Today, Bush release their new album I Beat Loneliness. This album is not only one of their strongest releases in years but something that feels like a heartfelt letter to both their younger selves and the fans who have grown with them. MetalTalk interrupted Gavin Rossdale on a day off in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to find out more about the band with its roots in London in 1992.
For Gavin Rossdale, writing new songs means he has to consider those that Bush have written before. “I have to be a bit more mindful when I’m writing songs that they have to be able to cohabitate most of the time with all the other songs on the set,” he says. “Certain songs will end mellow. I can’t put that many mellow songs in a set. I do think of them being able to be dropped into any set we play on any stage anywhere, and that keeps them strong and vital.
“I know it’s been borne out by the fact that when we do play new songs, whether from The Art Of Survival or we play 60 Ways To Forget People on this tour, they just fit right in. My voice pulls it all together, so I can sort of be the glue.”
This is a very iconic voice, one of those voices when you hear it, you know it is definitely Gavin Rossdale’s.
“Thank you,” Gavin smiles. “It’s weird. That’s the way life is. When I first was trying to ahead in music my voice was always taken as the reason why I couldn’t get signed or the weakest part of the band or the weakest part of the music.
“It was when I began doing my own music that became Bush, but nonetheless, it’s ironic. That’s the very thing. It’s like the Grace Jones concept to use your faults and use your defects, then you’re gonna be a star. I took the very thing that was used against me, and that became the cornerstone of what’s kept me here for so long. It’s fucking crazy.”
Macy Gray is another example, who is known for her “distinctive raspy voice”.
“David Byrne said something interesting,” Gavin Rossdale says. “He said, the better someone sings, the less likely he is to believe them.”
With The Land Of Milk And Honey and Scars released as singles, Gavin says he treats all the new songs so that they could be singles. “I think that if you approach them that they all could be the single, you would have an accountable chorus and accountable message in some way. Some cohesion to it.
“So I just always try to make it as good as I can. I didn’t really know. I thought that I Beat Loneliness might be a single. I thought that We’re All The Same On The Inside might be a single. Then there’s The Land Of Milk And Honey.
“I don’t get involved in that. I never have. It’s always a bit confusing. I want them all to be great, don’t I? Can they all be singles?”
Bush and I are the same age. For me, the band have always been there. With the change in the ways of listening to music over the years, I ask if Gavin Rossdale is a vinyl or CD man, or if he has embraced online listening.
“I wish it was a better experience, but I’m a bit lazy,” Gavin says. “I have so much fun bouncing around everything. My record collection, I don’t know what really happened to all that. There were some storage things that went missing. I think a lot of my records were in there. But now, of course, you can access lots of records.
“I don’t have the right setup that I wish I did have. All my old records are in England, and a lot of them have been destroyed. It’s a bit sad, really. Unfortunately, I stream a lot. Just how it goes. For ease.”
60 Ways To Forget People was released as a single in April, when we had this conversation. With I Beat Loneliness, MetalTalk had the album well ahead of the release date and before The Land Of Milk And Honey was released as a single.
When you sit on an album as great as this, it is difficult to keep quiet and not shout how amazing it will be. You have to keep shtum.
“No, you don’t,” Gavin smiles. “Just go on about it. You need to listen to it in July.”
For the recording process, Gavin says he does miss the old recording styles. “They make it so easy now to do it digitally in the studio, though,” he says. “I can sound like a lot of people in a short space of time in my studio, which is really fun for writing, you know.”
This breeds the connection to the Bush songs. “I’m very connected to them,” he says. “I don’t connect to that concept of them being my babies or something weird like that. They’re not babies. I think that We Are Of This Earth did something for me, connected for me in a certain way that I really was happy when it came. As a songwriter, something happens when an idea catches fire, and it’s all happening. With that song, I got the feeling which I wanted out of it and then because I was in a certain zone, all those words came out nice and easy.”
For many musicians, the ideas for songs can jump out at any point. For Gavin, the process is more focused. “I have a studio,” he says. “When I’m in writing mode and I know we’re gonna make a record, I go into my studio five days a week, and it’s gonna work. Then, when I take this stuff to the studio [with the band], some things get changed a lot, some things get changed minimally. I also work with other people on music they bring in.
“I’m open to being collaborative, but I offer a bunch of songs, and I say whatever. I don’t really mind how it comes about now. I just want it to be great, whether I write it or with the band. I’ve written so many songs, it doesn’t really matter anymore.”
With a voice that is Gavin Rossdale’s sonic signature, it may surprise people to know that often the first port of call in songwriting is rhythm. “I go with the drums,” Gavin says. “I start the drums so that I create a consistent beat. It came from back in the day, when I was really good at writing a verse and the chorus and different tempos. I was really very specialised in that.
