With the release of their multi-platinum
debut album Sixteen Stone, British grunge rockers Bush found
themselves in a curious position. Reviled by grunge purists mourning the
death of Saint Kurt Cobain, dismissed by American critics as a bunch of
British pretty boys cashing in on a uniquely American phenomenon and
ignored by a British press that was obsessed with the Brit-pop movement,
they wound up selling zillions of records and crying all the way to the
bank. Proudly wearing the obvious Nirvana influence on their collective
sleeve, Bush recorded the 1997 follow-up album Razorblade Suitcase with Cobain & Co's much revered knob-turner Steve Albini at
the production helm. Sneering at the naysayers, Bush was once again
comfortably ensconced among the multi-platinum moneymakers. And now, in
December '97, the band is releasing an album of remixes with the help of
Tricky and Goldie. LAUNCH executive editor Dave DiMartino tracked down
Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale on location during Mardi Gras in New
Orleans to discuss the band's huge success.
LAUNCH:
Now that you're a big "rock star" it must be weird to look
back on your life before you started selling all these albums. What did
you do for a day job before the band took off?
ROSSDALE:
Well,
pre-Bush days, I would always do whatever I could to earn money. I would
either work painting houses, or I'd work on video sets, and for
commercials--in the art departments, painting sets. But I always made
sure I had enough time to do music. I never worked full-time. The
longest I would work would be a month, you know, painting eight offices
or something.
LAUNCH:
And then the record came out and you got
to quit?
ROSSDALE:
No, I even worked after we finished the
record. We were still working, because for years, being musicians, you
always hear stuff like someone's cousin is getting the biggest record
deal you've ever heard of, and then they crash and they owe the record
label all this money from their huge advance. Our deal is really a
working deal. It may be a better omen than if you get a $5 million
advance and you're never heard from again. We kept to being a people's
band.
LAUNCH:
Do you remember your first "big break?" ROSSDALE:
Yeah, when our guitarist got arrested...and off he goes! [Ha Ha!] I
guess being played on KROQ in Los Angeles. That was a big turning point.
We got the radio. That's what started it off with "Everything Zen." We'd
already had a couple of months, we'd finished the album and went back to
our respective jobs to pay rent or whatever. Originally, we had a
deal--our distributor was Hollywood Records, which is owned by Disney.
And that was the only drawback to the deal because they were the most
dumb, pig-ignorant record label ever. They received Sixteen Stone
and not only did they not like any of the songs on the record, they just
didn't think it was a record at all--it didn't constitute a record. And
I was like, "Thank God!" because I'd be pretty worried if they thought
it was good. So we were in that deal and for four months, and we didn't
know if the record would come out, and then along came Interscope and
Ted Field and Jimmy Iovine... and here we are now.
LAUNCH:
Disney didn't like the album?
ROSSDALE:
It's true. It's totally
true.
LAUNCH:
It's weird how things work out.
ROSSDALE:
I believe in complete synchronicity--I'm a complete fatalist--I believe
things have a way of working out that's beyond our control. We had seen
a few labels in England, but the kind of music we were making was not
what was being written about. In England, everything they were writing
about was the Brit-pop scene because they wanted an antidote to what was
effectively a very wide array of grunge or guitar music.
LAUNCH:
People like...
ROSSDALE:
Nirvana and Pearl Jam, Fugazi, Jesus
Lizard. They totally dominated the music scene, but the English
press--they are like Mafia powerful--and can make and break bands. They
created this Brit-pop scene that we definitely were not part of.
LAUNCH:
What about the critics who claim you sound like, or play
like Nirvana and Pearl Jam?
ROSSDALE:
I think it's totally
invalid, the Pearl Jam thing. All respect to them, but they're not my
favorite band, much as they don't even know we exist. But the Nirvana
thing? Totally. Nirvana, in the same way as the Pixies. The first band I
was in 1985, I got Surfer Rosa and I thought, "This is the future of
music." And I tried to convince my band, "This, this, this is the
record." That became, I would say, the blueprint for Nirvana. "Smells
Like Teen Spirit" is "Gouge Away" and in my own way, in the tradition of
what we do, my debt to Kurt Cobain is huge. But that's as long as you
weren't doing it where you're ripping someone off. If you just took the
passion and the belief of what he was doing, I think that's valuable.
The weirdest thing is that because of the tragedy, he became an island
and you can't go there. So many other bands get praised for having such
definable influences, "Aren't they great, they sound just like the Faces
or the Beatles, it's so great." But we're the red-headed stepchild
because we have an element of a "God" band in us. I take it on the chin.
If someone says I rip Nirvana off, it's a compliment and I'll continue
to think that. I'll continue to be in their debt.
LAUNCH:
Did
you ever see them live?
ROSSDALE:
Eight months before this band,
I went to see Mudhoney and Nirvana. I don't think Pearl Jam was even
around yet, Nirvana had just done the Bleach record...and I saw
Mudhoney. Those bands changed it around for me. What I saw was an avenue
to play rock music in that voice, in that register, with that voice we
all share. Not poodle rock. It was really inspiring. I had nothing--no
money, nowhere to live, no band, no girlfriend--I was in a mess, a real
mess. I lived from house to house. I stayed in New York in this deserted
brownstone that my friend had the keys to. It only had a sofabed. Crazy.
