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Scotsman
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Shirley Manson interview: Rock icon on Garbage and her ‘wild years' in Edinburgh band
Shirley Manson, Garbage's iconic frontwoman, speaks to the Evening News about her incredible career and the alt-rock veterans' eighth album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The band were formed in 1994, when Edinburgh-born Shirley met American bandmates Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker. They would go on to become one of the biggest musical acts of the '90s, selling over 15 million albums worldwide. Their best known songs include Stupid Girl, Only Happy When It Rains and the theme to the 1999 James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough. Before finding world stardom with Garbage, Stockbridge-raised Shirley sang with Edinburgh indie stalwarts Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. So how much of a debt, if any, does Shirley owe to her former band? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I have a huge debt to Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. Without them I wouldn't have been prepared for the insane rise of Garbage that I enjoyed. I have a lot of love in my heart for them, and it's wonderful to see them get the kind of praise they deserve. I follow them on Instagram and to see them getting rave reviews, five out of five stars, and entering the Scottish charts is really gratifying. They are insanely talented, and yeah, I'm really proud of them. It's glorious. They are lovely, special people. And they are great artists. You've said in the past it was a wild and decadent time that gave you a 'spectacular education in the world of rock and roll'. It was fantastic. EVERY. SINGLE. DEBAUCHED. GLORIOUS. MOMENT. It was a wild, wild ride. And I have zero regret. We were disobedient, untameable... and hey, that's what you're supposed to do when you're young, right? It was a riot. It was the first time I'd ever been outside of Scotland when Goodbye Mr Macknzie played on the continent and it was glorious. To see the world for the first time while in a rock and roll band - it doesn't get better than that! You famously took a call from Garbage and jumped on a plane to America to audition for the band. What would have happened if you hadn't taken that flight? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The great tragedy of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie is that we were severely mismanaged. It caused a lot of financial duress, and basically destroyed the band. And we had stopped functioning as Goodbye Mr Mackenzie by the time I got the phone call from the Garbage boys. I still think it's terrible... what I call the Swiss cheese effect... when certain things go wrong and you're involved with the wrong kind of people at the wrong time and the wrong place. And that basically hampered Goodbye Mr Mackenzie's momentum. We had run into the rocks basically. And I got this phone call... I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't. I probably would have had to go and get a job. I had no money, I was on the dole. I had no qualifications. And I didn't really know what I would do, so I got the call, and I jumped really cos I didn't have any other option. And I had no idea what I was jumping into. I literally just jumped into the void and it all paid off for me in the end. But I had no idea at the time that it would. I was like, 'ok, this is something to do. I'm gonna do it and I'll get to go to America'. And that's what happened. Did it surprise you how big Garbage became - and how many records you guys sold? Even if you'd talked to me after the success of the first three records, I would not have thought that we'd be enjoying a 30-year career. That's still astounding to me. Even today I'm still reeling from the fact I get to put new records out on a major label and be speaking to journalists like yourself.... that's still kinda wild to me. It just seems like the kinda thing that happens to others, so I don't take it for granted. And I certainly did not see it coming when I jumped on that after making the first record... I was proud of the record we'd made, but I didn't think it had any legs, at all. I was really caught off guard. And then when we released the second one, and we sold as many copies as the first album, that shocked me. So yeah, it's just bizarre. How much do you think the music industry has changed for female artists since your trailblazing early days with Garbage? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I think social media has encouraged the new generation of young women to speak out. I see that in the pop world. All these young women who are pop stars are now massively outspoken about things that they believe in - whether it's Olivia Rodrigo or Lady Gaga or Billie Eilish. They all have causes that they will speak out on - and in a forthright manner. They are way more switched on than my generation was. I was an anomaly really amongst female artists - and I'm not saying I'm the only one cos there were a lot of women in the 90s who were outspoken and talking about taboos. But as outspoken as our generation was, and as outspoken as my peers were, it's nothing compared to how women are now. And I'm so excited by it - it's thrilling to me. What are your proudest moments as an artist? Opening the Scottish Parliament. Absolutely. You have no idea what it feels like to be called up by your management and asked if you want to play at the opening of the first Scottish Parliament in 234 years - or however long it was. It was momentous. It was such a glorious evening and to sing in this spectacular setting underneath our ancient castle... it's etched in my memory and is something I am immensely grateful to have been a part of. How much has Edinburgh changed since you were a teenager? And have the changes been for better or worse? Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's changed. Of course it has. You would want it to change. Nothing stays the same. The city has its own evolution, just like a human being does. Sometimes you lose some beautiful things, and sometimes you gain a lot by change. So I do see that. I personally enjoy a lot of the changes I've seen in Edinburgh - and also I'm a little heartbroken at the death of that amazing moment in time when Edinburgh just had a burgeoning club scene. My favourite was the Hoochie Coochie club. All these kinda places where all the outsiders - the freaks and the geeks - would meet... that seems to have been eroded across the whole globe. There are different clubs that now exist, but I feel like the global communities are much more homogenised than they were when we were young. And I miss that. I miss everybody dressing differently and expressing themselves through their style in wilder, more provocative ways. I miss all the punks and rockabillies and the rockers, etc etc. They used to congregate outside Bruce's Records and places like that. And those record stores disappeared for a while. But old school record stores are coming back, and I think that's wonderful. It's exciting. The new album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, features a more optimistic tone compared to Garbage's previous work - would that be fair to say? Going into making this record, I was determined to find a more hopeful, uplifting world to immerse myself in. The title of the album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light is the perfect descriptor for this new record as a whole. When things feel dark it feels imperative to seek out forces that are light, positive and beautiful in the world. It almost feels like a matter of life and death. A strategy for survival. Our last album was extremely forthright. Born out of frustration and outrage – it had a kind of scorched earth, pissed off quality to it. With this new record however, I felt a compulsion to reach for a different kind of energy. A more constructive one. I had this vision of us coming up out of the underground with searchlights as we moved towards the future. Searching for life, searching for love, searching for all the good things in the world that seem so thin on the ground right now. That was the overriding idea during the making of this record for me - that when things feel dark, its best to try to seek out that which is light, that which feels loving and good. When I was young, I tended towards the destruction of things. Now that I'm older I believe it's vitally important to build and to create things instead. I still entertain very old romantic ideals about community, society and the world. I don't want to walk through the world creating havoc, damaging the land and people. I want to do good. I want to do no harm. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad You've said in other interviews that you were 'completely cut off' from Garbage during the writing process for this new album, following hip surgery you underwent in 2023. Tell us about that. I was in Los Angeles recovering from surgery and I had a lot of brain fog going on because I was on a lot of pain medication. And I was literally learning how to walk again. So I didn't have the fortitude to go into the studio with the band. I just didn't have it in me. So for the first time in 30 years, we were forced into a different way of working. Retrospectively it was actually a gift to be able to disrupt all these old habits of ours. It was actually amazing. It was magical. I wouldn't want to do it again, but I think it really worked for us at that moment. One of the standout tracks on the album is the final track, The Day That I Met God. Tell us about that - did you meet the big man? The idea came to me when I was recovering from major surgery and I felt so raw, vulnerable and scared. I was on the treadmill for the first time following an operation when I suddenly felt this powerful sensation of healing love around me - it was a moment that uplifted me. It took me out from what had felt like hell. The vocal you hear is the writing demo, the first take. Just me sitting on the edge of my bed, in recovery, singing into a handheld microphone. I was feeling so vulnerable and I think that's what lends the song added poignancy. It's really a song about mortality but it's also an expression of gratitude. Gratitude for getting older, gratitude for the longevity of our band, for good health, for the great mystery and for the ongoing, creative adventure of life'. Garbage's new album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, is out now.
