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Date: Thu, 11 Jan 90 09:32:29 CST
From: vishal@m2.csc.ti.com (Vishal
Markandey)
Subject: KDGE radio (Dallas) by George Gimarc 07. Jan. 1990
This is a transcription of the Kate Bush interview aired on Dallas/Fort-Worth's KDGE (94.5 FM) radio station on 1/7/90, 7 - 7:45 pm. It is reproduced here with the kind permission of KDGE's DJ George Gimarc.
Thanks to George for conducting such a wonderful interview. Special thanks to Darryl Cate for his help with the transcription.
All errors, grammatical, transcriptional and otherwise are mine, and for these I apologise. - Vishal
GG: George Gimarc here and joining us... Kate Bush. Hello Kate.
KT: Hi George.
GG: Its great to have you on the air with us.
KT: Well thank you, its very kind of you to ask me.
GG: Well you've got a fabulous new album out.
KT: Well I'm pleased.
GG: A very emotional album, as relationships can be I suppose.
KT: Well let's hope so.
GG: It seems to have that common thread throughout it - relationships.
KT: Yes, I think so. I think maybe most of my songs are about relationships, and always have been. It's just what I find very fascinating.
GG: Your critics might say that because you were discovered and signed so young that you never really had to deal with real life so that you kind of have a different view of things.
KT: Well I think you know, I wasn't famous that young. It wasn't like I was a child prodigy. But I guess you know everyone has to go into life in their own way and we all seem to have paths (?) chosen for us somehow don't we, that we don't necessarily have that much control over.
GG: Ya.
KT: So I've just been doing my life the way I do it (laughs).
GG: You also tend to lead what some people would say would be a rather secretive life. For between albums nobody sees you much and I mean people like to have their rock icons, their pop idols, out visible and gossip about them. But you seem to be a bit of a mystery.
KT: I am not a secretive person, but I am not a public person and for me what I feel is that my work is to go out to the world, but not me as a person. I am not a great personality, I don't want to be a TV personality. I am a song writer, I am a singer, and I want my music to go out to the world and that's what I want to talk to people about is my music.
GG: Well let's get straight into it then.
KT: (laughs)
GG: The Sensual World, top track of the album. I gotta think if there was ever a video for this that it would never get shown on TV.
KT: Well there is actually a video already made and it's been shown quite a lot on TV.
GG: Has it ?
KT: Yes.
GG: What's it basically, what happens in the video ?
KT: Well its really conveying what I feel about The Sensual World, which is that its an incredible planet that we live in. It has tremendous sensuality, the texture and the colours of everything that nature supplies is incredibly beautiful, and the song is about a character Molly Bloom stepping out of a book into the real world. So its the idea of how someone who's been living in a black and white two-D world is so struck by the beauty of our real world and in the video its really like one long journey through a wood with the elemental changes of the weather and the day and the night, really just celebrating the world that we live in.
< The Sensual World is played>
GG: Its a shame you couldn't quote straight from Ulysses but its almost become more than that.
KT: Well thank you, that very nice. I mean obviously it was very disappointing for me that I couldn't use the original piece and I did approach for permission to use the words, but I was refused. So I had to actually rework it and I am glad to see that you think in some ways it might have, you know, changed the song into something else because that's what I feel. I feel that actually the lack of cooperation has turned the song into something else which is a positive thing.
GG: Its an incredible song, The Sensual World.
KT: Well, thank you very much.
GG: There's other elements on the album, that you know, when you put it on it just kinda swirls around your head and you just gotta kinda wonder about this. You've got...
KT: (laughs) What do you want ?
GG: Well, you've got like the Celtic elements in the music, then you've brought in Trio Bulgarka and who would've thought the two would fit together. But you've pieced them together and it works in a totally new level.
KT: (laughs) Well I'm so glad you think it works because obviously a lot of what I do is very experimental and its always a bit scary because you are never sure if its gonna work and when I was working with The Trio their music is so beautiful, I didn't want to spoil what they did in any way or belittle it by bringing it into contemporary music. So I am really pleased to hear, you know, when people say that they think it works. That's a great reward for me, and for them.
GG: How did you find them ?
KT: Well, I was very lucky. About three years ago my brother Paddy, who has always been into ethnic music and collected instruments from all around the world had got hold of this tape of The Trio and when I heard it I was devastated and I kind of listened to it for a long time before I thought wouldn't it be nice if I could work with them maybe on the next album and a friend of ours called Joe Boyd who releases their records in London put us in touch with people in Bulgaria. And we actually went to Bulgaria to meet them and we rehearsed for three days. Its one of the most incredible experiences I've had, you know, to meet them as people as well as musicians. They are so warm and affectionate, and they don't speak a word of English and we don't speak Bulgarian, but it just didn't seem to matter. The communication is on a very emotional level and it was great. I really hope I can work with them again.
< Rocket's Tail is played >
GG: Wow, you know, its always a trip (?), every time a new album comes out its kinda there's a different set of sounds, a different something coming out. In fact one of our listeners called up, who's wondering if there's ever any hope for you to work with Liz from the Cocteau Twins (Kate goes AH !) sometime in the future.
KT: That's a great idea.
GG: It would. She has just done a song recently with Ian McCllough (sp?) where she actually sang lyrics (Kate goes UH !) which was something I had never heard her stray into and on your albums every once in a while you stray into singing non-lyrics, using the voice purely as an instrument.
