Gavin Rossdale says Bush’s upcoming album is about "believing in a better place to be".
The 54-year-old frontman and his band are set to release their eighth studio album ‘The Kingdom’ on Friday (17.07.20), and Gavin has said he wrote the record after being left "sick and tired of self righteous, judging people", and wanted to imagine a "utopia" where people could "be free to express themselves".
Asked how it feels to be releasing the album – which was originally scheduled for release in May – amid the coronavirus pandemic, Gavin said: "It’s weird because the record is called ‘The Kingdom’. I was so sick and tired of self righteous, judging people. They’re just annoying. I imagined this utopia of like-minded people where they can just be free to express themselves, be cool, be funny, be interesting. It’s a refuge.
"We’re moving from limbo into this next shape. We’re truly seeing the most heroic people we know. It’s not the douchebags on billionaire boats – it’s cashiers and people going to work. Everything is upside down. It’s bizarre that the world has fallen into this paradigm. We’re living in something more surreal than any movie you’ve ever seen."
The singer also insisted that whilst all Bush albums have "elements of struggle" in their songs, this latest record "aligns with the zeitgeist".
He added: "Of all the records we’ve made, they all have elements of struggle, challenges and surmounting things. You go through different sounds and inspiration, but it’s said that songwriters write the same song over and over again – they’re different variations on one theme. I wonder if that’s my thing; believing in a better place to be. It’s weird how much it aligns with the zeitgeist."
And Gavin says he finds guitar music "liberating".
Speaking to NME magazine, he said: "On the one hand, rock music is dead. On the other hand, rock bands still play to a lot of people. Sonically, I wanted to do something really wide and deep. If you play guitar music, it’s so liberating to just play out riffs on big wide stages with very personal themes attached to them. Tuneless music is hard for me, so the alchemy of a melody with words that matter and the strength of each song what makes up the sound of the record."