BUSH Is About To Start Mixing ‘I Beat Loneliness’ Album; ‘I’m So Thrilled About The Record’, Says GAVIN ROSSDALE

In a new interview with Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada’s 104.9 The Wolf radio station, BUSH frontman Gavin Rossdale spoke about the progress of the recording sessions for the band’s upcoming album, “I Beat Loneliness”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “We start mixing tomorrow. Tomorrow is day one of the mix. And we already have, I think, two or three of the songs mixed and mastered. We did those first to just make everyone feel comfortable that we weren’t doing a progressive jazz album and that we’re making good music. So we presented three to the label to kind of be given the chance to finish them off and do the other nine songs.”I’m so thrilled about the record,” he continued. “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. I haven’t figured out the order yet, but we’ll get there.”Earlier in the month, Gavin told iHeartRadio’s JD Lewis about the “I Beat Loneliness” title: “Well, it’s one of those weird titles. It’s an infinite title because you can never beat loneliness; you can just only beat it temporarily.”I feel that the connection with the band and the power that we have, from talking to a lot of people that see us, is people can kind of connect with the music and connect with the words and make their own narratives about it,” he continued. “But we’ve created this blueprint for people through the years.”More and more mental health has been sort of brought to the discussion kind of around us all at the moment — people are talking about people’s wellness a lot. And I’ve always been into that human-condition thing since the beginning of BUSH — it’s like music of complaints and hopes and sort of disappointments and aspirations and all that stuff. So it’s just like living.”A lot of people are struggling so much that it’s just such an ironic title, I thought,” Rossdale added. “It’s one of those things, when I thought of it and it just came, I was, like, ‘Oh my god, it’s a precious phrase.’ And I just like that idea of that sense of bravado that you’ve beaten loneliness, because we all suffer from melancholia or whatever, and I think that’s a healthy thing because it makes you reflective and sort of appreciative of the good times. And I’m not a negative person — I’m really positive — so I just think that you have to go through this sort of like storm clouds to get to the good bits. And so the title just stuck with me.”Rossdale also talked about the importance of youth mental health, especially as it relates to his three songs Kingston, Zuma and Apollo. He said: “I think it’s absolutely essential, because I think that what happened is that with COVID, one of the biggest things for kids is COVID took away all that socialization. So all those two, three years where they were meant to be sort of learning how to be with their peers, I noticed with my own kids, that was taken away from them. They didn’t have that time. And so I think that’s been a real struggle for people, for kids especially, to learn how to adapt, how to be social, because they haven’t had the same things that maybe we had. We didn’t grow up through a pandemic. And so that is what really affects me. And kids are so mean — bullying in schools, ostracization, all that stuff. Kids are mean. And the way the world is set up is really scary for that.”Gavin went on to speak about the dangers of social media and how it is not an accurate reflection of society but more like a funhouse mirror distorted by a small but vocal minority of extreme outliers.”Social media, expectations, people feeling they’re not having a fulfilled life ’cause they look at Instagram or wherever and they see people with these great lives, when we all know that those lives are kind of hollow and have their have their troubles as well,” he said. “But things are portrayed that people just get lost in that sort of rat race of thinking that they’ve gotta try and keep up with their friends. I mean, I look at Instagram and I’m always, like, ‘Man, I need to live better.’ I’m just, like, ‘No, no, don’t fall for it. Don’t fall for it. Your life is fine. You have great things going on.’ So I think that’s where it’s really difficult for kids, the sense that they’re not in the right place at the right time. They’re generally [of the opinion that they’re] in the wrong place at the wrong time and everyone else is having a great time. And that’s super dangerous for people to think that.”Rossdale previously talked about the “I Beat Loneliness” title in a December 2024 interview with Voice Of America’s (VOA) “Border Crossings”. Regarding why he chose to call the new BUSH record “I Beat Loneliness”, the 59-year-old musician said: “Because I think that everyone is struggling the whole time.” He added: “It’s funny because when I reflect on the career that I’ve had and the songs that I’ve written, they do say that most people write one song over and over, and my theme that I’ve always dealt with is sort of people’s mental health and their feelings and kind of the landscape of the landmines of hurt that we all live through. Everybody has so much broken stuff that they just sort of put the face on, go out and deal with it. But everybody having these crazy triggers — you see that suicide rates are insane, suicides among the military, the ex-military, men three times more likely to commit suicide as women. It’s just people are hurting. And so my literal simple role in life, in that sort of Japanese concept of a vocation, is really writing songs about people and about feelings. And it’s funny because when I began, it wasn’t like that. You could just complain in songs, but I always wanted to have this sort of sense of hope, this sense of help and support and close community and people and love and friendship and kindness. And so I’ve written like that.”So ‘I Beat Loneliness’, it’s just probably the best title I’ve ever written because, of course, it’s self-fulfilling in its impossibility,” he continued. “‘Cause you can’t say you beat loneliness, ’cause if you say you beat loneliness, it means that you’re a really melancholic person who beat loneliness for about 20 minutes, and it’s coming back the next day like a boomerang. So I just like that idea of that bravado. It’s strength. It’s not bravado. It’s strength in the face of adversity.”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),”The Kingdom” (2020) and the aforementioned “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.Photo credit: Shervin Lainez (courtesy of 2b Entertainment)[embedded content]