your teenage years, you have physical puberty. Mental puberty happens between the age of twenty-eight and thirty-two. She feels (felt) grown up now. The fact so many in the media still saw her as a child or something infantile speaks to how there was this dissonance between who Kate Bush was and this lingering and misrepresentative impression of her. One striking standout made me choke a bit, as Kate Bush mentioned Del Palmer. Her then-boyfriend, we sadly lost him earlier this month. Bush said how The Sensual World was her most personal and female yet. Hounds of Love drew off a lot of masculine energy. In terms of the sound – especially percussion – and even the vocals. Bush quite raw and powerful in a masculine way. The most powerful modern sounds (1985) were being made by men. Brought up in a male-dominated way around men in music, things changed for her sixth studio album. Many of her female friends identified with the songs more. Bush recognised how so much of music was male-dominated – though she didn’t see it as a negative; she wanted to do something more female perhaps. The Trio Bulgarka are on the album (who are a Bulgarian vocal ensemble consisting of Stoyanka Boneva, Yanka Rupkina, and Eva Georgieva) and that really brought huge female energy to the songs they featured on – and the album as a whole.
Bush was asked about the Trio Bulgarka and why she worked with them. Saying how music has “been dressed in black for the last five years”. How there is a need for good/real music. What the Trio Bulgarka are doing was “pure language”. Like Hounds of Love, Bush travelled to Dublin’s Windmill Lane to record with musicians there. Bush discussed how she finds Irish people warm, affectionate and witty. In terms of their music: “It’s very lyrical music, emotional and intense, very happy but at the same time very sad”. Bush’s mother was Irish. So there was a lot of Irish music in the Bush’s household. Aside from an awakened exchange where the interview – again risking their life! – said people connect Kate Bush’s music with the '60s because it is druggy and she had Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on guitar (which she took at a cheap shot and rebuked the idea that anything related to that decade is seen as naff or inferior) -, there was an interesting final couple of questions. Bush referred, elsewhere, to The Sensual World as self-therapy, “to see myself and to heal myself”. Bush replied that people’s work is a way of learning about themselves. “Life is confronting yourself, and through that you come to terms with everything else”. She noted how she is not as tenacious as she once was (or had to fight the label and compromise as much!). Not as obsessive as before, Bush revealed how “I think that’s much better”. The interview finished with this question: “Things are more in perspective?”. Bush responded: “Yes, that’s right. It’s just an album”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with David Gilmour (circa 1990)/PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
There are a lot of interesting interviews out there regarding Kate Bush. The German Rolling Stone one has not been published before. It is not known to many. More than merely promoting The Sensual World, there is perhaps that language barrier and translation issue. Questions asked in an unconventional way and with a new angle provoke different answers from Bush. We learn about her writing process and this more ‘female’ album. One that is more personal and open. An artist keen to keep moving and not be defined. I think that this an exceptional and standout interview. It is one that deserves more exposure and conversation. Bush, close to home and maybe thinking about The Sensual World as being a new chapter and necessary change, was very open. A few cheeky and clumsy questions provoked a bit of tension. For the most part, there was this receptive approach where we get some really thought-provoking answers. Turning thirty-five in October, I hope there is some form of celebration or recognition of one of Kate Bush’s finest albums. Not following up Hounds of Love with a same-sounding album, a natural and necessary step in terms of sound – in terms of gender/a masculine vs. female voice – came through on The Sensual World. Kate Bush mentioning Del Palmer was gutting! How The Sensual World was recoded at her own studio and the two had no distractions. As engineer and player, there was this comfortable relationship and trust – at a time when their long-term relationship was pretty much over – that goes into the songs. The Sensual World remains one of…
SEVERAL masterpieces from Kate Bush.