Liquid Magazine
Sometime in 98
No Beating Around The Bush
Written by Gabrielle

Bush's new album is awaited by fans and critics alike. But the boys seem in no hurry to rush it, rather enjoying the freedom to take some time off and simply kick back and relax. They've been to the studio. They recorded. Gavin admits that his lyrics are a bit happier, they change the working title from Flowering The Glow to Run With The Hunted. Still there's no release date, except the enigmatic In 99. "Cuz it's such a cool date!" Gavin quickly sums it up. "It's the first time we can afford to do that, we laid the groundwork for our previous albums and almost got burned out. We needed the time off, we needed to get back to a normal lifestyle. Sure we love playing live, but damn, it's not normal to be o the road all the time, to have no home, and the only way you can talk to your friends is on the phone. We really need a break!" There's hardly a band today, maybe with the exception of Marilyn Manson, who had put up with as much bashing as Bush. The media semed to focus more on Gavin's looks, than his talent as a singer/songwriter. They always overlook the fact, that he wrote tunes like "Glycerine", "Everything Zen", "Machinehead", "Swallowed", "Bonedriven", "Greedy Fly" and "Mouth". Far from turning bitter, Gavin took it with a pinch of salt and learned to laugh at it. The proverbial British humor at it's finest: "If it were just my looks, we'd be busy selling posters, but not albums. It's hilarious, completely off the wall, you know. I'm not even on the cover of our albums and somehow I just have a hard time believing, our fans would spend money for an album just because it contains a picture of me the size of a postage stamp! A couple of million albums sold 'cuz of my cheekbones, get real! Whoever claims that can get stuffed, and that's it!" With a good humored grin, Gavin shows that he can dish it out just as well as he takes it... "Maybe I should be grateful that after I posed shirtless for the Rolling Stone nobody said that it was my muscular build that is responsible for my success. I also got no offers to be a body double for Hercules, haha. Imagine me being overly muscular, the critics could swap the cheekbones for the biceps." Mr. Rossdale, the British hunk, has found a way to deal with the press. And even if it's not flattering for our genre, one can't deny he has a point. Level headed, he found an explanation for the vindictive attacks: "I think there's a tendency in journalism, especially music journalism, that frightens me. There seem to be fewer and fewer journalists who really want an insight to what's going on, who ask real questions and want real answers. I'm not saying all journalists are like that, but it's just something I've noticed. Less people are prepared to take you at face value, a fellow human being who's got opinions. Some come up and say 'That song, wasn't it about...whatever?' and if I say 'No, that wasn't what I had in mind!' they'll try to persuade me that I'm wrong. Makes me wonder why they think they know better what goes on in my head. But maybe their readers rather want to be entertained than informed. It's disappointing. I used to read all the music rags and I actually believed what they wrote! I shouldn't forget the critics who we're trying to be special, they consider themselves too hip to share a taste of their audience...They try so hard to be hipsters, then try to prove that their taste is too refined to like whatothers like. That's a bit arrogant, isn't it?" Bush's female fans have glamorized Gavin as being "the hottest sex symbol in music", even comparing his smoldering dark looks to the young Jim Morrison, which of course fueled the "pinup boy" accusations. Sure, there's no denying that he's handsome, and the boy's just radiating charm. He looks far younger than his 31 years. No matter that his clothes are defiantly the worse for wear. With occasional color combinations that make your eyes water, Gavin walks the fine line between being ruggedly handsome and looking like a male version of Annie with an easy grace, but, seems almost embarrassed when his status as a sex symbol is discussed. The fact that People magazine voted him one of the sexist guys alive causes his color to rise a bit - emphasizing those great cheekbones that got him nominated in the first place... "Errrr, I don't know what to say. It's, ehhh, certainly flattering in a way. Errr, but at the same time it's really annoying to find pornographic pictures and worn underwear in the mail. How do you try to be sexy? It seems a bit easier for women, but I'd feel a bit ridiculous in a catsuit or a miniskirt, and wearing low cut tops. I certainly don't have a lot of cleavage to show. All that talk about being a sex symbol just gets completely blown out of proportion. And about People magazine, as far as I remember, Bon Jovi won. He was the sexist male rocker, I came in second!" The worst flak came from critics who claimed they were riding the coattails of grunge, rock's most dominant genre. It's not surprising Gavin is not fond of being categorized grunge... "The whole grunge thing has been such a handicap. Nirvana was a great band but there's far more to grunge than Nirvana. Grunge is often confused with teen angst. I write a lot about alienation and isolation, but it's just not a new theme. A lot of other artists/musicians, poets and authors wrote about it too. It's been a theme throughout history and it wasn't geographically limited to Seattle, or limited to being