Gavin Rossdale Cover YRB Magazine

It may be a new lineup, but after a decade Bush is definitely back to reclaim its rock titan status, and at the front of it all still stands Gavin Rossdale – from the beginning to the end.

by Nancy Dunham

Photography by Lionel

Deluy Styling by Darius Baptist

Grooming by Melissa Walsh @BeautyandPhoto using Dermalogica

Location courtesy of De La Barracuda Boxing Club

Band photo by Joseph Llanes Retouching by www.pixretouch.com

f the song “Swallowed” was released under the name Gavin Rossdale instead of Bush, would it have been a hit?

That’s surely something Rossdale, the songwriter and Bush front man, has pondered during the eight years since the band parted ways. In that time, Rossdale kept writing and recording, forming the band Institute in 2004 and then recording a solo project in 2008. Now that he and Bush are back touring behind their first album in 10 years, The Sea of Memories, it’s given him a chance to reflect.

“I listened to my [former] label (Interscope) and [founder] Jimmy Iovine and to their opinion about what I should be doing,” said Rossdale from the Los Angeles home he shares with his wife, musician Gwen Stefani, and their two young sons. “I suddenly realized the weak link was my name. Does Robert Smith [of The Cure] – one of my heroes – [release albums under his own name]? Does Mark E. Smith of The Fall, another one of my heroes do that? No, they record as The Cure and The Fall.”

It’s not like Rossdale was re-starting the band from scratch. He’d not only remained in contact with his former band mates but had a host of new songs to offer. The new music came together when he returned from a solo tour and felt “so inspired, so in love with music” that he literally went into the studio the next day and began to write. When he realized Bush should rightfully record the songs, he began calling his former band mates.

“I figured I had earned that. I was the first one in the band and I was the last one standing,” he said. “I wanted to find out who else would join me. Robin [Goodridge, the drummer] was gung ho about doing it. Nigel [Pulsford, Bush’s original lead guitarist] wanted to make a record and didn’t want to tour.”

Yet when guitarist Chris Traynor and bassist Corey Britz said they were on board, Rossdale saw Bush could work as the newly formed quartet. “I figured, ‘Well, I’ll have three guitarists. That’s cool,’” he said. “So it began with that and the songs. Nothing else really matters as long as we have the music. The music is the key that unlocks everything.”

What Rossdale means by that is new music. He seems to shudder when discussing the idea of a nostalgic tour.

“If I was to do a nostalgic tour, well, that would be horrific,” he said. “I feel I’m getting more articulate in music and writing and singing. It would be too much to take. It’s really important people who get this record can exist solely on this record. It doesn’t need the kind of symbiotic sonics of the other records. Obviously, we’ll continue to honor people’s expectations when they come see our shows, but it’s essential for us to keep alive and keep awake and keep present.

“What’s incredible is that we are starting to play the new songs now, about five or six in a set, and that invigorates the older songs. When I play “Come Down,” it sounds like it was written on the same day as “Sound of Winter,” which was written three months ago.”

That’s something, Rossdale is convinced, would never have happened if he stayed with Interscope. “When I went to Interscope it was like I spent a decade in the wilderness. It has been very hard. They were somewhat helpful to me, they facilitated what I wanted to do, but I was a bit like a red-headed stepchild,” he explained. “It wasn’t with any particular focus or care or love or concern. It was like, ‘He made us more than $100 million. Give him some studio time.’”

Especially galling to Rossdale is that his song, “Love Remains the Same,” had 1.6 million downloads yet he never received any recognition for that achievement.“I’m not a pussy,” he said. “I know my way out.” He took that way after he told the label he wanted to reinvent Bush.

“I had a meeting with the label to explain it. I said, ‘By the way, you like these songs? They are all Bush songs,’” he recalled. “That met with confusion and then support and then, hang on a minute – everyone is dead. Everyone is dead. This is like blindness. Everyone is gone. That’s when I literally decided to leave. It was like, ‘There’s the door. I’m walking out the door.’ Even then, it took five or six months [to finalize the departure].”

It’s not that Rossdale didn’t look back, but he seems to do so more with amazement than sorrow. He talks about trying to work within the major label system, likening it to something akin to moving an elephant. Now, Rossdale has formed his own record label, Zuma Rock Records, named after his youngest son, with a new management team.

“Being English, my expectations are really very low,” he admitted. “Every day is like a bonus. We’ve been on tour and done promotional stuff. I had this deal with my four managers…that I want to be as focused as possible. Otherwise, it’s like peeing in the wind. If we have a focus and reason, then I won’t question it. Everything has its logic and it has been incredible…but also strange because I had gotten so used to gorging on humble pie.”

Of course, some of that is due to the shifting landscape of the music business that has even left one-time music heavyweights perplexed.

“It’s a struggle,” he said. “You do this life and it’s a struggle. The walls, the building, the roof, everything is changing all the time. It is constantly changing and you have to adapt. You can’t stand there complaining. The building is gone, the framework is going, don’t stand there. Be great. No one needs a musician complaining about stuff. Who has time to complain? We just try to embrace it.”

