On August 26, 1966, the vocalist was born popular group Garbage. Scottish singer Shirley Anne Manson will celebrate her forty-seventh birthday this Monday.
The singer has been interested in music since childhood - she played the piano and guitar. Before Garbage, she managed to participate in several musical projects, but only this group brought her recognition and world fame.
In honor of the singer’s birthday, we have selected the team’s best hits for you and invite you to remember and listen to them again.
Shirley Manson joined the group in August 1994, when the musicians were already finishing their first album. Thus, she almost did not participate in the “birth” of the songs, but she brought her amazing vocals to the group, without which it is now simply impossible to imagine her.
By the way, the singer’s vocals are really unusual - it’s called contralto, which means the lowest singing voice. Finding one is not so easy.
In general, in 1995, Garbage's debut album went on sale and brought the group wild popularity. It sold more than 4 million copies. Songs became big hits
"Only Happy When It Rains"
"Stupid Girl"
After extensive touring that followed immediately after the release of the album, the group began working on the second. And this time Manson contributed huge contribution into the process of creating songs - she became the main lyricist for this record.
The second album was not inferior to the first, the group went on tour again. At the same time, they continue to work - during the tour the famous The World Is Not Enough:
This composition was recorded for one of the James Bond films. It’s hardly necessary to say what she was like resounding success– you can still hear it on the radio, even after so many years.
The group became the third Scottish performer to glorify the famous superspy. Previously, the James Bond theme was performed by Lulu and Shinna Watson.
Garbage's most successful album was released in 2005. Many critics agreed that it was on this record that Manson revealed herself most as an author - her lyrics became open and very touching.
It was this album that opened the main single, and now the group’s most famous hit - "Why Do You Love Me"
Largely due to this, the album took record positions in most world music charts and stayed there for a record amount of time.
Before recording the album, Manson underwent major surgery to have a cyst removed from her vocal cords. The singer had problems with her voice for a long time. It is all the more surprising that despite the problems, she was able to perform her solo parts no worse, and in some cases even better, than before.
After such a resounding success and a number of sold-out concerts, the group is taking a break. Until 2007, little was heard about the musicians: most took up solo careers, but none reached the popularity of their joint success.
In 2007 Garbage finally got together. A new album was not released, but the group released a single "Tell Me Where It Hurts"
This song, stylized as pop music from the 70s, quickly became a hit and delighted all old and new fans. We started talking about the revival of the team, about the first indicators of their fruitful work.
Unfortunately, this was not the case - soon after recording the single, the musicians broke up again. However, the reunion was announced again in 2010, and in 2012 the musicians released their new album. It turned out no worse than the previous ones - singles
"Blood for Poppies"
And "Battle in Me"
took the top lines of the charts and made it clear that the musicians were still capable of much.
Garbage(Garbich) - American rock a group from the city of Madison (USA, Wisconsin), dating back to 1994.
With their creativity, the members of Garbage proved to the entire rock music world that they are one of those rare groups whose uncompromising and creative approach is completely in tune with mass tastes. Using a mixture of musical components such as sampling, tape looping, and other studio techniques, the group finds itself among those who have not strayed from the traditions of such hit bands of the past as Blondie.
Biography
Garbage's story begins in Madison, where former students Steve Marker and Brian "Butch" Vig decided to open a recording studio in 1983. For the past six years, Vig has been the drummer and part-producer for the college pop group Spooner, which released three albums between 1978 and 1982.
By the mid-'80s, Marker and Vig's studio was open for business, and although Spooner had disbanded, Vig and Duke Erickson's new band, Firetown, signed a deal with Atlantic. In 1987, Firetown released the album "In the heart of the heart country", which became a modern rock hit, with the single "Carry the tourch".
