Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Taking Out The Trash With BUTCH VIG From GARBAGE
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, I'm Butch Vig. Good day, Good day to you.
- 0:06Speaker 2: And Dan say, how are you today?
- 0:09Speaker 3: I'm good. It's the middle of the afternoon here. I
- 0:11Speaker 3: think it must be the morning down there for our chat. Right,
- 0:13Speaker 3: What time is it there?
- 0:14Speaker 2: It's seven twenty three am. Can you see the banks
- 0:17Speaker 2: underneath my lines? Can you?
- 0:21Speaker 1: Well?
- 0:21Speaker 3: I'm in Salt Lake City here in the middle of
- 0:23Speaker 3: the heartland of the US, and we have the night off,
- 0:25Speaker 3: but we're playing here tomorrow. We have four shows to
- 0:29Speaker 3: go on the US tour and then we offer a
- 0:30Speaker 3: few days and we head down to Mexico.
- 0:33Speaker 2: Wow, and then this side of the world.
- 0:37Speaker 3: Yeah. And we're headed down to New Zealand, Australia December,
- 0:40Speaker 3: and we are so psyched to be coming there. We've
- 0:44Speaker 3: always had a huge fan base there and I'm sort
- 0:47Speaker 3: of going down there to play shows, but also I'm
- 0:49Speaker 3: going early and I'm going to stay late in Australia
- 0:52Speaker 3: so i actually can be a tourist for a few days.
- 0:54Speaker 3: And I'm bringing my wife along, who's never.
- 0:57Speaker 1: Been there before.
- 0:57Speaker 3: So I'm really psyched to come back there.
- 1:00Speaker 2: I know. So well, if you get stuck in Brisbane
- 1:02Speaker 2: and you need a joke. It might describe my number
- 1:03Speaker 2: of Janane and I'm more than happy to run you
- 1:05Speaker 2: guys around and show you the sots of Brisbane.
- 1:08Speaker 1: Okay, you might be sorry that you offer that, Chris, and.
- 1:11Speaker 2: I'm never sorry about I offered things like that, all right?
- 1:14Speaker 1: Cool?
- 1:14Speaker 2: Wait it does, brother, I will, as you say, garbage
- 1:17Speaker 2: hit Australia in around one month at the Spot of
- 1:20Speaker 2: Good Things Festival twenty twenty five, which picks off in
- 1:22Speaker 2: Melbourne on December and fifth and hit Sydney. I'm Brisbane.
- 1:25Speaker 2: I have a consecutive days now. I know you're already
- 1:28Speaker 2: add on job, right, but you're gonna have a chance
- 1:29Speaker 2: to repack before you Comeboy, You're just gonna bring what
- 1:32Speaker 2: you've taught on the right now.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Uh yeah, Well, we finished the US tour.
- 1:36Speaker 3: We're home for about four days or five days, and
- 1:40Speaker 3: we go to Mexico. Then we're back for about a
- 1:44Speaker 3: week or so before we head down to the New
- 1:47Speaker 3: Zealand Australia run. But as I said, I'm coming earlier.
- 1:51Speaker 3: I'm going down to New Zealand early and then we're
- 1:52Speaker 3: gonna stay extra time in and I'll show you because
- 1:56Speaker 3: I haven't been there for a while you know, garbage
- 1:58Speaker 3: hasn't been there for a while, and I want to
- 2:00Speaker 3: be able to take in the country and it spent
- 2:04Speaker 3: some time there. Like in the US run it's like
- 2:06Speaker 3: we play a show and then we get in the bus,
- 2:08Speaker 3: we drive overnight. We play a show, get on the
- 2:09Speaker 3: bus and drive overnight. We have tonight off in salt
- 2:12Speaker 3: like city, but rarely do we have days off. So
- 2:14Speaker 3: I really want to get down there and be able to,
- 2:17Speaker 3: like I said, be a proper tourist for a few days.
- 2:19Speaker 2: Because the whole reality of touring life is nothing like
- 2:22Speaker 2: what people think. I like, you don't get to guy
- 2:24Speaker 2: to a place and see the slides and jump on
- 2:26Speaker 2: sage like you there. Like you say you're traveling, you're unpacking,
- 2:29Speaker 2: you testing, you're playing, you back to the room, and
- 2:32Speaker 2: so you don't really get to day a much of
- 2:34Speaker 2: the out thursty thing.
