Bush Celebrates Multigenerational Success in “Loads of Remixes” EP Release [INTERVIEW]

By Kimberly Kapela – Photos by: Cristian Castillo

Following the release of Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023, Bush is continuing to honor their enduring legacy with the launch of a new 7-track EP, Loads of Remixes. This collection reimagines some of the band’s most beloved tracks, offering fans a fresh and invigorating perspective on the songs that have defined their career. The EP’s lead track, “Glycerine [Corey’s Bedroom Mix],” crafted by Bush’s own Corey Britz, breathes new life into the iconic ballad, adding a modern twist while maintaining the emotional depth that has made it a fan favorite for decades.

The release of Loads of Remixes is being rolled out in a unique way, with a new remix dropping every two weeks, building anticipation and excitement ahead of the full EP’s release in September. This staggered approach allows fans to savor each reimagined track, highlighting Bush’s versatility and their ability to reinterpret their music in ways that feel both innovative and true to their roots.

Frontman Gavin Rossdale, reflecting on the project, shared, “We wanted to do something special for our fans to celebrate the Greatest Hits Tour and to give an extra shine to the Loaded record. Reimagining some of these classic Bush songs while also revisiting a couple of our favorite remixes from the past has been such a fun process.”

The Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023 collection, the band’s first-ever greatest hits compilation, provides an expansive view of their incredible legacy, featuring 21 tracks that span nearly 30 years. From their breakthrough hit “Everything’s Zen” to their latest single “Nowhere To Go But Everywhere,” the album is a testament to Bush’s lasting impact on the rock music scene.

Loads of Remixes complements this retrospective by offering fans a new way to experience Bush’s music, underscoring the band’s enduring relevance and creative spirit. With each remix, Bush continues to evolve, proving that even after nearly three decades, their music remains as powerful and resonant as ever.

In an exclusive interview with Chicago Music Guide, Bush’s lead guitarist Chris Traynor opens up about the band’s multigenerational success, the creative process behind their new EP Loads of Remixes, and the excitement surrounding their current “Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour.” Traynor reflects on how the band has managed to stay relevant across different eras of rock music, appealing to both long-time fans and newer generations.
CMG: Thank you for talking to Chicago Music Guide. Our readers would love to get to know you and your music more.

For any readers who aren’t familiar yet, what kind of atmosphere or emotional space do you aim to create for your listeners?

CHRIS: We’ve been touring and making music for so long. We just want to have a good time and have high energy. Corey, our bass player, and I, before we go every night, we just say, ‘Let’s have a good time every night we go out.’ We want to have that reciprocal energy from our audience. Every artist wants to try to capture that high point that you get when you’re performing live. I think that’s why people want to put out live records, but even live records fail to capture the synergy between a band and an audience like we’ve had for decades.

CMG: Bush has released new remixes following Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023 and continues to shine a light on its legacy with the Loads of Remixes EP that comes out in September. I would love to hear anything you would like to share about the inspiration behind the release.

CHRIS: Gavin’s always trying to do something new. He’s always interested in what’s next, what’s forward. We’re celebrating the history of a back catalog with a lot of hits that are near and dear to people’s hearts and Corey did a remix in his bedroom on his laptop of “Glycerine” and that’s really cool. Sometimes when you’ve been playing a song for so many years, it’s hard to think of it in a different way. There’s little things that you do live that are different, little moments that you build up.

There’s a different version of “Swallowed” that we’re playing live. Gavin just sings that without the band, and when we first were thinking about doing it, it’s not risky, it’s not like your life is in danger, but you’re taking something that people have known for 30 years and you’re presenting it in a new way. It’s always hard to do, but when it comes off, it’s a great feeling, and I think people are really enjoying it.

CMG: What do you hope your fans can take away or remember from Loaded: The Greatest Hits and Loads of Remixes releases?

