Shirley Manson is, hands down, one of the most insightful and outspoken women in music today. She’s a huge inspiration–not only for her stellar musical output, but for the fact that she always has something important to say.
In advance of Not Your Kind Of People, the highly anticipated return of Garbage due out later this spring, Miss Manson had a brief chat with the L.A. Times. Along with discussing the comeback after a 7 year hiatus, she also confirmed that her solo project is now dead and gone–one of the world’s greatest musical injustices.
Below, a few highlights of the short conversation:
Releasing an album on your own label: scary or liberating?
Free at last! Free at last!! Collectively and individually for that matter, we probably have more experience making records and releasing them than 99% of people working at labels these days. Nor do we have anyone to answer to other than ourselves. People at record companies live in fear of being wrong. Music cannot thrive in that environment. It is an unruly art form. You can’t keep treating it like sausage meat. You have to let it morph and move and breathe. So are we scared? Not a jot.
What’s your favorite lyric on the record?
“I hate love.”
You still stand out as one of the coolest women in pop. Think Gaga is nervous you’re back?
I refuse to step inside the ring and fight like a gladiator against my own. I’m not playing that game. Any woman who has survived a year or more of making music has my undying respect. It is a hard and vicious game and only the strongest and smartest survive.
This woman! For the full interview, click here.
