MK Magazine Interviews

GARBAGE

An Interview with Garbage by AZ

Using real live grinding guitars and all the samples, loops and studio tricks at their disposal, Garbage tossed off the most imaginative hit album of 1995. With front woman Shirley Manson focusing the sound and lyrics, star producer Butch Vig and his studio-rat buddies, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson, casually stepped out of the shadows into the pop spotlight.

Garbage was immediately heralded in the press as a producers' super group--their self-titled debut was full of eclectic production touches, dark lyrics and vicious pop hooks centered by Manson's tough, icy vocals. The astonishingly solid album played like a smash single. The band wound up doing hundreds of live shows. The band's unexpected global success (especially in America) delayed the recording of their follow-up as they committed themselves to a relentless touring schedule. While the world breathlessly awaited a follow-up, Garbage surfaced with another hit and continued to be a fascinating fixture on modern rock radio and MTV, appearing on the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack in 1996 with a B-side, "Number One Crush." The song topped the alternative charts, and the band earned three Grammy nominations. When Version 2.0 finally appeared, the band gained further praise for their compelling blend of slick electronic pop featuring Manson's emotive vocals. The album topped the UK charts in May 1998. The following year the band was commissioned to write the theme tune to the new James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough.

It seemed like forever but after a couple of legal disputes were resolved their third offering beautifulgarbage was released. Hailed by several of MK ULTRAs critics as the #1 album of 2001, as well as being acclaimed by critics worldwide, it failed to muster up the success in the USA that the 2 previous collections had, despite performing with U2 for a month last fall. In the UK they were releasing single after single, thus making diehard fans feel cheated by the bands US label.

After the U2 shows a European Tour was scheduled, however, Butch Vig was diagnosed with Hepatitis A. He would go on to complete recovery and catch up on some well-needed rest. However, under doctor's orders, he would be unable to play with the band during their European shows. Not wanting to disappoint their fans and after much deliberation, Garbage decided not to cancel. Matt Chamberlain, who played on some songs from beautifulgarbage joined the band for the shows.

In the Spring of 2002, with Vig back in place, Garbage set out on an overdue US tour that began in Cleveland last April, selling out venue after venue. The fan base was still there, but the label seemed reluctant to promote the band in a normal fashion. On Sunday, April 7th Garbage's "Behind The Music" premiered on VH1, cementing their already legendary story forever on the video collections of much of the music loving populous.

MK ULTRA's support and praise for Garbage has also been cemented within numerous features and photos for over 1/2 a decade. (See photo gallery at www.mkultramag.com) It only seemed natural that we make a third installment of the trilogy of the band thus far. If for nothing else to find out what happened onstage during their second Chicago show with U2.

Alex Zander: I just saw on the Internet a few days ago that Shirley’s been really run down or tired lately and the doctor told her to slow down? Is that going to affect the tour at all?

Duke Erikson: No, she’s just got a bit of bronchitis. She’s had a bit of trouble with that. We all came to the realization on the last tour where we were on the road for twenty months after Version 2.0 that we had to be a bit more sane about this. We’re trying to take more breaks and be wiser about everything from getting enough sleep to eating the right foods. It’s really come down to that. She is a bit under the weather right now but about half of our crew is as well (laughs).

AZ: Yeah, road burn right?

DE: Well that flu or whatever it is going around right now. It seems to be everywhere.

AZ: Now I can’t wait to ask you this question. I was at the U2 concert in Chicago. What happened to your amp?

DE: (laughs) It just burnt up. It went berserk, some weird short-circuit, some spark and the next thing you know there’s smoke and nastiness going on back there.

AZ: I thought you handled it well.

DE: I handled it the only way I could and that was to wait for somebody to figure out how to fix it.

AZ: Right! I saw the smoke and as many times as I’ve seen you live that’s the first time I’ve seen anything like that happen. It was funny.

DE: It doesn’t feel funny at the time but in retrospect it’s hilarious.

AZ: That didn’t get on tape or video did it? That would be a good one to throw on a compilation.

DE: Yeah, our first foray in pyro.

AZ: Of all places a U2 show. The place was packed.

DE: That was a great tour, that was really a great experience for us. I mean hanging with those guys, they invited us to fly on their plane and hang with them after a couple of the shows from gig-to-gig. So we kinda got to know them a little bit; Great guys. We played Madison Square Garden with them on that tour and that was an amazing experience given what had just taken place there. It took on a whole new level of an experience because people were coming to share something other than just a rock show.

AZ: Yeah, that was a big production. I couldn’t believe that stage (shaped like) with the heart. I’ve never seen anything like that and I’ve seen a lot of shows. Is there is a reason why you did the European tour first and it’s taken so many months to do a stateside tour?