I lived on Absolut vodka. I would go to bars, check out all the local
bands in the Village.
LAUNCH:
So how did everything start moving
forward for your band?
ROSSDALE:
We did a demo of "Everything
Zen" and "Machine Head" in this really cool run-down studio in this
ghetto where it's a lot easier to buy a vial of crack than a can of
coke, like yeah, that's what was going down there. So along comes Rob
Kahane in his Mercedes. He came in that day, during those demos and he
just said to us, "If you'd like to come and make a record, two records
with us..." it just came like that. He was the only one we saw, the only
record label we saw because he guaranteed us two albums. And we figured,
well, we'll make our first record, and we'll probably make a few
mistakes, but maybe someone will like it, but if not, who cares? Because
we'll make another one! And that's how we got together with Trauma and
Rob.
LAUNCH:
Who were some of your earliest musical influences?
ROSSDALE:
Patti Smith, lyrically, Patti Smith. Alan Ginsberg.
Americans, always Americans. I love Charles Bukowski's poems; I like
that real succinct, ironic way of looking at stuff, words on fire, words
that take on a power outside of the letters and stuff. Patti Smith and
Babel, that book of poetry--I read that so much. David Bowie was
amazing; he copied off of William Burroughs. That's what gave his lyrics
that mad life. Everyone would be like, "Yeah, I love David Bowie!" "Do
you know what he's talking about?" "No, but it's still great."
LAUNCH:
How do you like playing in New Orleans?
ROSSDALE:
I
love New Orleans. I love the Garden District, but I hate the French
Quarter. I hate fat, drunk people falling all over the place, being loud
and shouting. Jocks and that kind of thing. Alcohol does really funny
things to people.
LAUNCH:
Pretty crazy town.
ROSSDALE:
I
must say, I had the best night of my life last night, though, and I was
in New Orleans. We've played here twice. It's a good town.
LAUNCH:
It can get pretty crowded though.
ROSSDALE:
Yeah, I
don't like crowds that much.
LAUNCH:
And the crowds are so
outrageous here.
ROSSDALE:
I must say, I would never steal off
of anyone. When I was young, though, I did have a stealing problem.
Between eight and 14, it was really terrible. I always had to steal two
things at a time. I had a whole drawer full of candy and sweets or
whatever. It was just really weird, but I'd never steal off of people.
But I must say, when you see these people, just rolling drunk, with wads
of money coming out of their pockets...
LAUNCH:
Now, for the
second album, I understand you're going to be working with Steve Albini.
What prompted that decision, other than your obvious fascination with
Nirvana?
ROSSDALE:
I just thought, "What could I do to piss off
all the people who hate that I have Nirvana connections?" Like I said,
Surfer Rosa was a big record for me. Steve produced it. The next massive
record I loved, married and lived with forever was Pod from the
Breeders. He did that too. And Jesus Lizard, Fugazi. Big Black. He's
like the seminal producer. Whenever I go to Chicago, I always talk about
these bands. Like Shellac. They're massive to me. I feel like I'm that
size [he indicates a tiny size] compared to them. And I am that size
compared to them.
LAUNCH:
Do you remember the last album you
put money down for?
ROSSDALE:
The last album I bought was
Sebadoh. Oh yeah. And the Folk Implosion. Oh and you know what I did
get, which is great because I used to have it on record, was the Scream
by Siouxsie & The Banshees. Which was really a seminal record for me
growing up. I saw it on CD and I've only ever had it on scratchy record.
It's really good fun to hear it. Jane's Addiction is heavily based on
Siouxsie & the Banshees. I love hearing all the guitar stuff; it sounds
like Polly Harvey. I love Jane's Addiction, they are one of my favorite
bands.
LAUNCH:
Are you into computers at all?
ROSSDALE:
It's mental. I
can't believe what can be done. I'm illiterate really with computers and
stuff, but I think its potential is just mind-boggling, staggering. The
level of connection in different areas. With us, and the stuff we
read--the Bush page and other band's pages--sometimes it's like kids at
home, "Hey, you suck!" like Beavis, but the most important thing about
it, to me, is that people can put out information and knowledge for
information just for knowledge's sake. It doesn't come from any quarter.
You don't know if you're dealing with someone who is black, white,
yellow, gay, straight or bi. You have to take what you read, and that
statement is the statement. Whereas in life, everything else is tempered
by the situation, by how you are. It's the most non-confrontational form
of communication. I'm well into it.
LAUNCH:
How have your
friends felt about your success?
ROSSDALE:
My friends are really
happy, those who've known me a long time. Some people act like I was
born the day the Bush record came out, but I've been a musician for
years. And people knew of me on the scene in London. To my face they
seem nice, cool. Success brings hatred and detractors because that's
human nature.
LAUNCH:
Has fame helped your love life at all?
ROSSDALE:
"Help" is not the verb I would put in there...it's given a
new meaning to the phrase "Mardi Gras," though, I'll say that.
