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In 2010 MOJO asked\u2026 Why is Kate Bush<\/strong> re-recording tracks from her most troubled records? Is there really a proper new album in the works? And will the James Joyce estate let her have her way with Molly Bloom? All these mysteries solved, by the woman who rewrote the rules of pop and learned to say \u2018no\u2019 to Richard Stilgoe. \u201cIt\u2019s so difficult to do anything that\u2019s at all interesting,\u201d she tells Keith Cameron<\/strong>.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-1329054294-scaled.jpg” alt=”Kate Bush posed on a sofa covered with party streamers in promotion of her one-off Christmas television special, Kate, circa 1979″ title_text=”Kate Bush” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Kate Bush promoting her one-off Christmas TV special, Kate, in 1979.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Kate Bush describes Stephen James Joyce as \u2018protective\u2019. Given his litigious reputation, however, perhaps the safest course of action would be not to describe him at all.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Anyone seeking to perform or quote more than a few words by his famous grandfather \u2013 James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, author of Ulysses et al. \u2013 requires the permission of 79-year-old Stephen, sole trustee of Joyce\u2019s literary estate. So renowned is Stephen\u2019s tendency to refuse such requests that the International James Joyce Foundation drafted a guide for potential suitors: \u201cThe Estate\u2019s priorities are to defend the letter, spirit and integrity of James Joyce\u2019s work\u2026 to permit interpretations that conform to Joyce\u2019s intentions; and to defend the privacy of the Joyce family.\u201d Based on successful previous applications, the IJJF recommends a certain tone: \u201cPolite but not fawning, respectful but not timorous, direct but not blunt.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Some applicants were destined never to find favour. Canadian scholar Michael Groden\u2019s multimedia version of Ulysses, for instance, was halted by the demand for a $1.5 million permission fee. \u201cYou should consider a new career as a garbage collector in New York City,\u201d Joyce told Groden, \u201cbecause you\u2019ll never quote a Joyce text again.\u201d Meanwhile, a musical version of Molly Bloom\u2019s climactic \u2013 in every sense \u2013 soliloquy from Ulysses was banned from the 2000 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, following the trustee\u2019s reproach: \u201cWe\u2026 have come to the conclusion that you propose to treat the Molly Bloom monologue as if it were a circus act or a jazz element in a jam session. This was clearly not the intention of the author. Therefore we must refuse you permission.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It was Kate Bush\u2019s turn to feel the censorious hand of Joyce\u2019s grand-fils in 1989. The title track of her album The Sensual World was to have quoted Bloom\u2019s monologue; in the end, Bush would have to find words of her own.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d had this idea to put the words with the music and it just seemed to work very well, very naturally. But I was refused. I had to try and find a way of getting words that had rhythmically the same kind of feel, but of course, I\u2019m not Joyce. So\u2026\u201d Even more than 20 years on she sounds peeved at the response. \u201cIt was really disappointing that I couldn\u2019t use them. The Joyce estate basically just said, \u2018No.\u2019 Which I felt was a bit ironic, considering the piece is totally centred around the word \u2018Yes!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Kate Bush can laugh about it now, for she has proof that Joyce\u2019s minder might be mellowing with age. In the spring of 2010, she was finishing work on a song titled Flower Of The Mountain, a new version of The Sensual World which reverts to Bush\u2019s original concept.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it!\u201d says Bush. \u201cThey wanted to have a listen to it. And they said, \u2018Yes.\u2019 I was just so delighted. To be able to come back to that moment 20 years later and get \u2028a positive response was just fantastic.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u201cFrom where I stood it was such a compromise that I\u2019d made at the time. Although I thought [my version] was OK, I was disappointed, because I didn\u2019t feel that what I\u2019d done had anywhere near the weight that the original piece has. For me, it was just a complete triumph. I didn\u2019t feel I was messing with history, I just felt I was being able to put it right.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n As an artist who has herself made a feature of saying \u2018no\u2019 during a career now spanning more than 30 years \u2013 \u2018no\u2019 to touring, \u2018no\u2019 to interviews, \u2018no\u2019 to the corrosive intrusions of celebrity \u2013 Bush can sympathise with the \u2028default position of the Joyce estate.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s fair enough. Because [Ulysses] is an incredibly beautiful piece of work, a classic, and I was just a pop singer wanting to use this in my pop song. Maybe if I\u2019d been them I would have said \u2018no\u2019 as well.\u201d She pauses. \u201cMaybe I would have said \u2018no\u2019 this time too.\u201d The hint of steel in her voice suggests there is very little \u2018maybe\u2019 about it.