Kate Bush says she's a 'Stranger Things' fan in rare interview about 'Running Up That Hill'

"What a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way, as a kind of talisman for Max."

Mashable SEA June 22, 2022

Kate Bush says she's a 'Stranger Things' fan in rare interview about 'Running Up That Hill'

Kate Bush is delighted to be running up the charts 37 years since the release of her track "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)."

The beloved English singer and songwriter topped the singles charts after her 1985 single was featured in Season 4, episode 4 of Netflix's Stranger Things.

Bush rarely gives interviews, but she's broken her silence after breaking multiple records with the Stranger Things-revived song. At 63, she's now the oldest woman to get to number 1 in the chart, and 37 years is the longest time it's taken for a song to reach the top spot in the charts. It's also her first ever top ten hit in America, and lands 44 years after her 1978 debut with the iconic single "Wuthering Heights."

In a world exclusive interview on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Bush talked about how it feels to have reached a brand new audience with her music, and to have topped the chart in 2022 with her (evidently) timeless classic.

“It's just extraordinary," she told Woman's Hour presenter Emma Barnett. "It's such a great series, so I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. It's so exciting but it's quite shocking really — the whole world's gone mad."

"What’s really wonderful is that this is a whole new audience, who in a lot of cases, they'd never heard of me, and I love that. The thought of all these really young people hearing this song for the very first time and discovering it — I think it's very special," she said.

So, what exactly is the song about?

"Well, I really like people to hear a song and take from it what they want. But originally it was written about a man and a woman swapping places with each other just to feel what it was like from the other side," Bush explained.

The song — from Bush's fifth studio album Hounds of Love (1985) — was originally called "A Deal With God" but the record label was reportedly nervous that the mention of religion might prevent it from being played on the radio. In Bush's mind, however, the song will forever be called "A Deal With God."

"What a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way, as a kind of talisman for Max."

ICYMI, the song accompanies a particularly poignant moment in Season 4, Volume 1 of Stranger Things. As Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz explains, the scene has especially connected with people who have experienced a mental health crisis. Here's how she described the context:

Arguably the most emotionally powerful scene of the season's first volume arrives in episode 4, when Max (Sadie Sink) is held psychologically captive by Vecna, a serial killer from the Upside Down who entrances and tortures his victims with their worst fears and experiences before murdering them. The showdown between Vecna and Max unfolds to the soundtrack of Kate Bush's '80s hit "Running Up That Hill," a percussion and synth-driven ballad about making a deal with God that happens to be Max's favorite song.

Bush explained how she feels about the way the song has been used in the Netflix series.

"I thought, what a lovely way for the song to be used in such a positive way, as a kind of talisman for Max," she said. "I think it's very touching actually."

If you're wondering, yes, Bush has watched Stranger Things "from the word go," — Barnett asked Bush if she was already a fan, to which she replied: "Yes, yes very much so!" Her son is also a fan. "We all are," she added. "Our friends kept saying: 'Have you seen Stranger Things when the first series came out, so eventually we thought, OK let's just watch it, we binge-watched it, and we've seen every series ever since."

Bush also touched on her relationship with technology and being an early pioneer of the Fairlight CMI — a sampling machine and digital synthesiser that gives Bush's music its signature emotional eerieness. "Obviously using things like the Fairlight very early, which was a sampling machine, which it's common now for samples to be used in music all the time," she said.

Barnett also asked whether Bush was familiar with WitchTok on TikTok and the creators who've been inspired by her 1980 song "Babooshka" (another timeless banger with an incredible music video).

"No I don't, it sounds ridiculous," she said, laughing.

Most of all, Bush wants to express her gratitude to her new fans. "Thank you to everyone," she said.

As a lifelong Kate Bush fan, and the daughter of two diehard Kate Bush devotees, it's us who should be thanking Kate. And to her new fans: Welcome to the club.