However, Firetown's run was short-lived, and in 1988 Vig joined Marker's Smart studio and began his production career in earnest. On next year he oversaw the release of Killdozer's For Ladies Only and worked on Fluid's 1990 album Glue. The real breakthrough in Vig's career came when he produced Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, in 1991, which became a landmark in the history of alternative music in the 1990s. After this, Vig received many invitations. His track record includes such legendary albums as “Siamese Dreams” by the Smashing Pumpkins and “Dirty” by Sonic Youth. From 1990 to 1994, Vig produced more than a dozen albums, and by mid-decade he had become known as a remixer. Erickson and Marker became very skilled in the field of sound engineering at this time, working with such bands as Nine Inch Nails and Depeche Mode.
All this time, Vig, Marker and Erickson also continued to work on their own music. In 1994, Marker watched the MTV show 120 Minutes, which showed the video for “Suffocate Me” by the little-known Scottish band Angelfish, whose vocalist was Shirley Manson. Vig became interested in the singer and sent her an invitation. Since Angelfish was already on the verge of collapse, Manson soon agreed to take part in a new project called Garbage.
In 1994-1995, the group was preparing to release their debut album, experimenting with sound and recording more and more new tracks. On October 2, 1995, Garbage's first self-titled album was released, which soon became one of the most commercially successful albums of the year. The record was a wonderful blend of studio work, top-notch vocals and technical brilliance. Hits such as "Stupid Girl", "Milk", and "Only Happy When It Rains", released within a year, achieved incredible sales.
The band's debut album already represents all the features of the Garbage style, about which Butch Vig said: " We are a rock band playing pop music". The record demonstrates an original combination of creaking and viscous grunge sound with pop melodies and electronic effects. Great skill in the field of electronic sampling, which allows you to “assemble” the musical texture of compositions from a huge number of superimposed sound tracks, immediately made the group famous. The musicians themselves This is exactly how they explained the origin of the group’s name (Garbage - “garbage” in English): “we collect compositions from various musical garbage.”
An innovation in the history of post-grunge was the demonstrated Garbage the manner of “technically” composing the guitar sound itself - from individual pre-recorded samples layered on top of each other (as opposed to classic grunge, where live guitars were used without subsequent electronic processing). And the introduction of the composition “Supervixen”, which opens the debut album, for the first time presented a typical start-stop effect for alternative music, created not “live”, but using recording means (the short pause after the first bars was absolute, without any guitar echoes) .
The group’s style is also characterized by musical eclecticism, the desire to create compositions at the intersection of different styles (for example, the composition “Queer” combining elements of trip-hop, industrial, grunge and blues).
As a result, the debut album sold more than 4 million copies (excluding pirated copies). In 1996, the young group's success was bolstered by their participation in the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, which included a lightweight remix of their song "# 1 Crush" made by Nelly Hooper.
A long path of new experiments followed. The group members were very picky about the quality of their musical material and the pause between the first and second albums was two whole years. In May 1998, the second album Garbage Version 2.0 was released. Despite the long promotion, within a year the disc also became multi-platinum. Long tours 1998-1999. active advertising on MTV, the release of original videos (for example, the legendary “surreal” video “Push It”) contributed to the great success of the album; songs such as “I Think I’m Paranoid”, “Special” and “When I Grow Up” became worldwide hits.
Compared to its predecessor, Version 2.0 is distinguished by a greater bias towards electronics and techno, as well as reminiscences of the hits of various rock groups of the 1960-1980s, giving the record a subtle nostalgic mood. On this album, the musical eclecticism characteristic of the group is even more felt: there is aggressive techno (“Hammering In My Head”) and melodic pop ballads in the style of the Beatles (“Special”). The highlight of the album is the lyrical ballad “You Look So Fine”, stylized as music from films and recorded with a symphony orchestra.
Garbage's popularity peaked when in 1999 the band performed David Arnold's song "The World is Not Enough" for the soundtrack to the James Bond film The World is Not Enough.
