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Time for a bird in hand with Kate Bush, by Tom Lanham
(scan of cover)
(scan of page)
What can you say on meeting Kate Bush? When the reclusive 35 year-old Brit
recently did an in-store at New York's Tower Records, one swooning acolyte could
only stammer, "Your music...good!" Most of the 2500 faithful, however, came
bearing gifts, including CDs, books, flowers, even a pair of red dance shoes in
the singers size. The footwear, of course, commemorated Bush's new Columbia disc
"The Red Shoes", as well as her just completed film, "The Line, The Cross, The
Curve", which re-tells Michael Powell's classic motion picture, "The Red Shoes",
with Bush in both the starring in directoral role. Given that she never tours,
almost never grants interviews and -- because she hates to fly -- rarely sets
foot on American soil, this performer continues to generate a mania of
monolithic proportions. It is a persona communicated directly from her
recordings... now that's charisma.
In person, however, Bush is fairly easy to converse with. She dresses in a
no-nonsense blue blazer, stirrup pants and removes her tinted, owlish
spectacles, so her interview answers come across with thought-out precision. But
she's no novice. On "The Red Shoes" she may soar through waifish acrobatics
with, "And So Is Love" and "Moments Of Pleasure", or frolic gaily in the sonic
forest of "Rubberband Girl" and "Eat The Music", but, when it comes to music,
this lady is pure business. And any queries into her personal life are met with
a sidelong glance, a cold, nuff-said smile and a puff of cigarette smoke into
the face of Hits' master of the monosyllabic malaprop, Tom Lanham "On Wry".
The story of "The Red Shoes" concerns a girl who dons ballet slippers, only
to be cursed to keep dancing afterwards. Is that a metaphor for your decision to
enter the music business in 1978 with your first single, "Wuthering Heights"?
It wasn't meant like that, but it's a very interesting idea... the whole thing
of being possessed by art. Obviously, I'm under pressure, but I feel incredibly
honored to be in a situation where you can do what I like. In many ways, I'm
very lucky. I don't think the normal pressures of the business really affect me
that strongly. What's important to me is to be able to make records and I'm
pleased with. Because in everyone's been so supportive of my work, I've been
able to do that.
Doesn't your family handle most of your business and management affairs?
I was very lucky that, early on, I had some really good advice from the people
around me. I was advised not to get involved with a manager, so I was actually
much more in control of my own situation. I didn't little if a want to end up
spending all my time as a kind of TV personality, talking about my work. I
wanted to spend the time actually working on my work. By my being in control, I
was able to choose how much time spend on this record, which is a very important
creative decision. I don't think you can ever be removed from all the bullshit,
but you can spend as little time with it as possible. Ultimately, we are all
what we are, and it's not so much the situations you go through us how you deal
with them, how you react to things, and much of that has to do with a person's
nature. Most songwriters tend to be very sensitive people, so generally, they're
quite good at being aware of the right priorities. And that's what keeps you
down to earth.
"The Red Shoes" sounds like a very sad album, full of loss and longing.
I don't think of it is sorrowful or sad. There are sad images, but in most of
the situations I tended to balance them out with things are quite happy or have
a sense of humor. Ultimately, the thing is to look for a positive outcome to a
sad situation. And what the situations ideally do is make you realize how
precious life is. It's an incredibly privileged position to be alive and
happy... and it's our duty to enjoy it.
You directed some of your own videos and now an hour long film. How did you
catch the movie bug?
It's just a fantastic thing to work with sound and pictures. I find the
combination really fascinating -- it's something I'd like to be of the do more
of. The director I used to work with would always encourage me to go into the
editing room, and I found that the way a film has put together is essentially
what it's all about. Eventually, I became more interested in the idea of using
videos to tell stories, particularly for the songs were chosen as singles, and
particularly if that song had a story. Working with visuals gives you much more
opportunity to do interesting things.
It's a wonder more people don't take the cinema seriously.
It's just what turns people on, really. Do have train spotters here? In England,
we have these people who spot trains -- they watch trains, look at the numbers
and have an absolute passion for it. They live their lives to spot trains. For
other people, it's watching movies, reading books, or appreciating art, opera or
ballet. Some of these things appeal to a lot of people, and some of them only
appeal to small groups. Out of all the arts, I think films probably the most
far-reaching. Not everyone likes the same film, but I haven't met anyone who
doesn't like watching some kind of film.
As far back as your childhood, it seems like art has taken you away to a
parallel dream world.
There's nothing like reading a book -- it's so personal. All other art forms, in
a way, are shared, and not something that relies on the imagination in such a
personal way. More and more, it seems we're being removed from the whole
experience of reading -- by television, radio, new visual formats. Hopefully, he
will end up leading back to the written word.
You just turned 33, we are supposed to gain true insight into your own soul.
What have you learned?
That happens once a year for me. But it takes me quite a long time to learn
things. So what ever it is, I'm still learning. But the way I know I'm
progressing is that things are a little less disappointing to me each time, and
that means you're getting somewhere. And the positive thing is to let go of what
you've done in the past and see everything as a kind of new adventure. So every
time I start an album, I feel like I am doing it for the first time.
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the Reaching Out (Interviews) Table of Contents
"The pull and the push of it all..." - Kate Bush
Reaching Out
is a
Marvick - Hill
Willker -
Mapes
Fitzgerald-Morris
Grepel - Love-Hounds
Presentation
