*** STAR PARTS INTERVIEW ****

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

STAR PARTS 

Source Unclear, Possibly The No.1 Book or Star Parts
Reprinted in Never Forever 19
by Phil McNeill

        [Transcribed by Ron Hill]

        Kate Bush Isn't your everyday songwriter. 
        For years she's been regarded as one of the best in pop - as 
songs like "Wuthering Heights", "Army Dreamers", and "Running Up That 
Hill" have proved.  YEt no one else has ever recorded one of her songs 
[several people had actually recorded Kate's songs by the time this was 
printed], and she wouldn't know how to write a hit single if she tried.
        What's more, she reckons most of her lyrics leave most of her 
fans completely mystified.
        Compared to hard-headed commercial songwriters like George 
Michael and Madonna, she's almost unworldly.
        Like Prince, she's intensely private.  When she spoke to us for 
The No. 1 Book, it was her first and probably last interview of 1986. 
        "I don't really like doing interviews," she confesses.  "People 
have so many preconceptions about me that even when they meet me they 
still go away writing about the preconceptions."
        Even so, she answered our questions thoughtfully, trying to get 
to the art of her art: the songs.

ELTON'S INSPIRATION

        Kate Bush signed a contract with Britain's biggest record 
company, EMI, at the age of 16, so it's not surprise to learn that she 
stared songwriting young.
        "When I was about 11, I used to much around on my father's piano 
in our house in Welling, Kent.  I got a tremendous sense of fulfillment 
out of it - it just became an obsession.  I used to spend all my time 
writing songs."
        Because Kate was so young, she hadn't heard enough music to be 
influenced by other artists.
        "I didn't really listen to music until I was a bit older," she 
admits.  "my influences were traditional, which is the music by brothers 
Paddy and Jay were into."
        When she did start listening to pop, she developed at least one 
thing in common with George Michael: a taste for ELton John.
        "I thought he was fantastic because at that time pop was mainly 
guitar - I didn't know anyone else playing the piano and writing songs.  
He was an inspiration." 

GETTING TECHNICAL

        In those early days, says Kate, "I used to just write at the 
piano.  It's changed now.  I've got my own studio and the production has 
become part of the songwriting."
        From being simple, songwriting has become a highly technical 
operation.  With thousands of pounds worth of electronic equipment like a 
Fairlight and an Emulator - which between them can ape just about any 
sound on Earth - Kate's songs can start anywhere. 
        "It's quite difficult to say there's a certain way I write.  I'm 
very lucky to have so many facilities - it's made a tremendous 
difference.
        "Commercial studios put so much pressure on you.  You've always 
got people watching you, and it costs so much every hour.  That makes me 
nervous.  The freedom I have now is great.  
        "What is also really good is that my boyfriend Del (Palmer) is an 
engineer.  So I can go into the studio with an engineer who I feel 
totally uninhibited with, and play around with ideas."
        Kate's songs usually start from a sound.  The studio is her 
inspiration.
        Take "Cloudbusting" for instance - that bewitching single with 
just violins and cellos marching behind Kate's fragile voice.  Most 
artists would write the song on acoustic guitar or piano and then think, 
hey, that would sound great with a string sextet!  Not Kate:
        "I was just mucking about in the studio.  I got a violin sound on 
the Fairlight, and wrote the tune on it.  Then we replaced the Fairlight 
with real strings on the record.
        "The words came after the music."

CLOUDBUSTING

        This doesn't mean that Kate's words are less important than her 
music.  If they seem hard to understand, that's because there's often 
quite a story behind them.  In the case of "Cloudbusting", it's a whole 
book...
        "It's not very often that I have actually written songs about 
books.  "Wuthering Heights" is a well-known one. 
        "But there's this incredibly emotional book I picked up years ago 
called The Book of Dreams by Peter Reich.  He was the son of Wilhelm 
Reich, who I suppose you'd call a psychoanalyst.  This book is about 
their relationship.
        "Reich had this theory about an energy called Orgone.  He also 
had a machine he'd built that could make it rain. 
        "It's a terribly sad book because people don't understand what 
he's trying to do.  He ends up being arrested and dies soon after - and 
his son is left without his father who has been absolutely everything to 
him. 
        "It's a true story.  The book's so full of anguish, yet at the 
same time there's something happy about it. 
        "I very much wanted to capture the combination of happiness and 
sadness in the song." 
        Now that Kate explains it, it's possible to see some light in the 
song's mysterious phrases: "I still dream of Organon... Every time it 
rains, you're here in my head... you son's coming out..." 
        But does Kate seriously think any of her listeners will 
understand it without the explanation? 
        "Well, I think it's incredible, the feedback I've got," she 
replies.  "So many people do understand it.  I've had letters from so 
many people who know about Wilhelm Reich and his theories.  Loads of 
people have gone out and got the book - even though it's out of print. 
        "I actually contacted the man who wrote the book.  I sent him a 
copy of the record and he was very kind about it.  It was a very strange 
experience."

