Kate Bush opens up on plans for a new album: "I’ve felt really ready to start doing something new"

25 October 2024, 12:09

She's one of the most intriguing and influential musicians to come from the British Isles.

So in many ways, it's a real shame that we seldom hear from the magical Kate Bush.

For over 30 years now, she's chosen to keep a low profile when it comes to public appearances, only releasing a handful of albums in the process.

When we hear from Kate, it must mean there's something incredibly meaningful to her that she wants to address to the world.

When her haunting 1985 hit 'Running Up That Hill' saw a phenomenal resurgence in 2022 after featuring in the supernatural drama series Stranger Things.

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Having returned to the top of the UK charts that year, it became Kate's first major hit in the US too, reaching number three there based on the billion-plus streams it received.

At the time she issued a rare statement about her song's renewed success, writing: "It's all really exciting! Thanks very much to everyone who has supported the song. I wait with bated breath for the rest of the series in July."

Now in a new interview, Kate has revealed her work on a very special project, as well as confirmed that she's "very keen" to write a new album as she's got "lots of ideas".

Kate has written and directed a new black-and-white animated short called Little Shrew, which she created in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Set to her 2011 song 'Snowflake', Kate opened up about the project in a rare interview on BBC Radio 4.

"I started working on it [with illustrator Jim Kay] a couple of years ago, it was not long after the Ukrainian war broke out, and I think it was such a shock for all of us," Bush said.

"It’s been such a long period of peace we’d all been living through. And I just felt I wanted to make a little animation that would feature, originally, a little girl."

"It was really the idea of children caught up in war. I wanted to draw attention to how horrific it is for children."

The animation aims to raise money for the charity War Child. Though it's free to watch on Kate Bush's official website, she's encouraged people to support organisations helping children impacted by the conflict.

She went on to talk about how war was "horrific for everyone" but in particular how it was "unimaginable" and frightening for the children impacted.

"I think we’ve all been through very difficult times. These are dark times that we’re living in and I think, to a certain extent, everyone is just worn out."

"We went through the pandemic, that was a huge shock, and I think we felt that, once that was over, that we would be able to get on with some kind of normal life," Kate continued.

"But in fact, it just seems to be going from one situation to another, and more wars seem to be breaking out all the time."

Elsewhere in the interview however, Kate touched on the prospect of writing new material, in what would be her first album since 2011's 50 Words For Snow.

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"I’ve been caught up doing a lot of archive work over the last few years, redesigning our website, putting a lyric book together," the 'Wuthering Heights' icon explained.

"And I’m very keen to start working on a new album when I’ve got this finished. I’ve got lots of ideas and I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space, it’s been a long time."

When asked if it was something she'd had her mind on for some time, she replied: "Yes it is, really. Particularly the last year, I’ve felt really ready to start doing something new."

Pink Floyd's David Gilmour - who first discovered Kate when she was just a child prodigy - recently revealed he's been trying to convince her to perform live again.

Kate has only toured twice in her entire career, firstly in 1979 with The Tour Of Life, and secondly when she returned for a residency of shows at London's Eventim Apollo in 2014 called Before The Dawn.

Nodding to Gilmour's recent admission, Kate joked: "I’m not there yet."

Whilst a live return might be farfetched, a potential new album is enough to satisfy Kate Bush's legions of worldwide fans no doubt.