- 2:36Speaker 3: No, it's touring is not that glamorous. I mean, the
- 2:41Speaker 3: travel is an incredible grind, but the two hours are
- 2:45Speaker 3: on stage every night.
- 2:46Speaker 1: Make up for it.
- 2:46Speaker 3: It's like a huge adrenaline rush that you can't get
- 2:49Speaker 3: or I can't get from a recording studio. You can't
- 2:52Speaker 3: really get it anywhere and we're very lucky as a
- 2:54Speaker 3: band that we've been around for thirty years and we
- 2:56Speaker 3: still have such a hardcore fan base they allow us
- 2:58Speaker 3: to go and play these shows. So I got to
- 3:00Speaker 3: thank all our fans for that definitely.
- 3:03Speaker 2: Right said, it's being almost ten years since you guys
- 3:05Speaker 2: lost Torn to Stray, and so what's changed with Garbage
- 3:08Speaker 2: since we saw you last.
- 3:11Speaker 3: Well, we have a new bass player, Nicole Fiorentino. The
- 3:14Speaker 3: last time we were down there, I think Eric Avery,
- 3:16Speaker 3: our bass player was formerly of James Addiction. He toured
- 3:19Speaker 3: with us for a long time. He's fantastic, but he
- 3:22Speaker 3: got back together with James Addiction a couple years ago
- 3:24Speaker 3: and they, you know, they're a complicated band like a
- 3:27Speaker 3: lot of bands, but he's he's back in the fold
- 3:30Speaker 3: with James Addiction and Shirley really wanted a female bass player.
- 3:34Speaker 3: Nicole is fantastic. She's she played with Smashing Pumpkins for
- 3:37Speaker 3: a while. She's an incredible musician, super groovy. It's also
- 3:42Speaker 3: a really good singer. So she's singing back vocals on
- 3:45Speaker 3: about seven or eight songs. For surely we've never had
- 3:48Speaker 3: that before. So that's a new edition.
- 3:51Speaker 2: Nice Good Things is a massive festival with bands like
- 3:54Speaker 2: chul As wiser All, John Ryan, Machinehead, Knockley's Clad, Penny
- 3:58Speaker 2: more Mate. But where do you think Garbage fits into
- 4:01Speaker 2: the lineup?
- 4:04Speaker 3: Well, I think you know, we've had a fan based
- 4:06Speaker 3: on there for a long time, and you know, there's
- 4:09Speaker 3: a lot of cool alt rock bands on the bill,
- 4:11Speaker 3: and you know, we always have had elements of electronica
- 4:15Speaker 3: and hip hop beats and atmospheric cinematic moments and and
- 4:20Speaker 3: so we have our own sound, but I think we
- 4:22Speaker 3: still fit out. You know, We've had a lot of
- 4:24Speaker 3: airplay down there over the years, and I know we
- 4:27Speaker 3: have a lot of hardcore fans down there, so we're
- 4:30Speaker 3: expecting a pretty good turnout from our fans down their
- 4:35Speaker 3: fingers crossed. That being said, I'm excited to see a
- 4:38Speaker 3: lot of the bands on the bill. I'm friends with
- 4:40Speaker 3: Maynard from Tool. You know, Maynard likes to drink wine,
- 4:44Speaker 3: as do I, so I'm gonna be hitting up backstage
- 4:46Speaker 3: to have a good glass. We're also good friends with
- 4:49Speaker 3: the Weezer. I've known Rivers for a long time, so
- 4:51Speaker 3: I'm excited to hang out with them. But there's so
- 4:53Speaker 3: many great bands on the bill. It's a really it's
- 4:55Speaker 3: a kick ass festival.
