The VH-1 interview, at last

[portuesi%tweezers.esd@sgi.com]

Sorry I took so long to post the interview.  I finished transcribing
it this weekend, though technical problems at work have prevented me
from moving it off a floppy disk and onto to my workstation.  The
transcription is a very faithful rendition of what she said, with only
the "uh's" and a few of the "you know's" edited out.  The punctuation
is done largely to my own tastes, so flame me if you think it reads
badly.  I did puncutate the part where she talked about Wilhelm Reich
very carefully.  It seemed to me that she hesitated, that she didn't
want to get into the full story, and gave a shortened version without
really saying what she felt about Reich and his work.

For those who have not seen the special, the interviewer and questions
are never shown -- we are shown only Kate's responses to the questions.
So the whole show has the feel of a monologue, where Kate changes the
subject on a regular basis.  The show generally denoted each change of
subject with an excerpt from one of her videos, or from some footage
they shot of Kate walking through the park in the autumn, leaves
sweeping at her feet, black cape blowing in the breeze.


                             Kate Bush
                        The VH-1 Interview


I think this album for me, unlike the last album, say, `Hounds of
Love,' where I saw that as two sides -- one side being conceptual --
this album is very much like short stories for me.  Ten short stories
that are just saying something different in each one and it was a bit
like trying to paint the pictures accordingly.  Each song has a
different personality and so they each a need little bit of something
here, a little bit of that there -- just like people, you know,
some people you can't walk up to because you know they're a bit edgy
first thing in the morning.  So you have to come up sideways to them,
you know, and it's kind of like how the songs are too.  They have their
own little personalities, and if it doesn't want you to do it, it won't
let you.

<"Never be Mine" is played while Kate walks through the park>

I do think it's a very big self-therapy for me now.  The more my work
coming out, and the more I think it's actually almost a process for me
to try and heal myself, have a look at myself.

I feel this is probably my most female album as well, in that I've
explored female energies in myself as a writer, producer, that before
I've really just done what I've seen all the other guys do, because
really everything I've learned in the music industry about making
records has been from them.  And it occurred to me more in hindsight
that at the time that a lot of what I was doing was very male
influenced, and I just wanted to try and find a female energy for
myself.  Not that there's anything negative about male energy in music
because it's great you know.  I was just looking for a female
approach, I guess.

<excerpts from "The Sensual World">

We wanted to make the video for `The Sensual World' as simple as
possible in that so many videos now are overloaded with effects, big
sets, they look expensive.  So what we wanted to do was just keep it
in one set, one environment and depict what for me the song `Sensual
World' is about, which is the sensuality of this planet, the weather,
the elemental changes, being able to reach out and touch, the sound
of the wind, all of these wonderful things that we are surrounded by.

<more TSW excerpts>

I think nature is very important to me as an inspiration.  It's very
important for me to be able to just look at intense pieces of
landscape and throughout history people have always gained inspiration
from the sea, from mountains, from the sky.  It's what we sort of
strive for, isn't it?  You know, nature is perfect.  God made the
world in absolute perfection and anything that a human being does can
never really be perfect.

<"Reaching Out" played while Kate walks the countryside>

Discovery of music personally for me came when one day my father took
me into the <kennel?> and showed me the scale of C on the keyboard.
And I couldn't believe that this was how this worked, that it was so
logical, that there was actually a plan to the keyboard that was so
easy to see, that was like playing one finger on the notes and then
singing that tune.  And then gradually I got to to understand about
chords, and once I hit chords that was really it, you know.  This was
the most exciting thing in my life, the chord.

My family is very musical, and as long as I can remember there was
always music playing in the house.

It surprises me even now when I look back at the amount of time that I
was putting in, that as you say I was dedicated.  And I would think it
was extraordinary looking back on it now if it wasn't for the fact
that at the time I just felt so strongly that this was what I had to
do.  Its like it almost felt like a mission to me, that this was why I
was herem this was what I had to do -- I had to make an album.  And
that was, that was it I didn't want to be famousm I didn't want to
make lots of money, I didn't want to successful, but I desperately
wanted to make an album that I hoped people would want to hear.  So
all my energy was going into that.  Even the dancing was tied in
really with just trying to allow myself to grow a bit, to be able to
express myself.  And I also think if I hadn't put in those two years
of dance training, I don't think I could have coped with anything
after that point.  Because the discipline and the humility of it
taught me was something I think I've so gained a tremendous amount
from.

<excerpt from "Running Up That Hill" is played>

Well I actually left school, and I was training as a dancer.  I kind
of worked out a routine for my day, which would be get up in the
morning, I'd practice scales without my piano, go out and dance and in
the evening I'd come back and play the piano all night.  And I sure
remember, well, the summer of 76 which was really hot here.  We had
such hot weather, I had all the windows open.  And I'd just used to
write until you know four in the morning, and I got a letter of
complaint from a neighbor who was basically saying `Shuuut Uuuup!'
cause they had to get up at like five in the morning.  They did shift
work and my voice had been carried the whole length of the street I
think, and they weren't too appreciative.

<excerpt from "Wuthering Heights" is played>

Well, the video we made for `Wuthering Heights' was probably amongst
the first ever made, certainly here in this country in terms of a
video, and I was very influenced at that time still by Lindsay Kemp.
So it was very much the dance influence that I was expressing.  So it
was really working out choreography that just looked interesting, that
would kind of create a persona of Cathy.

Well, I'm not actually a big Emily Bronte fan.  A lot of people think
I am, they presume I am.  It just goes with this whole preconception
they have of me as a sort of big Bronte fan, a Tolkien fan, the
pre-Raphaelite lady.  Which I think is actually a very big
misconception.  For me, `Wuthering Heights' is the ultimate love
story.  You just cannot get beyond the passion that they cover there.
You know, its a love affair that goes beyond death -- they will not be
stopped by nature's boundaries.