Garbage: Beautifulgarbage (2001)
The third album “Beautifulgarbage” (2001) was musically conceived as a caustic satire on the cult of glamor and modern pop culture, and was built on cliches brought to the point of parody dance music(elements of rap in “Shut Your Mouth”, r"n"b in “Androgyny”, sickly sweet vocals in “Cherry Lips” (“Go, Baby, Go!”)).
Completely rejected by mainstream pop fans (for whom it was intended) and coldly received by the band's former fans, this record was a modest success - even despite the radical change in the image of the vocalist.
Garbage: Bleed Like Me (2005)
New rise in popularity Garbage marked the fourth disc of Bleed Like Me (2005). The album was released after a long three-year break, during which the group was on the verge of breaking up several times. The disc debuted in fourth place on Billboard magazine's Top 100, and was also in fourth place. American chart- musicians have never managed to climb so high on the first try. According to the musicians, “On the new album, for the first time, we tried to get away from the thoughts: “Let's see how far our ideas will take us.” We didn’t experiment, we didn’t try to surprise anyone, we just wrote songs.” Unlike its predecessors, the sound of Garbage's fourth album is simpler, even rougher, with a minimal amount of sampling, and is more reminiscent of the band's live performances than their studio work.
During the recording of this album, the band, famous for always handling the recording of their albums themselves, invited several outside musicians into the studio for the first time. The first recruit was John King from the Dust Brothers. Shirley admits that it was with the appearance of this man that she finally “calmed down and realized that the album would be completed.” Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters then joined them and contributed drums to the new album's opening song, "Bad Boyfriend."
In 2007, the group released the "nostalgic" single "Tell Me Where It Hurts", stylized as 1970s pop music.
Since then the group has been in sabbatical, did not give concerts or record new songs, and Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson took up an acting career for some time.
In 2010 Garbage announced work on a new album.
At the end of 2011, the band took part in the recording of the tribute "AHK-toong BAY-bi Covered" in honor of U2's album "Achtung Baby", recording the song "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" for it.
Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson has always stood apart from her colleagues. So far, many of them have placed too much emphasis on visual perception and flashy outfits (every now and then provoking scandals and often forgetting that in music project After all, music reigns supreme), the vibrant Edinburgh native has confidently honed her style, almost never coming under the scrutiny or barrage of criticism from the Fashion Police. Shirley Manson's style seemed to never fail. He simply was and is. Inspired by one of latest photo shoot Shirley for Billboard magazine, we decided to remember how the images of one of the brightest rock vocalists of our time have changed over the past twenty years.
Growing up as a star: what influenced Shirley Manson's style?
Born in 1966 (yes, the singer will turn fifty this year), Shirley Manson witnessed the change of different fashion eras with her own eyes. In the late 1960s, fashion was dominated by hippie culture and its opposite in spirit, minimalist avant-garde pop art. The crazy 1970s gave the world disco, safari and military styles, giving way to punk culture in the second half of the decade. In the 1980s, the time came when fashion trends, as such, ceased to exist separately from each other. And the same punk fashion became the quintessence of this mixture. Depending on their taste and musical preferences, young people actively worked on their own unique style, looking for inspiration in literally everything: in bygone decades and even centuries, in other cultures, in different movements and types of art. And Shirley Manson’s style became unique in its own way precisely because of the atmosphere of freedom and rebellion in which she had the opportunity to grow up.
Having experienced serious problems with the perception of her own appearance due to attacks from peers, the owner big eyes and a luxurious head of red hair began to spend a lot of time on the streets of Edinburgh along with various informals. Shirley's tastes were largely influenced by the post-punk wave with its tendency towards gothic and artsy gloom, as well as the style of her favorite performers - Patti Smith, Debbie Harry (you can read about the style of the Blondie vocalist), the groups Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Pretenders and others. It was thanks to such a wide selection of fashion references that Shirley Manson learned to skillfully combine femininity and androgyny in her images, to emphasize sexuality without being vulgar.
