Discussing the demise of her band, Beth Ditto stated that Gossip broke up in order to deal with their respective lives.
Eleven years since their last release, the singer and her bandmates Nathan Howdeshell and Hannah Billie had gone their separate ways but have now reformed for the forthcoming LP ‘Real Power,’ coming 22 March.
In an interview with Britain’s NME, Ditto addressed the reasons her band split up, stating:
“It got really hard to get people to care about it, people are going through their own things.” “It’s hard to change and become a person on your own. When you’re in a creative relationship like a band, bands do feel like marriages.” “Gossip is the longest relationship I’ve ever had and the longest job I’ve ever had. And it’s the reason why I’ve ever travelled, it was the only band I was ever in and everything.” “So it’s hard to let yourself grow and be independent and you really become co-dependent on people because everything that you do is based on other people. We needed space to deal with our shit.”
Gossip’s last album was ‘A Joyful Noise’ in 2012 and following the disbandment Nathan moved back to his and Beth’s home town in Arkansas and became a born-again Christian. Beth, on the other hand, divorced her childhood friend and wife of five years Kristin Ogata and her dad died.
In 2019, the band reunited for the ten-year anniversary tour of their Rick Rubin-produced record ‘Music For Men’, at which time Ditto started to record a solo project in the producer’s home studio in Kauai. After Beth asked Nathan to play on her album, it started to feel more like a Gossip LP which led to the group reconnecting.
About her personal issues, Beth told NME :
“When you go through a divorce, and especially because she and I were friends for so long, we were best friends, and all of a sudden, that person is gone? That’s the saddest part of it. “That whole history is gone – if you’re on the terms that we are, we don’t speak. That sucks.” “You go through these cycles in life every few years where you start to really look at who your friends are and what trust really means to you and what you need out of a community or relationship.” “It made me realize how special Nathan and I were, even if other people don’t see it.” “We speak a language all our own, and it’s beautiful because we will not talk for months and we’ll just text each other stupid (stuff.)” “Nathan’s love language is jokes. You know he’s thinking about you when he just sends you the dumbest (stuff.) It’s great!” “People don’t always understand that about him, I think he’s a very, very weird person. A naturally weird person. I could talk to people, Nathan? I’ve seen him do the most hilarious (stuff.)”
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Bill Ebbesen