In 2011 Kate Bush ended a six-year silence with the launch of self-covers album Director’s Minimize, adopted by a totally new work, 50 Phrases For Snow. She mentioned the issues arising with Prog in her trademark maverick method.
You wait six years for a Kate Bush album, then two come alongside directly. By the requirements of most musicians it’s is a formidable work charge. By the requirements of this most reclusive of artists, it’s nothing wanting miraculous.
50 Phrases For Snow could have been recorded in parallel with its rapid predecessor, Director’s Minimize, however it’s no companion piece. The place the latter album discovered the singer re-imagining songs from her personal again catalogue with a perfectionist’s ear, 50 Phrases For Snow is a model new work – and one which Ronseals her standing as one among British music’s nice mavericks.
Which different artist would sympathise with Bigfoot, as she does in Wild Man; or fantastise a couple of roll within the slush with a snowman with no trace of a blush, as in Misty? She evens provides Stephen Fry to her listing of unlikely collaborators –the plummy-voiced raconteur recites the eponymous phrases for snow, all of which sound like they’ve been fully made up: ‘whippoccino,’ ‘phlegm de neige,’ ‘merenguer peaks.’
An exploration of humanity’s relationship with the weather, 50 Phrases represents the newest step on Bush’s 30-year journey from the wide-eyed ingénue of debut album The Kick Inside, by the paranormal pagan-folk faerie queen of The Hounds Of Love, to her present incarnation as a regal, if barely batty, earth mom. Musically, it’s intricate and otherworldly – prog with a small ‘p.’ Not for her the grandiose musical assertion; for Bush, it’s all within the particulars.
The parable of the singer as some type of reclusive Miss Havisham isn’t strictly true. She merely had pop stardom thrust on her early, and has spent the previous 30 years beating a retreat, preferring the comforts of domesticity to the trials of self-publicity. She is a reserved interviewee, preferring to mull over solutions somewhat than serving up zinging quotes. However then that’s simply one thing else that units this quiet maverick aside.
50 Phrases For Snow is a really wintery-sounding album.
I see it as a winter album. I like the texture of a chilly, lengthy winter within the countryside. I like every little thing about it, actually. Making snowmen, how the moonlight displays on the snow, the muffled sounds, log fires, midnight Mass, strolling by the woods. I observed that once I left London, I began to expertise the seasons extra deeply.
Trendy civilisation appears intent on eliminating each ounce of thriller we now have left
The music Misty is a couple of girl who spends the night time with a snowman. You sing, ‘I can really feel you melting in my hand’ – is that meant to be as impolite because it sounds?
No, nothing that graphic! I simply questioned what it was wish to sleep with a snowman, to expertise that type of fleeting intimacy. In fact, the lyric might be interpreted as containing symbolic references: moist sheets…
In Wild Man, you describe a legendary, Bigfoot-like creature who seeks human contact.
I like thriller – issues we don’t fairly know for positive; uncharted territory. And trendy civilisation and so-called progress appears intent on eliminating each ounce of thriller we now have left. Information is a good looking factor, however generally not realizing one thing, not being completely positive, might be lovely too. Possibly on some degree we don’t need to be instructed Santa Claus doesn’t exist.
Having stated that, in fact I’m all for science. And possibly someday science will enable us to speak with angels or different mysterious creatures. By no means say by no means.
You usually use background noises to create an atmosphere. In Lake Tahoe, it’s crows.
Rooks, somewhat. I wished to counsel desolation; a naked, barely miserable panorama. You usually hear that sound in motion pictures in regards to the Center Ages. I’ve at all times discovered it odd that, in a variety of well-liked music, you virtually by no means hear nature. Possibly it’s as a result of I stay within the nation, however I discover nature is so overwhelming.
There’s an actual magical-realism really feel to Snowed In At Wheeler Road. A pair of lovers flip up in numerous eras: in Paris within the 20s, London throughout the Blitz, New York post-9/11.
I’m fascinated by different eras, however I’m glad to be alive now… not that way back, girls weren’t allowed to be artistic
I used to be in search of an authentic strategy to deal with reincarnation, and that déjà vu feeling you get. Like assembly somebody who appears so acquainted it’s uncanny. Generally it’s laborious to not really feel you’ve recognized them earlier than, someday, someplace. The lovers I describe are mad about one another, however torn, like magnets, attracting one another and pushing one another away.
Your music appears to soundtrack occasions from a distinct period.