- 4:57Speaker 2: It is one of the best things about it, Like,
- 4:59Speaker 2: in my opinion, way is right, the diversity of bands
- 5:01Speaker 2: on the lineup, Like you got pretty much every genre
- 5:04Speaker 2: covered like that. It's sort of a new thing these
- 5:07Speaker 2: say so that usually I used to be for the
- 5:09Speaker 2: metal festival they are all metally, but you know, the
- 5:11Speaker 2: rock festivals or rock bit I'm actually liking this new
- 5:14Speaker 2: trend and putting a bit of everything on because it
- 5:16Speaker 2: appeaces everyone in the one day.
- 5:19Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, that's that's become more of a thing
- 5:21Speaker 3: in like the last ten years or so, I would say,
- 5:24Speaker 3: when we first started touring and doing festivals, the festivals,
- 5:28Speaker 3: you know, were very more specific to a genre, like
- 5:32Speaker 3: in South America or in Australia or in the US.
- 5:34Speaker 3: And the first place that we saw that kind of
- 5:37Speaker 3: thing happening was in Europe, like Roskilda and some of
- 5:41Speaker 3: the shows in Spain and France, where the bills were
- 5:44Speaker 3: very eclectic. And now that's happening all over. A lot
- 5:47Speaker 3: of the festivals in the US are like that. They
- 5:50Speaker 3: still are in the in Europe and the UK, and
- 5:52Speaker 3: now they are you know, in South America and Australia.
- 5:54Speaker 3: I think that's a good thing. I think because of
- 5:58Speaker 3: the Internet over the last twenty here's so many fans
- 6:01Speaker 3: list of so many different styles of music now that
- 6:03Speaker 3: it's all cool that it can be a mishmash and
- 6:05Speaker 3: all mixed together. You know, it's good for music fans
- 6:08Speaker 3: to be able to go to a festival and hear
- 6:10Speaker 3: all that different kind of music.
- 6:12Speaker 2: Nice definitely, But well, what's it like backstage? By Like,
- 6:14Speaker 2: does it does it get like it used to a
- 6:16Speaker 2: high school? You know, like you'd have all the all
- 6:17Speaker 2: the metal heads in one corner, you'd have all the
- 6:19Speaker 2: pop kids in another corner, or the different sort of
- 6:22Speaker 2: genres all mixed together.
- 6:24Speaker 3: No. You know, the cool thing about festivals is you
- 6:26Speaker 3: get to hang out backstage and almost all the time
- 6:29Speaker 3: everybody is really cool. That's something I look forward to
- 6:33Speaker 3: because there's a lot of bands, a lot of young
- 6:36Speaker 3: bands too. They just go up and start talking to
- 6:39Speaker 3: me and they're like, go, oh, yeah, I know who
- 6:40Speaker 3: you are. We start talking about music, or they'll ask
- 6:42Speaker 3: me production questions and I and I like that. It's
- 6:47Speaker 3: there's a camaraderie I guess at the festivals that is
- 6:51Speaker 3: something that's truly unique. And you know, if I wasn't
- 6:54Speaker 3: in Garbage, I wouldn't be able to experience that kind
- 6:56Speaker 3: of thing, you know.
- 6:57Speaker 1: So we've been doing enough for a long time and
- 6:59Speaker 1: I look forward to it.
- 7:00Speaker 2: And my Australians kind of remember last week let Alone,
- 7:04Speaker 2: Cheny Easygo right, so I refresh our memory. What can
- 7:07Speaker 2: fans expect from Gobbage of good things?
- 7:11Speaker 3: Well, we're playing pretty strong right now. I think technically
- 7:17Speaker 3: we've learned how to sharpen our sound live over the
- 7:20Speaker 3: last twenty years, and I think we're just playing really
- 7:25Speaker 3: well because we're smarter than we used to be, and
- 7:28Speaker 3: also because Shirley is really on fire right now. And
- 7:30Speaker 3: if Shirley has a good show, we have a great show.
- 7:33Speaker 3: So and the ditch of our new bass player is great.
- 7:38Speaker 3: The set list is interesting. Sureley came up with the
- 7:40Speaker 3: set because she wanted to incorporate some songs lyrically that
- 7:43Speaker 3: sort of reflect the craziness that's going on in the world.
- 7:47Speaker 1: But she also did.
- 7:49Speaker 3: An Instagram poll before rehearsals and asked our fans what
- 7:54Speaker 3: we should include, and she narrowed it down to forty songs.