As a result, already in the early 1980s, even before participating in his first group Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, Shirley became known in music circles as a stylish person. It was not uncommon for her to work as a stylist with various musicians. With her height of 170 cm, the singer managed to become a model in Jackie magazine, as well as a salesperson in the famous Miss Selfridge store (in outfits from which the girl often went to clubs).
This is how we saw Shirley Manson in the 1990s
Already while participating in my second group Angelfish (1992-1994), Shirley gravitated towards interesting sexual images, which the whole world will later see in videos and at concerts of the Garbage group. The main element of the singer's wardrobe was a small Short dress. Available in different styles and colors, Shirley's dresses most often sent us straight back to the 1960s. But! As soon as you put on heavy boots and classic black mesh, the outfit began to be more aggressive, defiant and daring. The girl completed her look with voluminous styling (at that time the singer’s hairstyle varied from a torn bob to long hair below the shoulders), as well as catchy makeup using bright single-color shadows or pretentious black smoky eyes. It was almost impossible to imagine Shirley in the 1990s without eyeliner and bright ruby lips.
However, in the group’s videography one can also find an example of a calmer image of the singer, such as Manson could be seen on tours. In the 1995 Vow video, Shirley appeared in black jeans and a T-shirt, with simple black boots. The heart of the image was a bright shaggy fur coat of rich red color, which contrasted favorably with the red color of her hair.
Particularly piquant and memorable at that time was the image of Shirley in the video I Think I’m Paranoid, where the singer appeared before the audience in a short black polka dot dress with open shoulders, which was complemented by panties with the same print and heavy black boots. If you grew up in the 1990s, you'll definitely remember how sexy this video was.
Late 1990s - first half of 2000s: the other side of Shirley Manson
However, already during the promotion of the second album Version 2.0, Shirley Manson’s style began to undergo changes. The videos Special, You Look So Fine, and then the subsequent soundtrack to the Bond film The World Is Not Enough showed us a luxurious Shirley, who is no stranger to femininity in its most classic and even strict manifestations. The images of that period combined women's military and evening wear, a reference to military fashion of the 1930s and 1940s and the aesthetics of sadomasochism. For example, remember the vest with a fur collar in the aviator style and the leather miniskirt from the Special video. Or the iconic image of Manson from the video The World Is Not Enough, where the singer appeared before the public in a tailored ruby evening dress with an equally sophisticated hairstyle. By the way, the tall horse suited Shirley very well.
The album Beautiful Garbage that followed in 2001 and the clips released one after another in support of the record were accompanied by a sharp change in the singer’s image. If in the Androgyny video we are in last time When they saw Shirley with her usual red hair color, in subsequent videos the performer appeared before the public as a bright blonde. She also opted for a short, boyish haircut with lots of choppy, asymmetrical strands. In her clothing style, as well as in her lyrics, Manson flirted with the theme of glamor, but, according to the musicians themselves, this period of creativity was filled with irony: it is no coincidence that the title of the album is translated as “Beautiful Trash.” Shirley's outfits were dominated by interesting cuts, a combination of leather and hard fabrics, and high-heeled shoes.
With the release of the album Bleed Like Me, the singer returned to her usual red hair color and systematically demonstrated different sides of her style. For example, in the video Why Do You Love Me we saw not only old style Shirley Manson (remember the scene where she dresses in a little black dress in front of a photograph of Debbie Harry), but also could appreciate a tweed jacket straight out of the 1960s, as well as a variety of stockings and a pair of wonderful striped socks. In the city video Run My Baby Run, filmed in a documentary style, Shirley showed off her casual style: sneakers, jackets, scarves. However, in the video you can also see an allegorical image of a girl with long blond hair and a golden cloak. The clips Bleed Like Me and Sex Is Not The Enemy can be called more fashion-oriented.
There is 1970s glamor and animal prints, interesting military looks. By the way, Garbage’s work of this period became more socio-politically oriented: Manson often wrote lyrics on the topics of equality and military action that concerned her. That is why military style and khaki print most often appeared in Shirley's concert wardrobe.
Late 2000s - 2010s: Shirley Manson takes glamor to the extreme
Promotional photo for the new album Garbage – Strange Little Birds After the release of the greatest hits collection in 2007, new song Tell Me Where It Hurts, viewers saw Shirley Manson in a sophisticated image. To this day, the singer often adheres to a retro style in her outfits. She experiments with feminine images of the pre-war era, for example, as in the videos Blood For Poppies and Big Bright World - flowing dresses and tops that emphasize the figure, soft curls or interesting high buns. He uses leopard print, preferring it both on stage and in videos, and in life (by the way, it was the one that became the focal point in the design of the latest album of the group Strange Little Birds).
Shooting for NOTOFU magazine (2014)
It is sometimes said that Garbage has been around since 1994. All its members are far from amateurs: Butch Vig produced discs of such groups as Nirvana (the Nevermind album, and the group as a whole, Shirley’s voice works not only to compensate for the often absent or non-predominant solo guitar parts, but also enriches and without that, the sound would seem good. And there’s no need to talk about the effects at all. Specialists in the field of sound recording and remixes who worked with such a thing. in various directions like Eurotechno Depeche Mode, and rock U2, know how to work with samples no worse than The Prodigy. Well-balanced music that works on the mood.
Critics began to call the group's style post-grunge, gothic pop, and even alternative. Although they are not classified as soon as possible. On the Internet, and not only, you can find their songs in sections of a hodgepodge of alternative music, rock of various degrees of freedom, and even thrash. During this period, the musicians themselves define their music as something between Curve, Nine Inch Nails and Eurythmics, with a clear predominance of Roxy Music.
The songs from their first album can seem dark if you don't listen to the words, and if you listen closely, they can seem cruel and too honest. As someone said: “The band’s music absorbs the despair of the 90s and does not need a selection of epithets.”
Video clips were shot for several songs from the first album, later combined into a single video released on VHS and, naturally, called “Garbage”. By the way, this half-hour film featured not only original versions of songs, but also interruptions from remixes. Getting this masterpiece is currently quite difficult.
In early 1997, Garbage entered the studio to record their second album. "We'll just hang out in the studio and tape whatever comes to mind," Steve Marker said. Any day now, a new Garbage album called “Version 2.0” will be released. Marker described the upcoming LP as "more black and danceable than the first. "It'll be like 'As Heaven Is Wide.' We dedicated one of the songs to our idol, singer Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders,” he said.
As it turned out later, a couple of years spent recording is not the longest period of waiting for numerous fans. While recording the second studio album the group came up with a non-standard, as they say now, marketing ploy. Shirley Manson began keeping her online diary, or, as they say now, a blog. From this diary, fans of the group learned news about the tracks being recorded, what is called “first-hand.” Numerous music publications reprinted parts of Shirley's diary, which fueled the already high interest in the group. This continued until careless criticism of Radiohead's new album caused widespread displeasure and almost led to lawsuits. After which the group changed the rules and prohibited reproducing and quoting the diaries without written permission.
In principle, “Version 2.0” repeats the recipe of the first album: a rock band writes excellent pop songs, makes them sound more modern with the help of samples and all kinds of electronics. Shirley noted: “Everything on the album is about me, about my life. It's more personal than the first one." The album appealed to lovers of high-quality sound and rose to first place in the national and indie charts in Britain (and to 13 in its homeland in the USA). Butch Vig described the band's music at that stage as: "Heavier than Nine Inch Nails, groover than hip-hop, more guitars than My Bloody Valentine." Particularly popular are the songs “Push It” (the first single from the album), “When I Grow Up”, “I think I’m paranoid” and “You Look So Fine”.
