Trying...to interview Kate Bush (and not gasp)

How could I not specifically share this exclusive with you? Team Trying.

This week I interviewed the one and only Kate Bush, after sitting down with her (and her cat) to watch her new short film that has been two years in the making.

Yes, really.

She very rarely gives interviews and I am so happy that just over two years on from the first time I interviewed her on Woman’s Hour - after Running Up That Hill went back to number 1 because of TV show Strangers Things’s use of it (37 years after its original release) - we could talk again. And she trusted me with this, her latest work.

Kate was moved to make the film, Little Shrew (Snowflake), after war broke out in Ukraine, in a bid to highlight the plight of children caught up in war. The 4 minute animation, set to her song Snowflake, is haunting and powerful, and makes a plea for people to donate to War Child, a charity she has long supported. Interestingly Kate was going to make the main character a little girl but in the end, as you will hear, she opted for a Caucasian pygmy shrew because she believes people can have more sympathy with animals than humans, even children. And this type of shrew is particularly tiny and fragile-looking.

We also spoke about how she works; why we all need to put down our phones, and then, when asked, Kate shared the big revelation that has seen our conversation travel far and wide today: she is ready to go back into the studio and make new music, her first in more than a decade.

And yes, as has been reported and commented upon, I gasped. Guilty as charged. Happily so.

It was such an electric moment and insight into a notoriously private artist’s thinking about her work, I am happy I reacted naturally and could share in that experience with our listeners. Plus it highlights what I love about radio; everything is picked up: nuance, tone, intonation - even the slightest raise of an eyebrow. And yes, how we breathe.

All day my children and I have been dancing around the house to Kate Bush’s music; the most unexpected and freeing moves have bubbled to the surface. I prescribe the same medicine to you on this beautiful autumnal Friday. And for once, you can also listen to what Kate Bush has to say about the world we are living in and how we are moving through it.

What a woman. What an artist.

Here is the interview in full. I sincerely hope you enjoy.