"When I first began to write, I was writing on bass, because I was thinking more Public Image, more dub"
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Rossdale’s offhand confession is really a map of aspiration: before he had a frontman identity, he had a sound-world he wanted to belong to. “Writing on bass” isn’t just a quirky workflow detail; it’s a statement about power. In post-punk and dub, the bassline is the spine, the thing that tells the song how to move, how to brood, how to menace. Choosing that as a starting point is choosing atmosphere over melody, tension over release.
The references do the heavy lifting. Public Image Ltd. signals anti-rock orthodoxy: music that distrusts guitar heroics and prizes abrasion, space, and attitude. Dub signals studio-as-instrument, the idea that absence (dropouts, echoes, negative space) can hit harder than constant presence. Rossdale is quietly aligning himself with a lineage that treats restraint as swagger. It’s a way of saying: I wasn’t chasing choruses; I was chasing a vibe with teeth.
There’s also a tell about craft versus persona. Rossdale is often remembered as a singer in a guitar band, but he’s describing an earlier, more architectural mindset: build the foundation first, let the hooks come later. Subtext: credibility matters, and so does influence. He’s placing Bush’s beginnings not in grunge’s flannel mythology, but in the colder, more stylized UK tradition where rhythm and texture make the emotions feel earned rather than announced.
The references do the heavy lifting. Public Image Ltd. signals anti-rock orthodoxy: music that distrusts guitar heroics and prizes abrasion, space, and attitude. Dub signals studio-as-instrument, the idea that absence (dropouts, echoes, negative space) can hit harder than constant presence. Rossdale is quietly aligning himself with a lineage that treats restraint as swagger. It’s a way of saying: I wasn’t chasing choruses; I was chasing a vibe with teeth.
There’s also a tell about craft versus persona. Rossdale is often remembered as a singer in a guitar band, but he’s describing an earlier, more architectural mindset: build the foundation first, let the hooks come later. Subtext: credibility matters, and so does influence. He’s placing Bush’s beginnings not in grunge’s flannel mythology, but in the colder, more stylized UK tradition where rhythm and texture make the emotions feel earned rather than announced.
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| Topic | Music |
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