MYSTERIES OF LOVE

        So some people do understand - but what about the rest of us?  
Does it matter if people don't get it? 
        "No," Kate replies.  "I think the most important thing is what 
they feel when they listen to it.  THat's what music is really all about: 
emotion." 
        Would Kate in fact agree that most of her listeners don't know 
what most of her songs are about?
        "Yes, I think that would be fair enough," she admits.  "It's the 
same for me with a lot of music I like.  It's the feeling you get that's 
important." 
        Why doesn't Kate ever write straightforward love songs? 
        "Well, I think that love is never straightforward," she parries.  
"There are lots of tangent and consequences, and it can be very difficult 
to convey all that in a four-minute song.  So often you have to cut at 
least half of them out."

RUNNING UP THAT HILL

        Kate's last LP Hound of Love was her most ambitious to date.  The 
second side was a series of songs called The Ninth Wave which, as she 
puts it, "all tell a story together."  Now her studio is complete, she's 
eager to get onto the next album.  But will her music change? 
        "I have no idea," she admits.  "I don't know what will happen 
until I go in there and start mucking around."
        In other words, Kate's songs control her as much as she controls 
them.  "It's a weird thing," she says, "because you don't always like 
what you are writing.  I try very hard now to write things I like." 
        That battle determines Kate Bush's whole life, because without 
her songs there would be no Kate Bush records, no Kate Bush videos, even 
fewer Kate Bush concerts and interviews than there are today...
        "Yes," says Kate.  "Songwriting is the most important thing I do. 
 All the rest comes out of it."
        Kate's idea of a love song is "Running Up That Hill".  Although 
it was a big hit, few can have realized it was about two lovers swapping 
roles.
        "It's the idea of two people, a man and woman in this case, who 
are very much in love," Kate explains.  "It's about the problem of not 
being able to understand what the other person means when they say 
something.

        "There's a kind of delicacy that arises in extreme emotion.  When 
you feel a great deal for someone, you're more likely to be upset by 
something and take it the wrong way.
        "And the whole idea is that if you could be that person in a 
relationship, looking at yourself, you would know exactly what was going 
on."
        So why the phrase "running up that hill"?  [This is the only time 
that I know of that Kate was asked this seemingly obvious question.]
        "It's meant to be the positivism of going somewhere.  Climbing up 
a mountain, going up.  It might be hard but you are getting there."

HOUNDS OF LOVE

        And while we're on love songs - "Hounds of Love" is about fear of 
being in love...?
        "Yes," says Kate.  "It's about running away from being caught, 
being frightened of being trapped.  I think everyone is afraid of love, 
of emotional commitment."
        "And in the song it's treated like these hounds that you want to 
get away from, because you think they might rip you apart!"
        This sounds like the right moment to ask [as it does for most 
interviewers!]: are Kate's songs personal?
        "They always end up being personal," she hedges, "because you put 
a lot of time into them.  But I don't think they are autobiographical.  
Quite often they are observations of other people, or inventions - though 
they obviously echo some of my attitudes." 

OUT OF THE GROOVE

        One thing that's unusual about Kate Bush is that she never writes 
in cliches.
        Some writers do so quote deliberately.  Madonna, for instance, 
puts together a series of little catchphrases like "Get into the groove, 
boy you've got to prove, your love to me", and fills them with her own 
zest for life.  The listener can borrow those phrases and use them to 
make themselves feel good, to get them through the day.
        Great pop writers like Madonna and George Michael use cliches in 
a good way - but all too many use them badly.  Certain glib phrases crop 
up time and again.  Yet Kate Bush has probably never used one of them in 
her life. 
        "I think that's quote a nice thing to say," she says.
        Nice, but true.  Kate seems to steer clear of the music business 
both musically and physically.  Does she deliberately avoid outside 
influences, especially whilst recording? 
        "Yes, I think that's inevitable," she says, "because it's... an 
obsession.  Once you find the way into an album and you're involved, you 
just can't get out.  It drags you along until it's finished.
        "I find there are always points where I don't want to go on.  I'm 
always really glad when an album's finished." 
        Sounds like a slow process.  How long does it take Kate to write 
a song?
        "They're such unpredictable beasts," she replies.  "Sometimes it 
can be just an evening - that's all it took to write 'Running Up That 
Hill'."
  
        Mainly a predictable interview, but at least they didn't asked 
about Dave Gilmour or Donald Sutherland!!! :-) 

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