Butch Vig talks Garbage’s new album, ageism in music, and returning to Australia for Good Things Festival – and the good local wine (to be shared with Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, of course).
Garbage have always thrived on tension, disruption, and transformation. Across three decades, the band – Shirley Manson, Duke Erikson, Steve Marker, and Butch Vig – has refused to coast on nostalgia, instead reshaping their sound while staying rooted in their chemistry. Their eighth album, Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, may be their most unlikely yet: an intimate and filmic record born from circumstance as much as intent.
For Vig, the story of the album begins with Manson’s health. “Shirley…had to have hip replacement surgery and that took her out of the equation and that made it difficult to sort of move forward with the songs and arrangements because the best way we work is when all four of us are in a room,” he explains. In her absence, the band had to rethink their process.
“Shirley sang a lot of the vocals with a handheld mic in her bedroom in her house, and Duke and Steve and I worked here in my studio in LA and also in a studio that we have in Atwater Village. But it was weird because it was very isolated. And yet I think that Shirley’s vocals are some of the most intimate performances that she’s ever done on this album.”
That sense of intimacy is wrapped in the widescreen atmosphere that has always defined Garbage. The band’s songs often begin with loose jams, but Manson’s voice is what turns them into finished pieces. “A lot of Garbage albums start with a jam, which could be a beat and a baseline or some chords, and they don’t really go anywhere until Shirley sings,” Vig says. “Once she starts singing… the song can morph into a lot of different things. And I don’t know many bands that do that, but that’s how Garbage operates.”
On tracks like ‘Chinese Fire Horse’, the band channelled that evolution into a pointed response to ageism in the industry. “We’re still rocking 30 years into our career, and I think we’re playing as good now as we ever have. Ageism is everywhere in pop culture. They want fresh, young blood and we are not the young fresh blood,” Vig says. “In a way it’s frustrating, but on the other hand, we’ve just sort of embraced it because that’s the reality. And so it kind of liberates you because we don’t have to try and write songs that will compete with whoever’s on top 40 radio right now. We just write whatever we want.”
If the studio is where Garbage chase ideas without limits, the stage is where those ideas meet reality. “We write these songs in the studio and then we have to figure out how the hell to do ’em live,” Vig admits. “Sometimes it’s a bit of a head scratcher because you can do anything you want in the studio and then you have to reinterpret that to put that onto a live stage. But we’ve always done that… live and studio are both great experiences. They’re just completely different.”
Even after decades of touring, Vig’s curiosity remains intact. He attributes some of that to his daughter. “My daughter, Beau, who’s 19, has turned me on to so many cool new young artists of all sorts of genres like singer songwriters, weird trap, hip hop and moody orchestral stuff,” he says. “I’m still curious as a producer. I want to learn everything I can and take it all in and maybe something I hear will translate into something in a new Garbage song.”
That restless energy will soon meet Australian audiences when Garbage return for Good Things Festival in December, alongside Tool, Weezer, Machine Head, and more. “Festivals are definitely different,” Vig says. “The great thing I love about festivals is you get to play in front of a lot of people and there are always going to be some people who have never seen Garbage before and we want to leave an impression.”
“And the bill on Good Things is great – Tool is going to be there. I am a huge Tool fan. I love Maynard. Maynard likes to drink wine. I don’t know if you know that,” he adds, “Australia has very, very good wine, so we’re looking forward to that.”
“We’re friends with Weezer… I’m also psyched to see Refused who are one of the great Prague punk bands of all time.”
As for their own setlist, Vig says some of their classics continue to evolve. “‘Only Happy When It Rains,’ we changed… into more of a way moodier kind of arrangement. We’ve probably played that song a thousand times and we just got bored with playing it, but in rehearsal we decided to go back to the original arrangement, which is pretty cool. So it is full on out the gate. I’m only happy when it boom, it explodes.”
And while Garbage have long secured their place in alternative rock history, Vig insists they are still looking forward. “We want to keep making albums as long as we can. And I personally have always had this idea to make a very stripped down acoustic record with strings… strip it down to just a couple acoustic guitars and some strings and bass and drums. I think it would be cool to do that.”
Garbage will be hitting Aussie stages for Good Things Festival this December alongside Tool, Weezer, All Time Low, Machine Head, and many more.
RELATED
MORE IN Features
