2nd half of kate article

[Dave Armstrong <8548222@wwu.EDU>]

This is the second half of the article in _OPTION_ that I posted yesterday.



     "Because Del plays the bass, he's very good at rhythms and he'll often 
get the rhythm tracks together.  Then I'll build up the song.  As soon as 
I've got an idea, it can go on tape because Del's there.  Now for me to 
actually try to put that on tape, it's so complicated.  On occasion I've 
tried to do it, and it's a joke."  She laughs.  "It's impossible.  And I don't 
think I'd be able to do it with another engineer because I wouldn't feel so 
relaxed.  I really do have a tremendously intimate creative working environ-
ment.  I think it's had a very good effect on my music.  I feel so much more...
too brave sometimes.  And that almost frightened me on this album where I 
actually felt `This is going to go out to the world!' It's like my private 
music.  But I do think that's good.  Music and art, if possible, should be as 
personal an expression as possible, as well as a group expression."  Kate looks
to Palmer, who has been sitting across from us.
     "You're actually giving me far more credit that I deserve," Palmer says.  
"The thing about what Kate does so well is that she makes the musicians 
actually work hard.  Most musicians never really have to work hard.  They are 
always working on their own level of expertise.  On Kate's music they do work 
exceptionally hard.  And that's why I think most people really enjoy working 
with her, because they're made to work more than they are used to..."
     Laughing, Bush cracks an imaginary whip over our heads. "HYAH!  HYAH!"
     "When it works," Palmer continues, "they feel an incredible sense of 
release and satisfaction.  They've done something they have never done before."
     "What's great for me is that this is our sixth album, and we've been 
working with a lot of the musicians for years now," Bush adds.  "They're old 
friends.  We really don't have a band as such, but it's much easier to 
communicate with someone who knows what you want.  Our drummers never freak 

     If it seems that Bush prefers as much control over her output as possible, 
that desire also carries over into her video clips.  In fact, her interest in 
visuals has played an important part in establishing a presence for Bush since 
the beginning of her caeer.  The video of her 1977 single, "Wuthering Heights" 
was one of the first music videos ever produced in Great Britain.  Since that 
time she has made videos for each British single released except for "December 
Will Be Magic Again" - about 20 videos in all.  These videos have practically 
defined Bush's public image, as she has rarely ventured onto a stage and 
detests touring.
     The last six videos released have all been directed by Bush, who in the 
process has also become more interested in contributing to soundtracks.  In 
between the release of _The_Hounds_of_Love_ and _The_Sensual_World_, she wrote 
"This Woman's Work" for John Hughes' _She's_Having_A_Baby_ and "Be Kind To My 
Mistakes" for Nicholas Roeg's _Castaway_.  The former appears on the new album,
and had also been released as a single with the latter song on the B-side.  
"In both cases the films were finished, and they specifically wanted me to 
write a song for those parts of the movies," Bush exclaims enthusiastically.  
"I love working with film and admire their work a lot.  I was really thrilled 
to be asked to do that."
     Bush's first venture into directing her own videos was with the single 
"Hounds of Love."  She grimaces a little selfconsciously at the mention of the 
video.  "That was my first real direction,"  she says, and then continues 
confidently.  "I find in incredibly exciting, and in some ways a bit frust-
rating that it's disciplined to the song that has been chosen as the single, 
because quite often a song is a song in its own right, and sometimes songs 
have much better storylines for videos.  They're more visually oriented.  So 
when you're working with a song that is not particularly visually oriented, 
it's incredibly frustrating.  Especially if you know there is another song 
on the album that would be more visual."
     Directing her own work has certainly filled the gaps in an already busy 
schedule.  So for, for _The_Sensual_World_, Kate has directed videos for the 
title track (at the time of writing not yet shown in the United States) and 
the American single "Love and Anger."  As of last December, she had just 
finished the video for the second British single, "This Woman's Work."  But 
Bush is undaunted by the pace.
     "I do love directing.  My favorite is when I don't actually have to be in 
the video much and I can make it a little film.  I haven't been working on it 
that long, but I've really got a group of people now that I would like to work 
with all the time as a crew.  I have a fantastic crew.  They're so enthusiastic
- it makes it tremendously challenging and quite a moving experience for me 
to feel all these people working together as a group to make something.  It's 
very different from making records, which is really a more isolated situation. 
On the film set it's maybe up to forty people."
     Bush's early videos are more staged than her later ones.  They are shot 
as though she were performing in a music hall rather than on screen.  These 
early clips are long on charm, as Bush often exaggerates her facial expressions
and incorporates dance into the production.  For "Them Heavy People," she 
dressed in trench coat and fedora a la Bogart and danced with two other 
performers; it was very simple and quite entertaining.  "My videos are more 
film-influenced now.  When I first started making videos, I was so obviously 
theatrically and dance-influenced.  A lot of that was from Lindsay Kemp and 
dance teachers with whom I had been working.  Gradually the more involved I 
got in video, the process of making films, the more I've swung around to film-
making.  It's a beautiful discipline, dance, and it can be lovely, but I guess 
I'm getting for more into filmmaking now."
     What about the obvious complications in making a video from a song that's 
already been paired with part of a movie, as was "This Woman's Work"?  "It was 
interesting because the song had originally been written to visuals," she 
says.  "But the song has its own storyline as well, so then it was like making 
a film of the song.  Obviously (in the movie) it's about a man waiting for his 
wife having a baby.  Now I didn't want to put myself in a situation where I'd 
have to be pregnant."  Kate laughs.  "It's all too complicated.  So we kind of 
left it very ambiguous.  And I think it looks like a little film in that it 
tells a story.  So I guess rather than talking about it, it might be nice to 
let you see it."
     Indeed, screening the video reveals that, like many of those Bush has 
directed, the story is elusive and open-ended.  A man is waiting for his wife 
or girlfriend in the hospital.  We don't know what happened to her, but as the 
man is in the throes of grief and worry, Bush appears as a vision (of sorts) 
and soothes him.  "Love and Anger," another new video, combines ballet dancers 
and whirling dervishes with a live performance by Bush and her band.  What is 
most pronounced about her work with video is that the strong emotional content 
present in her music appears on screen as well, rather than merely glitz and 
special effects.

