The Kindler Gentler Interview-
By Jon Wiederhorn
When Americans first heard the Bush single "Everything Zen," back in
1994, it was hard to believe that all those churning guitars and
pain-stricken howls could come from anywhere other than Grunge City,
USA. English fans and the press found it equally hard to swallow that
the band members of Bush were actually Brits even as the band
bottle-rocketed up the Billboard charts with its debut album, Sixteen
Stone.
Contrarians have accused Bush of immigrating to America to capitalize on
the post-Nirvana noise-rock scene, but the band actually fled its
homeland out of necessity. Vocalist-guitarist Gavin Rossdale, 29,
guitarist Nigel Pulsford, 31, bassist Dave Parsons, 30, and drummer
Robin Goodridge, 29, had all banged around the UK music scene since 1992
without meeting with much success. Then, as they were all getting ready
to throw in the towel, a contract offer came in from Trauma Records, a
tiny American label owned by Interscope.
The rest is SoundScan history. The band toured the U.S. rigorously,
Sixteen Stone exploded, and Bush soon became more popular than Nintendo
64 among alienated American teens.
In late 1996, the band returned to its homeland to write material for
its second record. Bush hired controversial knob-twiddler Steve Albini,
who had previously produced the Pixies, Nirvana, and Jesus Lizard (not
coincidentally, three of Rossdale's favorite bands), and started
recording Razorblade Suitcase, a ragged, spontaneous disc that features
tracks that rage (like "Greedy Fly," "Personal Holloway," and "Insect
Kin"), as well as more reflective numbers ("Swallowed" and "Straight No
Chaser").
Critics label Bush "grunge lite," and called Rossdale a Kurt Cobain
wannabe (*sigh*), but the group has garnered a diehard fan base (that's us!)
that could care
less about the musings of a bunch of overintellectual scribes. The most
recent fuel for Bush gossip isn't the way Rossdale wears his influences
on his flannel (he wears flannel?) sleeve, but his current squeeze teen
idol and ska-pop
superstar Gwen Stefani from No Doubt. Rossdale hooked up with Stefani
while their respective bands were on tour together last year, and there
have been numerous rumors that the couple may tie the knot.
All romantic prognostications aside, Bush has confounded the critics.
Rossdale's ambiguous, pleading lyrics, and the band's insistent, driving
rhythms and scream-along choruses, have touched a nerve in American
teens that's just as sensitive as it was the day Cobain's body was
discovered. We recently talked to Rossdale about smoking pot, the band's
devoted audience, the sleep patterns of rock stars, the demands of life
on the road, and what it takes to turn a mellow pacifist into a raving
sociopath.