DE: There are any number of reasons why we do what we do as far as touring goes. We’re lucky on one hand that we have fans all over the world. But it makes it difficult to get everywhere we want to go. So it just happened that to turn out this way with what’s going on in Europe and the release of the record. We wanted to come sooner to the states but there were other things going on in Europe. You’ve gotta juggle things, you have to go where it makes the most sense at the time. It’s a logistical nightmare sometimes but you have to just deal with it. We’re playing like 32 shows in the states over the next six weeks.

AZ: Almost every night, right?

DE: Yeah, I was looking at that myself. So much for our new outlook on touring. We’re doing the same thing we did last time.

AZ: You sold out Chicago pretty fast.

DE: We sold out Toronto last night too. I guess the tickets went really fast there and we had an amazing show. The crowd was unbelievable.

AZ: I feel a little cheated that I’ve seen on your site and on music sites that the United Kingdom gets the videos and the singles and a lot more airplay right now than the exposure you’re getting here on MTV or VH1. Is that a label strategy or a difference between your label here and there?

DE: Well obviously it has to do with labels, markets, different places, people’s perceptions, radio and everything else. There is a difference between the two, of course, but you can’t attribute it to any one thing. The records have a little tougher of a go over here. But that’s why we’re here and we’re not worried about it. We’ve never done this to sell a certain number of records, we’ve done it just to do the work and then follow where the record goes. We’re really happy with it. It’s been number one in Australia, it’s doing really well in Japan, France, Italy and in the U.K. It’s doing fairly well. Our records always take awhile to seep in the public’s consciousness. Last time we were on tour for twenty months and that record did extremely well. We’re not really worried about it.

AZ: I haven’t seen a “Cherry Lips” or “Breaking the Girl” videos yet.

DE: I’m not sure that “Cherry Lips” will be a single in the States.

AZ: That’s a catchy tune. We did a top ten of 2001and did reviews of each album. Three of our ten writers listed the album as number one, the best of 2001. I enjoy it a lot. It went somewhere different. The last album did too, but I can’t quit playing it, nonstop.

DE: Thank you! That’s great to hear. We went down some different paths that we’ve been curious about and we felt a bit liberated about what we were able to try on this record. It turned out to be quite a varied set of songs but somehow it all kind of fits together.

AZ: Is it safe to call Garbage one of the bands that use the studio as an instrument?

DE: We’ve kind of done that in all the different bands we’ve been in, Butch and I. A band called Spooner years ago, not so much Firetown but in Spooner we experimented in the studio a bit. But not obviously to the length that we do in Garbage. It’s just incorporating technology into the whole. Using it more as a musical tool, rather than just a place you go to record. It allows whatever happens in the studio to seep into the writing. I think it comes from us being fans of bands like The Beatles, Roxy Music and even the R&B artists, Dr. Dre who use the studio to create music as part of the band. Rather than just a place to record it.

AZ: Now I just read also, I think it was on your site, that you did a cover of “Wild Horses” by The Stones? Was that for a TV show?

DE: Yeah, there’s a show over in London called “Recover.” They wanted us to do one of our songs, and I guess they have every band do this: an original and a cover. We wanted to do a Velvet Underground song, “Candy Says” which we recorded as a B-side. But they deemed that too obscure, so we had to look at something more on the level of a bit more popular. It’s such a great song, though.

AZ: Any chance that’ll pop up on a B-side?

DE: Well we’ve talked about it, yeah. We’re doing it live. We did it last night as part of the encore. So maybe we’ll do it again tonight, I’m not sure.

AZ: Now is the B-sides collection still on the backburner or is that out? Somebody sent me a bootleg of one called G-Sides.

DE: (laughs) Yeah, there’s plenty of bootlegs of Garbage out there. But we haven’t officially done that yet. We were going to between the last record and this one but it didn’t work out that way for one reason or another. But we’ve got such a backlog of B-sides. A lot of the B-sides are better than stuff that has ended up on the records in my mind.

AZ: Now you’ve had your share of legal turmoil over the last year. I’m not exactly sure where it started, but you stuck by your guns on something that was going on between you and Universal –as far someone who signed you with ALMO. Is that still ongoing?

DE: We were signed to ALMO and we just got licensed without taking part in the decision to Interscope. We wanted a little more autonomy. We’ve worked it out now where everybody’s happy. That’s over.

AZ: Is the lawsuit from Radioactive over with?

DE: Well, that hasn’t been cleared up but we’ve made three records without that being cleared up. So we don’t worry about that too much, either. It’s everybody trying to get what they think they deserve.

AZ: All that comes with success.

DE: Yeah, they wouldn’t give a shit if we hadn’t sold 8million records.

FRI 2 FEB 2001 GARBAGE LAWSUIT BLASTED

http://www.dotmusic.com/news/February2001/news17750.asp

The rock foursome, fronted by Shirley Manson, filed a lawsuit against UMG and its associated labels at LA’s Superior Court earlier this week.

