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In news that will delight Kate Bush fans, the reclusive British artist has revealed that she is ready to start working on new music.
In a rare interview with the BBC’s Emma Barnett, Bush, 66, announced the release of a new short film – which she wrote and directed – inspired by Russia’s war on Ukraine Just over four minutes long, the animated clip depicts a little shrew searching for hope as she navigates a bombed-out city, soundtracked to “Snowflake”, Bush’s song from her 2011 album, 50 Words for Snow.
Bush, who was propelled to international fame in 1978 with her debut single, “Wuthering Heights”, has not released any new music in 13 years, but told Barnett that working on the short film had inspired her to “[get] back into that creative space”.
“I’ve been caught up doing a lot of archive work over the last few years on all kinds of different levels: redesigning our website, putting a lyric book together,” the “Cloudbusting” singer said.
“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. Particularly the last year I’ve felt really ready to start doing something new.”
Asked why now felt like the right time, she responded: “This animation has taken up a lot of time this year, so really once this is finished I’ll be ready to start anew.”
Speaking about what inspired the clip, Bush said she began working on it not long after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out.
“I think it was such a shock for all of us, it’s been such a long period of peace that we’ve all been living through,” she said. “And I just thought that I really wanted to make a little animation that would feature… originally a little girl, it was really the idea of a child and children who are caught up in war, I wanted to draw attention to how horrific it is for children. So I came up with this idea for a little storyboard.”
Bush said she chose to depict her character as a shrew because she believed people would “probably be more empathetic” towards an animal than to a human.
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“I think to a certain extent we’ve all become really desensitised by the violence that we see in films all the time, where people are just being slaughtered,” she said. “But if a dog were to be killed in a film, everyone would be up in arms. It’s a terrible thing to say but I think there is an element of truth in that.”
Her announcement comes two years after she found a new generation of fans when her 1985 hit “Running Up That Hill” featured in a key scene in the fourth season of Netflix’s hit sci-fi horror series, Stranger Things. Aided by hundreds of viral TikToks also using the song, it re-entered the charts and eventually topped a billion streams on Spotify.
Bush remains one of Britain’s most popular and revered artists, admired by fellow musicians including Bjork and Lady Gaga. She has not performed live since 2014, when she performed her first concerts in 35 years; she told Barnett that she wasn’t ready to return to the stage just yet.
There was a hint that she was planning a comeback of sorts earlier this year, when she was announced as an ambassador for Record Store Day UK. Hailing the resurgence in vinyl that has “taken the music industry by complete surprise”, she expressed her personal love of the format and unveiled a special 10” edition of her single “Eat the Music”, from her 1993 album Red Shoes.
Little Shrew is free to watch and can be found on Bush’s website. She is encouraging fans and viewers to donate to War Child and other organisations working with children and young people living in war zones.
