BUSH's GAVIN ROSSDALE: 'I Just Laugh At The Fact That I Keep Making The Music Heavier And Heavier'

In a new interview with the Mark And Me podcast, BUSH frontman Gavin Rossdale spoke about his songwriting process. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "For me, music is just a brilliant voyage. I know a lot about music, and I know there's massive gray areas, and I think the most interesting stuff comes out of the gray areas and the alchemy of things. And so for me, it's like a constant challenge to just try and be as interesting to myself and as exciting to myself as a lot of young bands that I think are really amazing and very inspiring.

"One thing that I'm sort of proud about is that I've never rested on anything," he continued. "I've always pushed myself. I still do. It's torturous writing new songs and finding new ways to be good and basically be surprising and nothing is the same.

"I've been playing a lot recently off of [BUSH's latest] record, 'I Beat Loneliness', and it just makes me… It's weird, having brought the record out last year, be on tour, see some great bands out there, reflect on our own show, and just think about what I could do better. And it's funny, 'cause sometimes people come up to me, they say, 'What advice would you give to us?' And it's all I ever do, and that is try to make the music that I wanna hear. That's the challenge. I can make a track at home and it functions, and I go, 'No.' So every track, whether people like it or not, I've sort of challenged myself, do I wanna hear that? When I play that back, is that sort of exciting? When I'm in the car just driving nowhere, is that what I wanna hear and wanna listen to? And at the time it is, and then weirdly, take a year of touring like we've just done, I'm itching to go back to get right what I think I can change, what I can do. And I'm in the middle of that head space now. I've written a bunch of new songs, but I go, 'Oh, they weren't right. Gotta go back, do that.' So I just find it really fascinating. I think it's like creativity. I do it because it saves me. I do it because it is an outlet, and I think if I didn't have that outlet, I don't know who would suffer the most, but maybe myself. So I just I find it really good, like cathartic. It's like having a tap, and it's just exciting. And the funniest thing is that I just laugh at the fact that I keep making the music heavier and heavier, because it's just so much more fun than trying to sort of do campfire music, which some people do really well. But I just wanna do stuff that makes me laugh, 'cause it's so heavy."

BUSH's tenth studio album, "I Beat Loneliness" came out in July 2025 via earMUSIC. The LP was produced by Rossdale and Erik Ron (PANIC! AT THE DISCO, SET IT OFF, BAD OMEN).

2024 marked the 30th anniversary of the release of BUSH's six-times-platinum debut album, "Sixteen Stone".

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.

BUSH's current lineup consists of Rossdale, Chris Traynor (guitar),Corey Britz (bass) and Nik Hughes (drums).

BUSH broke up in 2002 but reformed in 2010, and has since released six albums: "The Sea of Memories" (2011),"Man On The Run" (2014),"Black And White Rainbows" (2017),"The Kingdom" (2020),"The Art Of Survival" (2022) and "I Beat Loneliness" (2025).

"Black And White Rainbows" was crafted after Rossdale went through a divorce with pop star/reality TV judge Gwen Stefani in 2015.

Photo credit: Chapman Baehler (courtesy of Cosa Nostra PR and earMUSIC)