![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Garbage-Q-and-A-May-2012.jpg\" "\\"Garbage-Q-and-A-May-2012\\"")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nPioneering alt-rockers push forward, leaving the labels and the \u201990s behind \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n On the eve of Garbage\u2019s first\u00a0tour in more than seven years, guitarist Duke Erikson is puzzled. \u201cI\u2019m trying to figure out how the hell to pack all this stuff,\u201d he says, facing an unruly pile of clothes. \u201cI can\u2019t remember how I did this before.\u201d Luckily, he and his bandmates had no such trouble reminding themselves of the chemistry that propelled them to stardom in the 1990s with edgy, electronica-infused alt-rock hits like \u201cStupid Girl\u201d and \u201cPush It.\u201d Quite the contrary\u2014after an extended hiatus, Erikson, fellow guitarist Steve Marker, drummer Butch Vig and spitfire singer Shirley Manson have rediscovered the old magic almost effortlessly. \u201cWe realized right away,\u201d she says, \u201cthat we were going to be able to make a really good record.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s precisely what they did. The group holed up together in the small Atwater Village studio in Los Angeles and walked out with Not Your Kind of People<\/em>, the first new Garbage effort since 2005\u2019s Bleed Like Me<\/em>. Given that music-business headaches had prompted the group\u2019s split after that album, their latest is being released through their own STUNVOLUME label. With its newfound indie status and the tectonic changes in the music world, not to mention a wave of incipient \u201990s nostalgia, the band\u2019s expectations for its return are wide open. \u201cThe people who loved us will love this record because it\u2019s a great, classic Garbage record,\u201d Manson figures. \u201cAnd the people who hated us will remain hateful. We\u2019ve got nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n What was your aim when you approached the new album? <\/strong><\/p>\n MANSON: We just decided to hell with everything and everybody else, we wanted to try and make a record that excited us. That was the only rule in the studio. We knew it was necessary for the future of our band that we tap into the most urgent version of ourselves. We had to make a record that crackled with energy in order for people to even take notice. When you\u2019ve been around for a while and you\u2019ve made a lot of records, people just switch you down. The volume knob gets turned off. There\u2019s so much music out there and so many other artists that you just get drowned out unless you make a record that sounds like you\u2019re risking something.<\/p>\n What was reuniting like?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n MANSON: The freaky thing was we saw each other and literally within seconds we just started to laugh. It just seemed so silly. We don\u2019t really talk as a band\u2014there\u2019s something very seriously wrong with us, actually, terrifyingly wrong on so many levels. We just looked at each other and we were laughing.<\/p>\n How do you write?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n MANSON: It happens every which way. For example, \u201cBattle in Me\u201d came from a jam, all of us together as one. For \u201cSugar,\u201d Duke brought in the chords and the first verse that he had.<\/p>\n ERIKSON: We all had a few ideas in our pockets when we walked in the door, some of which got used and some that got discarded. When we first had a go at being in a studio together again after seven years, we just set up our instruments and started playing. Sometimes you just start plucking away on a keyboard, messing around with sounds, and sometimes you don\u2019t even know what you\u2019re looking for. Shirley started improvising with whatever lyrics she had collected in her notebook or that came to her head. We\u2019d go in and out of the studio. We\u2019d all go home for a few weeks and then come back for a few weeks, and while we were home we would work in our studios and bring in ideas or send in ideas via email or whatever. So we concocted these things in\u00a0any number of ways.<\/p>\n Did you have a go-to guitar?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n ERICKSON: I can\u2019t say there was one. I used a whole array of guitars and keyboards on this record. Live I play a Guild Starfire that I didn\u2019t even bring in when we were recording. It stayed at home, but when I was there I would use it all the time. And I have a lovely Tele and a 335 Gibson, and some little odds and ends.<\/p>\n Do you work as a democracy?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n ERIKSON: We\u2019re very like-minded, so it\u2019s usually pretty easy. We all nod or peal with joy when someone does something cool. When someone comes up with an idea, we all stand up and yell. More often than not that\u2019s how it happens. Of course there are times when the other three will point at you and say, \u201cAbsolutely not, that sucks.\u201d There are arguments, there are disagreements and there are a few things on the record I would have done differently or Shirley would have done differently\u2014that\u2019s just the way it is.<\/p>\n How about lyrically?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n MANSON: For the most part I like to write my own words. I\u2019m much more comfortable and I have more fun when I can express an idea that I have. But I understand that I work with other people who have ideas sometimes, and I will end up incorporating the ideas that resonate with me. I try not to force a song idea down their throats that they can\u2019t relate to. Luckily for me that has very rarely happened.<\/p>\n Can you relate to the old songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n MANSON: I have changed. I love a song like \u201c#1 Crush\u201d and can still identify with those feelings, but I\u2019m not that person anymore. I think one of the reasons we got so frustrated was that we felt that people were not going to allow us to grow. Our record company wasn\u2019t going to allow us to grow, because they wanted something that we could no longer give them. They\u00a0wanted the first record [Garbage<\/em>, 1995]. You know what? That\u2019s just not who we are anymore. I\u2019m 45 years old, I\u2019m a woman. I don\u2019t want to be singing about things that happened to me when I was 15, I want to sing about things that happened to me last year. It\u2019s important\u00a0as an artist to move forward. Your career\u00a0may suffer, but your mental health will blossom. (laughs<\/em>) Even if you\u2019re selling\u00a0billions of records, ultimately what\u2019s the\u00a0point in staying stuck in a teenager\u2019s\u00a0mindset? How utterly horrendous. I want\u00a0to be an adult exploring adult themes\u00a0in an adult world.<\/p>\n What\u2019s life like with no label?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n ERIKSON: Awesome. We are the label. I don\u2019t want to go on and on about [our previous label]. That relationship just soured. The whole business model sucks and everybody knows it. Frankly, we probably could have weathered whatever that was, but we were just so damn tired by that time that any little thing got to us. We just needed to take a break. I don\u2019t want to blame this or that or some other thing. It was just time. The freedom that we have now is so great, it makes you feel like you can breathe. But it brings with it other responsibilities. We have to think about a lot of stuff that we didn\u2019t think about before.<\/p>\n How will you find your fans?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n MANSON: We came out of a time when alternative music was ruling the charts. We got banged on the radio and MTV, we were everywhere. When that happens you make strong connections with people. And then alternative music got suffocated and pushed under again. I think people today are aching for a connection with artists\u00a0who talk about all the stuff that\u2019s not been talked about lately.<\/p>\n \u2013Chris Neal<\/p>\n GARBAGE Pioneering alt-rockers push forward, leaving the labels and the \u201990s behind \u00a0 On the eve of Garbage\u2019s first\u00a0tour in more than seven years, guitarist Duke Erikson is puzzled. \u201cI\u2019m trying to figure out how the hell to pack all this stuff,\u201d he says, facing an unruly pile of clothes. \u201cI can\u2019t remember how I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,7],"tags":[3900,3897,3895,3892,3893,3396,3898,3754,3397,970,3896,3894,3398,3899],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6631"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6810,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6631\/revisions\/6810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"