The first time Songfacts chatted with Bush's Gavin Rossdale in 2017, he was up for discussing the stories behind some of the band's biggest songs. For round two in 2020 – prior to the release of Bush's eighth studio album, The Kingdom – the singer/songwriter/guitarist delved deeper into how his surroundings and the books he reads have inspired his lyrics.
Rossdale can be rather abstract in those lyrics, which got us wondering if he always knows what they mean when he writes them. He admits he's not telepathic, but Bush's songs often hit on themes that later consume the consciousness. For instance, the latest Bush single, "Flowers On A Grave," deals with loneliness.
Greg Prato (Songfacts): How did you approach songwriting for The Kingdom?Rossdale can be rather abstract in those lyrics, which got us wondering if he always knows what they mean when he writes them. He admits he's not telepathic, but Bush's songs often hit on themes that later consume the consciousness. For instance, the latest Bush single, "Flowers On A Grave," deals with loneliness.
Gavin Rossdale: I do this weird thing when I finishing touring: The next day, I go into the studio and I begin to write. It feels really cathartic, expressive... it's a great way to wind down for a few hours a day. So, I began writing for it.
Nowadays, with studios, software, and the instruments they have, you can make your own demos that sound like your own whole band. I really like to do that, and I got a bunch of songs from that. Then I went in and I had met Tyler Bates. My manager suggested I write with Tyler, whether it was for movies or Bush, just to see what happens. We went in, we did some songs, and I really got along with him. He's a really close friend of mine now. We just get along great musically.
So, that was a really beautiful process of really fast writing. You have an hour here and a couple of hours there, and I'd pop down to the studio. Literally, it was all in two-hour sessions. It was just so much fun to do – I really, really enjoyed it.
Songfacts: Earlier in Bush's career, you wrote all the songs on your own, but you just mentioned co-writing songs now with Tyler. Which do you prefer?
Rossdale: You know what was really fun? To combine it. To write my own songs myself, and then work with people.
In "Flowers On A Grave," released ahead of the album on March 4, 2020, Gavin sings:
She covered me in loneliness
Like flowers on a grave
It was written before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, but this interview took place during the quarantine, and it was clearly on his mind.
Songfacts: What was the lyrical inspiration behind the song "Flowers On A Grave"? She covered me in loneliness
Like flowers on a grave
It was written before the coronavirus pandemic took hold, but this interview took place during the quarantine, and it was clearly on his mind.
Rossdale: I try to live an inspired life. I'm an artist, so everything inspires me. Every song is just a different mood of where I'm at and what I'm feeling. Loneliness is what everyone is going through now, so it has a current feel to it, which I think is bizarre, but happens a lot.
I write about emotions, and we all experience similar emotions: fear, pain, loss, joy, hope. All those deep emotions are around us all the time, and they're all trading places consistently. I don't have a manifesto about it, yet. It's just me trying to get through another day.
Songfacts: What were some memories of filming the song's video?
He loved the song, and he found a location we were going to shoot at. We wanted great human interaction but really good energy. I wanted all these different characters in there. We've got the heathen nurse, the dancer, the weird wolf-girl and other strange characters. We're limited because we don't have big budgets anymore, so I would have loads more if I had a bigger budget. But we saw this house, and the house is an incredible space.
We decided to do a one-take video, so it was incredible because we were rehearsing it from 4:00 in the afternoon to 11:30 at night, just going over it, getting the moves right, and practicing all the parts. We shot until past 4:00 a.m. So much for the one-take not having any detrimental effects, you know? It was really challenging. Time-wise, we thought we were going to get out really quick, like, "This is amazing! We'll be out in like 15 minutes!" Negative on that.
Songfacts: Any other interesting lyrical inspiration behind other tracks on The Kingdom?
Rossdale: There's a song called "Blood River." There is a place in the Highlands in Scotland [Finnich Glen] where a river, because of a rock, has turned red. So, the river is red. When you go there, there's a stairwell down into caves, and on the bottom of it is what they call "The Devil's Pulpit." I thought that was the most inspiring, allegorical, wild place to write about, so I wrote the song about going down to pray in the Devil's Pulpit.
Songfacts: Can you give any examples of a book influencing any of your lyrics?
Rossdale: All the good ones! My life is based on words. Anything I've read that interests me or intrigues me. Ginsberg was huge, Bowie was huge, Ted Hughes was huge, EE Cummings, Christopher Hitchens, Paul Auster, Gabriel García Márquez. Literature, words, and poetry, they've given me life.
Songfacts: What is the most important book in your life?
Rossdale: Moon Palace by Paul Auster – that's my "big book." But whatever book I'm reading at the time, I'm connected to that. It's hard to retain all the information from every book – you just feel driven and you remember back. I'm not smart enough to remember every single thing I've read in books, and names and characters. But I just know the value of the journey that I had with each book.
Songfacts: Is "Machinehead" a reference to a guitar tuner?
Rossdale: No. At the most base of its meaning, no. It's a more allegorical sort of thing.
Songfacts: It's impressive that to this day, that song is still played at quite a few sporting events, especially at hockey games in North America.
Rossdale: It's incredible. My whole life is incredible to me – my tiny story of my tiny life in my tiny world blows me away. And to this point of my career, The Kingdom is possibly the most exciting record to be released yet. We'll only release it when the world has gone back to normal, and then when the world goes back to normal, there will be such a sense of triumph and joy and happiness and togetherness. We're all going to come back to the best part of ourselves. It's going to be a global party. And when you have a big record like this to go with it, when people gather together again for big festivals or big shows, that's the sign that we've really beaten the virus and we've come back stronger. So, to have this record in our back pocket is a quietly beautiful thing.
Songfacts: Do you always know what your lyrics mean when you write them?
Rossdale: No. I try to be honest rather than knowledgeable. Just let it flow. And of course, I'm not like Carrie or something – telepathic. But I just have a way that I always talk, so I speak like my words, as well.
I just have my own twist on the world and words I like. It's a really natural process for me, and there is always a lot behind them.
Let me clarify: It's not like I don't know what I mean, it's that they always seem to mean more than I realize. And it comes back. Thinking now, "The Only Way Out" [2014] would be a great song to play, and "Ambulances" from the Institute record [2005's Distort Yourself from Rossdale's band, Institute]. I have poignant songs and crisis songs.
Songfacts: What's the best Bush music video?
Rossdale: I'd say the last one! The one we just did, I think we were on fire. And it's not going to be as good as the next one.
April 13, 2020
For updates on the album release date, visit bushofficial.com.
Further reading:
Interview with Black Francis of Pixies
Interview with Scott Weiland
Fact or Fiction: Pearl Jam
Matt Pinfield's 10 Greatest Alt-Rock Videos of the '90s
photo: Dove Shore
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