The Reimers KT interview

[IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU]

     Number million-and-one (or at least it seems like it) in the
series of re-printed Kate Bush interviews to appear in Love-Hounds,
brought to you by your friend and his, IED. Hope it's not too annoying
having to plow through the laser commands, L-Hs. Sorry.

.us on
.ce John Reimers's "Voc'l" Magazine interview, January, 1984
.us off

     <John Reimers conducted the following telephone interview with
Kate in late 1983 soon after his discovery of her music. He later went
on to become a serious student of Kate's art, and a friend of the Bush
family. He is probably best known to other fans as the American whom
Kate described receiving many trans-Atlantic phone calls from, in
which he suggested possible interpretations of the "mystery track"
from "Leave It Open", starting shortly after this interview was
completed. Edited by Andrew Marvick.>

     Kate Bush is relatively unknown this side of the Atlantic. Her
1982 release,
.bf ital
The Dreaming,
.pf
EMI's second attempt to penetrate the U.S. market, received
critical acclaim but had little impact on the record-buying
public. But like several other European artists, Bush may
well be headed toward breaking into the American scene.
     Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour "discovered" Kate
Bush in 1975 (she was only sixteen at the time) when he
happened upon one of her home-made demo tapes. Gilmour was
impressed enough to arrange a recording session at London's
Air Studios. The tape was immensely successful: EMI offered
Bush a contract and whatever time she needed to refine her talents
as musician, mime and dancer. By mid-1977 Kate Bush was recording
her first LP,
.bf ital
The Kick Inside.
.pf
     The first sign of commercial success came in January, 1978,
when "Wuthering Heights", her debut single, soared to the top
of the British pop charts in less than three weeks' time.
.bf ital
The Kick Inside
.pf
followed shortly, climbing to the Number Three spot, and a
second single, "The Man With the Child in His Eyes", also
rose into the Top Ten.
     Shortly after the release of
.bf ital
The Kick Inside,
.pf
Kate Bush made her only U.S. appearance to date, performing
on
.bf ital
Saturday Night Live
.pf
as the featured musical guest.
     Her second LP,
.bf ital
Lionheart,
.pf
included three new songs ("Fullhouse, "Symphony in Blue"
and "Coffee Homeground"), while the rest had initially been written
in preparation for
.bf ital
The Kick Inside.
.pf
Continuing her rise to the top,
.bf ital
Lionheart
.pf
reached Number Thirteen on the British charts.
     A European promotional concert tour started in April 1979, four
months after the LP's release. The tour provided material
for a lengthy (52-minute) video,
.bf ital
Live at Hammersmith Odeon,
.pf
which has been released in the U.S. and is currently being presented
by college radio stations around the country as part of an
EMI-America promotional campaign. Videos have also accompanied
Bush's singles. They will be available shortly in a collection
entitled
.bf ital
The Single File.
     Never For Ever,
.pf
the third studio LP
(a live EP,
.bf ital
Kate Bush On Stage,
.pf
was released following the tour),
appeared in September 1980.
"Breathing" and "Babooshka" introduced the album as singles,
rising to Numbers Sixteen and Five, respectively.
.bf ital
Never For Ever
.pf
entered the charts at Number One.
.bf ital
     The Dreaming
.pf
is perhaps Kate Bush's most ambitious
effort to date. Utilizing the Fairlight CMI (computer musical
instrument), she creates a rhythmic, experimental sound with
a truly haunting, yet human, quality.
     With a new album already on the way (and increasing interest
expressed by EMI-America, which once felt her music was
somewhat unmarketable here), Kate Bush is more than ready to
break into America's pop music market. Nineteen-eighty-four
may well be her best year yet.

