Kate Bush announced that she would be returning to the studio following an absence of over a decade. Bush made the revelation in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today program back on October 25. Known for her otherworldly and pioneering music, Bush was equally excited to start working on her first album since 50 Words for Snow in 2011. “I’m very keen to start working on a new album,” she exclaimed with excitement. “I got lots of ideas and I’m really looking forward to getting back into that creative space. It’s been a long time.”
Bush’s last studio album focusing on calm, wintry themes turned the project of the sequel into an eagerly expected event. And though she hasn’t entered a studio yet for one, Bush’s words indicate that any number of ideas are ready to take shape. In the last years, Bush has focused on archival projects, rewriting her website and crafting a lyric book. But Bush is feeling the tug to compose new music now.
“Particularly in the last year, I’ve felt really ready to start doing something new,” she said
Amid these preparations, Bush has also been busy and productive with two other artistic projects. She has recently made a four-minute animated short film entitled Little Shrew, and her track “Snowflake” from the album 50 Words for Snow supports the charity War Child, which assists children affected across the world by war. Inspired by the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Bush said, “It was not long after the Ukrainian war broke out. I wanted to make a little animation that would feature, originally, a little girl.”. It’s a key track, one that extends an album Bush describes would have elicited “much more empathy. from a creature rather than from a human.” Thus, he decided, “it should be about a little shrew”. This personal project pinpoints Bush’s ability to combine music and visual with touching social messages.
The recent uptick in Bush’s popularity cemented her influence across generations all the more. Her 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” featured in Netflix’s Stranger Things in 2022 and gave a new wave of listeners their first taste of her peculiar sound. It peaked at a new No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, beating its original chart position in 1985 at No. 30. Besides reaching the top spot in the U.K., it spent three weeks at No. 1 on the Singles Chart, Bush’s second No. 1 single, latterly achieved another milestone of over 1 billion streams on Spotify.
Events notwithstanding, Bush still remains coy about playing live, claiming a fear of flying and further stating that she is “not there yet” for subsequent live performances. Her last concert was in 2014, performed during her residency named Before the Dawn in London, which immediately sold out and marked her first time on stage for decades. She was also induced into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023 but did not attend the induction ceremony because she has had a long-time fear of flying.
