Eliza Delf & The Wilderness’ Feast album hit the spot in our Quick Takes back in June. We noted “a refusal to conform and be restrained by any expectations.” Wow! The album has continued to grow and a deeper dive on the pages is good to go, but meanwhile… Anyone who’s heard the album or any of Eliza’s previous work might spot what’s coming as she joins us to deliver her thoughts on why she loves Kate Bush.
AN UNORTHODOX INTRODUCTION
My introduction to Kate Bush was unorthodox. As a child, watching Horrible Histories (a show that famously parodies well-known songs with historical content), I was so enamoured with one of the covers that featured Queen Mary I wafting around her garden that I had to find the original song. Here I discovered Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush, and I was instantly drawn to the floating melody and striking music video.
As a young woman later trying to carve out my own identity as a singer-songwriter, Kate Bush was, and remains, a defining inspiration. Her self-belief stands out more than anything, in her own ability and decision-making. Her music is imaginative and colourful and can be comical or devastating.
REMAINING INDEPENDENT
Bush’s determination to remain independent and her unwillingness to compromise her artistic integrity is something I hope to recreate in my own career. As an independent artist I can only imagine the pressures put on her to become the most ‘profitable’ version of herself she could be, but for her the work always came first. And her instincts served her well; the story goes that it was Bush’s idea to release Wuthering Heights as the lead single of The Kick Inside, the record company preferred James And The Cold Gun, and the song rocked the music world.
Bush’s career is also characterised by a desire to keep the world at arm’s length. Her songs are often about subjects other than herself, and I can more than understand the desire to avoid the confessional. As a writer, I prefer to produce lyrics that are more ‘poetry’ than ‘diary’ (such writing has its place, but it’s not my personal style). I also love her commitment to ‘the album’.
THE KICK INSIDE
She took long breaks between releases and has so far produced ten studio albums. I, too, have a special
love for albums, and the way you can lose yourself in an artistic project that has so much to offer in scope and space. I feel a special affinity for her first, The Kick Inside, which she wrote and released as a young woman. The themes of eroticism, motherhood, and the literary references hidden inside, form an album that is lush with emotion and creativity.
For a special Christmas performance, my band and I once did a cover of December Will Be Magic Again, a hard-to-find track that sparkles with lyrical imagination. One day I would like to release this cover, in honour of Kate herself and to shine a new light on a track that is not easily discoverable for new generations. With the explosion of interest in Kate Bush after Running Up That Hill featured in Stranger Things, a new generation is appreciating the music of Kate Bush.
FLATTERING COMPARISONS
Coming up to my band’s re-release of a song called Threshold, the last track on our album Feast, I can’t help but reflect on Kate Bush’s influence on me as a writer and artist. I often receive (very flattering!) comparisons to Bush, partly because of my high register, but I like to think her commitment to being unashamedly herself has shaped me as an artist. Threshold is a song about changing your life as an act of commitment to someone you love; Kate Bush as an artist dedicated her whole career to creating the music she loved. These threads of commitment and determination run through the lives of any artist trying to share their art with the world, and Kate Bush is a powerful role model for those willing to follow their own path.
Our thanks to Eliza for such an articulate piece on an uncompromising artist.
Here’s Threshold:
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You can read more from our extensive archive of Why I Love pieces from a wide array of artists on an even wider array of subjects, here.
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