Razz interview

[rhill@pnet01.cts.com (Ronald Hill)]

    54. Razzmatazz: Kate discusses with the host and a group of children the
making of the video Sat In Your Lap. Aired on U.K. TV, July 14, 1981.
     This clip shows Kate sitting among a group of about fifteen children. She
is wearing a skirt over a leotard. She discusses the making of her videos and
her way of devising ideas for the visual presentation of her songs; and she
shares some of the costume-props which were made and used for the Sat In Your
Lap video. Also, two of her official videos are shown.

[Transcribed by Ron Hill.]

[Babooshka is played.]

        I: A really amazing video there, by an equally amazing lady, Kate
Bush! 

[Children applaud and cheer]

        I: They're all obviously really pleased to have you here, Kate.  
        K: Great. 
        I: Actually when you perform a song there's none of this sort of
standing up in front of the mike and just belting it out, it really is quite a
work of art.  When you're writing songs, Kate, do you think always in the back
of your mind, "how is this going to look on a video?"
        K: Not always at the writing stage.   And there is a lot of visual
ideas, because when you're writing the song you've got to think of the
character who's singing the song, who often isn't yourself, and that character
will be in a particular situation, either an unhappy one or in a certain room
with a certain person.  And I think all these things you actually mentally
push yourself into to write the song so that you'll be closest to that
atmosphere.  And when you make a video, often you can't afford to visually do
what you have in your mind, so often you'll slightly change it, make it a bit
more abstract rather than go through the full thing.  
        I: I think David had a question for you Kate. 
        David: How do you make your videos, Kate? 
        K: Well, it's quite a long process.  It depends on the song, the song
really dictates what you have to do with it.  Some songs are very simple and
other songs almost become little epics, where you've got to section lots of
things together.  And if you're using other people in the video then you have
to get choreography for them and make sure that they look right and they do
the right things.  And it really is a lot of fun actually, for me it's almost
like making a film and I think of it as something very special.
        I: Now you brought some storyboards now today, didn't you? 
        K: Yes, I have.  [Brings out storyboards]  Something that I do for the
video's just recently is... in order to let the people that are working on the
video know, like the cameraman and all that, I draw these little pictures, I
drew these little pictures, I don't know if you can see these.  [The pictures
are not clear.  Scenes from the video are edited in]  The video starts off
with an eye blinking in time to the music, it's very rough drawings.  And the
camera moves out and as the camera moves out you see a little boy on my lap. 
And this is really sort of step by step, almost like a cartoon. 
        Boy: But what other interests have you, apart from singing and
dancing? 
        K: Well, in many ways, before all these things started happening to
me, they were my interests.  Like, when I got home from school I used to want
to play and piano and that sort of thing.  And I'm very lucky because my
interests are actually my work and in so many ways any interest that I have
can become a part of my work, like a few months ago I bought a pair of skates
and just fancied learning how to roller skate and we're going to have a
rolling skating section in a video.  I think in a way that's the wonderful
thing about art, like music, dancing, that sort of thing, everything you do
can become your work.  You know, like if you're cleaning up one night you
might suddenly realise what a great routine it would make with a broom and
that.  You know, it's just keep your mind open for all these thing.  It's
really fun, life become work.
        I: What about your training, though, in the early days, Kate?  Tell us
about that.  
        K: Well, when I left school I wanted to do something that would help
my music, you know, I didn't want to be sat round doing nothing.  Although I
knew that I wanted to push myself into my music, I thought one of best things
that I could do would be to learn to dance, because they're very close arts,
music and dance are meant to go together.  And I went to see an incredible
performance by someone called Lindsay Kemp and then I suddenly realized that
this was what I was looking for, this sort of movement combined with music. 
So I took some classes with him and then went on to The Dance Center, which
[did exist then ???], and took lessons with a wonderful lady called Robin
Kovak and a lot of other teachers, and I've been going ever since really, on
and off. 
        I: What one my favorites is the Man With The Child In His Eyes.
        K: Yes, that probably was the simplest one we've ever done.  Again,
the song dictated it, it was a very intimate song about a young girl almost
voicing her inner thoughts, not really to anyone, but rather to herself.  And
it just started off where I sat down on the floor, crosslegged, [the video is
shown while Kate keeps talking] and getting ready to work out some ideas to
the routine with the music on.  And my brother Jay came in and saw me sitting
there and said, "why don't you just keep it like that?"

[Part of The Man With The Child In His Eyes is played]

        Kid: [??? inaudible] costumes and especially your hair during touring?
        K: Well, on tour we had a lady who looked after the costumes 'cause it
wasn't just me who was wearing costumes, all the band had clothes and the
dancers and the musicians and the magician had one.  And she had to keep
preparing them every night and getting them dry cleaned.  And my hair, I
really just tried... I had to have one perm before the tour and that tried to
hold it for the rest, it didn't do very well.  Yeah. 
        I: You brought some costumes along with you today, I hope. 
        K: Yes I have.  Well the video we're doing at the moment, they're some
character featuring at the background, so that's one.  [Put's dunce cap on a
child's head] That one's a dunce.  The songs all about the search for
knowledge, so...
        I: This is your new... your new song? 
        K: Yes, it is. 
        I: The search for knowledge. 
        K: [Takes out "Joker" and hands to another child]  It seemed like a
good idea to have some figures that epitomized looking for knowledge.  And
also this is a bull... a bull is this one.  What Pamy [??? spelling] did here,
this was originally a cow's mask, and it was a very pretty cow that was pink
and had big eyelashes and everything.  And she managed to cut it down and
completely changed it, she put these horns on on top of what was there and
turned it into a bull. 
        I: We'll give that to Maureen, can we? 
        K: Okay. 
        I: What about your costume for this video, Kate? 
        K: [Pulls out costume] Well, we tried to base it on a sorta
ballerina's costume because obviously I've got a lot of interest in dance,
still.  But also the flavor of the song, everyone kept commented on how
Spanish it was, and this was in fact one of the reasons for the bull imagery,
everyone thought it was very Spanish and bullringy so we tried to keep this
looking like a ballet tutu, but at the same time making the skirt slightly
spanish so that I'd be able to pick it up and wave it around.  And Pamy based
this on a ballet tutu. 

[Part of Sat In Your Lap is played.  The children cheer.]

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