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/kate-bush-770.jpg” alt=”Kate Bush” title_text=”kate-bush-770″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n It\u2019s just after 9am on a Monday morning, and MOJO examines the long parallel scratches all the way along the near side of his car, reflecting upon how they came to be there. At 8.35am, the phone rang. It was Kate Bush, wondering if this was a good time to conduct the second part of our interview. With a four-year-old\u2019s Shreddies in one hand and the car-keys in the other, I had to admit that it was not. Could she call back at 9.15am?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll do my best,\u201d she replied, with possibly the \u2028faintest trace of annoyance.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Five minutes later, driving along a stretch of single-track road in suburban south London and pondering the advisability of having said \u2018no\u2019 to Kate Bush, I failed to allow enough space for a passing vehicle and swerved onto the verge. Fleeting but fateful contact was made with a recently pruned hawthorn. Only later did I appreciate the irony: another man driven to distraction by Kate Bush.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Ever since she first came to public prominence with the ever-startling Wuthering Heights in 1978, the Bush effect has wrought havoc upon the unfairer sex. In his 2010 Bush biography Under The Ivy, Graeme Thomson quotes an unnamed musician who quit working with Bush after becoming \u201cabsolutely desperately and totally in love, just besotted\u201d with the singer, who was at that point in a long-term relationship with bassist and recording engineer Del Palmer. Then there is a long and inglorious roll call of male journalists crumpling into condescension and clich\u00e9 following an audience with Her Kateness.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t even have the excuse of having met her: Kate Bush has decided that her first press interview in five years be conducted via the telephone. She can do this, because she is Kate Bush. Ever since she was rushed into recording her second album, Lionheart, to capitalise upon the success of her first, The Kick Inside, Bush has sought control of every aspect of her career. She has not played a full live concert since the six-week Tour Of Life in April\/May 1979. Subsequent recordings would be owned by her, and licensed to EMI. She would be the producer, whether the record company liked it or not.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly, they did not, especially when Never For Ever (1980) and The Dreaming (1982), the latter confirming her metamorphosis from pop prodigy to experimental sonic auteur, sold poorly compared to their predecessors. But the massive crossover success of 1985\u2019s Hounds Of Love and the following year\u2019s compilation The Whole Story (subtext: here you go EMI, now please leave me alone) shifted the artist\/record company power dynamic conclusively in Bush\u2019s favour. Still bruised from assenting to a frenzy of promotional activity around her first two albums, she began to ration media appearances. The days of Kate enduring Richard Stilgoe\u2019s fearless interview technique (\u201cIn the music world there\u2019s a lot of late nights, high living and things, and yet you do not have pimples, spots and all the things the rest of us get if we stay out late at night \u2013 how do you manage that?\u201d) or making Waldorf salad on Delia\u2019s Smith\u2019s Cookery Course were long gone. Thereafter she retreated to a domain characterised by the constants of family life and work; indeed, the two forces intersected at her own studio installed in the barn at East Wickham Farm, the rural enclave of south-east London where Bush grew up, with her parents and two elder brothers nurturing a precocious passion for music, reading and dance.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n After 1993\u2019s The Red Shoes, Kate Bush made no new music for 12 years, and when the sublime Aerial finally appeared in 2005, the public saw not a trace of her. She did it because she could, because she wanted to maintain her privacy and sense of self despite being one of Britain\u2019s most commercially successful artists. Such are the imperatives of Bush power. It is also the power of the word \u2018no\u2019. Many artists pretend \u201cit\u2019s all about the music\u201d, but in the realm of the musical mainstream, only Kate Bush truly walks the walk.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u201cI think the trouble was when I first started, I didn\u2019t realise that I could actually just say \u2018no\u2019,\u201d she says, having duly called MOJO back on the dot of 9.15am. \u201cAnd then I realised I could. I think if I\u2019d realised that from the start then that\u2019s what I would have done. But I was very young, everything was building up to making an album: that was the thing I really wanted to do, I wanted to make an album. It hadn\u2019t gone beyond that. I think the fact that the first single was such a success was not really something that anybody had expected. And then suddenly I was being asked to do all this stuff, so I thought, Right! I\u2019d better do it! What I didn\u2019t like was spending all my time promoting the thing and a very small amount of time being set aside for the creative process. That wasn\u2019t me. I just put the balance back the way I wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n So firmly has Bush reset the balance that any official communiqu\u00e9 feels like the unexpected re-entry to our solar system of a lost comet: by definition, a source of wonder. Whether the message makes any sense is a secondary concern. Thus, the\u2028announcement that Kate Bush has a new album coming out rather trumps the devilish detail that it isn\u2019t actually an album of new songs, but new recordings of old songs, called Director\u2019s Cut. The announcement is soon followed bya new photograph of Kate, wielding scissors and negatives in homage to Russian film-maker Sergei Eisenstein, another misunderstood genius who worked to the tick of a different clock.