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There may be rocks in the water
But still the river flows
And when the sea gets rough
You bring it all back home
-"The Skin I'm In" by Gavin Rossdale
Check out the review of Wanderlust here!
WANDERLUST is the provocative title for the intriguing
first solo album by Gavin Rossdale - an inspired song
cycle by the former leader of Bush that turns out to be
a trip in its own right.
"The wanderlust I'm talking about isn't that desire
to travel and see the world," Rossdale explains with
a grin. "It's my overwhelming desire to get out and
play music for people. I feel like a racehorse that's
been stuck in the stables a bit too long. The doors are
locked and no one can find the key." With WANDERLUST,
the doors - and the floodgates - seem wide open, and the
result is the most mature, sensual, honest and compelling
work of Rossdale's life in music.
After years spent at the top of rock's grungy heap -
and then a couple more in a peculiar sort of high-profile
musical wilderness - Rossdale has brought it all back
home on a vivid, widescreen rock album that found him
working closely with famed producer Bob Rock. Now that
WANDERLUST is finally completed, Rossdale can hardly wait
to get back on the road. "This album is my way of
saying `Let me out,'" Rossdale says. "I'd love
to take my family with me, but I do have a burning desire
to go out and play for people again. I've felt too corralled
for too long, so this deep sort of wanderlust has set
in."
From the mid-Nineties into the early 21st century, Rossdale
was seeing much of the world from the stage of an ever-changing
procession of theaters, arenas and stadiums as the dashingly
tortured lead singer, guitarist and songwriter for Bush,
a band that first came together in London in the early
Nineties. Right from their 1994 debut, Sixteen Stone,
Bush connected powerfully with post-Grunge America through
a series of jagged yet infectious hit songs, including
"Everything's Zen", "Little Things",
"Comedown", "Glycerine", "Machinehead",
"Swallowed", and "The Chemicals Between
Us".
The music of Bush successfully married a guitar-driven
modern rock with the fantastically twisted lyrics of Rossdale,
a poetic sort heavily influenced by the likes of Charles
Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, The Fall, and his longstanding
musical hero, Tom Waits. If Bush were not exactly the
critics darling, they were immediately the people's choice,
as 1996's Razorblade Suitcase album hit #1, followed by
1999's The Science of Things and 2001's Golden State.
Still, for all his past experience, there is an emotional
and musical depth to WANDERLUST that takes Rossdale far
beyond Bush. Here, Rossdale has delivered the most personal
and direct set of songs of his life. Like Peter Gabriel
after leaving Genesis, Rossdale has moved beyond his past
in a massively popular band and used the opportunity of
going solo to stop hiding; to more explore his life both
lyrically and musically.
"There's such a minefield of people who have gone
from bands that had success to the solo thing," says
Rossdale. "There's a chasm to get from one to the
other. It's like Death Valley and you look down and there's
fucking scorched singers."
WANDERLUST is not Rossdale's first post-Bush album. In
2005, he released a hard-edged record with a group he
dubbed Institute, produced by Page Hamilton of Helmet
fame. "We went on tour with U2," Rossdale recalls.
"I loved some of what we did, especially a song called
`Ambulances,' but Institute felt like a really painful
left turn. There was one guy who came to a show who had
Bush tattooed on one arm and Institute tattooed on the
other. I remember thinking, `I've got to road test this
stuff first.'"
At the same time, Rossdale was encountering the glare
of a whole other level of celebrity. "It's been a
challenge for me the last few years because I've been
lost in how to define myself in the present tense,"
he says. "With that glare of the publicity on us,
how can I not feel like an appendage at times? It takes
a tough man to be married to a force of nature like Gwen.
It's challenging and it forces a lot of humility. There
are guys who come and photograph me working out at the
gym, and I'm like 'Guys, come and shoot me working in
the studio - hook a brother up.'"
With WANDERLUST - which Rossdale briefly considered recording
as a Bush album - he has instead reclaimed not just his
own artistic identity, but offered the listener a far
more honest and plainspoken picture of who he is and what
drives him both as an artist and as a man.
"Really I felt like my life depended on this record,"
says Rossdale. "There are too many records anyway
and not enough outlets, so it had to be everything or
there was no point." Rossdale had to wait five months
for producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Aerosmith) to work with
him on the album. "As soon as I met Bob, I knew he
was the guy. I really wanted experience; I wanted an overview
in making the album. I really wanted someone with perspective."
Rossdale and Rock recorded WANDERLUST with Josh Freese
on drums, Paul Bushnell on bass, Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards,
and Chris Traynor on guitar. "We recorded it as a
five piece at Ocean Way in Los Angeles," Rossdale
recalls. "We recorded everything together, got eighteen
songs in five days, and took a week to add guitars from
Chris. Then I went to Maui to work with Bob. He thought
I would get lonely and go mad, but as a husband and father
now, I loved being that selfish for a short time. I'd
get up, go for a swim, have a salad, and then work for
ten hours until Bob chucked me out."
The vocals on WANDERLUST are easily the most affecting
of Rossdale's career. "We had a system," Rossdale
explains. "I'd come in and do five takes. Then Bob
would ask me for one over-the-top, theatrical vocal. After
that, I'd go out and play with Bob's miniature pet donkey,
his dogs, and his eighteen cats that I'm allergic to.
And when I'd come back, Bob would have comped my vocal
back together. I'll never know how much he used of what
take. I only knew it worked."
WANDERLUST works, and Rossdale could hardly be more pleased
to be heading out of the stables with an album that means
so much to him. "I'm on the gang plank," he
says. "Yet the thing is, I feel totally emancipated
because there is such a sense now of being able to write
myself back into music on my own terms. There's a sense
of freedom for me now. When you're tense and needy, you're
going to miss. And when you're free and loose, you're
going to hit the ball the furthest."
By those deeply personal standards, WANDERLUST is already
Rossdale's biggest hit yet.
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