- 7:56Speaker 3: So there's some deep tracks you know we're playing some
- 7:59Speaker 3: deep the previous albums.
- 8:01Speaker 1: Were also I think gonna play at least two.
- 8:03Speaker 3: Or three songs on the new album, so there's gonna
- 8:06Speaker 3: be the set that Garbage would be quite varied in
- 8:08Speaker 3: what we're performing.
- 8:11Speaker 2: More beauty of festivals is, like we were saying before,
- 8:13Speaker 2: like people come along that might not have heard of
- 8:15Speaker 2: a certain band before and they get to catch them
- 8:17Speaker 2: for the first time at a festival. So just say
- 8:19Speaker 2: someone's coming along and they've got no idea who Garbage is,
- 8:22Speaker 2: what three songs he or should they listen to on
- 8:23Speaker 2: the way there, so they get to know the band
- 8:25Speaker 2: a bit better.
- 8:27Speaker 3: Well, probably some of the early hits that we had,
- 8:30Speaker 3: probably Stupor Girl and Only Happy and Winter Rains and
- 8:34Speaker 3: Cherry Lips that was a massive hit for us in
- 8:36Speaker 3: Australia years ago.
- 8:37Speaker 1: And there's also some of the.
- 8:41Speaker 3: Songs on the new record we've been playing are going
- 8:43Speaker 3: down really well. There's a song called Chinese fire Horse,
- 8:46Speaker 3: which is a stomper live and I guess we're playing
- 8:51Speaker 3: four songs went out No Future and Optimism the first
- 8:54Speaker 3: single we're playing. It sounds killer and I don't know
- 8:58Speaker 3: if we'll play this at the festival. Will be playing
- 9:00Speaker 3: this at our own shows the day that I Met God,
- 9:03Speaker 3: which is the last track on the new record. It's
- 9:05Speaker 3: very sort of Pink Floyd Praggy, and it just sounds
- 9:09Speaker 3: fantastic live. Really, I just love playing it live every night,
- 9:13Speaker 3: and I'm pretty sure that'll be in our own shows.
- 9:16Speaker 3: I'm not sure if it'll be in the festival, but
- 9:18Speaker 3: if our hardcore fans come to our own shows, they'll
- 9:20Speaker 3: be able to hear that track.
- 9:22Speaker 2: You do an your own show, So I don't quit.
- 9:24Speaker 2: Look three last night and I couldn't spot any.
- 9:27Speaker 3: Yeah, they just announced after the festivals were playing I
- 9:31Speaker 3: think Melbourne, Adelaide and then Sydney. We're playing the Sydney
- 9:36Speaker 3: Opera House, which were super jazz. We've never played it before,
- 9:39Speaker 3: so they just announced him a few days ago. Chris,
- 9:43Speaker 3: So it's I'm sure if you look online you can
- 9:45Speaker 3: find it, but they just announced them a couple of
- 9:47Speaker 3: days ago.
- 9:47Speaker 2: Hey, fantastic. Well, I wouldn't mind going back to the
- 9:51Speaker 2: to the early days of the band. Bro Like Gubbage
- 9:53Speaker 2: formed in Wisconsin back in the mid nineties, so was
- 9:56Speaker 2: a musical climate like that gave birth to the band,
- 9:59Speaker 2: and what was your early.
- 10:02Speaker 3: Well, by the time we started Garbage, I was burnt
- 10:05Speaker 3: out on guitar, bass and drums, you know, by the time,
- 10:08Speaker 3: never mind Simon's dream in Sonic Youth. By the time
- 10:11Speaker 3: I did all those records, I had done like a
- 10:12Speaker 3: thousand punk rock records, and I just got bored with it.
- 10:16Speaker 3: It just was it felt one dimensional to me. So
- 10:19Speaker 3: I started using a sampler and making loops of hip
- 10:23Speaker 3: hop beats and using electronica and sequencers, analog synthesizers, and
- 10:28Speaker 3: I wanted to incorporate all those, along with pop melodies
- 10:31Speaker 3: and distorted guitars into the sound of the first Garbage records.