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-3281809-scaled.jpg” alt=”Kate Bush at her family’s home in East Wickham, London, 26th September 1978″ title_text=”Kate Bush” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n Kate Bush at her family’s home in East Wickham, London, September 1978.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The images on the film strip are the sleeves of the two albums Bush has chosen to revisit in this novel exercise of catalogue curation. Four songs from The Sensual World and seven from The Red Shoes have been partly re-recorded, with the new bits soldered onto elements of the originals. Only a few of the new versions are radically different \u2013 Rubberband Girl, for instance, imagines The Rolling Stones fronted by a soused Bob Dylan \u2013 but given the obsessive tendencies of her audience, for Bush to alter the texts at all is tantamount to Michelangelo repainting sections of the Sistine Chapel.<\/p>\n A leaked tracklisting provoked consternation on the fan forum at katebushnews.com, with \u2018Mike\u2019 concluding that it must be fake, on the basis that: \u201cI have absolutely no idea how she could improve\/reinterpret This Woman\u2019s Work.\u201d Meanwhile, \u2018Joyce\u2019, though revealing greater faith in Bush\u2019s abilities, summed up the prevailing sense of angst: \u201cOMG. This Woman\u2019s Work, Never Be Mine and Deeper Understanding are my favourites. I trust Kate, but I\u2019m worried :(\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Bush herself has a rather less sentimental attitude to her past work. This, after all, is the woman who, in 1986, re-recorded the vocal to Wuthering Heights for its inclusion on The Whole Story.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cIt probably would be the same with every record if I listened to it,\u201d she says. \u201cThere\u2019s always something wrong. A bit of lyric: Maybe I\u2019ve overdone that bit\u2026 There\u2019s always something wrong! There will always be flaws. But there are flaws that are nice. It\u2019s important that you have flaws, it\u2019s all part of being a human being.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Of course, those who kept a vigil throughout the 12-year wait for Aerial and who now learn that Director\u2019s Cut took some three and a half years to put together might wonder whether the time could have been more productively spent.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes stepping back one step can allow you to take two forward, and in a funny way I think that\u2019s what\u2019s happened. It was always rumbling around in the back of my head that they just could have been better than they were, those two records. I wanted to be able to make them sound the way I would want them to sound now. To be able to listen to them and say, Yeah, that\u2019s all right. Aerial I felt was a much more wholesome-sounding record. And I think, in some ways, because I feel pleased with what I\u2019ve done with the Director\u2019s Cut I think it\u2019s made me feel a bit more\u2026 \u2018confident\u2019 is not the right word, but just makes me feel more buoyant (laughs), just in terms of moving on.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n And those fans who may feel you\u2019ve broken their emotional\u2028connection with a favourite song, that you\u2019ve attempted to improve the unimprovable?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cWell,\u201d says Kate Bush, breezily, \u201cif people don\u2019t like this and they like the old ones, then the old ones are still there, aren\u2019t they?\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n When \u2018Mike\u2019 and friends on the fan forum finally hear the new version of This Woman\u2019s Work they\u2019ll either gasp at this audacious feat of reinterpretation or else remove Katemas (that\u2019s July 30, or Bush\u2019s birthday, to us civilians) from the calendar altogether. The closing track proper on The Sensual World, this piercing piano ballad with its pristine Bush vocal about a young couple on the verge of parenthood occupies sacred space in the pantheon. The Director\u2019s Cut version is almost twice the length, and with the original\u2019s surging string arrangement replaced by a blank, processed choir, it hangs in a torpid mezzanine between despair and resignation. Through Bush\u2019s weary sighs and the dread resonance of the closing line \u2013 \u201cJust make it go away\u201d \u2013 we imagine the song\u2019s protagonists 20 years on, reflecting on the hand that time has dealt them. Poring mercilessly over the nuances of real life, it\u2019s hardly the undertaking of an artist marking time.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n The treatment meted out to Moments Of Pleasure is just as audacious. Once again, Bush is taking on one of her canon\u2019s most emotive, personal songs \u2013 a remembrance of the simple joys of life, paying tribute to lost loved ones \u2013 and as well as purging the orchestral theatrics Bush makes drastic changes to the song\u2019s lyric, cutting out the chorus with its preachy line, \u201cJust being alive, it can really hurt\u2026\u201d Intriguingly, gone too are two names from the invocation of the dead: \u201cMaureen\u201d (Bush\u2019s aunt) and \u201cBill\u201d (Duffield, the lighting engineer who died in a tragic accident on the eve of the Tour Of Life).