Kate Bush

To me, Kate Bush will always represent the age of exploring your sexuality, when you change from a girl to a woman. All of that. There were so many records in my parent’s house, so I saw a lot of album covers. I thought they were all macho and occupied with power, things I didn’t like.

I guess that’s what I found fascinating about Kate, she totally stuck out. She was so - what’s the word - so complete. The music, the lyrics and the way she looked, it all made sense. Especially for a thirteen or fourteen year old girl. It was the first time I had my own bedroom. Even though my room had just enough space for a bed and a desk I felt like it was a palace. My grandad gave me a big blue lamp with a blue light...It was like walking into an aquarium. It was then that I found a Kate Bush album and..you can imagine the rest, right ? I used to close the door and didn’t want anybody to come in.

My favourite songs have changed over time. I really liked the one about Peter Pan. Obviously I loved ’Man With the Child in his Eyes’. Everybody adored Kate’s voice and a lot of people really noticed what she looked like but I think what is really underrated is the production. I think it’s really original and really feminine, but with more primitivity than women have, or what men would like to believe we have. If it had just been the voice and the look I’m not sure I would have been that into her - what’s so common, a girl that looks great and sings great. What’s very special about Kate Bush is that she didn’t do that. She created her own look and she produced her own sound.

There’s a timelessness to Kate’s music, for me personally it has a nostalgic feeling. It’s not to do with ’yes I listen to it’, it’s more to do with ’I listened a lot to it from thirteen to fifteen’. I think that for someone like me, there hasn’t been many ladies to look up to in the pop world. Then when I was sixteen I started growing out of it, coming back to it occasionally like a box of memories...

i-D Magazine, #252 march 2005