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The singer, who has been away from the scenes for a very long time,
releases her new double album today. On the record, a tribute to Elvis and Orson
Welles.
The lady of the British music has come back after 13 (sic!) years with a double
CD
ROME – “Missing”, the music papers said. Simply missing. Kate Bush, one of the
most brilliant stars of the rock scene in the 80’s, stopped making music in 1992
(sic!), with a record called “The red shoes”. Lit up, clear and complex, like a
multi-faced diamond, Kate was one of the aristocrats of the British music, but
she had disappeared without a trace, leaving her fans speculating about her
“Garbo of pop” image, or that of a princess locked in a castle, built on a small
island in the middle of a Northern England lake (sic!), like a brought back to
life Guinevere, waiting for the Holy Grail or whatever. She laughs about all
this, now. “Bullshit, just bullshit. I’m not living in a castle, I’ve got a very
beautiful house, but it’s definitely not a castle”. Kate Bush is back with a
double CD called “Aerial”, in the record shops today, filled with her
unmistakable opera-like and fiery voice, and her deep music, something so far
from what we are most likely to hear nowadays. The album is made up of two
distinct CDs, the first one “A sea of honey” is composed by 7 separate songs (in
a song called “Pi” she sings a very long sequence of decimals), while the second
one “A sky of honey”, more conceptual, is a suite interlaced with sounds and
noises from Nature.
Ms Bush, what’s the mystery behind this very long silence?
“It’s all very simple, I just wanted to take some rest. We have moved from
London, I have built a recording studio, then I’ve had a baby and from that
moment on my life has been very, very busy. I’ve tried to make a record, but my
baby had to be my priority, it just has taken me longer than expected.”
But that’s been quite a long gap. In the record there’s a lot of very personal
things as well…
“Everything I write tells something about me. There’s a song in particular, “A
coral room”, which is very, very personal indeed. It tells about my mother. When
I wrote it I was afraid it was maybe too personal, but all the friends who had a
listen told me it is such a beautiful song, so at last I decided to be brave and
put it into the album.”
The record seems to come out of a dream, as if being far away from the real
world…
“This is very nice, really. Obviously, art comes from a very inner part of
the self, which is usually quite distant from the everyday life, even when
speaking about real things as cities or places. I don’t know if this is like a
dream, but a piece of music isn’t real life at all.”
The second disc seems like a symphony.
“Saying such a thing could make it sound pompous. I really wanted to make
something which could be listened to as a whole piece of music, I think it
sounds different when you listen to it from the beginning to the end, it’s just
like watching a film.”
In the single, “King of the mountain”, there’s a chorus which sounds like the
wind and, most of all, there’s a comparison between Elvis Presley and Citizen
Kane. Do you really think they’re similar?
“Yes, there’s some resemblance. Elvis was a very famous person, but he seemed to
lead a very sad life. I think he was one of the few people who really suffered
from being so popular at that time, maybe he was just looking for his own
Rosebud, as the character of Mr Kane in the Orson Welles’ film. I suppose Elvis
was a very lovely person, when he was on stage just before he died he looked
happy as a child.”
Talking about children, in the booklet there’s a photo of your son and one of
the songs is dedicated to him, “Bertie”. Isn’t this a bit contradictory as you
are known as being a very private person?
“I’ve always included members of my family and friends into my music. My
creativity has a lot to do with what I am. Bertie’s a very big part of my life,
that’s why he’s on the record, but the one on the photos looks very different
from my son nowadays, I think nobody would recognize him.”
What do you think about the actual music scene?
“I think a lot of music has become cabaret-like. Some other has a lot to do
with poetry. I think hip-hop is a bit like contemporary poetry, spoken words,
someone trying to say something. I like some of it, I don’t like everything. But
it’s difficult for me to say. When I was a younger music had a huge impact on
me. I’m too old now to be able to judge its importance on young people
nowadays.”
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"The pull and the push of it all..." - Kate Bush
Reaching Out
is a
Marvick - Hill
Willker -
Mapes
Fitzgerald-Morris
Grepel - Love-Hounds
Presentation