<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n With their spare arrangements putting greater emphasis upon Bush\u2019s weathered voice, these new treatments make explicit the melancholia that touched the original albums. Turning 30, the Sensual World-vintage Bush was at a crossroads. Then, amid the recording of The Red Shoes, her mother died of cancer and her relationship with Del Palmer ended. Perhaps this is the true logic behind Director\u2019s Cut\u2019s concept: why not look back at a difficult time from a better place?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The Kate Bush that phones MOJO for our first interview certainly seems in good humour, given that she\u2019s doing one of the things she relishes least. Though guarded and clearly well-practised at evasion whenever talk moves into areas she deems too personal, this just makes her seem refreshingly sane: a 52-year-old mum trying to maintain a semblance of normality in a life that\u2019s been anything but.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cHave you heard the new record?\u201d she asks, and I confess that just an hour earlier I found myself in tears listening to the new version of Moments Of Pleasure. \u201cOh God, it\u2019s not that bad is it?\u201d she wonders, apparently serious. \u201cOh, I\u2019m so touched, I can\u2019t tell you! You know, I really don\u2019t know how people will receive this record. It was very much something I did for me.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n On Director\u2019s Cut, is it the case that the more you\u2019ve changed a song, the less you liked the original? Rubberband Girl is almost unrecognisable.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n (Laughs)<\/em> I thought the original Rubberband was\u2026 well, it\u2019s a fun track. I was quite happy with the original, but I just wanted to do something really different. It is my least favourite track. I had considered taking it off, to be honest.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n It\u2019s your least favourite on Director\u2019s Cut?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Yeah, because it didn\u2019t feel quite as interesting as the other tracks. But I thought, at the same time, it was just a bit of fun and it felt like a good thing to go out with. It\u2019s just a silly pop song really. I loved Danny Thompson\u2019s bass on that, and of course Danny [McIntosh, Bush\u2019s other half]\u2019s guitar.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Otherwise, it\u2019s all pretty heavy stuff on there\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n I just wonder how people are going to get through the whole thing in one go. Because, for a start, it\u2019s quite long. And I think it\u2019s quite intense as well, especially the first, err\u2026 hour and a half. Obviously I won\u2019t hear it the way other people do, but I found it quite intense. But then\u2026 that\u2019s all right isn\u2019t it? Intense is OK! That\u2019s hopefully what art can do. (The sounds of a dog barking, audible for some time, have now become frenzied) It\u2019s all about an emotional connection.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Do you need to see to that dog?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n (Laughs)<\/em> I think it\u2019s the postman. He just goes nuts every time the postman turns up, so I presume it is. He\u2019s on the other side of the door, so he\u2019s safe!<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n When you started making The Sensual World, did you feel in any way intimidated by the commercial success of Hounds Of Love?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n I don\u2019t think so. I was so knocked out with the response to Hounds Of Love. It wasn\u2019t something I found threatening in terms of making new material, I suppose I found it enormously comforting. It gave my confidence a boost. With The Dreaming, I suppose it was the first time that I was really able to do what I wanted, without working in a collaboration or with a producer, which I had done on the first two records. It was a very difficult album to make. And then it was perceived as being a bit weird, which for me was a compliment. Somehow, my role as producer got tied into the whole \u201cit\u2019s weird, it\u2019s not commercial\u201d view.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n People didn\u2019t really \u2018get\u2019 The Dreaming, did they?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The biggest problem at the time was that the record company didn\u2019t get it. And that was an uncomfortable experience. So I did Hounds Of Love and it shut them up. By then I had my own studio and I was able to work through an experimental process in one studio. It was a nightmare moving studios, working with lots of different engineers, which is what I\u2019d had to do on The Dreaming.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Weren\u2019t you essentially figuring out how to produce as you went along?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Yes. But I think that\u2019s a continual process. I think I\u2019m just starting to get the hang of it now. Music is continually surprising, and sometimes very difficult. It is so elusive, the way it all comes together, and I think a lot of it is very connected to how I\u2019m feeling, what environment I\u2019m in. I think with Hounds Of Love, it was a nice time for me. It was quite a happy time. And that was very conducive to me being able to feel very creative. Aerial was a happy time. The Sensual World\u2026 I haven\u2019t heard that record for a really, really long time. Years and years. It was very challenging. I felt I\u2019d done my best.