**** EMI NEVER FOR EVER INTERVIEW PART 1A ******

[rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)]

Kate Bush Interview  EMI (London) 1980
--------------------------------------
Kate Discusses Never For Ever 
Reprinted in Breakthrough 2 

        [Transcribed and bracketed comments by Ron Hill.  Thanks to IED 
for providing the interview.]


        I: One has to begin at the beginning, Kate, and I can't help but 
realize that I can't make sense of the title of the album: Never For 
Ever.  What does it mean? 
        K: Well, it's really meant to be reflective of all the things 
that happen to us all the time ourselves, we're never for ever, death is 
inevitable, things always pass, good and bad things, so when you're 
feeling really desperate you know that it's not going to last for ever.  
It's really saying that everything is transient - ourselves and 
everything that we are in is transient and we should really remember that 
because I think to remind you of that makes you think more.
        I: During the time since you've made your last album, have you 
had reason to feel that way? 
        K: I think it's something I've always felt, probably since I 
started creating.  I think once you start exploring the creative areas 
you become aware of how transient things are, especially one's writing, 
one's art.  You become very aware of the fact that that won't be around 
for a long time - maybe, but very unlikely - and so that's something in 
your mind a lot of the time.
        I: And do you feel sometimes that if I don't put this down on 
paper now I'll forget it and it will be gone for ever? 
        K: Yes - yes, I think you have to catch a moment when it's 
happening.  It's like not snapping up opportunities when they wave at you 
- you can so often let things go by you and when you're old you think, 
wow, I let all those things go by me.  You must try to act in the moment, 
though it's very hard. 
        I: Does that annoy you at any time - do you feel that you're not 
the master of your own time - if you get the muse you have to obey it 
then and there?
        K: Yes, but unfortunately a lot of the time the muse is 
obstructed by other forces.  I'll be very busy doing something else and 
although it's calling me I can go.  That's something that I"m very aware 
of, the fact that when you do feel that there is something there, almost 
like a gift, I think you sometimes worry that you abuse it or neglect it 
and that it might go away.  I think one of an artist's great fears is of 
drying up and I think probably anyone who writes must have such fear 
inside. 
        I: The cover of your Never For Ever album is absolutely wild: It 
shows a painting of yourself with you skirt up in the wind, at least in 
the front, and is stemming this literal parade of both good and bad 
creatures, some beautiful, some absolutely hideous.  Whose idea was that?
        K: Well, the idea was really mine but the work was totally Nick 
Price's, the artist, who really interpreted it as the way he saw it.  The 
idea was that all of us, we are full of all those black and white things, 
bats and swans, and that the mixture of them is what we are - we aren't 
just good and we aren't just bad, we are both of them.  IN my case my 
black and white thoughts, my emotions, go into my music and on the cover 
they're coming out from me and going into the album.  THat is really what 
we are trying to symbolize - the fact that we are full of many, many 
things inside us and that  they come out at some time, whether it's in 
anger or whether you channel it into something productive.
        I: You mention this black and white in yourself and although you 
have a reputation for being a lovely lady and because you're petite and 
you smile a lot people might think oh, what a sweet child.  And of course 
there are songs in which you have great violence, such as "The Wedding 
List", quite a disturbing song. 
        K: Yes, I think the energy that it's about is very disturbing and 
that's really why I wrote it.  It's about the energy of revenge, the fact 
that someone can spend the rest of their life going for an aim purely 
through revenge.  When they actually do get their revenge it's very 
sweet, they're very happy and then because it's fulfilled there's nothing 
left for them.  The whole situation is so futile, so wasted and such 
black heavy energy.  So many films use the theme of revenge and I think 
it is something that does fascinate people - it's all in us somewhere.  
Maybe it's hidden more in others than some. 
        I: In "The Wedding List" you have a character named Rudy - is 
that named after anybody you'd read about in literature or real life? 
        K: No, not at all.  It was really the name that just happened as 
the words were coming with the song and so I didn't fight it - I just 
accepted it. 
        I: One unexpected guest artist on this album is your brother 
Paddy who on several tracks plays instruments that we don't ordinary [sic 
- ordinarily] hear.  For example, the balalaike, Delius, Koto, stumento 
di porco - where is he getting all of these and how does he know about 
them? 
        K: Well, Paddy's thing really is instruments that aren't so well 
known - he's always had a great fascination for the beauty of instruments 
from the past and he went to a college where he in fact learned to build 
early musical instruments and the more he's been getting into it the more 
he plays.  And this strumento di proco he build himself and things like 
the saw, the balalaiki he owns.
        I: What is a stumento di porco? 
        K: It's a very strange shaped instrument with strings, many 
strings laid across vertically and you hit them with hammers or you play 
them with your fingers. I'm really not sure of the origin of it but  it's 
an incredible sounding one.  We in fact used that on the last album in 
"Kashka From Baghdad", too.  It's got a really beautiful Eastern sound. 
        I: Was it your idea to invite Paddy on the album or did he say to 
you hey, sis, can I be on it? 
        K: No, it's very much my idea from a long way back to involve 
Paddy.  He's been on all the albums but not really featuring quite so 
much as on this one.  I think one of the great things about this album is 
that it left much more room for people to do things than on the other 
ones - it was that direction, much more experimental, exploring.  And 
Paddy played a big part with all the instruments exploring little pieces 
and areas, absolutely invaluable.  Very like animation, his instruments - 
they just put a little bit of red on here and a little bit of green down 
there and complete it. 
        I: This is an album that a lot of people have waited a long time 
for.  Have you in fact worked on it for a long period of time? 
        K: Yes.  It's definitely been the longest one so far and although 
the recording was about six months it did seem like a long time because 
the way we were working, we worked to very late hours.  The time just 
skips by when you are in the studio. 
        I: When you're having fun? 
        K: Yes, we were. 
        I: Is it fun? 
        K: This was incredible fun - it was so exciting and everyone 
involved was so into it and without that you have a big block because 
you're into it but there are people getting tired or going down.  And 
everyone was with it - it was like a big surge towards the source, the 
album, and it was very exciting. 
        I: You mentioned that so much of it is experimental and I agree 
with you and we'll be talking about that - but was there pressure on you 
to have those commercial considerations which would be the result of your 
previous success? 
        K: Well, to be quite honest that's something that I never really 
consider.  Commerciality is such - a word that we use a lot that 
sometimes gets mixed up, because in many terms commerciality is really 
something that people like, a lot of people like.  Sometimes a very 
unobvious thing can in fact be commercial and really the way I go for it 
is just if I feel I have a good enough song to build on it and to give it 
all I can give it, all its highlights, the best you can and then really 
it has its own life then.  It's  not so much a matter of commerciality as 
rather dressing the song in the correct manner - like putting a nice suit 
on it instead of, you know, a pair of overalls.

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rhill@netrun.cts.com (ronald hill)
NetRunner's Paradise BBS, San Diego CA