<excerpt of "Wow" from Hammersmith Odeon concert is played>

I only actually toured once ten years ago -- '79 -- and we toured
England and Europe.  I had never done anything like that before.  I'm
not a performer, I'm not someone who's grown up playing around clubs
or pubs and then becomes a recording artist.  I'm someone who from a
young age wrote songs, and then gradually learned to sing, and then
gradually there I was in the studio and then... It's all sort of an
unfolding process for me.

<excerpt of "James and the Cold Gun" from Hammersmith is played>

We wanted to do something special, and I guess really because of my
influences from people like Lindsay Kemp we wanted to make it kind of
theatrical.  And so it would incorporate lots of different things, like
dance, and we had a magician, and we had some poetry and just all
different elements thrown together and it had a kind of a circus feel.

<excerpt of "Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake" from Hammersmith
is played>

In terms of what we were doing then it was very experimental.  I mean
apart from musicals, or opera production, it was kind of unheard of to
involve so many elements.

What I needed was a microphone that I didn't have to hold, because we
wanted to do dance that involved two other dancers so I could be
lifted and we could run across the stage, and holding a microphone was
very inhibiting.  So the sound guy that we had for the tour, I said to
him `I want you to invent a microphone for me that I don't have to
carry'.  So he basically invented the radio mikes that you see now,
that he made it out of a coat hanger.  So he got an old coat hanger
and kind of bent it into shape here, and then had this piece that came
round here, that the microphone was then put on so it was just in
front of the mouth.

<excerpt from "Cloudbusting" is played>

For me, what's important is writing songs and it's just incredible how
many things spill out of that.  How the lyrics, being a singer, and
then really by making videos it becomes an extension again of the
song.  And I suppose I've always been interested in the visual side of
things.  I've always loved film, and it just seemed like a natural
progression for me to get more and more involved in what I did
musically and visually.  Because I made the first album, and then I
made the videos that went with it. so these are things that I've been
doing for years now, and each time I've done them I've become a bit
more involved.

I suppose my favorite one is when it's a story, though, because then
it's like making a film.

`Cloudbusting' is about Wilhelm Reich, who...was...kind of remembered
for work he did on `orgone energy' and he had this thing called a
cloudbuster, which was all tied in with orgone energy, but...he could
make it rain.

When we were thinking about someone to play the part of the father,
we just sort of instantly came up with Donald Sutherland, and
everyone laughed, because it's like, you know, he's one of the
greatest actors in the world, really, and we jokingly thought `yeah,
yeah wouldn't it be great'.

So we did actually approach his agent, who immediately said no, he
couldn't because he's just too busy.  But a friend of ours knew a
friend of his, who asked him, and he gave us three days of his time
in between shooting two other films.  And I still can't believe he did
it.  It was a wonderful thing for him to do, give us that time.  Made
it a very, very special thing for me.

<excerpt from "Big Sky">

Well, it's very difficult making videos.  Obviously you want to try
and do something different.  Everyone is making videos -- there's
competition out there like probably nothing else. 

<cut to set of "This Woman's Work">

Tim is kind of sitting throughout the song, waiting for his girlfriend
or whoever who is in the hospital.  So most of the video is very
distressed.  You know he's in a room, distressed state and he sort of
looks up, and then light goes away from the window, this spot comes
down.  So he's just sitting in this spot and he's like he's suddenly
conjuring up these memories.  And then I sort step in with a raincoat
and put it around his shoulders. 

<excerpt from "This Woman's Work" video>

When I'm directing them I would storyboard them, and then get them
drawn up professionally so that other people can understand.  Cause
otherwise it's like `ha ha ha, what's that meant to be,' you know,
`that's not meant to be me, that looks like a blob'.  And also, just
getting camera moves and that across, on a professionally drawn
storyboard.  Everyone can relate to an image -- its such a good way of
getting people to understand what you really mean. 

I don't think I ever wanted to become an actress.  Acting is
something that I've never had a passion for, or an ambition for.
Really, everything so far has stemmed from songwriting for me.

One of my favorite people from the movies was Alfred Hitchcock,
because for me the guy was a genius.  He was completely
revolutionary, he was very witty, but witty in a very `out there'
sense, and I still think people are learning about the film industry
from him every time they watch one of his films.  Beautiful -- it's
like the guy had a camera for a pair of eyes.

<excerpt from TWW is played>

All right, I wouldn't like to sit here and say that feel like I'm
emulating Hitchcock, but definitely he's a tremendous influence on me
whenever I'm making a video.  You know, he's really the ultimate
reference point.

<excerpt from LAA is played>

Well `Love and Anger', of all the songs on the album, is really the
one I know the least about.  I don't really know what it's about --
it's had so many different faces.  But it was one of the first songs
to be written, and one of the last songs to be finished.  And I think
all the songs on this album are about relationships. 

<more of LAA is played>

I don't think i'm politically minded at all.  Politics are something
that -- they're just not a part of me.  I don't understand what it is,
I don't like what I see in politics.  I don't see politics doing any
good for people, really.  It seems a very intellectual preoccupation,
you know, it's a kind of action, isn't it, that does things for
people.  I think I'm an emotionally based person, and when political
issues reach me emotionally, which of course is how most of use feel
the hollowed end of them, that would then move me to write a song or
something.  But I wouldn't ever sit and write about politics -- it's
not a part of me. 

I suppose if I had to name the main things that are very very good
triggers for ideas, it would be books, films, and conversation.  And
that just about covers it really, for me.  The odd walk in the park?

<closing credits>