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Your mother very sadly died during the making of The Red Shoes. Apart from the obvious impact upon you personally, did it also affect the work?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Yes, I think it did. All the songs were written, so I don\u2019t think it was something that got absorbed into the writing. But I think yes, of course, it was devastating, for all of us as a family. So maybe it\u2019s in there as a feeling. Part of what I hear when I listen to some of that stuff is the me then trying so hard, and in a lot of cases trying too hard. I do think there are some quite good songs on that record, but maybe some of the production wasn\u2019t as good as it could have been. It was quite a difficult record, Red Shoes. It was not an easy time in my life. It\u2019s just really nice that I got a chance to go back and strip it out, soften it.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n You\u2019ve made significant changes to the lyrics of certain songs. For instance, on And So Is Love, \u201cnow we see that life is sad\u2026\u201d has become \u201cthat life is sweet\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Because I thought it was so bloody depressing (laughs)<\/em>. I thought I couldn\u2019t just leave it in such a downer. That was really why. I didn\u2019t want to do it as me then, it was me now.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n And on Moments Of Pleasure, a couple of the people you remember in the original version are missing from the new one.<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Well, it, um (giggles)\u2026 It wasn\u2019t deliberate, actually. When I went to redo the piano, I didn\u2019t (laughs)\u2026 I didn\u2019t quite make it long enough. So, er, there you go. And it seemed all right as it was. It wasn\u2019t that \u2028I deliberately took people out at all.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Wasn\u2019t The Red Shoes originally conceived as a more stripped-down vehicle with a view to touring again?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Yes, you\u2019re right. And\u2026 it just kind of went away. Understandably, people think I didn\u2019t enjoy the Tour Of Life and that\u2019s why I haven\u2019t done it again. But it wasn\u2019t like that at all: it was enormously enjoyable. It was the first time \u2018head mikes\u2019 had been used, and we\u2019d pick up taxi cabs on the speakers! But physically, it was absolutely exhausting. I still don\u2019t give up hope completely that I\u2019ll be able to do some live work. But it\u2019s certainly not in the picture at the moment, because I just don\u2019t quite know how that would work with how my life is now. Maybe I will do some shows some day. I\u2019d like to think so, before I get too ancient. Turn up with me zimmer frame! Because of my nature, I guess, it\u2019s really important to me to be involved in the whole process. That\u2019s what I get the buzz from, that\u2019s the turn-on, really. I enjoy singing, but with the albums it\u2019s the whole process I find so interesting. If I was going to do some shows it would be the same thing. So it\u2019s never like anything I want to do is easy. I don\u2019t know. Let\u2019s just\u2026 see, shall we?\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/12\/KB2A-682×1024-1.jpg” alt=”Kate Bush” title_text=”KB2A-682×1024″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The public\u2019s first taste of Director\u2019s Cut will be the release of Deeper Understanding as a single. Depicting a \u201clonely and lost\u201d woman who becomes so obsessed with her \u2028computer (\u201cI neglected my bodily needs\u201d) that her family eventually intervene, The Sensual World\u2019s original was mostly overlooked amid the record\u2019s primary talking points: the title track\u2019s Joycean erotica and the collaboration with Trio Bulgarka. Now, however, its prescience of web-age alienation seems quite remarkable.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Kate Bush was one of the first UK artists to own a Fairlight CMI, the digital sampling synthesizer that would become a staple of \u201980s pop records, and perhaps as a consequence her relationship with technology is conflicted. While Kate the sonic pioneer embraces technology\u2019s liberating capabilities, Kate the private individual fears its potential to denude the human spirit. In its original version, Deeper Understanding\u2019s chorus had the computer represented by a mix of vocoder and Trio Bulgarka. Now it\u2019s the turn of the ubiquitous AutoTune pitch processor, but the identity of the solo human voice being digitally manipulated is poignant, given Bush\u2019s efforts to ring-fence her family life from public exposure: it\u2019s her 12-year-old son, Bertie.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n \u201cI loved the idea of a child being inside the computer: bringing you \u2018love and deeper understanding\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cI do think that the technology we have now is absolutely incredible. It\u2019s like we\u2019re starting to live the sci-fi world that used to be imagined. Like everything, it\u2019s got enormous pros and cons. The access to information, the speed of communication, it\u2019s fantastic. But mobile phones, their convenience \u2013 that was the first enslavement that came to us in a seriously big way, to the point where now everybody is contactable all the time. I try to not use it a lot. The structure of my day is morning and evening with the computer, but in the day I\u2019m normally in the studio and don\u2019t have access to a computer because otherwise I just wouldn\u2019t be able to work. It does make it pretty intense; when I get in in the evening there\u2019s a whole load of stuff I have to do. But I prefer it that way.