BUSH Frontman GAVIN ROSSDALE’s Advice To New Bands: ‘Know Your Craft’

In a new interview with Much, BUSH frontman Gavin Rossdale was asked how he would go about starting his music career today, if he had to do it. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Two of my kids are really into music and singing and playing. And where that’s gonna take them, I don’t know. But it’s just so rough because, yeah, what do you do?”I think the most important thing always for me, the first thing, is to know your craft,” he continued. “So whatever it is you’re selling, whatever it is you’re trying to promote, you know what you’re doing. Secondly would be something terrible — not terrible, but you have to create your own environment, your own happening. So if I was exactly starting now, I would play my friends’ parties. I would play local friends’ parties, sort of things [where] they put on little events and get a whole vibe going, because people just want you to be ready-made now. And so that comes from having little cool clips of stuff happening. So anyone in a band should just try and play at their friends’ houses when they have parties and get that footage and make it crazy, like you’re starting a movement. Thirdly, it would be to try and do shows, so that it kind of connects to the first point. You’re just good on stage. You’ve gotta know your instrument, your voice or your guitars or whatever, and then some kind of happening about yourself and then taking it out to go play clubs. But it’s just so expensive. I mean, I don’t know how people do it. And it worries me. I feel bad for people trying to get that done now. It was a needle in a haystack when I began. Now it’s a needle in a million haystacks. And the hardest thing is not — ’cause you can get a track that gets going like a TikTok thing and you can get a viral moment, but the exact kind of definition of that is, ‘Yeah. And then next week there’s somebody else doing that.’ So you’re out on a limb. So points one and three, which [are] about your own control of your own things is the most important thing, I think — being great. And then the middle one is get a vibe going, whatever that means.”BUSH recently completed work on a new studio album, “I Beat Loneliness”, due later in the year.Last month, Rossdale told Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada’s 104.9 The Wolf radio station about “I Beat Loneliness”: “I’m so thrilled about the record. It’s successful to me because I’m really proud of it. And I think that people who like the band will be really, really into it and we might get some new fans as well. But it’s good to feel fulfilled by when you make a record, and not, like, ‘Oh, man. I should’ve done this, should’ve done that.’ I think it’s really good.”2024 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of BUSH’s six-times-platinum debut album, “Sixteen Stone”.Last summer, BUSH celebrated its 30th anniversary with an extensive North American headline tour. The “Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour” kicked off on July 26 in Bend, Oregon and included shows at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, New Jersey and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. Most of the dates were produced by Live Nation. Jerry Cantrell and CANDLEBOX were the special guests on all dates.BUSH released “Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023” in November 2023 via Round Hill Records. The set included a new song called “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere”, which was written by Gavin and produced by Rossdale and Corey Britz.With over 24 million records sold, one billion streams and a procession of No. 1 singles, the band — comprising Rossdale, Chris Traynor (guitar),Corey Britz (bass) and Nik Hughes (drums) — stand tall as rock outliers whose imprint only widens as the years pass. “Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023” (Round Hill Records),their first-ever greatest-hits collection, provides an expansive view of their incredible legacy with 21 tracks spanning nearly 30 years — from their breakthrough hit “Everything’s Zen” to the aforementioned “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere”.”Loaded” included iconic hits from each of BUSH’s nine studio albums as well as “Mouth” (The Stingray Mix) from the 1997 remix album “Deconstructed” and a cover of THE BEATLES’ “Come Together” that saw a very limited release in 2012.BUSH broke up in 2002 but reformed in 2010, and has since released five albums: “The Sea of Memories” (2011),”Man On The Run” (2014),”Black And White Rainbows” (2017) and the aforementioned “The Kingdom” and “The Art Of Survival”.”Black And White Rainbows” was crafted after Rossdale went through a divorce with pop star/reality TV judge Gwen Stefani in 2015.[embedded content]