New German interview with Kate

A new album by Kate Bush isn´t just a new album, it´s an event. During 33 years, the 52 year old singer has produced only 8 albums. But what kind of albums! With her new album “Director´s cut” she is freeing herself from overtly opulent damages from the past in order to clear the way for a fruitful future. Michael Loesl spoke with her.

ML: Mrs (sic) Bush, your new albums brings us rewritten versions of your older albums TSW and TRS. so pyramids have to be rebuilt over and over again?

KB: How flattering, but looking back, parts of these songs seemed more like Towers of Pisa. (Laughs.) Usually, I´m not listening to my older albums at all, but with these, I had the feeling that they were letting me work more freely with them, after I´d stripped away their original sound.

ML: You´re already working on new material?

KB: Yes, and it was a helpful lesson to take two or three steps back in order to get a vision for the future.

ML: Does that mean that the new songs will be more simple?

KB: I was very ambitious at that time, maybe over-ambitious. It´s the spaces between the sounds (the original word may have been “nuances”, though a verbal translation does seem Katier) that are more important to me now. Music becomes more and more precious to me, the older I get. That´s why I allow my music to be a bit more vivid and let it breathe.

ML: At the end of the album, it sort of gets out of control. You slur your voice as if drunk, the band is rambling. Do you mean to destroy the myth of Kate Bush?

KB: If the album´s finale sounds like the destruction of a myth, I can be pretty content with your evaluation, because, seriously, on other records there are ideas that were created in a pretty knackered mood. (Here the german translation is irritating, I´m sure she said “knackered” and he translated it into “stupid”.)

ML: But then, your body of works is being discussed as a holy kingdom of pop.

KB: I never challenged or asked for the serious interpretation and evaluation of my music. A sense of quality does not exclude humour.

ML: Do you have an ideal or predecesor for that?

KB: Frank Zappa was a very smart man. He said that, as an artist, you can live a free and untamed life, in case you have a solid family life. I love this idea.

ML: Why?

KB: I´ve never met Zappa, but people who have portray him as a very dear person, different from his image. I have always preferred my privacy over my public life, because I work best with a stable home base. The idea that the artist who suffers ist the best doesn´t apply to me. I work better, when I´m fine.

ML: Are you happy?

KB: Yes, I have a great family and the privilege to create music that interests me.

ML: For this privilege, you have turned down most of the stunts the pop market requires. Are you proud of that?

KB: I should have said No a lot sooner. The other day, my son discovered a pcture of myself that was taken at Abbey Road studios. I was made up so terribly that he asked me why they would allow me to be portrayed that way at such a young age.

ML: You have only toured once, in 1979. Can you end the rumour, that you actuallly will go on stage again some time?

KB: I had grat fun doing the tour, because it was more of a circus, actually. I can´t give you a definite answer because I might regret it some time later. Never say never.

ML: Is your music an atithesis to the uncontrollability of life?

KB: The wish for quality, which I can´t really control outside of the studio, is a motivation in my work. When I´m working on an album, the quest for excellence is there. As is the certainty of failing at this quest. I´m just as fallible as everyone else.

ML: Does this knowledge hurt?

KB: That´s what art is about.

(Sorry for typos, this was done in a rush!)