Gavin Rossdale From Bush Reflects On New Album ‘I Beat Loneliness’
GRAMMY® nominated, multi-Platinum rock legends BUSH return in a big way, delivering the incendiary tenth studio album, I Beat Loneliness. I Beat Loneliness is a bold next step for BUSH in its fearlessness. The album delves deep into themes of isolation, mental health, and emotional endurance, offering a soundtrack for those fighting to find connection and meaning in an increasingly fractured world. Gavin Rossdale gives greater insight to the album and confirms an Australian tour is on the cards.
Congratulations on I Beat Loneliness, so impactful and a very powerful album. Did the title alone set the tone for the rest of the process?
Yeah, funny enough, that was, the first song that I wrote for the record and when I thought of that line, or that line popped, I was like, oh my God! That could be brilliant. That should be the album title, I thought. Call the album that until you think of a better one and then I never thought of a better title, so I left it there.
Delving into really deep themes of isolation, mental health, and emotional endurance, did that give you a real sense of purpose with what you created?
I’m doing a lot of self-reflecting, looking at my own life and my own value. You know, my own value as a musician, as a father and I realised that this is what I could do best. My contribution to music was best served by keeping it really personal, like I always had done and then just immersing myself in music that I really could relate to, and then just confronting myself about what I was thinking about, and making sure that I told the truth about what I was thinking about as opposed to manufacturing something, or trying to think of something or second-guess what might work or might connect. Ironically, the fact that I didn’t in any shape or form try to connect with anyone and just tried to be as open about myself in turn yielded more universality than I could have anticipated, and definitely more than if I had intended that to be my focus.
I had a number of conversations with people over the years, and the last few years specifically in the meet and greets where I just meet fans, talk to them for some time and there’s always this common theme of mental health and the strength the songs gave people. I don’t take credit for that, because I believe really firmly that we make music, and then the songs belong to whoever hears them, whoever falls in love with them. That’s their song. That’s what music is. It belongs to the person listening to it, not the person who made it. The person listening to it owns it because you get to play it.
I think this is such a powerful thing that it just inspired me to be honest about my own journey and I think that’s what’s also important. I think I try to bring my experience of life. I’ve been cavalier, I’ve been cavalier as a writer, I’ve been cavalier as a lyricist, pushed things through square pegs and round holes at times because I thought it was right. What I probably could have done was some more scrutiny, more editing. But yet, not so, I don’t live in the past. I just think I just put myself through the ringer now, so that every line is impactful and has a reason, has a funk, has a purpose, has no scaffolding. Yeah, that’s what it is and it’s fun to make stuff that people connect to.
The album is a compelling listen and impactful which really resonates to personal experience and struggles. Irrespective of what happens with the album, that connectivity with people is success in its own right?
Yeah, that’s it. Like what you are saying, that means everything. That’s what it’s about. The world is so divided that the power, the way that music can bring people together, bring us to having a conversation like this is so intense. In a world where it’s all AI and people being homogenised, and we’re concerned about the future, the speed of the future. I mean, it’s a brilliant time to live. This is the best time to be living. But it’s scary as well, because I think the speed of it and the relentlessness, it’s like you can’t just forever keep churning and going, and you can’t fall in the gap and people do fall in the gaps. So it’s really great to have a record that people connect to, because we know we’re primed for connection, we’re primed for betterment and aspiration and growth.
Yet that’s sometimes too much to ask at that rate and so it’s good to know when other people don’t have that power or functionality. Same with my TV show, it’s so great hearing these interesting people and all the different walks of life, different against-all-odds stories, so that people can just go easier on themselves because people are so hard on themselves, you know, because it’s a rat race, rent, buy, sell, whatever. You know, like people go crazy.
Did you find that these songs, literally, with the amount of personal experience and experience of others, that they literally just wrote themselves?
To an extent. Like, that’s a whole conversation about the genesis of songs and what it is, and being amused. People talk, I mean, I definitely draw the line at the songs as babies, because I’ve had babies, and the songs are nothing like babies. But I think they are these entities. I’ve always likened them to, I know it’s a bit highfalutin, but it’s like the works of a show. Like a painter has twelve big works of art that they’re represented in paintings or collages or whatever. But with us, it’s like twelve ideas put to music. I could take those words that are really powerful and just make fucking amazing paintings of them. They would also work in a show, highlighted as words. They’d be arresting, like Jenny Holzer or something like that. You know, they would be arresting. They would be arresting to read. But the chosen medium is music and I think it’s the most powerful galvanizing force. It gives people that extra pep. I love it when I find a record that hears me and sees me. Oh my God! You get a record that sees you, you’re going to love that record forever.
The Kingdom was a bit of a subtle shift with a heavier sound. Was that a deliberate thing?
What happened is I did Black and White Rainbows, and I’d just come through a divorce. It was the worst time ever, so it was a miracle I even made a record. But I think there are some beautiful songs on there People at War, Ravens… I needed to make a strong statement. So when I was going to make The Kingdom, I reflected on the fact that every time I was on tour, if we played festivals, I’d do all the detuned songs off every record to be powerful. I’d done the Institute record, this side project in 2005, which is a really powerful, great drop C-sharp band. It’s so cool. I thought, that’s it, I’m never writing another song in standard tuning. I want them all to be detuned and crazy. Why wouldn’t I? So from The Kingdom onward, I began writing every song in super detuned style.
I relate to it and then, of course, when I wanted to do something that really connected to people the most, I wanted to write a ballad. I played through a number of classic songs, people’s classic songs through the history of pop music and they’re all simple standard tuning, simple chords. So I went back to standard tuning. It was fun to do that, because it felt fun. But generally, since The Kingdom, it’s been the whole detuned world.
Would you ever go back and revisit the Institute album and maybe even have then under the Bush moniker?
It’s so funny you say that, because I’ve been saying, “Can’t we just sneak every record, just sneak one or two in?” You know, like Neil Young or Bob Dylan, they’ve done that. You’ll see one song that, over a period of ten years here, ten years there, reappears. They’d go down so great. We have Boombox, we have When Owls Attack, Ambulances. That song has, I think, still, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the best line I’ve ever written. The best opening of any song I’ve written on that record. It goes ‘Staying alive, can kill you, It’s taken years off of my life’.
Even in this year, we’re feeling that real sense of excitement as those songs are starting to take shape?
I was really excited, super excited, because I felt I knew that… well, it was just quality on quality. Everything felt right. As always, I’m always about the future. But it was a very organic record to make. That’s the main thing about it, nothing was forced.
Has that set a bit of a blueprint for whatever album might be next, in terms of how you’ll approach it?
Yeah, I think one dream I do have is going a bit more of a traditional route and recording the songs altogether. I do lament the way it’s a bit cut up. I’ll do my things and take them to the studio, and the other guys go in and do their things, and then the drummer comes in and plays. It’s not as great as it could be for me. What happens with me is, I’m in the studio and I start doing a few takes of a song, and I’ll always come up with outro hooks. Whereas when I’m not in the studio, I don’t seem to push myself enough in that direction.
The question for us Australia fans, is there a plan for an Australian tour early next year?
Yeah. February and March. There are totally two separate conversations, two separate routes. I just want to come down there and have great shows. I don’t mind which one we do. I want to make the most of it.
Love coming down there. Got some great people I know, and I always have a great time.
Interview By Rob Lyon
I Beat Loneliness is out now…