“I didn’t have a drum machine, and something would have to give. Why does the verse sound so fast? So I began using a drum machine back in the day. Ever since, it’s like a metronome, a fun metronome. Then, when you make a cool beat, this can inspire. Then I like to just change it up. I might start with the bass, I might start with the keyboard.
“Rarely, pretty rarely guitar. I did some guitar stuff because I wanted to write something. With Everyone Is Broken, and Rebel With A Cause, I did my only two standard tuning songs. ‘Cause I thought I wanted to write a universe song that could speak to people musically and lyrically.
“I felt that if you do a ballad, and I’ve done very detuned ballads…. 1000 Years I do with Amy Lee. Lots of things you can do detuned. But when you play through the canon of the most classic songs of all time, they’re in standard tuning.
“That’s why I did a couple of songs in standard tuning, which is quite liberating actually, ‘cos it was a bit like relaxing and not being so contained with the drop notes.”
Bush have consistently picked up new fans over the years. “One of the beautiful things about the new songs,” Gavin says, “is there are a lot of people that I feel at the front who do know about the traditional stuff. But that’s not what is exciting them.
“It’s more the Art Of Survival that they get into. I always believe that the way you start records is the opening message, your manifesto and what you’re doing.”
With I Beat Loneliness superseding Art Of Survival as the most recent Bush record, that previous message will change. “I just like the idea of being more current,” Gavin says. “I certainly believe these records can stand on their own merit. They don’t need to stand on the other records to be heard.”
The journey continues. “I’m just trying to have a good time and learn more about music,” Gavin says. “So every song is literally a sonic experiment for me. What if I put these three or four elements together? Then I try and sing something interesting.
“That’s all I’m trying to do is just have a really good time, where the alchemy, even in a sad song, the alchemy just brings joy and creativity and makes sense of the chaos. So I still love it so much.
“I see myself as a father and a songwriter, that’s the two sides of my life. And a dog owner as well, ’cause I love my dog. That’s what I see. So when I write songs, it’s the most fulfilling. It’s as fulfilling as having a great show, cause you can’t really have a great show unless you’ve written great songs.
“It’s where I feel it makes sense of all this sacrifice and time away. It really takes a lot of sacrifice to do this life. You can be slightly a spectator of life because you’re away so much. You miss so much.
“Another friend of mine’s having a big birthday and I was invited to their place and I can’t do it. Happens all the time, you know. You forfeit so much.”
For Gavin Rossdale, writer’s block is not something he has experienced. “I think the world is so incredible and magical that there’s always stuff to write about,” he says. “It’s like thinking that if you say something funny, you’ll never say something funny ever again. That’s not the case. You need to be funny as much as you can. I like being creative. It feels good.
“When I finish a record, I think, oh God, how will we ever do that again. Then I just realised it’s the twat on my shoulder, and I shouldn’t listen to that. There’s that shit you haven’t got when you realise you’re at a song count of zero right now. Like that voice.”
We spoke about downtime skydiving, ironing and ironing while skydiving. That’s not for Gavin. He would not do those things. Nor bungee jumping. He spoke about being a passenger on a Spitfire as not a great experience either.
“What I would like to do is do stages [unpaid period of work experience] in restaurants,” he says. “That’s what I would like to do. I have the opportunity. There’s two restaurants where I have an open invite to go and work in the kitchens doing a stage.”
I Beat Loneliness finds Gavin Rossdale working with Erik Ron, producing. “Flowers On A Grave was the first time we worked with him,” Gavin says. “Then we did the whole record with him. He just lives really close. His studio is around the corner from my house. We got a great shorthand. He’s really, really talented in the studio, and he’s a great musician.
“He works quickly, so he ticks all the boxes. Just get in and out. At my own studio, I take a bit more time and let things kind of process and wash over me, let loops happen and play something for 20 minutes to an hour. If there’s no one in the house, I’ll just sit there and let it wash over me.
“Then when I go work with him, I write things in two minutes in between him humming. So it’s a funny thing. But it’s just a nice shorthand. You get that sort of vibe from people.”
It is a modern style that works. I Beat Loneliness is a Bush album for the old fans, the new ears, and everyone in between, and is a triumph.
“There’s part of me that would like to go to a residential studio and make a record in that style,” Gavin says. “A slightly less modern system, more a little bit of a throwback to where everyone plays together.”
But with the new album, Bush expand their legacy. I Beat Loneliness is a love letter to connection, to growth, and to the timelessness of feeling seen in a song.
What if Gavin Rossdale had to choose between playing Wembley and playing the King’s Head in Fulham again?
“I think I’ll be forced to take Wembley,” Gavin Rossdale smiles, “because I do like attention.”
That attention would be well deserved, as I Beat Loneliness is one of the most emotionally satisfying rock records of the year.
Bush release I Beat Loneliness via earMusic on 18 July 2025. Pre-orders are available from here.
