Interview Episode 1: Kate and the Trio Bulgarika

[Steve Wallis <stevew%mushroom.computer-science.manchester.ac.uk@NSFNET-RELAY.AC.UK>]

Kate Bush was interviewed by Roger Scott on Radio One on Saturday 14th
October.  I unfortunately missed the start of the interview, I just tuned in
by accident, and only realised it was KT when I heard a reference to
Bulgaria.

What impressed me most about this interview was how excited KT sounded.  She
obviously really enjoyed this interview, quite a contrast to the NME
interview IED posted recently.  She was very open and revealing, really
expressing her feelings.  The interview was rather long and I will post it as
a series of several episodes.

Here is a transcription of the first part of the interview I heard, at
approximately 5.50pm.  KT talks about the Trio Bulgarika and explains
Rocket's_Tail.

				Steve.

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KT: They all come from different parts of Bulgaria, they all come from little
villages and they're very earthy people. They've all lived very full lives,
and they work so hard.  I've never worked with such hard-working professional
people, and I've never worked with women before on that level either which I
found fabulous.  It was very exciting for me working with women creatively.

	<Never_Be_Mine is played>

KT: That whole process was incredible because I was really scared, I didn't
know if it was going to work.  We arrived in Bulgaria, and they didn't speak
a word of English, and we didn't speak a word of Bulgarian, and the
communication was really stunted to start with.  Within 10 minutes they
welcomed us into their house, so affectionate, and they sat down and sang one
of their songs for us.  It was a beautiful song, just the three of them
sitting opposite this kitchen table.  The eldest one Eva picked up this
telephone and listened to the dialling tone and went <tone>, and they all
took their note off the dialling tone <laughs>.  And then they just burst
into song and it was the most beautiful thing.  It's very rarely that I'm
moved by music enough to want to cry, and within minutes I was sitting there
with tears running down my cheeks.  I think in some ways this was how we
communicated, not that it was that extreme all the time but it was very much
emotional communication between us, no words could be used really, and they
loved the fact that we were so moved, and working in the studio consisted of
cuddles mainly rather than long conversations <laughs> and it was wonderful.
A really special experience, I wouldn't have missed it for the world, it
definitely affected me in a big way.  I'm so honoured to have worked with
them, really just so honoured with them as people as well as musicians,
because the music speaks for itself.  It's just so incredible to be with
people like that.

RS: What would be your choice for the song that would best demonstrate these
voices?

KT: Most definitely Rocket's_Tail.  It shows the trio off the most, and
sometimes when they're singing, if you're in the same room as them when
they're singing, you can hear the air cracking, it's like there's so much
harmonic information in their voices <laughs>.

RS: Tell me about that song then.

KT: About Rocket's_Tail?  Oh God, you would ask me about that one <laughs>.  
I wrote this for the trio, really, musically, in that I wanted a song that
could really show them off.  The other two songs that they appear on were
already structured and in a way they had to very much fit around the song's
structure to become a part of it, but this song they were there en masse,
really, the whole song was based around them.  And I wrote it on a
synthesiser with a choir sound and just sang along.  We put John's on and I
had no idea if their voices were going to work on it at all, really, so the
whole thing hung on the fact of whether when we went out to Bulgaria, whether
it worked or not.  And the arranger we worked with out there was such a
brilliant man.  In some ways, I think that the fact that we didn't speak the
same language made our communication much easier because he seemed to know
exactly what I wanted, and, really, just after a few hours he was coming up
with the most incredible tunes, and I just had to say "Oh yes, I like that
one," "Er, no, not too kean on that one," "Umm, that's lovely!" and just go
away and write it out.  It was incredible, I've never worked like that
before, so quickly with someone I've never met before.  It was really
exciting to find that kind of chemistry.

RS: Rocket is one of your cats.

KT: Rocket *is* one of my cats, and he was the inspiration for the subject
matter for the song, because he's dead cute <both laugh>.  And it's very
strange subject matter because the song isn't exactly about Rocket, it's kind
of inspired by him and for him, but the song, it's about anything.  I guess
it's saying there's nothing wrong with being right here at this moment, and
just enjoying this moment to its absolute <something>, and if that's it,
that's OK, you know.  And it's kind of using the idea of a rocket that's so
exciting for maybe 3 seconds and then it's gone <phutt!>, you know that's it,
but so what, it had 3 seconds of absolutely wonderful... <both laugh>

	<Rocket's_Tail is played>

RS: Is Rocket's_Tail by Kate Bush, from her new album The_Sensual_World.

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To be continued...


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   \       / /\ // / \      // /         |       Steve Wallis       |
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     \    \/ //\\/ /   \  / \/ /         |  stevew@uk.ac.man.cs.r5  |
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