     At the time, what were your feelings on the success of
"Wuthering Heights"?
     "I was very surprised. It's not something you really take in.
I was obviously very excited. It was such a wonderful thing to happen
after having just finished my first album -- when you're not sure
how things are going to go."
.bf ital
     The Dreaming
.pf
was released in late 1982 <actually in June 1982>, some two years
after
.bf ital
Never For Ever.
.pf
Why did this album take so much longer than the previous ones?
     "Well, I don't know about other people, but I find that I've
always had to work hard in order to get something good. I don't think
I could just do something quickly that would be marvellous. I have
to work hard at it just to make it right. But I think I am
quite critical of my work, and it just takes me a long time anyway.
I think things come quite slowly for me. So, I do have to work
hard in order to come up with something.
     "I always seem to be behind myself. I should have had an album
out already this year (1983), but because of how I work, I can't do
it. So, I suppose, because I'm always behind..."
     How much time is involved in the actual writing of the songs?
     "I think nearly everything I do takes me a long time. I find it
quite hard to get things the way I want them. And I think the only
time I've ever written ten songs quickly was the last album,
.bf ital
The Dreaming.
.pf
But then we spent ages in the studio. And part way through the album,
I stopped going to the studio, and just spent a couple of months
working on the lyrics. That was very hard, but I think it was worth it.
     "For a total album, I felt more pleased with those lyrics than
with any of the albums before. There have always been a couple of songs
that I thought were, perhaps, a bit weak. But I worked very hard on
.bf ital
The Dreaming."
.pf
     How important a part did the Fairlight play in
.bf ital
The Dreaming?
.pf
     "I think on this album it played an incredibly important part.
I didn't have one when I was writing the songs for
.bf ital
The Dreaming,
.pf
but I had it very much in mind. As soon as I went into the studio,
a couple of weeks later, I actually bought one so that I could have
more time to work with it.
     "It's an incredible thing. For those songs it was really perfect.
A great deal of effort went into trying to create an emotional effect
for the atmosphere of the songs, and I find that the Fairlight is a
very understanding instrument in those areas."
     Was producing
.bf ital
The Dreaming
.pf
a new creative outlet for you?
     "Yes, and I think very much an outlet that had been in motion
before, but I hadn't had complete control. It was very exciting
for me and also very worrisome, because it was something new and
something that held a great deal of responsibility.
     "I really did enjoy doing it. But, it was also much more
demanding and intense than I had expected. The songs actually started
to change once I got in the studio, and it became a very emotional
thing. It became very tiring emotionally, but very satisfying.
     "I think when you put that amount of effort into something,
you feel a great deal of satisfaction when it starts working out
the way you want it to. I would never consider going into the studio
without a very good engineer, though. I think that is such an
important part of an album -- someone who can get you a really good
sound and personality.
     "It's also very important to have someone to get feedback from.
You need that. And you obviously get very close with someone who's
working on the same project with you, so you want them to like it.
It's good if you're all enjoying it and there's a nice relationship
among the people you're working with. That really helps a lot."
     In the title track of
.bf ital
The Dreaming,
.pf
it is virtually impossible to be aware of all the sounds and voices
at the same time. This seems to hold true for much of the album.
     "I think, especially with that track and 'Get Out Of My House',
that was -- well, hopefully -- what we wanted to happen. It was
very much working in layers.
     "The idea was that the third or fourth time a person listened
to the record, they would start hearing things they hadn't heard
before. I think that's really my favourite kind of music. The best
examples are some of the Beatles records. I still listen to them,
and am still amazed at the quality of the songwriting. It still stands
up today. I mean,
.bf ital
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
.pf
and
.bf ital
Magical Mystery Tour
.pf
-- there just isn't a bad track on them, every one is brilliant,
and there are so many ideas in each song. Maybe each time you
listen you pick up on a different area of what is going on. And
I really wanted to create something a bit like that, so that, as
people listened to it more, it would somehow grow.
     "What I suppose worries me, are the people who aren't prepared
for music you really have to listen to. Perhaps they find it a bit