Part of Rossdale’s method of embracing the new system is to take Bush almost back to the beginning. On the latest tour, the band played a host of small clubs. That, he said, has given his team a chance to find their sea legs. “We are taking it real slow,” he explained. “We’re playing smaller places and began moving up just a bit more. We’ve seen the reaction to the shows and sales. After really underplaying and under expecting, we’ve been pleasantly surprised things are going so right. And if things don’t go right, we say, ‘That’s okay. That’s what we expected.’ It’s very Buddhist.”

Part of staying in that zone might be a result of having a family. Rossdale talks a lot about critics, who famously bashed his music, his band and his life even as Bush was selling 16 million albums in the U.S. and Canada and its tours sold out arenas. Although a younger Rossdale might have lashed out, the mature version seems to have taken a calmer approach to the attention – good and bad. Some of that is achieved just through avoidance.

“I have to be careful about what I read because you get upset or seduced,” he said. “For me, it’s definitely been a lot more upset rather than ecstatic. Why would you put your head in that meat grinder?”

He then goes on to discuss the frustration he felt when negative press went viral. “Meanwhile, you sell 15 million albums and sell out your tours, so statistically we’ve played for a lot more people who love you than don’t love you,” he said. “But the published voices of the critics are louder than those of regular people…that was how that went. I once asked someone I went on tour with – a great man – I felt close enough to tell him this [press criticism] was rough [and asked] what would he recommend? He said, ‘Fuck it. Outlive them.’ I don’t know, maybe stuff just comes around. Now I have a different perspective and it’s like, ‘My car is working. I don’t want to look under the hood.’ I keep doing and keep focusing on great shows and doing the best we can each night to stay satisfied.”

That shows in the eagerness he brought to the new album. The determination didn’t dim even after his managers asked him to write a few new songs to replace ones he had selected. After something akin to panic subsided, Rossdale dug in.

“I had them in three weeks [later], and they said, ‘You’re done.’ They thought it would take three months,” said Rossale. “I said, ‘You don’t know how desperate I am. My ambition is alive and glowing.’”

Of course, with success comes more attention from the paparazzi and Rossdale was again held up as a sex symbol. Although his style has always been lauded, he still seems a bit uncomfortable with the attention paid to his physical appearance.

“I am just vain enough to the point where I would always hope to choose the stylish jacket over the unstylish jacket,” he said. “Someone said, ‘What are your comments about still being a sex symbol?’ That is such a weird thing. It is just a compliment. It is not a terrible idea that someone says that, but I just sort of laugh and sort of think it’s funny. You can’t remotely take it seriously or you are a joke.”

Credit some of that modesty to Rossdale’s English upbringing. He and Stefani also keep a home in London and the attitude there toward fame is very different than it is in Hollywood.

“I think in Hollywood, people are genuinely happier for you. In England…there is a bit of a blanket idea that life is all downhill and smiles. Clearly, it isn’t that way for anyone,” he said. “You have to be careful. You can’t seem to be wincing or complaining or bitter or you don’t have a leg to stand on in England. We are taught to appreciate what we have and shut up. No gloating and no regurgitating your successes…I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but maybe that’s because I’m English.”

Maybe being English also makes him more reflective on how he and Stefani protect their children from the media spotlight and keep their private lives private. It’s not an easy task considering that paparazzi constantly stake out the family’s homes and have been known to comment extensively on the family’s behavior, especially that of the couple’s sons.

“Our whole life is up for grabs. We have an unusual situation, in that, we have a longstanding connection and relationship that is really strong and budding and fruitful,” he said. “That immediately is something strange because there’s no falling out the doors of nightclubs with different dancers.”

The real concern he and Stefani share is that, failing to find interesting news in the couple’s relationship, they tend to turn the spotlight toward the children.

“We are worried on the impact this will have on them when they are 12, 13, 14,” he said. “Kingston got very aggressive toward [the paparazzi] because they are grown men chasing him with cameras. The TMZ guys were all in their office (on a televised chat) and saying he is mean. All these adults, gathered around discussing a 4-year-old… I wanted to ask, ‘If photographers were chasing your kids around, would you want them to be passive little soldiers?’

“We see these guys every day, though, and they’re usually a respectful bunch that trails us around. We don’t have a Sean Penn relationship with them. What am I going to do? Say, ‘Fuck off?’ I don’t want my kids to see me being aggressive or upset. I want them to know you should just be cool with everyone. Besides, I find it taxing to be aggressive. It ruins my day.”

Rossdale would rather concentrate on those that will hear The Sea of Memories and what he hopes they’ll pick up in the music. After all, now that the songs are back under the Bush moniker, there will likely be a new legion of fans discovering the group’s sound.

“To be a singer and professional musician, there is a huge element of neediness. We are clearly needy, we are putting it out there and no matter who you are, you want people to say, ‘This is really good,’” he confessed. “My main thing I would love is if someone new comes around who never heard of our band, because they’re 12 or 15. And you say, ‘What do you think of it?’ and they fall in love with the record and the band. That is amazing to me. That is perfection. Then, if someone comes around and says, ‘I thought this band was dead’ and they hear [the new record] and they’re not disappointed, that’s magic. And if it leads [either person] back to the catalog, that is amazing, too. Basically, you’re asking me, ‘Would you like some cheesecake?’ and I say, ‘Yes, I want all of it!’”

Source: YRB magazine