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Bush may not be a superstar band in their native England, but they have hit America like a storm.--IGuideJust one year ago, the Brit newcomers performed at New York Bowery club CBGB on their first American tour. Now, after one solid year of touring, fueled by a big, pop-grunge record and a heartthrob lead singer -- Gavin Rossdale -- Bush (Rossdale, Nigel Pulsford, Dave Parsons and Robin Goodridge) have had three Top Forty singles and recently held the Number Five spot on the Billboard charts with "Glycerine" -- all from their double platinum debut album "Sixteen Stone."
Along with fame and fortune, Rossdale has already had his share of unwanted media attention. He's been slagged by top Brit band Blur, mentioned by Boy George as a former "date" of the [male] singer Marilyn, and coupled in gossip columns with Courtney Love.
LR: How did you react to Boy George talking about you in his book [in his recent autobiography Boy George claimed that Rossdale was a former boyfriend of Marilyn, the ambisexual '80s rock star] ?
GR: Right, good old George ... well, that was his take on it. From hanging out with them and being friendly with all of them for years, that was my mention in the book. I don't really care, there is a far bigger queue of people annoyed at what he said. I don't mind, I wish him well and I hope his book does well, but if I see him again, I will say 'what the fuck was that all about? What was the mileage intention there?' It was like 10 to 12 years ago, I was 16 or 17 just going out in London and having a laugh.
LR: Do you have a girlfriend now?
GR: Yes, I totally do. Jasmine and I have been going out for four years now.
LR: Is it hard to be considered this heartthrob here -- and keep a relationship going at home?
GR: I don't know. I guess if you love someone ... She comes out on the road with me sometimes, and at different times it is particularly hard. But anything is possible. At least I'm not an actor; actors change lovers every film. I worked as an extra years ago on some kind of TV thing and I tell you, two weeks on the set I started having terrible thoughts about everyone on the set. You get totally attached to people and any boredom induces sexual thoughts. That must be why office parties are such a nightmare.
LR: Damon Albarn from Blur told me that Bush can't really be considered part of the British band scene; he said you don't sing with an English accent and no one in Britain takes the band seriously. What are your thoughts on that?
GR: I think musically, Blur is like a vaudeville act with some good tracks. What really pisses me off is that it's just so arrogant to assume that because we don't play his quirky style of music that there's no Englishness to it. I doubt that he knows my record; there's plenty of stuff that's sung in an English accent. I think that he's really bitter, it's been the biggest thorn in his side that he wants to be the biggest band in the world but up until now, well, they're just not the most exciting band in the world. He's a bit irrelevant to me. I'd much rather talk about certain American bands and all the good things going on like Chavez, or Helium.
LR: When you started out, you told journalists that you were all painters? Was that true?
GR: No, I just lied. I think I told Billboard Magazine that we all met working on a ship. An oil rig.
LR: You've certainly had quite a bit of success this last year.
GR: Well, we just kind of continued to play and we worked; we've done lots of touring and I think that's been the major thing.
LR: People have said you sound a lot like Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
GR: I totally hear the Nirvana thing because I think that that is right and not such a bad thing. I do think the spirit and the passion of those bands is something that was lacking in England. I was totally inspired by that and I've never seen the crime in that. I don't feel like we've plagiarized in the way that many bands either copy The Small Faces or The Kinks and then call that their own music. I don't feel like there are direct copies or lifts. As for Pearl Jam, they're way more bluesy and solo-y.
LR: Where would you say your music fits?
GR: Well, with us it's more about being an outsider. That's all of the stuff I really like; that's why I really like Patti Smith and think that the French poets really have it, I think that's why Allen Ginsberg really had it. It's that ability to slice through everything superficial.
LR: You were a punk as a teenager; did you ever imagine having a Number Five single?
GR: This is way beyond my wildest dreams. I just feel that it's a totally exciting position and the best thing for me to do is to just do the work, because that's what got me here. The work is it; I'm totally frustrated to have not done more records and I'm really looking forward to doing the next one. I'm going to be working with [famed alternative producer] Steve Albini and I'm totally psyched. I just want to get good. You know, I don't think being Number Five is a reflection of our quality. Do I think I'm better than Sonic Youth because I sell more records? Of course not.
Courtney Love Rumors:
GR: "Last summer Hole did a few concerts with us and Courtney and I kind of ended up hanging out and just getting on. We've just been kind of friendly, it was quite cool, and that was about it, pretty dull really. But I guess she's quite a magnet for attention, and the trappings of our situation make it such that I would be sitting in a bar with my band, talking to a journalist, she happened to stop by, and at 3 a.m. when everyone goes home, she goes off, I go to sleep and the next day there are all these sort of accusations. I find it really weird, but I'll get used to it."Producer Steve Albini:
GR: "I'm going to do the next record very quickly with [famed producer] Steve Albini. When I made our record, his records were the ones I referenced; I just loved [first Pixies album] 'Surfer Rosa' and [first Breeders album] 'Pod' and I loved all of Big Black, they were my favorite records of his. I also liked plenty of the Jesus Lizard stuff that he did, and then there's that band Souls at the moment, which is my kind of current favorite band. So, when I was in Chicago, I just rang him up and I went for lunch with him. The way I see it is that the next record we need to make has to reflect the fact that we've been on the road for a year and a half, and I don't think there's anyone who's sonically better than him. I'm so excited, there's no one in the world I'd be more excited about."Trends:
GR: "Since I've been doing this, I have always really avoided trends, I've avoided everything like that and it's always been my ultimate aim to be the least trendy band. I don't care about gangs and I hate the idea of safety in numbers. I like much more being out on your own, just traveling light. So all those other bands are successful in England, but we're not. But we are in America and I know that's a real thorn in some of their sides."Punk:
GR: "I grew up listening to punk music when I was 10, in 1977, when it was really starting to happen. I was living in England, so even though I knew of The New York Dolls and The Ramones, I was really into X Ray Specs, The Sex Pistols and The Clash. I went to see my sister's boyfriend's band called The Nobodys, but I couldn't really get into anywhere. I used to try. I used to go see Adam & the Ants, I looked like a little punk with spiky hair and I put egg white in it. I used to wear one of those white dinner jackets that Sid Vicious wore; I loved that."UK Music Scene:
GR: "Punk became really uncool after awhile. It got really commercialized and became suburban, and that just wasn't the deal, you know. We liked it when we first were doing it. Then, it was like a shock, the biggest youthful revolution ever -- it was way, way bigger than rap could ever be in the sense of shock, just to have a safety pin in your mouthEarly Days:
GR: "I've been in a couple of other bands, I've played for a few years wondering where my life was going. The ironic thing is that this band was my least ambitious band. I was a bit concerned about where my life was going, but I felt tied to making music and that's all I wanted to do from when I was 18. When I started writing, I thought this was an excellent release and the first time I felt I could do anything. When you're young, there's a kind of ceiling on your head."British Music Business:
GR: "The criteria for signing someone in England is because someone else wants to sign them. It's very boring, and those A & R people take really bad cocaine; I know a lot of record company people because I've been in bands for a couple of years and I'd come into contact with them because I lived in London ... This is just the sweetest revenge for me, because they're all so full of crap. For me, it was the strangest thing to find out that for an industry that's generated so much entertainment and money, on the administrative side, it's run by idiots."