Quite a long time passed before the group announced the start of work on their third album. Even after this, the work did not go very well. “The boys were hanging out at the bar,” recalls Shirley Manson, “and I was sitting comfortably in some corner, wrapped in an old blanket, staring blankly at the TV.” The confusion and confusion of the musicians can be explained: despite the abundance of ideas and a clear desire to work, they did not yet fully understand in which direction they should develop. The musicians decided to work with pop music. “We have always been fans of this particular movement,” says Shirley. - This partly manifested itself in “Version 2.0”, but then we were still under pressure from guitar fashion. Just don’t rush to conclusions - we put our own meaning into the concept of “pop!”
Unlike its rather conceptual predecessors, “Beautiful Garbage” is a provocative mixture of caustic R&B (“Androgyny”), stylized folk (“So Like A Rose”), more or less familiar rock drive (“Silence Is Golden”) ", "Shut Your Mouth"), outright parody ("Can't Cry These Tears") and a brilliant tango ("Untouchable"). “We have come to the conclusion,” says Butch Vig, smiling sarcastically, “that not being afraid to try and move away from the usual sound is not only a necessary thing, but also an interesting thing. Everyone except Shirley is a producer to one degree or another, so the process of learning new things was quite harmonious.” The musicians really had a lot of time to afford everything, because work on “Beautiful Garbage” lasted 14 months.
The album was followed by an exhausting world tour, during which Shirley began to have problems with her voice, followed by a diagnosis of nervous and physical exhaustion. After the end of the tour, troubles fell on the group - Butch Vig began to have health problems, family troubles haunted Shirley, who underwent serious surgery on her ligaments. Duke Erickson's father died, and Steve Marker lost his mother... When they met, they could talk about anything, but not about work or the studio. “I remember we sat across from each other and were silent,” recalls Shirley Manson. - Because they didn’t know at all whether we would continue to work together. If yes, then working on new songs will be very hard. If not... I don't know. It seems like I didn’t feel anything at all then.”
After the first, not very successful attempt to go into the studio, the members of Garbage took a long time out. The next time they found themselves in the studio was by chance - one fine morning a ten-ton truck drove into the building of their Smart Studios. After the renovation, the guys gradually joined the process of recording the album.
In Russia, the album was released on April 11, 2005. According to the musicians, “On the new album, for the first time, we tried to get away from the thoughts: “Let's see how far our ideas will take us.” We didn’t experiment, we didn’t try to surprise anyone on purpose, we just wrote songs. Therefore, the music on the album will be closer to the “Version 2.0” disc, and the nature of the songs will be sexually aggressive.” Garbage, famous for always recording their albums themselves, invited outside musicians into the studio. The first recruit was John King from the Dust Brothers. Shirley admits that it was with the appearance of this man that she finally “calmed down and realized that the album would be completed.” Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters then joined them and contributed drums to the new album's opening track, "Bad Boyfriend."
The band's new album, Garbage, is performing well on the charts. Not only did it become the band's fastest-selling album, but it also performed the best on the charts compared to previous releases.
It debuted in the top 100 of Billboard magazine in fourth place, and it is also in fourth place on the American chart - musicians have never managed to climb so high on the first try.
In 2010, the group entered the top rotation on the radio of the alternative community freakoff.net and received high ratings from users.
www.garbage.com - official website
Bright, daring, red-haired! Garbage singer Shirley Manson - real symbol rebellious 90s. She was always sharp-tongued, devilishly charismatic and endlessly assertive. Remains the same Shirley now. And thank God: maybe it was the determination of this fragile person that helped Garbage enter the list of top rock bands in the world and record The World Is Not Enough for the 19th James Bond film.
On November 11, at Moscow's Crocus City Hall, Garbage, led by Shirley Manson, will celebrate big concert 20th anniversary of his first album. Shortly before the show, we called the singer in Los Angeles and found out why feminism is needed, why you shouldn’t be afraid of numbers in your passport, and how Russia is similar to Scotland.
Shirley Manson
About age
“I won’t lie: watch how your body losing ground, disgusting. There is nothing good about this. But, on the other hand, the very fact that I became older had a great impact on my consciousness. I have become stronger. I feel happier. And I’m glad that there is still a lot of new things ahead that I can and want to learn. It's exciting.
I like the approach of some African tribes and Native Americans who respect and listen to their elders. I think this makes sense. But in the USA and in mine home country, United Kingdom (Shirley is originally from Scotland.-Note ed.), culture is not like that: we seem to have long forgotten the power of wisdom and experience. We have become superficial. We like everything beautiful, everything light. Don't get me wrong: all of this is worth admiring too. But no less than for years!
I adore my age. I love the imprint that time leaves on people. That's life. There is more to an adult than some superficiality. Behind the “shell” there is a certain essence
In general, I'm not afraid of getting old. I embrace the years with joy.”
Garbage - the embodiment of the rebellious 90s
About Garbage, the Moscow concert and its 20-year history
“In Moscow we will play all the songs from the Garbage album, which turns 20 this year. And more songs that we wrote in 1995-1996. This is how we celebrate the anniversary of the first record!
You know, these 20 years have changed a lot in me. Today I am completely different. But I feel even more of a rebel than before. It's even funny.
I'm louder, more open, more active than ever before.
I fucking want to turn over tables more than ever! (Laughs.)
In general, yes, I have changed, but my drive, my passion, my principles are still the same.”
Shirley has always been a rebel. And, according to the singer, the rebellious spirit only grew stronger with age!
About style
“The way I dress is my expression. I can look different every day. It all depends on my mood, where I'm going to go and what I'm going to do. I generally have quite a strange taste, to be honest. I wouldn’t call myself stylish.”
About Russia, Scotland and travel
“I think Russia is very similar to Scotland. Well, at some points. This is strange: on the one hand, the countries are completely different, but on the other hand, on the contrary, they are close to each other.
Russians - here I am, of course, making some generalization, but still - remind me of the Scots. Oh yeah! Loud, passionate, expressive...
And I really like this connection, this similar energy that I feel in Russian culture!
Now I live in the USA, but I really miss my homeland. I come to Scotland every three months. I see friends, family, and soak up the dull Scottish life. (Laughs.) I miss the rain, the clouds, the sky. I need to visit Scotland all the time!
Los Angeles, the city I live in in America, is very different from the city I grew up in in Scotland. But I love LA - it's a great place with large groups of people with their own interests. I like living in the States.
An interesting thing: I always had the feeling that I belonged in every place where I was with the people I loved
Everywhere I go - and I travel a lot - I always find something magical. Everywhere!"
About my husband
“It seems to me that every person who comes into your life influences you in some way. Yes, everyone influences - including enemies. They shape you, your character, your self-perception. So I think my husband too (Shirley is married to Billy Bush, Garbage's sound engineer.-Note ed.) changed me too - one way or another.”
About femininity and rock and roll
“There are a lot of wonderful women making music now. There are many wonderful - even, perhaps, simply magnificent pop singers. For example, Beyonce and - they, in my opinion, are generally the greatest pop artists the world has ever seen!
But I miss the rebels.
I would like to hear real “rebellious in spirit” girls - like they used to be. It's probably hard to fit a rebellious voice into the context of pop music. Or maybe people today are simply not ready for such pop music
And in recent years ten “at the helm”, it seems, is pop who “rules” the world, silencing the underground. It's a pity.
Do I feel like the world is just dominated by “feminine” ideals right now? Well, it must be said that the women's rights movement is indeed regressing. In the 1990s, I and my entire generation felt like we were breaking glass with our foreheads. And we really did. Plus, we were all feminists and talked about it openly. But the pop stars who later became famous for feminism, on the contrary, in every possible way disavowed the ideas of equality. Although, in my opinion, any person - not just an artist - should fight for the rights of others. This matters to people all over the world."