confusing because it's not all there on the surface. It's something
that you do have to give time to, a bit like a book. But if it's
actually getting through to some people, which it obviously has
from the feedback, then that's fantastic."
     What does "The Dreaming" mean?
     "It's an aboriginal term that was also called 'Dreamtime'.
The Dreaming and Dreamtime are the same thing: the time of creation
that the aborigines believe in.
It's a very ancient religious thing for them."
     One track from
.bf ital
The Dreaming,
.pf
"Leave It Open", has a backward masking at the end, under the chorus.
     "Yes. We actually have a thing going in this country
(England), where there are people who write in every week with a new
version of what they think has been said at the end of the song, and
no one has gotten it yet.
     "I think there are only about three or four people who actually
know what has been said there. I really like that, though -- the idea
of all these people sitting and listening over and over to the ending
and wondering what's being said. It's lovely, like a game."
     I suppose the obvious question at this point would be,
"But what does it
.bf ital
say?"
.pf
But, bypassing that one, how important is it for the listener to
understand your intentions while listening to one of your records?
     "It means a lot to me if people are interpreting the music in the
way that I originally wanted it to be done. But, I do feel that music
is a bit like a painting, in that when you buy a painting, it's
because you like it. And what is important is your interpretation of
what it means. That's why it means so much to you. I think that applies
to records as well.
     "But, as long as people are getting enjoyment out of them,
I don't think it matters to me. It doesn't worry me if they
don't understand the way that I'd hoped they would. But of course
it's always nice if they do."
     Why do you think your music is so greatly ignored in the U.S.?
     "I don't think the music automatically fits into categories.
So, I don't think it's easy for it to fit into the majority of
radio programming in America.
     "I also think it would have helped a lot if the record company
had actually released the albums in the U.S.! Apart from the
first album,
.bf ital
The Dreaming
.pf
is the only other album they've released in America.
So, in many ways, there hasn't been that much for people
to buy or to hear. Apart from that, I can't say why."
     A promotional trip to the U.S. was cancelled this past spring.
     "I was due over in June, and was very excited about it.
I was really disappointed because I had been getting some very
positive feedback from America, especially from the press --
reviews and articles. There are people who really seem to like the
album. It looks now like I'm probably not going to be over until
I have a new album. But it was disappointing for me. I was greatly
looking forward to it."
     Will you be touring at all in the near future?
     "I do want to. Quite honestly, until last year I couldn't
start thinking about doing a show because I needed two albums
clear of the last show to have enough new material. I was hoping to
be able to start thinking about a show in 1983, but I got into time
problems, because nearly everything I do takes me so long.
     "If I had done a tour, I probably wouldn't even be writing
songs for a new album until much later. And the general feeling was
that it was too long a gap. So, I really just want to get this album out,
and then I can start thinking about doing a show.
     "But that's going to mean a lot of organizing. I won't even know
how far, or where we'll be taking it until we've got an estimate
on the cost. One of the big problems is money. The last show I did
really did cost a lot. But, if a tour seems practical, I would love to
bring it to America."
     Do you enjoy working in video?
     "I really do enjoy it very much. It's a bit like my recording
experiences: I started off always being interested, and as I kept
on working I became more involved. I work out the choreography, the
setting, the lighting and the effects. But, out of all the videos I've
done, there're really only a couple that I'm very pleased with.
Unlike my songs, where I can spend lots of time writing them and
working on them in the studio, video has terrible limitations
of time and money."
     Do you find your work at all frustrating?
     "Terribly. And I think, in many areas, as well. Obviously
the writing is very frustrating. In fact, I think nearly every
area of my work is frustrating (laughs)."
     Do you think that is necessary and, perhaps, ultimately
beneficial?
     "It's very hard to say, but I think it is important. I think
it is a part of the chain, you are quite right. I think frustration
is, perhaps, the product of so desperately trying to get a thing
together, whatever it is -- a lyric or a tune -- and you can't.
But you keep going at it, and suddenly you break through."