Monday, July 13, 2009

Gavin Rossdale Educates GRAMMY Camp® by Ellie Perleberg

From co-founding the popular alt-rock band Bush to creating a solo album styled in an entirely different genre, it's evident that Gavin Rossdale has the ability to change and evolve with his music, because he's clearly got no plans of stopping.

"I'll spend my whole life trying to write the perfect song," the entertaining and witty Rossdale said at the GRAMMY Camp® Q & A on Sunday. The Booth Room was filled with all the students and counselors who got the chance to ask questions about various music career tracks, but most of his advice was in the singer/songwriter category.

In reference to his songwriting, he said, "I want to work on getting to the heart of what I'm trying to say," an interesting goal from the man whose song "Glycerine" with Bush still gets relatively steady radio play since it's release in 1994.

"I don't know what happened to my band," said Rossdale. "We should have fought for it more. We allowed it, in a really 'English' way, to just dissipate."

As someone who says he writes his songs like his "world is on fire," it's not surprising that he's moved on to a solo career since the breakup of the band and releasing his album "Wanderlust" in June 2008.

His success in the industry and his musicianship in general made him a great guest artist for GRAMMY Camp. Even as a performer that many might consider to be "mainstream" Rossdale said, "I don't really have an emotional connection to the mainstream artists," and added that the "underground" music has always fed the industry. But on the other hand, he said, "the commercial side is part of the naturalness of who you are."

Rossdale said one of the main things for musicians to remember is that "it's really important to know who you are, to not be a cookie cutter or flavor of the moment." He is an artist that's found success by doing just that.

Rossdale mentioned that he had been thinking over the past few days about what to say to inspire GRAMMY Camp students. A point that he kept coming back to was "You have to define what it means to you to 'make it.' Keep in your heart and mind what you want to do. So much of music is about just following your instincts."

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