- 10:35Speaker 3: So we really brought in a lot.
- 10:38Speaker 1: Of sort of music genres and sometimes all in the
- 10:40Speaker 1: same song.
- 10:41Speaker 3: And I think we're kind of one of the first
- 10:42Speaker 3: bands to do that at the time, so I think
- 10:44Speaker 3: it really surprised people, but it's sort of set the
- 10:47Speaker 3: template for all the Garbage records. Surely has such a
- 10:51Speaker 3: strong voice that she glues everything together, and she's allowed
- 10:56Speaker 3: us freedom as a band to try almost anything. And
- 11:00Speaker 3: because if you put on any two random Garbage songs,
- 11:03Speaker 3: the production is going to sound different, yet it still
- 11:05Speaker 3: sounds like us there's a sensibility we share that even
- 11:09Speaker 3: if we tried and outsall like garbage, we still sound
- 11:11Speaker 3: like garbage.
- 11:13Speaker 2: That didn't really come out right, But I know what
- 11:15Speaker 2: you're saying.
- 11:16Speaker 3: You know, it's like it just we sound like garbage.
- 11:20Speaker 3: We always will, you know, we always will.
- 11:23Speaker 2: I'm proud of it. Speaking about your debut album, Braylight,
- 11:27Speaker 2: that was a massive success for you, guys like it
- 11:29Speaker 2: had this single stupid Girl, I'm only happy when it's raining.
- 11:31Speaker 2: But when you were making that record, did you have
- 11:34Speaker 2: any feeling or any inkling that it was going to
- 11:36Speaker 2: be something special or did it actually catch you by surprise?
- 11:39Speaker 2: How successful was.
- 11:41Speaker 3: Well, it caught us by surprise. Although I knew there
- 11:43Speaker 3: was some really good songs on it. I was quite
- 11:46Speaker 3: anxious at the time because I think everyone thought, because
- 11:52Speaker 3: my name was attached, it was going to sound like
- 11:53Speaker 3: Nirvana or Smashing Pumpkins, or like a grunge record, and
- 11:56Speaker 3: it did not sound like that. And I was because
- 12:00Speaker 3: if their record flopped, it would have been my name
- 12:03Speaker 3: on that flop. No one knew who Shirley was, No
- 12:06Speaker 3: one really knew who Duke and Steve were, and I
- 12:09Speaker 3: had to take a leap of faith. I felt the
- 12:10Speaker 3: songs were good, and I really felt powerful about the
- 12:16Speaker 3: decision I made to be in a band again. I've
- 12:19Speaker 3: always loved being in bands, and I just made the
- 12:21Speaker 3: commitment to it.
- 12:22Speaker 1: And here we are thirty years later.
- 12:25Speaker 2: Fantastic.
- 12:26Speaker 3: Now.
- 12:26Speaker 2: I hope I've done my research properly because I didn't
- 12:28Speaker 2: double check this, but I've came across something and said,
- 12:31Speaker 2: you guys performed and co produced the theme song to
- 12:34Speaker 2: the ninety James Bond film The World Is Not Enough?
- 12:36Speaker 2: Is that true?
- 12:37Speaker 3: That is true?
- 12:40Speaker 1: I mean that was an incredible experience.
- 12:43Speaker 3: I think there's only been twenty five Bond themes and
- 12:46Speaker 3: Garbage has recorded one of them.
- 12:48Speaker 1: It was a very heavy time for us.
- 12:50Speaker 3: We were on tour and got a call from the
- 12:53Speaker 3: composer David Arnold, would Garbage like to do the Bond theme?
- 12:56Speaker 3: And I remember Shirley just freaked out, Oh my god.
- 12:58Speaker 1: Yes.
- 12:59Speaker 3: Logistically it was hard because we had to find days
- 13:02Speaker 3: to go in the studio and record between shows. So
- 13:06Speaker 3: I remember the first day we went into a studio
- 13:08Speaker 3: in London. We played like on a Saturday at a
- 13:11Speaker 3: festival in France, and after the show, immediately after we
- 13:16Speaker 3: took these golf carts out to this field behind the
- 13:19Speaker 3: stage and there was a private jet, a small private jet.