Edinburgh Live
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh singer Shirley Manson 'doesn't care' if she's cancelled after 'great career'
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Edinburgh singer Shirley Manson has said she 'doesn't care' if she gets cancelled. The 58-year-old artist, who is never shy with her opinions, said she'd 'rather be true to who she is'. This comes after her eighth album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light was released on Friday, May 30. Manson, who lives in LA with her husband, said it was 'heavenly to get away from the madness' as she came to London amid the release of her album. She told NME magazine: "If you cancel me, you cancel me. I've had a f***ing great career. I really don't f***ing care. "If you cancel us, I'll feel guilty that I've messed s**t up for my band, but I'd much rather be true to who I am as a human being, how I was raised by a family I'm very proud of." Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox Speaking on her latest album, and the motivations behind it, she said: "I've never really written about love very much. I always think it's been written about by people a thousand more talented than me. "I'm just not a romantic person, really. After my mum died and then Veela [Manson's dog], I realised I had to touch love somewhere, somehow. Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. "I've got an amazing marriage and I love my husband so much, but I also realised that in order to move on through a different passage in my life I had to reach out to find all the different types of love: the world, nature, the ocean, friends, my bandmates, my family. "I want to ignite that love. Like a torch when the world feels dark, I need to find all the hands that I can hold. My go-to is usually indignance, so I realised I had to come at things from a different perspective this time around or I would drown in my own negativity."
AsiaOne
03-06-2025
- Entertainment
- AsiaOne
Shirley Manson 'doesn't care' if she is cancelled, Entertainment News
Shirley Manson "doesn't care" if she is cancelled, because she's had a "great career". The Garbage frontwoman has never held back with her opinions, and while she would "feel guilty" that she has "messed s**t up" for the band if she was ostracised from society, the star would rather go through life being "true to who I am as a human being". She told NME magazine: "If you cancel me, you cancel me. I've had a f***ing great career. I really don't f***ing care. "If you cancel us, I'll feel guilty that I've messed s**t up for my band, but I'd much rather be true to who I am as a human being, how I was raised by a family I'm very proud of." Garbage recently dropped their eighth studio album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, which features more tunes about love than Manson has ever penned before. She said: "I've never really written about love very much. I always think it's been written about by people a thousand more talented than me. "I'm just not a romantic person, really. After my mum died and then Veela [Manson's dog], I realised I had to touch love somewhere, somehow. "I've got an amazing marriage and I love my husband so much, but I also realised that in order to move on through a different passage in my life I had to reach out to find all the different types of love: The world, nature, the ocean, friends, my bandmates, my family. "I want to ignite that love. Like a torch when the world feels dark, I need to find all the hands that I can hold. My go-to is usually indignance, so I realised I had to come at things from a different perspective this time around or I would drown in my own negativity." The 58-year-old star has hinted she might try to "get even better" at penning songs about love going forwards. Asked about her future, she said: "Maybe I'll get even better at writing about love. "How could I have not allowed this fire to run in parallel to the rest of my life? How could I have been so blind to it? How could I have wilfully not tuned into that force?" [[nid:716798]]
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'They'd never ask this of men': Garbage album tackles sexist ageism
It is almost 30 years since the Scottish-American band Garbage gained notice with such songs as "Only Happy When It Rains" and "Stupid Girl." Their music - a mixture of sombre rock guitar, electronic elements and cool pop sounds - to this day does not fit into any single genre. The same applies now to their eighth studio album. "Let All That We Imagine Be The Light" is somehow different, yet is unmistakeably still Garbage, as made clear in a dpa interview with singer Shirley Manson in London. Not a band for streaming algorithms "We're an unprogrammable band. We don't fit into the algorithms that this streaming services rely on so heavily. We just don't fit in with any of it," the lead singer says. "It really bothered me for a long time that we didn't belong anywhere. But now I realize how beautiful that is and what freedom it allows and to be be able to enjoy a unique identity, sonic identity, at a time when there are 100,000 songs uploaded onto the internet every single day." According to Manson, the new album is a "companion piece" to the previous LP "No Gods No Masters" which she said "full of outrage and fear." (All the things she was worried about have since come to fruition, she notes.) The new LP is tangibly more positive, said the Scottish singer, who for years now has been living in the US with her husband, Garbage sound engineer Billy Bush. She has since acquired US citizenship