Gavin Rossdale has performed in Pittsburgh close to 20 times, whether it’s been with the chart-topping alternative rockers Bush, the Bush-hiatus creation Institute or as a solo act.
A pair of shows, both on the Gateway Clipper, stand out, as he recalled the 2005 gig on the Gateway Clipper for the New Rock Halloween Cruise as being his first concert on a boat. A 2009 appearance on the Gateway Clipper, this time a solo show, brought back “incredible” memories.
“Yeah, I love the boat shows,” Rossdale said. “I hope I get that sweaty again.”
The next chance for that comes April 7, when Bush opens its Land of Milk and Honey tour at UPMC Events Center in Moon. The alt rockers, who burst onto the scene in 1994 with radio/video hits like “Glycerine” and “Comedown,” will be joined by Mammoth and James and the Cold Gun.
“It’s just exciting because we have rehearsed a whole bunch of songs we haven’t played for a while,” Rossdale said. “I like that. I like being slightly on edge, and I think it’s 36 songs we haven’t always played. … It’s always been exciting to have such a wide range and really show the rich depths of the band.”
Those songs could range from the six-time platinum “Sixteen Stone” to 1996’s “Razorblade Suitcase,” which entered the charts at No. 1, all the way up to last year’s “I Beat Loneliness.”
In a recent phone call from California, Rossdale spoke with TribLive about the tour, old vs. new music, the 30th anniversary of “Razorblade Suitcase” and more. Find a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below.
With the first show, are you hoping for some grace from the crowd in case of any mistakes?
Yeah, as ever, I just want to blow people away. I want them to be just shocked, to leave there feeling different. And if you can affect people to where they go see a show and you touch them in some way, yeah, that’s what I love to do. My whole thing, because I don’t like being away. I’m a homebody. I really am. … So if I’m going to be away, not be around everyone, stuff like that, I have to make everything amazing. If I don’t make it amazing, then it makes no sense to be away. So it just creates really fun standards that we maintain. I think everybody feels the same way in our band, so it’s really very lucky to have the other three that are just so strong. It’s very easy to do my job because the framework, the skeleton and all the muscles, is very intact.
With touring, how important is it to have a strong opener like you do on this tour with Mammoth?
I don’t want to lose anyone. I want people to have a (expletive) great night. I want to be part of a great night. I want Mammoth to blow them away. He’s a lovely guy. Fans have really fallen in love with him and love his guitar playing and the great memory and he loves his dad and there’s that whole American royalty thing. Beautiful, it’s like a sort of passing the torch. So I think it gives the chance to have a (expletive) amazing night. I want it to be amazing.
Since this is the Land of Milk and Honey tour, what does that mean to you? Is it a physical place? Is it more of a mentality?
It’s an approach. It’s the land of milk and honey, it’s plentiful. I’m an atheist, but I love borrowing from the Bible. I love biblical language. I think the word sin is brilliant. It’s one of my favorite words, “sin,” so cool. I just used it in songs like “Just Like My Other Sins” — I should play that song as well, that’s a cool song.
The latest album, “I Beat Loneliness,” has been described as deeply personal. Was that intentional on your part?
I really was thinking, if we’re going to do a record, at least if I had some perspective that gave value to the record, I think I’ll just follow the record here. You know what I mean? I wanted it to be something I was thinking about. But I’ve been like that on all my records, and they’ve all been personal, really. And I think it’s really funny when people say that. They come out with a record, and the tagline is “this one’s personal,” and I want to go, what about the others?
When you’re writing, are you thinking: this sounds like Bush? Have you written songs that you know are just wrong for the band?
Sometimes when I can’t think of anything good, I intentionally think of something bad. Why write something bad? Because if you write something intentionally bad, there’s no pressure because it’s going to be bad.
Do you tend to judge your current material against the older material then?
To an extent, I suppose. I don’t play them back to back, but I think about them and I consider them in the show, and I have to give them that sort of setting. I have to just give them that context. If I write three maudlin songs in a row, we all know no one’s gonna hear them live. So I think that comes intrinsically from time.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the “Razorblade Suitcase” album. What stands out to you about that album and the making of it?
Steve Albini, recording in the countryside, being in a residential recording studio, which was kind of fun. Big fry-ups, long walks with my dog, and then just recording all day, going to a pub at night. Abbey Road, Steve Albini at Abbey Road, playing with a live string section, no overdubs. Just being able to work with any producer in the world and choosing Steve Albini (laughs) and taking the non-commercial route even though the record was No. 1. So yeah, great memory. Also that was the height of madness, so it was like being in the cyclone at that point. There was the success of “Sixteen Stone” and then the reception of “Razorblade Suitcase” and the subsequent tour, the arena tour, selling out everywhere in minutes, good old days, 17,000 boom, sell three out in a minute.
It looks like “Swallowed” and “Greedy Fly” are the only ones still in the rotation for your set, so what is it about songs?
Yeah, I don’t feel that’s right. It’s just a strange thing, and I don’t want it to be like that. You just go into that route, so we’re trying to redress that and play some more. Not to play more on the same set, just to throw in “Insect Kin” and stuff like that. That’s a big record. People always say to me, that’s my favorite record. … So, yeah, we need to kind of be mindful of that.
You mentioned all that popularity, so is the fact that Bush is still going validation that you’re doing something right, even though the band got a lot of flak early on in your career?
It’s just quality over the whole thing. … I can think back that I was a little paranoid on “The Sea of Memories.” But after that, I feel pretty good about the direction of the band I went in, my own intuition about music, that’s led to my hope of the band just developing the sound, the way we sound now. At times, it’s really nothing like the sound back in the day. And what’s interesting to me is that even from “The Art of Survival,” even from “The Kingdom,” people said, oh why doesn’t that sound like the old Bush? … So what I think they’re picking up on, which I think is great in real confidence, is the spirit of it and the veracity of it, the hungering. That’s exciting. I still feel like music is magical. I can write a bit of music that isn’t right, and then I can write a bit of music, a chorus, that I know is right in my heart, because it’s what I’ve devoted my life to. So I can write words, melodies, I think. When I hear it, yeah, it’s great. It’s just an issue in finding it.