Bush could, should be back in Australia next year.
“We’re actively talking about February dates,” frontman Gavin Rossdale tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ. “The promoter’s suggesting certain bands, and my manager is showing doubt,” he adds.
“So, they want to agree on the right band to tour with. It’s really close, but the idea is February. That would make me happy, to do a nice run of shows in Australia. We’ve got some nice momentum. I’d love to keep it rolling so that people know that we want to come. We’ll be there.”
The British alternative rock band were last on these shores for the Under the Southern Suns tour of 2022, and for a headlining run before that, in 2017.
When they do get here, expect to be hit with a smattering on classics and fresh cuts from I Beat Loneliness, their 10th studio album, out now through earMUSIC.
Produced by Rossdale and Erik Ron (Godsmack, Bad Omen, Panic! At The Disco), the new collection is as sonically burly as you’d expect, but finds Rossdale exploring themes of isolation, mental health, and emotional tolls.
In these strange post-pandemic times, of MAGA, Brexit, and social media road rage, Rossdale had no shortage of material to work with.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of metal, rock, indie, pop, and everything else in between.
“It’s the most personal record that I’ve ever made. It’s really unfortunate, because they’re such a brilliant band and they’re forced to live through the funnel of my fucking lyrics,” he says.
Rossdale now calls Los Angeles home but hasn’t lost any of the dry humour, and self-deprecation, that Brits are seemingly born with. “It’s a funny situation where to make a record with the lyrics so personal, sometimes can sound a bit pompous to the point where it’s like the exclusion of the band, when the band are all over it, and the band is strong and amazing. So it’s an incredible journey.” And yet, “it is very strong.”
Rossdale has learned at the school of hard knocks, a life that has shaped him and so many of us. The rocker’s mother left the family home when he was just 12. “I reflect on that. For a 12-year-old kid to lose their mum, it’s really insane,” he tells Rolling Stone AU/NZ.
“There’s a world full of crazy people who’ve had to deal with immeasurable, stressful family situations. Inadvertently abusive, even, if not overtly abusive. People have come through so much, and ought to be applauded for just putting one front of the other and getting themselves together and having responsibility in their lives. The whole record is about this sort of struggle in modern life. To fit in because so much is expected of us. And apparently our neighbours are having a much better life than we are. Our contemporaries having a better life than we are. It’s all aspirational. No one tells you how you got there.”
Led by the fiery single “The Land of Milk and Honey,” I Beat Loneliness is an anthem to those of us carrying a burden, and pushing on. “It’s unfortunate, but everyone’s gets fucked all the time. And it’s only with these open discussions are people realising, wow, it’s the same struggles for you. I really tried to be as personal as I could, it ended up being more universal than I could imagined.”
After some angry teenage years, and the whirlwind of a young adult life in a successful rock band, parenthood, love, and all that comes with it, Rossdale admits, “I just don’t like to give up.”
Bush are currently out on the road for a major North America tour.
