POP QUIZ: Gavin Rossdale
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Ex-Bush front man Gavin Rossdale has spent the past few years living behind the platinum glow of his wife, Gwen Stefani. Now the 42-year-old British musician is hoping to change his fortunes with his first solo release, "Wanderlust." That is, if he can survive the critics and paparazzi and come to terms with the fact that he's the second most successful pop star in the family. We spoke to Rossdale by phone from his home in Los Angeles, just a few days after the celebrity-studded second birthday bash for his son, King-ston.
Q: Have you recovered from the birthday party?
A: Yes. I've got a cake hangover.
Q: The paparazzi pictures looked crazy - Christina Aguilera, Nicole Richie, Victoria and David Beckham. It's a good thing Kingston will remember it all when he's older.
A: Yeah, I'm a carbon-footprint nightmare. There were, like, 11 cars following us.
Q: You really shouldn't leave the house.
A: You can't do that because that's the one way out of it. What kind of life is that?
Q: Are you surprised how much older you sound on "Wanderlust"?
A: It's one of those things where my face is so pressed up against the music it's difficult to have an objective opinion about it. I just try to keep it as natural as possible, so if my trousers have lengthened slightly, so be it.
Q: Have the past few years been kind of intense?
A: There were certainly times when I thought Iceland was becoming quite attractive. Apparently there are no paparazzi there, either.
Q: Björk took them all out. When exactly were you thinking of making the move?
A: It's been a slow grind through some professionally darker times. But there was a great emancipation that came with this record, and that was the idea that I was getting pretty good at failing. I think it's arrogant and ignorant to expect to have a successful career that has no dips. It just seems unfeasible. I'm either stupid enough or brave enough to keep going.
Q: Why did your latest band, Institute, break up after only one album, "Distort Yourself"?
A: The problem was my label wasn't interested in pushing that record any further. Then I got word that I should be doing a solo record. So that was two years of work down the pisser. But, God, I love that record - I mean, there's a song on there called "Wasteland," and I played it for Daniel Lanois and he called it a masterpiece. That's a successful moment in my life.
Q: How much has your wife influenced your songwriting?
A: She clearly has a whole world of admirers, and I'm impressed by that, but the way I write has more of the echoes of other writers that I like.
Q: Tell me a good story about Bush's touring days.
A: It just was this nonstop cyclone, where you're just bouncing around in the bubble you move in. It's just so fun and self-indulgent and exhilarating. We were playing five, six nights a week and traipsing through the snow in Canada and then playing in South Beach, where it's 90 degrees and the water is like a bath. And then to play New York at CBGB's, you know, all these incredible landmarks. There were people everywhere: people running after the bus, people waiting outside after the shows, people waiting at the hotels. All-night noise. It was like 10 years of that.
Q: How bad did that mess you up?
A: It just means you get to rent a house in the South of France and fly everyone you know in. And then you can't go home because you're so strung out, so then you go live in Jamaica for a couple of months. And then you go back on tour. It's just this incredible cycle. Leaving Bush was like stepping off the world and crashing. What do you do after that?
Q: What's the one record you and Kingston can agree on?
A: "The Jungle Book" - "The Bare Necessities." I think it's a genius song. He also really likes my single.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/06/PK76110LI6.DTL
Q: Have you recovered from the birthday party?
A: Yes. I've got a cake hangover.
Q: The paparazzi pictures looked crazy - Christina Aguilera, Nicole Richie, Victoria and David Beckham. It's a good thing Kingston will remember it all when he's older.
A: Yeah, I'm a carbon-footprint nightmare. There were, like, 11 cars following us.
Q: You really shouldn't leave the house.
A: You can't do that because that's the one way out of it. What kind of life is that?
Q: Are you surprised how much older you sound on "Wanderlust"?
A: It's one of those things where my face is so pressed up against the music it's difficult to have an objective opinion about it. I just try to keep it as natural as possible, so if my trousers have lengthened slightly, so be it.
Q: Have the past few years been kind of intense?
A: There were certainly times when I thought Iceland was becoming quite attractive. Apparently there are no paparazzi there, either.
Q: Björk took them all out. When exactly were you thinking of making the move?
A: It's been a slow grind through some professionally darker times. But there was a great emancipation that came with this record, and that was the idea that I was getting pretty good at failing. I think it's arrogant and ignorant to expect to have a successful career that has no dips. It just seems unfeasible. I'm either stupid enough or brave enough to keep going.
Q: Why did your latest band, Institute, break up after only one album, "Distort Yourself"?
A: The problem was my label wasn't interested in pushing that record any further. Then I got word that I should be doing a solo record. So that was two years of work down the pisser. But, God, I love that record - I mean, there's a song on there called "Wasteland," and I played it for Daniel Lanois and he called it a masterpiece. That's a successful moment in my life.
Q: How much has your wife influenced your songwriting?
A: She clearly has a whole world of admirers, and I'm impressed by that, but the way I write has more of the echoes of other writers that I like.
Q: Tell me a good story about Bush's touring days.
A: It just was this nonstop cyclone, where you're just bouncing around in the bubble you move in. It's just so fun and self-indulgent and exhilarating. We were playing five, six nights a week and traipsing through the snow in Canada and then playing in South Beach, where it's 90 degrees and the water is like a bath. And then to play New York at CBGB's, you know, all these incredible landmarks. There were people everywhere: people running after the bus, people waiting outside after the shows, people waiting at the hotels. All-night noise. It was like 10 years of that.
Q: How bad did that mess you up?
A: It just means you get to rent a house in the South of France and fly everyone you know in. And then you can't go home because you're so strung out, so then you go live in Jamaica for a couple of months. And then you go back on tour. It's just this incredible cycle. Leaving Bush was like stepping off the world and crashing. What do you do after that?
Q: What's the one record you and Kingston can agree on?
A: "The Jungle Book" - "The Bare Necessities." I think it's a genius song. He also really likes my single.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/06/PK76110LI6.DTL
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