CHRIS: Most people that come that we meet, they come up to the meet and greet and are talking about how the music got them through hard times. We have military personnel, let’s say that they got them through the hard times, people naming their kids after Gavin. It’s intergenerational. We’ve been making music the whole time and have had more current hits on active rock radio. We have younger people. We have all these generations and people bringing their kids, and they all have their own experience of our music. I feel really lucky about it, because not a lot of bands have that, and we lucked into having a multi-generational fan base.

CMG: Obviously listening to Loads of Remixes must bring back heavy nostalgia. Are there any particular emotions or memories you want to evoke with these remixes?

CHRIS: They’re so personal. I’ve seen “Glycerine” from the side of the stage for so many years, so I just have these little vignettes and I think that’s the way memory actually works, right? They’re cloudy and more of a visual thing. They’re bringing up a feeling, you know? That’s the most interesting thing. One of the most interesting things to me about music is, even if you’ve heard a song thousands of times, that same song will make you cry, even though you know it’s coming, this thing is happening. It’s happened to you before. It’s not a surprise, but it still hits you as if it’s a surprise and that’s so special about music.

CMG: How does it feel revisiting and reworking some of your greatest hits from 1994 to 2023?

CHRIS: I just feel cautious about it because a lot of people feel precious about it when usually a lot of times people will re-record stuff and change things in a way that I think doesn’t agree with people and recording of music. Making a record, it’s a documentation. A record is a document of a time, so I think it’s important to faithfully represent the record of that time.

CMG: If you could go back, would you have done anything differently with any of the original tracks that are now remixed?

CHRIS: No I don’t. I like to live life without any regrets.

CMG: You are currently on your ‘Loaded: The Greatest Hits Tour’ and a huge congratulations is in order. What are you most excited for your fans to experience during this tour?

CHRIS: We’ve been doing this for a long time, so we have Jerry Cantrell out with us from Alice In Chains, and so we’ve been jamming on some songs with him. A lot of the people that we’ve been playing with, we’ve played with Candlebox before, and we played with Jerry and Alice In Chains, and actually a lot of the people that are working behind the scenes we’ve been working with for years. It’s a feeling of family and camaraderie, and it’s a celebration of music. It’s people letting go of their differences and their narratives and coming together and having a beautiful night of music.

CMG: Do you have any pre-show or post-show rituals that help ensure you play your best set?

CHRIS: We do a pre-show ritual every day. We get in, we get in the circle, and if you’re in the room, your hand has to be in the circle. We’re just this tight band of people that have been doing it for a long time, and every night, and no matter what happens during the day, we love each other and we love playing music. I think it really shows because we’re still having a good time. I think people are really struck by that, that it’s like a genuine performance.

Sometimes people come into the camp and they want to orchestrate our performance in some way, like a guitar will come down from the ceiling, and then you’ll play a solo and ridiculous things like that. We have this natural performance and balance and chemistry together that’s real, and I think the audience feels it. We do a pre-show ritual, and every night we go out and we play our best, and we play really well. It’s been so many decades of playing really good shows, so the bar is pretty high for us.

CMG: What are some of your favorite Chicago bands?

CHRIS: The jesus lizard. When I was a kid, Ministry records were just totally influential. We toured with Cheap Trick. Smashing Pumpkins, of course. There’s a great legacy of music over decades.

CMG: What is your favorite song to play live and why? Is there a certain element or atmosphere that you create that’s extra special or that you gravitate towards the most?

CHRIS: I love playing all the songs on this tour because I know each one is so special to different people. When we come back on for the encore and we play “More Than Machines,” which is our most recent number one, it has this intro music to it and there’s this line, “Girls, you’re in control / Not the government.” I just love that line. I love seeing people’s reactions to it and the energy to it. But I could say that honestly for any song that we play.

CMG: How are you feeling in this current era of your career and what does the rest of the year look like for you that you would love to share with Chicago Music Guide?

CHRIS: I’m grateful to be around. The music business can be as ever changing and can be harsh, and there can be periods when you’re not in favor, but I just feel really lucky to be around to have the energy to actually perform at my peak and have the band playing at its peak. We’re just giving a really quality, big rock n’ roll show.

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