adolescent. And simply because we we're British doesn't not mean we have to be grunge wannabes. Feelings are not limited to a nationality or a certain age. Just because Kurt Cobain liked the Pixes and some of our influences were the same, we are not a Nirvana copy. If I listen to Nirvana, I hear more differences than similarities!" He can't resist the temptation to poke fun at some critics. His explanation that "Sarcasm can be a great weapon" takes on a new meaning. He's pretty tall and looks fit. However, a verbal duel with him could prove just as deadly as a traditional one with firearms... "I think I got crammed in almost every drawer, from 'clinically depressed grunger' to 'he's just acting depressed to sell records'. I always had a tendency to write dark and gloomy lyrics. Simply because I liked it, because the authors I read are also dark and gloomy. Ginsburg, Rimbeau, Baudelaire and Leonard Cohen, they don't really make you howl-out laughing! I think I go through phases like everyone else. I think I'm less gloomy on our new record because I feel different. It's ridiculous, I can see the next accusations looming 'He's acting happier to sell more records..." Gavin has been romantically linked to almost everybody in the music biz, starting with Courtney Love, over to Marilyn Manson, and his current squeeze, Gwen Stefani from no Doubt. Never one who turns down a drink, he hung out and partied in gay clubs, something that let rumors that Gavin is gay fly sky high.... "Who cares? I don't give a toss! I grew up in the middle of London, I used to hang out a lot in London, the best clubs used to be the gay clubs. I think they still are. I don't know. Lately I don't have the time to check out the clubs. I never thought about it, you know. I just went to a great club and even though I'm straight, I'm not homophobic in any way, so it never bothered me what sexual preferences the others had. The only people who bothered me were gossip columnists, the ones who dig up dirt, or try to. If they can't find dirt, they invent it! I know I'm straight, but you know what? I think the guys who aren't secure in their masculinity or sexuality are the gay bashers, they're so afraid of being gay they hate homosexuals! I really can't stand that zero tolerance thing, it's stupid, just bloody stupid! I really have a problem with the machoism attitude, you know. Like in football, or soccer how they call it in the States, but all the male thing was never something I like. The locker room talk and the whole machoism thing...er...I don't know. Some guys probably think they need it to be real men. Personally, I've always enjoyed the presence of women. I don't need to indulge in gay bashing or chest hair contests to know that I'm straight. I'm pretty secure and confident in my sexuality!" It's pretty surprising that the success Bush enjoys doesn't go to his head. Gavin Rossdale is far from being humble or falsely modest but he's got the self-conscious "down to earth" approach that a lot of far less talented musicians are missing! "I never claimed that I'm a musical genius, Come on, I mean Dylan and Marley- just to name two of them-were geniuses. Still, we're a good band. We're tight and we're melodic. And I think we get a feeling across. You have to be able to dive into it, something that carries you away. It's not about being technically brilliant and flawless. There are a lot of bands who might be technically better that we are, but they don't touch the audience. For me, the feeling I get is the most important part of the whole sound. The music has to touch you, and I think our songs touch a lot of people." As parting words, he dispenses with the myth that fame and glory make one's life better, and a slight annoyance creeps into his voice. It's fairly evident that Gavin Rossdale has plenty of scars under his willowy looks. "The music biz is a cut throat biz. You put out one bad record-it doesn't even have to be bad, it's enough it doesn't sell well, and you're out. They don't want to know you anymore. Anybody who thinks that all your problems magically disappear just because you're a successful band, has no fucking clue. It's not going to happen that way. No matter how much success you're going to have, you're still going to face the same problems you've had to face before, probably even more. It's a strain. You've got to love what you're doing and not be doing it for the glitter and glamour of it all. There's nothing glamorous about getting started, working a daytime job, hustling gigs, performing in cheesy clubs andbeing your own roadie, but that's how you learn. If music matters to you, then it doesn't matter if you're playing for 50 or 5000. All that crap I hear from people, the stuff like 'Hey, now you've really got it made!' What is it, having it made? You know? I get to do what I like doing best-playing music and writing songs. I get paid enough to make a living. That's having it in a way, sure, but having it made in a way has nothing to do with making money. I think as a musician you should have other priorities than your bank account. It would be too dammed easy to play the big rockstar and just be a complete wanker, having a hell of an attitude and walking around, thinking you're IT! That's so fucking pretentious and stupid. I don't want to indulge in that kind of lifestyle! You know, before I'd become one of 'em and act like a completejerk...I really hope that the guys in the band slap some sense into me."




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