The French _Best_ Magazine interview

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: The French _Best_ Magazine interview

     This interview was conducted in English by Gerard Bar-David, then
translated into French and published in the November 1989 issue of France's
music magazine, _Best_. The following is a re-translation _back_ into English,
by IED. Love-Hounds are therefore advised not to mistake any of Kate's
statements for verbatim quotations.

                                 The Sensual Bush

            "If you know nothing of music, what good is it to be Irish?"

     In dizzying profusion, minibuses and limousines follow each
other on the straight path which leads to the manor of Chilston Park,
the place designated--no doubt at the command of Mr. EMI--to serve
as the epicenter of the explosion of the new and long-awaited (four
years--how time flies!) opus signed by Lady Kate Bush.
     With its eighteenth-century paneling and elaborate bric-a-brac,
this splendid "rustic English" domicile is the perfect decor for
rediscovering the babe--Bush--who baptised her latest single _The_Sensual_
_World_ in opposition to the ubiquitous crudeness of our sexual world. In the
age of software, Kate battles for the comeback of softness.
     In such a place as this, one dreams of a portrait-gallery.
If you had to collect one, Kate, whose faces would be found in it?
     "That's a very personal question, but amid those
faces that I'd like to collect, Hitchcock's would definitely
have to be included among my favourites, because he was absolutely
brilliant. He was a genius. He saw life with the vision of a camera,
as though his eyes were the view-finder. Most of the other portraits
would be friends who have mattered a lot to me. It's a little
like this album, where each song is a painting of a friend, or of
a privileged moment."
     A friend like Alan Stivell, who in fact is found on your record?
     "I've always adored his music. My brother John had
already been a fan for years. He listened to his songs endlessly
at home. My meeting with Alan was an amazing coincidence. Once we
had begun working on this album, I thought that it would be
fantastic to integrate Stivell's harp into the songs'
atmospheres. We had never met, Alan and I. Two days later, by the
purest chance, I found a little note in my letterbox signed 'Alan
Stivell': he knew that we had never met, but perhaps I had heard
some of his music; in any case, he said, he would love to
work with me. What a coincidence! I telephoned him, and he came over
to contribute to the album. It's a lovely story."
     In your portrait-gallery, one would no doubt find your "mentor",
David Gilmour, who put his guitar to service on your _Sensual_World_.
     "Let's see...Where can we put David? Over the mantle-piece,
no doubt. It was a dream to have Dave with me on this LP, because
in all these years we had never really worked together, and he's
such a great virtuoso. And was I terrified when we first met! He was
such a big star, and me, I was still nothing but a tiny little plant.
A friend we had in common had known him since high school. At the
end of the '70s Dave was looking for new artists to foster, and
his friend told him, 'You absolutely have to hear this girl'.
Dave freaked out, and helped me to produce my very first demos.
I could never have succeeded without him, and to have him on my
album was like a little girl's dream come true."
     With Irish acoustic musicians, Greek bouzoukis, Celtic harps
and the Mystere des Voix Bulgares, is your _Sensual_World_ your tour
of the best possible worlds?
      "I've always wanted to use Irish musicians. So I
went to Dublin to throw myself into its roots. The Irish are
affectionate and warm, and the music there strangely resembles them
in that way. Like their language, which is intense, musical and
spiritual, their music knows how to transport me. My mother is
Irish, and since I was a child I've always been immersed in its
sound. At home there were always members of our family who would
come over to play on the fiddle or the accordion. In our group
everyone could play at least one instrument, and you'd be
taken for a real fool if you didn't listen to any music.
My mother often said: 'If you know nothing of
music, what good is it to be Irish?' This music,
it's really a part of myself.
     "As for the Bulgarians, I experienced an amazing
musical contact with them. I discovered their music, and I
had hoped to include them in my album. So I went to Bulgaria
to meet them. These women have been singing together for twenty
years--thirty years--and they worked so hard. I didn't speak
a word of their language and in ten minutes they opened their
house to me. After the dinner, we were sitting in their kitchen
and one of them picked up the telephone to listen for the dial tone.
Eva then gave the tone to the others, and they began to sing. I
was so moved that I broke into tears."

-- Andrew Marvick