The band claim that the label are holding Manson to “ransom” because they want to keep the successful, chart-topping band on their roster and have accused them of “wrongful, monopolistic and strong-arm tactics”.

UMG told an American website that the case is without merit but offered no other information on the specifics of the suit.

Garbage have alleged that they have wanted to leave Universal since October 2000 after the man who brought them to the label, Jerry Moss, retired.

They originally signed to Almo Records in 1994, which was subsequently swallowed up by UMG, and they claim that a “key man” clause meant that once Moss left they were free to terminate the contract if they wished.

The company countered the band’s request and told them that Moss was still on the payroll.

The suit also states that UMG stated that the Scottish singer is bound to the label because of a contract she signed with imprint Radioactive back in 1993.

Manson was in the band Angelfish at the time and when Garbage took off Radioactive allowed Shirley to perform with them, but only after they had negotiated a royalty share.

AZ: What about a second video compilation? There are some great videos from the last album.

DE: That kind of went by the wayside. We still want to put together something like that. We just really haven’t had time. There were such great videos from the last record, we’d like to get everything on there.

AZ: I like the James Bond video for “The World Is Not Enough.” It’s a fantastic song, too.

DE: Better than the movie (laughs).

AZ: Was the process of recording beautifulgarbage the usual way it’s done? Do you guys take that much time or did you take some time out and take a break?

DE: We took a little break after Version 2.0. We definitely needed one and probably could’ve used a longer one. But we just got excited about going back in the studio and over the course of touring we recorded two of the songs that ended up on beautifulbarbage in a real spontaneous way. “Silence is Golden” and “Until the Day I Die” were written on the road basically, and we went into the studio for four or five days and did all the recording and writing and pretty much had them all completed in that space of time. So we got excited about that and how they were written. They were written with us improvising. So we wanted to take that new process so to speak, in the studio and make a new record.

AZ: Was “Behind the Music’ something you wanted to do or is that what you would call a necessary evil at this time?

DE: I don’t know. To tell you the truth we didn’t really think about too much until after we had done it. Then we wondered why we had. Simply because you never know how it’s going to turn out, how things will be portrayed an all that. But they were very nice folks that we talked to there and the Behind the Music people are music fans.

AZ: That’s an addictive series.

DE: I enjoy it because it’s fascinating sometimes. I think ours is one of the least fascinating. But it’s an amazing show and I think their whole approach is because they’re music fans. it doesn’t feel like you’re being misportrayed.For the most part they do it because they’re fans as well.

AZ: What are the advantages of calling Madison home and not L.A?

DE: Well, still calling Madison home? Well, because my house is there. Madison’s a beautiful city, it’s quiet and it’s clean. I have family and friends there. Of course having the studio there certainly is a reason that we record there and spend so much time there. I don’t know if the next Garbage record will be made there or not. We’re talking about doing it somewhere else or at least part of it somewhere else. But it’s a beautiful city.

AZ: Are there any disadvantages?

DE: Oh of course. There’s not as much to do in Madison as there is in New York and LA. You’re kind of out of touch with what’s going on but that’s a blessing and a curse. There are advantages to living anywhere.

AZ: Here’s a redundant question probably, but one I feel I need to ask you. If you could just share your feelings about what’s going on with our war on terrorism, the attacks on the WTC 9/11 and how you feel about what’s going on in the world?

DE: Well I think the world’s finally come to America, really. This has been happening all over the world for years now and now it came right to our front door. I think terrorism needs to be fought, obviously. There are wacko’s out there. But I think the question that needs to be asked that isn’t being asked is “why is this all happening?” I think even Powell in Israel told Sharon they could fight terror all they want but it’s still going to be there and he should take his own advice. Sharon could go and blow up all the Palestinians but they’re still going to want a homeland. They still want what they think they deserve and until that’s worked out it’s always gonna happen.

AZ: Well, I’m glad you guys are coming back, it’s going to be good to have you guys in Chicago again.

DE: Well I think we’re playing really well right now. I think you’ll like it.

AZ: I enjoyed the United Center show with the mishap and all. You really handled that well. A lot of bands would have just given up at that point and walked off.

DE: We’ve never done that, ever.

AZ: That was a lot of fun watching Shirley tell jokes and stumble with words and watching the drum and bass solo. Although it wasn’t perfect it’s great to see you that way because I’ve never seen a mistake.

DE: Yea, it’s funny. I know when I’ve gone to concerts and I see some band I admire and they have some sort of trouble to see how they deal with it, it kind of humanizes them, I suppose. It’s kind of endearing in a way. That is of course unless they storm off!

Posted by Alex Zander at November 1, 2003 12:00 AM