herself. Developments in the US - along with the entire international situation - are causing her concern. But there was no question for Manson of once again channeling her fears in her songwriting. "I realized that I cannot afford to remain in the headspace that I inhabited when we wrote 'No God's No Masters'. I had to somehow pivot and change my tactics, shift my own perspective, or I would go mad." The only thing she could control was her love, she says. "Whether it's my love of nature, love of animals, love of my community, love of my band, my romantic love with my husband, all the different forces of love that exist that are open to us, I feel like I'm reaching for and harnessing on this record." Sharp criticism of sexism and ageism Anyone who was afraid Garbage would immediately start doing soft pop can breathe a sigh of relief. The band has retained its bite and discomfort edge. In the punkish "Chinese Firehorse," for example - one of the best new songs - Manson takes aim at sexism and age discrimination in the music industry. Her inspiration came during the promotional campaign for the previous album. "I was 53 years old. I underscore that again, 53 years old. It was the first day of promotion. We had a brand new record. It was coming out on a major record label, and two different journalists, one male, one female, at different times during the day, asked me when I was going to retire. I realized in that moment, they would never ask this of my male peers," she told dpa. The song's text directly targets both interviewers: "You say my time is over / That I have gotten old – so old / That I no longer do it for you / And my face now leaves you cold," she sings. But then goes on the attack: "But I've still got the power in my brain and my body / I'll take no shit from you." By the way, Manson is clearly younger than her bandmates Steve Marker (66), Duke Erikson (74) and the band's founder, Butch Vig (69). "So, yes, this is still very much a real thing," she said about ageism, noting how the mass-circulation Daily Mail recently made fun of her looks. She said this meant nothing to her any longer. "But what I do think it does is it sends messages to younger people who don't have the same fortitude as I, who don't have the same experience as I do. And that can crush a young spirit." Garbage still has something to say Despite the worry about what's happening in the world, Manson says that today she is more optimistic than before. The title of the first track "There's No Future In Optimism" is meant jokingly. "I really love the title, but I'm also in enormous disagreement with it. It is absolutely the polar opposite philosophy that I wanted to employ when coming into making this record," she stressed. But the album "Let All That We Imagine Be The Light" is also not exactly optimistic. From the driving opener to the gloomy "Hold" and the almost gentle, electropop-like "Sisyphus" to the cynical "Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty," Garbage pulls out all the musical stops that set the group apart from other bands. It's worth listening carefully and paying attention to the lyrics. After 30 years, the band still has a lot to say.
Associated Press
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Music Review: The rock band Garbage are defiant on new album, 'Let All That We Imagine Be the Light'
Buzz-saw guitars, dense synthesizers and throbbing percussion can sometimes brighten the mood. That's the goal of the new album from the American rock band Garbage, 'Let All That We Imagine Be the Light.' Due for release Friday, it's the sound of frontwoman Shirley Manson pushed to the brink by health issues and the fury of our times. The band's familiar sonic mix provides a pathway out of the darkness, with heavy riffing and dramatic atmospherics accompanying Manson's alluring alto. 'This is a cold cruel world,' she sings on the crunchy 'Love to Give.' 'You've gotta find the love where you can get it.' The album is Garbage's eighth and the first since 2021's 'No Gods No Masters.' The genesis came last August, when Manson aggravated an old hip injury, abruptly ending the band's world tour. The other members of the group – Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker – retreated to the studio and began work on new music. Manson added lyrics that lament fatalism, ageism and sexism, acknowledge vulnerability and mortality, and seek to embrace joy, love and empowerment. That's a lot, which may be why there's a song titled 'Sisyphus.' The sonics are formidable, too. A mix that echoes the Shangri-Las,Patti Smith and Evanescence helps to leaven the occasional overripe lyric, such as, 'There is no future that can't be designed/With imagination and a beautiful mind,' in the title track. Most of the material is less New Age-y, and there's a fascinating desperation in Manson's positivity. 'Chinese Fire Horse,' for example, becomes a punky, Gen X, age-defying fist-pumper. 'But I've still got the power in my brain and my body/I'll take no (expletive) from you,' she sings. Manson sounds just as defiant singing about a love triangle on 'Have We Met (The Void),' or mourning in America on 'There's No Future in Optimism.' The album peaks on the backside with the back-to-back cuts 'Get Out My Face AKA Bad Kitty,' a battle cry in the gender war, and 'R U Happy Now,' a ferocious post-election rant. Then comes the closer, 'The Day That I Met God,' a weird and whimsical benedictory mix of horns, strings, faith, pain management and more. Hope and uplift can sound good loud. ___ For more AP reviews of recent music releases, visit:
