Making A Living Out Of Garbage

Shirley Manson on life in a rock band, her fears about Donald Trump and why she plans to grow old on Skye

SHIRLEY MANSON’S CV doesn’t read like that of any ordinary rock star. She’s modelled for Calvin Klein, she’s played a Terminator in The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series and she’s only one of three Scotswomen to sing a James Bond movie theme – The World Is Not Enough – following in the footsteps of Lulu and Sheena Easton.

But she’s best known for being the voice and face of the alternative rock band Garbage.

For much of her early career she commuted from her home town of Edinburgh to the States to record with the band, but she is now contentedly domiciled in Los Angeles.

With the band celebrating 25 years in the business, Shirley and fellow members Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig are currently working on a new album.

“That’s us back living and working under one roof,” she says. “Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for the first time since our debut tour back in 1995. The plan is that we work during the day, we go out for a band dinner at night and then we come back and we watch a movie together. We have not done that in literally 20 years.

“We’re going to do that every night that we’re there together. And while we’re all quite excited about it, we’re also a wee bit worried that we’re all going to fall out!”

The band’s debut album Garbage was released in August 1995, and went on to sell more than four million copies. With Shirley co-writing and co-producing the album, she soon became well integrated with the band. An 18-month tour promoting the album made for the perfect bond.

Changed days from the start of her career and she can look back on those days in the late-1990s with mixed emotions, when such camaraderie was something she could only dream about.

The first months were hard, as Shirley remembers. “It was cold, wet and rainy Madison, Wisconsin. I don’t know how I did it, in retrospect,” she says.

“I was living in a hotel room with no cell phone or internet and had to walk to the studio every day. I felt terribly isolated as the band were older than me and had wives or girlfriends.

“I wanted to be with some young folk, but I wasn’t. Looking back, I was terribly immature but you’re supposed to be that when you’re young.

“When I joined the band, I was coming into a very tight unit of three men, who were a lot older than me and who had a lot of history together. And it was their idea, it was their band, it was their everything.

“I had to pay – in my mind – deference to the group’s dynamic. I didn’t have to, but I chose to. And it was a smart decision because if I’d gone in there with my pistols blazing, I’m sure I’d have been out pretty fast. However, I hate being deferential, patient and quiet. It’s 