KT: Well, I think the voice is an instrument, and its I think its good to experiment with all the instruments we have.
GG: On Walk Straight Down The Middle you've got some incredible things going on there.
KT: You like that ?
GG: Yeah.
KT: Well good.
GG: Its a fitting end for the album, you know it kinda bookends the album very nicely. Where do you come up with these things, where do you dig them from inside you ?
KT: I think its a very difficult question, that one, because making music is such an elusive thing. I guess with a song like that, that was very much just a matter of me playing patterns (?) and chords on the fairlight and I came up with the tune and then ofcourse Eberhard Weber put in his bass on, gave the song such a strong personality. It kind of took on a life of its own as most of these songs do.
< Walk Straight Down The Middle is played >
GG: There's a song on the album that is finally a love song for lonely computer hackers (KT laughs). They have their own song now. Deeper Understanding.
KT: That's right.
GG: People are of course gonna think that you are a whiz on computers now because you've done a song about them, but what's the real truth ?
KT: It's kind of what you said, its about these lonely people in this modern world who more and more they are being encouraged to stay in their houses and watch television and not go out and not meet people but do it through computers all the time. And this song is about someone who spends all their time with their computer. They have a very steady relationship and they see very few people, have not much contact. And its the idea of them seeing an ad in a magazine for a program for people who are lonely and lost. And they send off for the program and when they put it into their computer it comes alive and its like, its like a visitation and what the computer is offering them is real love and basically this human being just can't take it (laughs). Its too much for them, its like trying to be killed by love. I suppose in a way this song is saying that this world is getting colder and getting more and more isolated. To experience love and affection is getting more difficult in the world we live in and its the idea of this person actually getting that kind of love from the coldest form of machine we have, which is the computer.
GG: But its still love.
KT: Ya, I think actually that computers could hold a tremendous amount for us in the future. I think they could teach us an awful lot about ourselves. I have a lot of faith in the potential for computers and our spirituality.
< Deeper Understanding is played >
GG: I must confess one comic note on Deeper Understanding. I have a telephone that has the exact same sound (KT laughs) and the first eight or nine times through the album I was continually running up to get the phone and no one was there (KT laughs again). Two minutes later I'd do it again and I finally went, wait a minute that's on the record.
KT: Wow.
GG: It was running at such a volume that...
KT: That's great. The time you wanna worry is when you pick up the phone and there's a voice at the end going Hello George !!!
GG: There's another song with kind of a wry twist to it and I've heard a great story about this one and that is Head We're Dancing.
KT: Oh yes.
GG: What's the story ?
KT: Well its a very dark story and I really think its not a song I would write now, but it was inspired by a friend of mine who had been with someone he found absolutely fascinating. And the next day he said to the host who was that person I was sitting next to last night and they said that it was Oppenheimer, the guy who'd been involved in creating the bomb. And my friend's reaction was horror because he just really hated what this guy stood for. His feelings completely changed about the guy soon as he knew who he was. And I found that really interesting, that you could be with somebody fun and so charming but then find out at one point who they are, you know, its like a completely different story. So I was thinking of, you know, the fairy tale of little girls where they go to a ball and then they meet the charming mysterious stranger who turns out to be a prince. And I was thinking, really who is the worst person you can meet as a stranger, who is the embodiment of evil, you know the closest thing to the Devil. And of course really the only person that stands out there in modern history is Hitler and so its really saying that evil people can be so charming and its so easy to be fooled by people and its saying that how often evil comes in a charming guise. So its really just exploring that and I would be very worried if people were offended by the song. I really had no intentions to offend anyone.
GG: But then we might want to be careful about some of the very charming, smiling gladhands.
KT: I think so. Ya, watch out for the charmers, I'll reckon.
GG: I think there are a lot of people watching out for you.
KT: (laughs) Well they should.
GG: Is there something lurking in Kate Bush's heart that we have to watch out for ?
KT: Oh, I think there is something lurking in everybody's heart. It's good as well as bad, you know. Let's try and get the good out, alright ?
< Heads We're Dancing is played >
GG: When you're writing songs, you're not embarassed about getting extremely personal and really baring yourself on your albums.
KT: That's really true, all art to some extent has to be personal and I think what's difficult is not handing that work out to the world but its having to then justify it and explain it to people. That's what is difficult. Then you are caught in a moment where you have to analyse it or somehow go back on moments that were long ago. It somehow takes art out of its context. I think really you should just go out to the world and be as personal as you dare.
GG: I have to ask because everybody is going to just, you know, come up the hill with torches if I don't. Is there going to be a tour ?
KT: I feel so embarassed at... and I feel so flattered that people keep asking. I just have been so much with making albums and I get so involved in what I do. The projects become longer and longer and I just haven't had the space to do this. And I would really like to at some point, but I can't promise anyone anything so that's what I can say and thank you so much for everyone wanting me to.
GG: Well thank you for spending some time with us Kate.
KT: Well, thank you George...
GG: Its been a real pleasure.
KT: ...really nice speaking to you.
GG: With you too and good luck with the new album. We'll be watching for the next.
KT: Well thank you very much.
GG: Not four years this next time, OK ?
KT: Oh, I hope not.
GG: OK, take care.
KT: All the best. Bye.
< The Fog is played >
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"The pull and the push of it all..." - Kate Bush
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