Ahead of Garbage releasing their seventh album, No Gods No Masters, the legendary Shirley Manson looks back on an incredible career in which she’s sold over 17 million albums, opened the Scottish Parliament and played a Terminator...
WORDS: Niall Doherty PHOTO: Rick Guest
Garbage have always felt like outsiders…
“We’re outliers. We always have been and we always will be, that’s who we are. It’s how we operate, the kind of music we make, we don’t sound like anybody else. We’re not in any scene. I don’t feel one way or another about it, other than I notice it, and that’s OK. It’s been really good for us in our career, whether you love us or hate us, we are unique. To be able to carve out that kind of identity for yourselves in an industry is really valuable. And if the price to pay is being an outlier, then so be it.”
The industry today is too dominated by pop music…
“Garbage emerged at a time when alternative music was the mainstream music of choice. It was the first time it’s ever happened in history, and it’s certainly not happened since, it was just a glorious moment that we enjoyed, and we were so fortunate. Since then, I feel like music has become more and more segregated and pop music is its own discipline unto itself, it just operates differently. We used to be able to get on the radio, and when I say we, I mean alt bands of any sort. Currently, radio and all the playlists are dominated by these massive pop corporations. It feels like the pop corporations, they just get bigger and bigger and bigger, get more and more sustained by a system and it’s impossible to really break into that if you’re not making either hip-hop or pop music.”
I was born to play a Terminator…
“Playing a T-1001 in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was such a good experience. I was used to being a lead singer in a band, I wasn’t used to being a working actor. I was very stressed out when I did it because I didn’t have any confidence in myself and they would come in 20 minutes before shooting with an entirely different script and say, ‘Sorry, we’ve scrapped these pages, this is the script now and you’re on set in 20 minutes.’ I literally thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown, because I take what I do really seriously. But you know, I know what it’s like to be an unfeeling bitch bent on revenge, so it came naturally to me in the end, as it turns out.”
I realised Garbage had become huge when…
“We were in Mexico City doing an in-store. The fan mania was so intense that we had to leave, we had to get rushed out by security because they nearly broke the windows of the store, that was really concerning. It was a bit like Garbagemania, people were throwing themselves in front of our vehicles and I was screaming, I was really worried. Then when we went to Japan, I got on stage and started singing and I couldn’t hear myself sing because the screaming of the audience was so intense. That was when we were like, ‘Well, we’re rock stars, this is fucking mental.’”
Patti Smith is my hero, I lost it when I met her…
“Patti Smith continues to be like a beacon in the darkness and has remained inspirational and brave and hard as nails and soft as a kitten’s belly. I’m in awe and I’m in thrall to her. I first met her in Greece. The promoter that we were working with knew that I was obsessed and brought me in to meet Patti in her dressing room and I absolutely lost my shit. It was awful, like, I started crying. She put her arm around me and she was just really solid and powerful and quiet. She didn’t try and pacify me in any way. She just put her arm around me and it was such a gangster move. I was so impressed by her. It was glorious, everything I hoped it would be.”
Opening the Scottish Parliament in 1999 was…
“Fucking mega. It was amazing. That was a moment for me. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, even when I get really senile. It was a dreamy moment, it was such a beautiful summer’s night and I had pink hair and my band was doing really well and my mum was there, my mum was still alive. It was very magical for me and to get the honour of my city, to be blessed by their respect. It was delicious.”
I wanted to speak up against injustice on the new Garbage album…
“I felt like I was brimming over with indignation making this record. I’ve tried in the past to articulate complicated things but this time, I was just so clear about what was going on. These times are extraordinary. They’re the most intense, most extreme times that I’ve ever lived through and I’m grateful me and the band were able to meet that moment and do what artists are often relied upon to do, to say things that not everybody wants to say or feels comfortable saying or knows how to say.”