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n For her son to make his recorded debut so young seems apt, for at an equivalent age Bush was already a prodigious songwriter. Did she sense she was different from other girls?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think I was different. I think it\u2019s just that I wrote songs as my hobby. Instead of going horse-riding (laughs), that was my thing. Some girls do ballet, and that\u2019s what I did. Because I was brought up in what was a very creative family, and very musical, it felt completely natural for me to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n The rumours are true: Kate Bush is hard at work on a new album. It\u2019s the reason \u2013 ostensibly, at least \u2013 why MOJO is talking to her on the phone as opposed to meeting in person. \u201cI\u2019m determined to make an album quick, one day,\u201d she laughs. \u201cBut you gotta get it right, haven\u2019t you?\u201d As expected, she will reveal nothing about what it might sound like, or indeed, what it actually is. A prudent attitude, given that she just spent three years making a new album of old songs.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n So this new album, then. Have you written new songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Have you recorded those songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cYes!\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Are you still working with Del Palmer?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cYeah!\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t he sick of you by now?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I think so!\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n She laughs.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful, because I\u2019m working with someone I know so well and I\u2019m very relaxed when I\u2019m in those very early stages of the creative process. I suppose I\u2019m a little bit self-conscious, or maybe I am a bit shy. But I feel very relaxed with Del. In some ways, in the nicest possible way, it\u2019s almost like he\u2019s not there. I don\u2019t like to talk about the record before it\u2019s finished because it might suddenly change. But I\u2019m pleased with what we\u2019ve got so far. I think it\u2019s quite different. But then I think I feel that with every record\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n As MOJO thanks her for her time, Bush says she\u2019s worried that because Director\u2019s Cut is so different from a new record people will be disappointed. \u201cBut it\u2019s done now \u2013 time to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Why does she keep returning to the fray, if so many aspects of it cause her such anxiety? Is she one of these songwriters for whom the process is therapeutic, clearing out the soul so that life becomes simpler?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean like a creative enema?\u201d she chuckles. \u201cNo, I don\u2019t see it like that at all. I just find it fascinating and it\u2019s been a part of me since I was really young. I started doing it when\u2026 well, when I was a child, really. I suppose it\u2019s a part of me, but it\u2019s not an emptying-out process. The desire is to make something interesting. It\u2019s so difficult to do anything that\u2019s at all interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Speaking of interesting things, what did she make of Noel Fielding\u2019s high camp impersonation of her Wuthering Heights dance routine for Comic Relief?<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cI loved it! I thought it was hilarious and I thought he came across as such a sweet person.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n How do you feel about people still taking the piss out of that performance?<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201c(Laughs)<\/em> Well it was taken the piss out of at the time. But, it\u2019s such a long time ago. It\u2019s quite flattering really, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n That your work endures\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Kate Bush gives a big old cackle.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n \u201cYes. That it endures enough to keep taking the piss out of.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n This article first appeared in issue 319 of MOJO.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Images: Getty<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Portrait Of The ArtistIn 2010 MOJO asked\u2026 Why is Kate Bush re-recording tracks from her most troubled records? Is there really a proper new album in the works? And will the James Joyce estate let her have her way with Molly Bloom? All these mysteries solved, by the woman who rewrote the rules of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":3648,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"akindell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3631"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3675,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3631\/revisions\/3675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“I didn\u2019t feel I was messing with history, I just felt I was able to put it right.”<\/h2>\n
Kate Bush<\/b><\/h3>\n
“There\u2019s always something wrong. But it\u2019s important that you have flaws, it\u2019s all part of being a human being.”<\/h2>\n
Kate Bush<\/b><\/h3>\n