Image Courtesy of Joseph LlanesBush released their new album, Man on the Run, earlier this week -- just three years after the band's 2011 comeback record, The Sea of Memories. Given that The Sea of Memories was released 10 years after its predecessor, 2001's Golden State, three years is a pretty short turnaround for Gavin Rossdale and company.
"I wanted to consolidate and to show everyone that I brought Bush back for good for a while," Rossdale tells ABC News Radio of the new album's quick turnaround.
As part of the band's comeback, Bush has naturally been playing a lot more concerts together, and Rossdale wanted the thrill of the live show to impact the sound of Man on the Run.
"I also wanted to capitalize on the energy that I've felt from playing live so much. We did so many shows the last couple of years," he says. "So I wanted a record that really felt as powerful and as wide and as big as you get on those lovely, big stages with lovely, big crowds that are happy to see you."
The album's single, "The Only Way Out," is perhaps a bit more upbeat and lighter than Bush fans might be used to, but Rossdale felt it was a good entry point into Man on the Run and the record's darker moments. Plus, the positive message behind "The Only Way Out" meshes with Rossdale's own personal philosophies.
"I like having a record that has gravity, and it has depth to it -- from my perspective -- but I don't like it to be dour, I don't like it to be negative, and I don't like there to be literally no way out," he says. "I've always liked the way of Hollywood movies and how somehow in the third act the guy finds a way through. I sort of believe in that, and I believe in that sort of 'blind hope' thing."
Even if "The Only Way Out" is a bit lighter the band's previous output, the single, and Man on the Run as a whole, maintains that signature Bush sound, while also mixing new elements into the music.
"I completely had a very, very clear aesthetic that I wanted," Rossdale says. "Pawn shop guitars, vintage amps, vintage drums, more quirky drums, and using the electronics, which I use a lot of, but in a way to make them sound like I did them in my garage."
It's that light-handed mixture of the guitar riffs that Bush is known for and electronics that Rossdale thinks differentiates Man on the Run from other modern rock albums.
"I just wanted [Man on the Run] to be interesting, and I wanted it to be something different and to form a hybrid," he says. "I don't like fusion food -- a lot of the times it's 'confusion food' -- and I don't necessarily like mixing too many genres together. I hope I found a way to make an interesting rock record. That if you like other styles of music you'd come to that record and be like, 'OK, this is interesting.'"
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