Launch Interview


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 [1996] 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! [HaHa!] 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.