Bettie Magazine Interview: Gavin Rossdale

Back when Bush was a band, and not a lame duck President, Gavin Rossdale was Commander-in-Chief of British grunge.

It's been 14 years since Gavin Rossdale released a Bush record, moaning "There's no sex in your violence," — our flannel covered teenage hearts leaping at the sight of his tousled hair and English inflection. Our resin-clogged minds never thinking too hard about those lyrics.

This summer, Rossdale released Wanderlust, a solo record that is more chilled out than anything we remember from his Bush or Institute days. But even though he's a family man now with two kids by his wife/superstar/Harajuku queen Gwen Stefani, he's still worth a second glance. Or a third. We can’t stop staring.

Because you were Bush’s lead singer, your solo record still sounds sort of like those albums. Just…mellower.
Bush is really defined by angsty, soaring songs with heavy guitar and sex-obsessed basslines. So I had to keep the sex-obsessed basslines. After being in Bush and then doing the Institute thing, I just thought don’t detune and don’t rely on guitar so much. I had to find a different voice. For two months I thought there was going to be a Bush record so I wrote “You’re With Us or You’re Against Us” because I thought, I’ve got to get that band feel. [But] I’m always going to sound like I’m in Bush because that’s my voice.

That’s true, though your first single, “Love Remains the Same” is much more mellow than what we remember from Bush.
It’s been weird because I’m not even half the people know who’s singing it or that singer used to be in Bush. It’s such a weird world. It’s so fragmented. Like, at my house today, there was a guy having a meeting there and he goes, oh my god, my 14 year old daughter and all of her friends love your song. I was like, wow, that’s cool. How do they like the record? And he’s like, oh…I don’t know. It’s such a weird idea. If I were a kid, and I happened to like someone and I knew for a fact that there were twelve other songs by the same person I might give it a shot. I bought singles when I was like 12. If you like something, you get the record. And, even when they like that song, they [fire alarm goes off] That’s us!

By the time we return from walking down five flights of stairs, touring a law office, and waiting for a substantial amount of time in an elevator lobby, Rossdale has a burning question for Bettie when it comes to us staring at dudes.

What do women want?

All sorts of things…but we tend to pass on the oiled-up guys.
Men don’t always need that of women. Showing a Brazilian wax isn’t a prerequisite for a beautiful shot.

Tell that to the people working in porno! Now, over the past few years, you’ve stayed in the paparazzi spotlight but weren’t in the limelight. It’s that part of why you wanted to make this record?
Absolutely. It was such a bizarre few years to be a musician. I never stopped working, it’s just about when you’re allowed to bring records out. If they don’t drop you, they delay your record. Not for any other reason than all the powers that be are like, well, hang on, if we wait another month, maybe you’ll come up with something better. Keep writing. It’s maddening. You’re in creative jail.

Then why not just go indie?
You can be signed to Joe Schmo records and bring out records once a month, but it’s hard enough to have an effect when you’re coming out on a major label. Most records generally fail now.

What does that do to your psyche as a musician?
It’s a really bad time to be starting a new venture, which Gavin Rossdale is. I’m just some commercially uncommercial. To be doing a rock band in England at the time I did it was when Brit pop was really happening. It was the worst idea I could have had. I didn’t know I’d even get to America, let alone build a career here. So, I’ve always done things the wrong way and I enjoy that sort of blind faith that goes into believing that the good will out.

You’ve said “Love Remains the Same” has a certain Bukowski-ness to it. How so?
I don’t think it’s remotely as good as that, but the Bukowski side of it is commiseration in drink. But, it’s far more lyrical and not nailed to the concrete sidewalk than Bukowski. I’ve got other stuff that I think is more in line with him. I love the way he writes.

Which books are your favorites?
You Get So Alone at Times That It Just Makes Sense, Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame, Play the Piano Drunk So That Your Fingers Begin to Bleed a Little [sic], Poems Written Before Jumping Out of an 8 Story Window, stuff like that. I’ve got all the videos of his live performances I could find, I’ve got some interviews with him, I’ve read transcripts.

Did you ever get to meet him?
No. Why would he want to meet me? He’d be like, “Fuck that guy!” [laughs] He’d much prefer meeting my wife I think! [laughs] So would a lot of people.

Was that hard – until you released this record — that some people weren’t thinking of your music and thinking of you as Mr. —
Thank god there are now pictures of me singing – pictures of me doing my job! That’s my greatest thing about this record. I mean, you make a decision in life of what you chase, and for some people who are quite careerist, that could destroy them. If you looked at it on paper, you’d be like, that’s shit. [laughs] that’s not good. But that would be a ridiculous way to live your life. It’s just been a storm. No one could have predicted what happened to her, and I’m not going to leave her because that happened. [laughs] You know what I mean? It’s something to deal with. It’s a lot to deal with in some regards, but it’s not a lot to deal with in your house. Just outside. It’s now being corrected. Now, I’m the one who’s working and doing all the shows. It’s a good lesson. To have knee jerk reacted about that, even though it had been over a period of years, would have been such a waste. To give up something real for something imaginary. Also, no one ever seemed to pick up on this, but what I thought was interesting was the fact that: why should every woman who is brilliant be denied a private life that is fulfilling? There was a sense that that must kill him and if [a woman is] going to be that, you have to be alone and she doesn’t deserve to have that. I think equal is good. It’s progressive.

We love your feminist spirit.
There was all this sort of backhanded, twistedness. It used to be everyone’s a critic. Now everyone’s a published critic. We were in a restaurant in London and this guy was sitting opposite of us. His wife was really excited to see us there and he was really indifferent about it. I asked Gwen a question and that became the subject of his blog, sort of misquoting her. I remembered thinking, you were so disinterested when your wife was so excited, and suddenly, that’s your blog. I wish I had fucking thrown my food at him. I regret not doing that. Do you like noodles? On your head?

That would be a very Johnny Rotten of you. He’s one of the people you admire — why?
For his maverick sense. He was just so brilliant and such a great performer, referencing Richard III for his physicality on stage. And for his desire. While the Sex Pistols were imploding, he just starts PiL. And has two bands that are really important. He’s so fucking stylish and funny and has a great vulnerability to him as well, which is why he’s sort of touchy. You see all that stuff about him walking off all the time. I just fucking love that. He, to me, embodies punk. And when I was growing up, punk was massive to me. That was right as my life was beginning when I was thinking about culture and I began with the Sex Pistols. It’s always been embedded in me and I’ve always been a bit annoyed with myself that I tend to write with a romantic sense of with a sense of lust and longing and suffering and sometimes I want to be like fuck yeah and write other stuff. But he did that, so what are you going to do?

Be a sex symbol. Do you mind that you’re still considered one? After all, you did do that shower scene in the video for “Love Remains the Same.”
I did do the shower scene. Well, I like to keep clean. It’s kind of funny but it’s a complete compliment.

Posted by Bettie at 9:37 AM
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