In a new interview with the Independent in promotion of Garbage’s just released eighth studio album “Let All That We Imagine Be the Light,” frontwoman Shirley Manson revealed that despite being the voice of the band, she has never truly felt like she is fully a part of it.
Manson, who is originally from Edinburgh, explained that she has harbored these feelings since joining Garbage in 1994: “I was always separate from the second I joined the band, I’ve always been an outsider. We would work in the studio, and then they’d go to their homes in Madison, Wisconsin, and I would sit in a weird hotel with no money, no transport, nothing. It was freaky, but it’s been good for me.”
She continued, adding that despite being together for over 30 years, she rarely speaks to her bandmates.
“The band, I have very little communication with. I’ve just started talking about it because I feel like I’ve become so isolated. I don’t want to pretend everything’s hunky dory,” she said, before clarifying that they have yet to reach the separate tour bus stage. “Nothing’s wrong with the band per se, but there’s very little proper communication about anything at all.”
For years, Manson served as the middlewoman between Garbage, their management, and record companies. After her mother’s death in 2008, however, she decided things needed to change.
“I was the interface between the band and management; band and record company,” she explains. “I stopped doing it because I hit a wall and had to protect myself. And then the entire communication between us just… drifted away.”
At one point Garbage’s management suggested they go to therapy – which worked for their other clients, Metallica. Ultimately, though, they declined, blaming the exorbitant cost. “£100,000, or something mad like that!” she recalled.
Manson then noted that she has decided to “let them be” rather than try and fix things.
“It’s not bad, though,” she added. “I know that a lot of people will read it as a negative. I love my bandmates, they’re lovely men, but they’re a boys’ club, and I’ve never been part of that. We live very separate existences and identities – it could be the secret of why we’ve lasted 30 years!”
