Kate Bush is a phenomenon.
No doubt. And honestly I’d never dare to compare myself to her. And Cloudbusting is… well…
Cloudbusting is a masterpiece.
When we were producing music in the early 90s and had some artists that were good enough, we used to send tapes to the big music companies and sometimes got invited by the A&Rs (artist and repertoire) to talk about the possibilites of working together. And one thing I remember from these discussions came from Andreas Hargesheimer, who was A&R at Ariola in Munich back then. He said: “There is only one artist in the world that doesn’t need a producer, because nobody could do a better job producing herself than Kate Bush.” And I totally aggree. She is so creative and un-mainstream and surprising – any producer’s ideas would only be smaller and more boring than hers. I totally admire her – both as a songwriter, singer and producer.
A very different approach.
Cloudbusting is much more than a song, it’s a story, a dream, a poem and a film. And I think the english wikipedia (link) is right about the meaning of the song. And I always loved it. More than “Wuthering heights”, “Babooshka” or “Running up that hill”. I loved the rhythm, the staccato-like orchestration and the epic climax of the arrangement. And I just had to do this song. Even if my version would be much simpler or less haunting – I simply had to do it.
While preparing the music and trying to find my way of singing it, it suddenly dawned an me, that there could be another meaning behind the words: And I found an interpretation that reminds me of my father and my embittered and poisened relationship with him. Suddenly Kate’s words seem to describe my feelings about my father and that gave me the possibilitiy to sing the song differently, to sing it my way.
UPDATE: January 2020:
In the meantime the album is published!
Available through your favorite music service. Find all the links here…
Love Susanne
Siri – play some Susanne Vargas!