     One of the more unusual aspects of Kate Bush's career is the degree of 
devotion that some of her fans have for her.  "They'd drink her bath water!" 
was a comment by one record retailer after the release of _Hounds_of_Love_.  
In America and Great Britain, Bush fanzines discuss such probing issues as 
whether or not the song "Rocket's Tail" is dedicated to her pet cat.  There 
are also testimonials of sorts, letters describing just how Bush has changed 
someone's life.  And it goes far beyond that.  In 1985 came the first Kate 
Bush convention, called a Bushcon.  Her fans celebrate her birthday, calling 
it "Katemas," and spending the day immersed in her recordings, videotapes, and 
the company of other loyal followers.  It's a bit twisted; such fiercely 
religious devotion might put off a lot of artists, especially in light of the 
threats that many celebrities receive from deranged fans.  But Bush is comp-
limented rather than concerned over her rabid following.
     "My contact with them has been fantastic," she says, "I get letters, a 
lot of nice ones.  When I'm in the middle of an album and I'm worried because 
it's taking so long, I'll get a letter that says, `I don't care how long it 
takes, I just hope you're happy with it.'  They're very supportive and enthusi-
astic.  I'm impressed with them as people.  They seem very intelligent and 
respectful of my privacy.  I can't thank them enough for that." 
     "You do get the odd one or two," quipps Palmer.  "But they're usually 
very discreet.  They just want a picture or an autograph.  And they're quite 
patient to wait almost five years for an album with no complaints!"
     Privacy is something that is very important to Bush, and it is an aspect 
of her personality that has found its way into a few of the unauthorized bio-
graphies that have come out of England.  She is said to be squeamish about 
interviews because of her private nature, but Bush explains that her lack of 
interest in interviews has more to do with the manner in which the interview 
is held than anything else.  "In England over the years, I've had alot of 
trouble with the interviews I've done because they haven't wanted to talk about
my music.  That's what I don't like.  I feel that interviews should talk about 
my music and not me, not my life.  The other thing is that I don't want to 
publicize myself personally.  This is not why I do it.  I want to publicize my 
work and my music.  There is a fine line anyway, because obviously a person's 
work is an expression of what they are as a person.  But I don't know if it 
matters what the person is like.  (When I read an interview of an artist,) I
don't want to know what they do on weekends, I want to hear and see their work."
     Upon meeting Kate Bush, she does not seem as inordinately private so much 
as she strikes one as fully autonomous in her career.  Few major label artists 
enjoy the measure of creative freedom that she does.  Albums come out two to 
four years apart.  From videos to photo shoots, Bush controls all visual images
of herself.  She refuses to become a star based on an acquired persona, pre-
ferring her music to be the focus of her public perception.  For someone who 
had fame thrust upon her at such a young age (she was 20 when "Wuthering 
Heights" became a hit), she could easily have had her career managed by 
others.  Instead, she has worked steadily and intensely for many years in order
to creat music in the manner she wishes, without compromising herself or her 
work.  It's an unusual situation, and she knows it.
     "Yeah, I'm tremendously lucky," Bush says.  "The amount of creative 
freedom I have is extraordinary.  And yet, it's still not enough.  Because 
I don't think you can ever have enough time to create.  You can be creating 
all the time.  But just the way our lives work, the way the system works, 
there continually have to be big breaks in creating.  Do you know what I mean? 
I would like to be spending even more time than I am just creating music."