Garbage frontwoman Shirley Manson recently spoke with NME about the reissue of their 2005 album ‘Bleed Like Me’, the current state of the music industry, and the band’s plans for new material. This week sees the veteran alt-rock band release their fourth album on vinyl for the first time, along with previously unreleased b-sides, remixes and rarities available on streaming platforms. While containing the popular singles ‘Sex is not the Enemy’, ‘Why Do You Love Me’, and ‘Run Baby Run’, the album was met with mixed reviews and didn’t perform as well as their previous releases.
Manson revealed that she didn’t have a particularly good relationship with that record, as it was released during a period of strife within the band and dwindling interest from their record label and the public. The album was made during a time of inner-band tension and unpleasant interference from their label, Interscope Records. Manson said that Interscope had bought their label, Almo, which was a small independent label, and they had soon become a tiny fish in a massive pond. “It was really stressful. They kept on pushing for us to work with people that we didn’t feel were the right fit. As a result of our resistance to that, they decided that we were being really difficult,” Manson explained.
Manson talked about a “fortunate or unfortunate incident” that happened on a flight from Los Angeles to London, where she sat next to “a really famous rockstar” who revealed that Interscope had prioritised No Doubt over Garbage. The incident “was devastating,” she said. “We were meeting the same resistance at radio stations too; they were also saying, ‘Well, we’ll be playing No Doubt, we won’t be playing Garbage’, and the domino effect was devastating. It caused us to turn in on each other because we were so frustrated.”
Manson explained how the incident ultimately led to a feeling that the industry only saw space for one “female-fronted rock band” on the scene. “We couldn’t really move anywhere, and we felt like we were playing with our hands tied behind our backs. That will drive a person insane, and it did. We all went mad, and we took the pressure out on each other. It caused a lot of heartbreak,” she added. Despite their turbulent journey, Garbage is still going strong and planning to launch new material
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