Bush have been a mainstay on the rock scene from the moment they released their debut album Sixteen Stone in 1994.
The album spawned the singles Glycerine, Comedown and Little Things and announced Bush as the new saviours of rock after a period of dominance by the grunge movement.
Since then, Bush have consistently bettered themselves with each cycle, altering their style and approach only marginally but still noticeably with every album.
Following the critically acclaimed 2020 release The Kingdom, Bush have once more achieved the unthinkable and ramped things up another notch with the imminent release of their ninth full-length album, The Art Of Survival.
It is an album that sees Bush rehash familiar territory in parts, but also break new ground sonically with a subtle sprinkling of harder edged rock throughout the album.
This was hinted at with the album’s lead single More Than Machines, followed by the explosive opening track Heavy Is The Ocean, both of which provide a small glimpse into the inner mechanisms of The Art Of Survival.
Frontman Gavin Rossdale sat down with HEAVY to talk about The Art Of Survival, which will be released on October 7.
“I’m thrilled to share it and be part of the landscape of rock, whatever that means in 2022,” he smiled. “We’ve had a good run of playing shows and coming down to Australia for a couple of years now, and it will be fun to add a new record to the setlist. It has a kind of rebirth quality about it, weirdly enough, and I don’t know what that is. It’s the whole thing of finding a new version of yourself. Not reinvention because it’s still my stupid voice and stuff like that, but more like where do we go to make sure it’s inspired and electric and vital and I think that’s what we found. That space to be in. You don’t even need the catalogue or know anything about Bush. Just play the record from start to finish and think cool, I wasn’t expecting that.”
In the full interview Gavin talks more about the album musically and what they were going for, the heaviness of some of the songs and where it comes from, approaching each album cycle from a fresh viewpoint, the early days of Bush and what sort of musical climate gave birth to the band, Sixteen Stone and its breakthrough success and more.