- 13:22Speaker 3: We got into it and we flew over the English
- 13:24Speaker 3: Channel lane. We went right to the studio where David
- 13:27Speaker 3: the composer was and we recorded the basic track for
- 13:31Speaker 3: the World Is Not Enough. Now. We didn't finish the
- 13:33Speaker 3: whole song that day, but we came up with the
- 13:35Speaker 3: core of it, and then we had to get on
- 13:37Speaker 3: a plane and fly to a show in Germany on
- 13:39Speaker 3: Monday morning, so it was all quite crazy. But yeah,
- 13:43Speaker 3: we're really proud of that song because we tried really
- 13:46Speaker 3: hard to adhere to making it sound like a classic
- 13:51Speaker 3: Bond theme, and I think that we succeeded. I mean,
- 13:54Speaker 3: there's been a lot of Bond themes that are fantastic,
- 13:57Speaker 3: and there's been some that are not very good because
- 13:59Speaker 3: they don't because to me, they don't sell anything like
- 14:02Speaker 3: a classic James Bond theme. But we worked really hard
- 14:04Speaker 3: at trying to make it sound like a classic one.
- 14:06Speaker 2: I like you say, bright like, there's only been twenty
- 14:08Speaker 2: five Bond movies, so there's only twenty five bands in
- 14:11Speaker 2: the world ever that they've done that. Man, Like, that's fantastic.
- 14:14Speaker 2: Achievement Bright really well done.
- 14:17Speaker 3: Yeah, you know we considered playing that on this US
- 14:20Speaker 3: run too, and then at the last minute surely did
- 14:22Speaker 3: not put it into the set.
- 14:23Speaker 1: But it's possible we'll worked out into the.
- 14:26Speaker 3: Set when we play our own shows in Australia in December,
- 14:30Speaker 3: so we'll see fingers crossed.
- 14:32Speaker 2: You can't play the opera House Made and not play
- 14:34Speaker 2: the James Bond theme, are you there? That'd be a shame.
- 14:36Speaker 1: I think you're right, Chris. I got to bring that
- 14:38Speaker 1: up with Shirley.
- 14:40Speaker 2: No, Gavin still features the same four band members he
- 14:44Speaker 2: started with last century, but you know it's almost unheard
- 14:47Speaker 2: on Bray, Like, how important is that factor in the
- 14:50Speaker 2: band still touring and putting out albums LF in thirty
- 14:52Speaker 2: five years.
- 14:54Speaker 3: Well, you know, we're lucky that we share a lot
- 14:56Speaker 3: of sensibilities. You know, our politics are similar. We're all foodies,
- 15:00Speaker 3: we like art and culture, and we enjoy each other's company.
- 15:05Speaker 3: Not to say that we don't argue a lot, because
- 15:07Speaker 3: we do. But I think at this point in our
- 15:09Speaker 3: career we're able to argue about things and just let
- 15:12Speaker 3: it go fall by the wayside. You know, we don't
- 15:14Speaker 3: hold on to grudges or things get too personal, and
- 15:19Speaker 3: at this point I think we also appreciate how lucky
- 15:22Speaker 3: we are that we've had this career and that we
- 15:25Speaker 3: have each other. You know, we're Our eighth album came
- 15:28Speaker 3: out earlier this year and we're already talking about going
- 15:30Speaker 3: to the studio in the fall of next year and
- 15:32Speaker 3: starting our ninth album, So fingers crossed that's going to happen.
- 15:35Speaker 2: Fantastic brother both. Thanks very much for your tom but
- 15:37Speaker 2: it's been a pleasure speaking with you. Gabi Jahia from
- 15:40Speaker 2: December fifth for the Good Things festival got you Iron
- 15:43Speaker 2: couple of shows too, I've just found out, so hopefully
- 15:45Speaker 2: I get to pick you up in Bristain night outside
- 15:47Speaker 2: you around and see the size.
- 15:49Speaker 3: Yeah, Chris, thank you so much, and thank you to
- 15:50Speaker 3: all our fans down in Australia. Man, you've been there
- 15:53Speaker 3: for us for thirty years and I will see you
- 15:55Speaker 3: in December