The Times interview

[rhill@netlink.cts.com (Ron Hill)]

The girl who reached Wuthering Heights
by Mike Nicholls

>From The Times
August 27, 1985

        [Transcribed by Ron Hill.]

        It is almost eight years since Kate Bush surprised the pop world 
with her single Wuthering Heights, which, based on the Bronte classic novel, 
topped the record charts for a month.  Although this unusual singer and 
songwriter has never rescaled the commercial peak of that teenage debut, a 
certain visibility has been maintained. 
        Further hits like Hammer Horror, Babooshka, and Sat In Your Lap 
sustained her audience throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s while her 
most recent album, The Dreaming, entered the listings at No. 3 - the same 
number of years since we last heard from her.  A situation which begs the 
obvious question, whatever has she been doing since then and why has it 
taken so long.
        The later part is self-explanatory.  Bush has always been a 
perfectionist and for her to spend six months writing songs followed by a 
year recording them is par for the course.  Phil Collins, for argument's 
sake, might be able to bash out an LP every six months and still have time 
to play with any act taking his fancy, but Kate is made of more sensitive, 
self-critical stuff.  She is also familiar with the punitive cost of studio 
time and so spent the rest of her absence building one of her own.
        "It has always been an ambition of mine to have my own studio so 
once we found a house, we set about putting one together in the back 
garden", she says.  "Although I can work under a certain amount of pressure, 
paying &90 an hour at Abbey Road got to be too much.  It also meant having 
to travel into London every day which can be pretty exhausting."
        By "we" Kate is referring to her bass player and boyfriend of six 
years standing, Del Palmer.  The daughter of a typically middle-class Home 
Counties doctor, one might have expected Ms. Bush to be wed by now.  But 
marriage does not feature in her plans.
        She does admit to basing many of her songs on their relationship.  
For example, the new single, Running Up That Hill, is about the inability of 
a man to see things from a woman's point of view - and vice versa - as a 
result of fundamental biological differences.
        "It seems that the more you get to know a person, the greater the 
scope there is for misunderstanding.  Sometimes you can hurt somebody purely 
accidentally or be afraid to tell them something because you think they 
might be hurt when really they'll understand.  So what that song is about is 
making a deal with God to let two people swap place so they'll be able to 
see things from one another's perspective."
        If this seems profound stuff for an anticipated return to the Top 
Ten, it is lightweight in comparison with some of the material on the 
forthcoming album.  Entitled Hounds Of Love, side two comprises a suite of 
seven songs concerning "someone drowning, or rather, trying not to drown."
        One track in particular, "Watching Me Watching You" [sic! - Watching 
You Without Me], shows Kate's outrageous imagination at work.  A man, with 
nothing but a lifejacket to keep him afloat, has been in the sea for a while 
and is becoming quite delirious.  He imagines his spirit returning home to 
tell his loved one of his dilemma but she can't hear him because he's only a 
ghost.  Frustrating, really. 
        "Let's face it," Kate tries to rationalize, "it's gonna get pretty 
weird in the water after a couple of hours.  But I suppose the specific 
message of the song is the really horrific thought of being away from the 
person you love most and there's no way you can communicate.  You can't 
cuddle them or have the comfort of their physical warmth and they can't even 
see or hear you." 
        When not singing about love, Kate is preoccupied by alienation.  
"the song says a lot about that," she continues.  "A parallel situation 
could exist if it was about divorce.  You know, the husband coming back to 
see his children but he's no longer a part of the home.  Instead he's just 
an observer who isn't being seen by the people there because his role has 
become so different.  I guess there must be some feeling of insecurity 
within me to make me think along these lines," she signs, before adding more 
brightly, "Love and water and sky.  That's what sums this album up, really!  
It's absolutely drowning in it."
        If Kate Bush gives the impression of being in need of some help, 
then it ought to be pointed out that she has always conversed in this 
somewhat random, madcap manner.  And now she's cut off from the world even 
more, ensconced in deepest Kent with boyfriend Del. 
        Last week Del bought Kate an antique pocket watch for her 27th 
birthday.  Enthusiastically she pulls it out, exclaiming: "It gives off 
really old vibes!  I can almost imagine being taken back to the time it was 
made.  It's like our house.  One day we suddenly stumbled across it and a 
back door had been left open so we were able to go inside.  I'm sure there's 
a kind of force, a magnetic energy saying, come in, we're meant for each 
other."
        Eccentricities aside, Kate Bush has her own views on the news 
coverage of heroin, hijackings and other current issues and confesses to 
watching "a lot of rubbish on television just to keep in touch with what's 
going on."  For the record, Saturday evening game shows are favourite 
although she draws the line at Dynasty.  And while not entirely approving of 
breakfast TV - "People are literally hit over the head by the media from the 
moment they get up"  she realizes that in the ages of the promotional video 
clip it can only help artists like her. 
        For someone like Kate who takes years to make an album, the video 
boom has been a godsend.  For rather than having to set aside time and 
energy to promote an LP with a long, strenuous tour, video can do the trick, 
especially when the record company is prepared to put up however much money 
is necessary to make the video as spectacular as her live shows have been. 
        "Ideally we'll be working with budgets comparable to films which 
means being able to go on location rather than using studio sets.  That'll 
be a great excuse to get carried away!" she almost squeals with delight. 
        In the case of Kate Bush I'd hardly have thought one was necessary. 


--                    
 rhill@netlink.cts.com (Ron Hill)  
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