Nicely, I’m fascinated by different eras, however I’m glad to be alive now. I imply, not that way back, girls weren’t allowed to be artistic, to have a profession. Ladies have been anticipated to sacrifice their very own aspirations to their husbands.
In fact, any artist would love their work to have a timeless high quality, in that it transcends fads and developments. I believe I’ve been quirky and cussed and authentic sufficient to not be caught in a development.”
Which historic characters would you invite to dinner?
Winston Churchill and Stephen Fry.
Stephen is on the brand new album, reciting the 50 totally different phrases for snow. A few of them, like ‘zhivagodamarbletash,’ sound fully made up.
I made most of them up! I imply: ‘phlegm de neige’ – ‘boomerangablanca’? I beloved Stephen’s supply; I wished a voice that would challenge each authority and heat.
Given the quirkiness of your songs, how do you give instructions to the musicians you’re employed with? Do you ever say, “This could sound like a willow tree in a rain storm?”
I’m not completely satisfied about working so lengthy on one challenge… However what’s the choice? Releasing a mediocre album?
I often begin by explaining the construction of the music. I inform them what the rhythm must be, and the important thing clearly. And I level out the place the music ought to stay naked or understated, and at which cut-off dates they will add fills, little touches. Generally, however not at all times, I inform them what the lyric means, what the music is about. After which it’s their flip to shock me.
Do you have a tendency to jot down ‘up’ music once you’re feeling good, then moody, ‘darkish’ stuff once you’re down?
No, I don’t suppose so. Aerial had a few heavy songs – I sang in regards to the demise of my mom. And but I used to be completely satisfied throughout that interval.
Aerial got here out 12 years after your earlier album, The Crimson Sneakers. Why did it take so lengthy?
I’m not completely satisfied about working so lengthy on one challenge or about not having launched extra work. It’s laborious work, it may be tedious, absorbing, exhausting even. However what’s the choice? Releasing a mediocre, rushed, half-finished album?
You proceed engaged on songs even after they’ve been launched. Isn’t {that a} bit obsessive?
That has occurred, yeah. I wouldn’t name it obsessive – it’s merely being devoted and caring, I suppose. I’m by no means content material. It’s by no means fairly excellent. That’s why I did Director’s Minimize. I hear an ideal model in my head, and generally the model on file wasn’t fairly that. I don’t know whether or not that’s simply me or whether or not all artists really feel like that.
To some folks, visibility is every little thing. We are likely to overlook that fame and all that must be a by-product of expertise and laborious work
Final 12 months and this 12 months have been fairly intense. Individuals are likely to suppose you’re idling once you don’t launch any work, however I work on a regular basis. Solely at my very own tempo, and to my very own requirements.
Do you work from home?
Yeah. I perform higher in managed environment. Merely being comfy, surrounded by… effectively, love and sweetness. And nature. And I didn’t need to miss out on my son rising up.
To some folks, visibility is every little thing. We are likely to overlook that fame and all that must be a by-product of expertise and laborious work, not the opposite method round. I’ve discovered seclusion and creativity to be pure companions.
You’ve famously solely toured as soon as, in 1979. What’s holding you from doing it once more?
I don’t know. I hear folks declare that my first and solely tour was such a horrible expertise, however that’s not true. I had a good time; I beloved the present and the circus troupe-like camaraderie. Possibly not the stress and the journey. However once I give it some thought, I really feel primarily a way of euphoria. And people have been pioneering days, . I believe we have been the primary to make use of headset microphones – constructed from a coat hanger!
You have been within the viewers when David Bowie ‘retired’ Ziggy Stardust, on the Hammersmith Odeon in 1973. So you know the way a lot followers hanker for extra.
I do not forget that Bowie gig fairly clearly. I cried, like all different women. I bear in mind he appeared somewhat moved too. It appeared the top of an period.
Performing stay isn’t a precedence for me. Creating new work within the studio is, as is household life. I preserve busy – after which once I search for one other 5 years have handed.
My father was at all times ready to take heed to any new music… even when it wasn’t superb
What recommendation would you give to a younger songwriter simply beginning out?
Persevere. Don’t be afraid. Realise it’s a studying course of – nothing will ever be excellent. Be cussed. Demand respect. Don’t rush a music that doesn’t need to come simply but.
Create a pleasing working surroundings; encompass your self with individuals who encourage you. I’ll at all times be grateful to my father who was at all times ready to take heed to any new music I’d made, even when it wasn’t superb.
I’d wish to say extra, however it’s laborious to place in phrases. That’s one of many issues with interviews.