You've said that this record was more inspired by what you haven't heard lately than by what you have. So, sure, it's all the elements you heard on the first Garbage records, but it sounds current to me-I think anyone who's a hardcore Garbage fan is going to dig it. We love beats, and we love electronica, and we love guitars we also love atmospheric film moments, noise, and pop melodies over minor chords. We already have an identity, so rather than overthink our creative impulses, we've basically freed ourselves to do what feels good. The four of us clearly share a certain sensibility, and when we write songs collectively, what comes out is music that sounds like us, like Garbage. I mean, we were gone for over five years, and when we got back together, we decided that rather than re-invent who we are, let's embrace who we are.
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Well, we've been playing some of the mixes for friends of the band and our management, and everyone's telling us the vibe is very much like the first or second Garbage records. Let's start with the present: you're close to finishing the new Garbage album. While finalizing the mixes for a new Garbage record set for release early next year-their first since 2005's Bleed Like Me-Butch sat down with iZotope at the LA studio of his engineer, Billy Bush, to talk about his storied career, his creative process, his production philosophy, and his ongoing affection for iZotope's Trash. Their catchy and infectious hits-who can ever stop whistling "Stupid Girl" or "I'm Only Happy When It Rains"?-belie a densely-layered sound and an eclectic creative team that adroitly blended electronica, big beat, lo-fi, power pop, trip-hop, shoegazer guitars, and avant-garde noise-scapes.
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Ironically, it's Vig's own group, Garbage, who may well have done the most to expand the palette and possibilities of rock production over the last 15 years. There may be no producer more synonymous with the sound and legacy of alternative rock than Butch Vig, whose early-'90s collaborations with Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Smashing Pumpkins rewrote the rulebook for guitar-centric rock production, and whose recent work with the Foo Fighters, Green Day and Muse continues to set the benchmark for top-shelf rock artistry. The quintessential alternative rock producer looks back on two decades of hit albums, from Nirvana’s Nevermind to Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown, and talks Trash about the new album by his own multi-platinum band, Garbage.