Besides being a big fan of Gavin’s first band Bush (download “The Chemicals Between Us,” “Glycerine,” “Machinehead,” and “Everything Zen” immediately if you don’t know what I’m talking about), I’ve really been digging his new solo album, Wanderlust.

Wanderlust has spawned one of the biggest hit songs of 2008, “Love Remains the Same.” (Which I recently described to someone as the song equivalent of The Notebook.)

What follows are the highlights of my interview with the sweet and personable Gavin Rossdale.

How long have you been working on Wanderlust?

It probably took about eight to ten months to write. And then, five months to wait for the producer. And then three months to record it. And then six months to wait for it to come out. It’s been a strange process of waiting my turn.

What made you decide to do a solo album?

Basically, after Bush I didn’t know what to do. And I was like, well, I’ll do this one offside project Institute, and really that was a solo record as well. I just should have called it a solo record. But it sounded like such a band. And then I was like what am I going to do now? I wanted to see if Bush would do a record, and so I asked them to do a record. And for two months they said yes, let’s do a record. So it was really exciting, I felt like I was back with my first love, my childhood sweetheart. And then, she turned around, and said she didn’t want me anymore. One guy didn’t want to tour anymore. So I did it on my own.

What is your writing process?

It’s always based on a feeling. Whether it’s feeling in a word, or a phrase, or any kind of a beat. And, I mean I try to mix it all up. But generally I need something to record on, something to write on, an instrument, and usually a drum machine.

Are you the kind of person where the feeling comes to you and you’ll just write a song wherever you are? Or do you sit down and say; OK I’m going to write something now.

A little bit of both, really. It’s those kind of moments of inspiration that will start something, and then I usually make a note about it, and then that will be a place to start from. I mean you need to kind of sit there, no matter where it is, it just has to be quite isolated and just off so you’re free to try stuff out.

Tell me about writing “Love Remains the Same.” My favorite lyric is: truth is, I am done pretending…

It has a such a universal feeling to it because we all try and be, in the face of losing someone, really stoic. It’s about how if someone is breaking up with you, you fall apart. But before you fall apart, you do that thing where you try to pretend you’re fine–and so that was it. And, as far as lyrics I think that I really wanted to do one of those songs wherein you’ve broken up with someone, whether temporarily or permanently, and you look back and you know, no matter what is going on, that you’ll still have that feeling them. And you kind of want to wallow and live in that memory for a while, just walking the streets and really kind of commiserating with yourself.

How did the title Wanderlust come to be?

It just came to me–it’s one of those weird ones, those titles, where it’s quite subliminal, or quite you may see it somewhere, someone may say it to you. I said to a friend of mine, he’s staying with us right now in LA, and I said to him, “My new album title, “Wanderlust”‘ he goes, “perfect, you’re two favorite words.” (He laughs). So I just liked it because it’s kind of sexy enough, it’s powerful, it’s one word. Wanderlust sums up that desire for music and for singing and performing and this life. It suits me to have a really crazy early morning, take a nap, do interviews, perform, I love it.

Do you have plans to tour?

Yea, yea. Next year. We’ve got ten shows in December, those radio festival things. And then in January I start in Canada, LA, Seattle, and work my way up the coast into Canada, and then back down here, out east. It’s really going to start next year. It’s going to be a bit of a war since we’ll be taking the small people– the two and half year old may be easier than the six week old who needs his mom. Actually, they both need their mom. We all need our mom. Maybe I’ll take my mom! (He laughs) But, it’s really fun. My son loves it–he’s come to shows and he’s well into it, he digs it. He’s got excellent rhythm. When I was away, this breaks my heart a little bit; he played my video while I was on the road and runs around the room and screams “Dada.”

What is it like dealing with paparazzi?

Most of the time it’s not so bad. But it can be totally embarrassing if you’re going to go into a restaurant. If we walked into a restaurant together, as we walk in, there are ten people taking our pictures with flashes. But then they leave, and everyone’s looking around, and you feel like such a dork. It’s been really heavy at the moment. I think they haven’t really seen pictures of Zuma, they haven’t seen Gwen for a while, and my record’s doing good, and so those three elements all kind of mixed in make photos kind of tantalizing. But it’s all part of it; it’s just how it is. There are a lot worse things to complain about.

Thanks so much, Gavin!
From Teen Vogue

Check it out at the following link: http://collegewebmagazine.com/index.php/Gavin-Rossdale/

Feel free to leave your birthday messages for Gavin in the comments below.

As for the lack of “news” well, I just don’t add that stuff… Loyal visitors will know that I have always had a strict “no candids / no gossip” policy on this website for the past 6 years. I really take pride on being respectful to Gavin and his family… Since most of the “news” that is happening lately is just about Gavin and his family going about their daily life, I’m not going to add it. You can check out Gavin Rossdale Blogspot or Gavin Rossdale Fans for those postings. I will continue to post news pertaining to Gavin and his career though.

Thanks for visiting and I hope to be back on track with this site before the end of the year!