STACK June 2016 Issue 140

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on your insides that you become, conversely,
hollow.
Manson is erudite in explaining her
philosophy on being “long in the tooth”; she’s
passionate about the magic of getting older,
which “you can’t possibly imagine” until that
happiness is yours. “Lots of young women
tell me how scared they are of ageing, and it
makes me feel so sad for them because then I
believe that they focus on all the stuff that will
determine the very opposite of what they want
from getting older,” she says. “That’s a self-
fulfilling prophecy. If you’re scared of ageing,
you will age poorly. If you embrace ageing, you
will be like my dad who is 80 years old and just
went off to China by himself the other day and
called us, his daughters, from the Great Wall of
China. That’s f-cking badass. I want to be like
my dad when I grow up.”
visit MUSIC NEWS
08 JUNE 2016
MUSIC
"When I grow up I’ll be stable/ When I grow
up I’ll turn the tables” went Garbage’s
1998 hit, and speaking to fantasy aunt Shirley
Manson, it’s clear that ‘growing up’ still isn’t
a destination achieved – nor should it ever be.
One of the tracks on new album Strange Little
Birds is titled Teaching Little Fingers To Play; it’s
named for a children’s piano book which was,
coincidentally, my own first foray into music.
“[The title] really did speak to an attitude that
we all in Garbage share, which is that just
because you get older and are experienced and
have seen a lot, you must never stop and think
that somehow you are done,” Manson explains.
“You must never shut yourself down because
that, to me, is like death. I think as artists, and
as human beings, you want to move through
life with your eyes open, and that way you don’t
lose awe and you don’t lose wonder.”
Awe and wonder are folded all the way
through Strange Little Birds, which Manson
and her bandmates recorded at producer icon
Butch Vig’s home studio in the Hollywood Hills
with the express desire to loosen the bonds of
experience. “Anybody using technology today
is really in danger of losing the immediacy of
performance,” the vocalist says. “It’s something
that really great artists, like, say Jack White,
SHIRLEY MANSON
GARBAGE
continued
Strange Little Birds by Garbage
is out June 10 via Liberator.
are incredibly in-depth at capturing. But we’re
not all as gifted musicians, so our temptation
when we get behind the console is to really fix
performance. This time around, we all decided
that we had to make each other feel excited
in the room – if we were able to change the
molecules in the room at the time, then we’d
done our job, because you can translate that to
an audience.”
The tracks on Strange Little Birds span an
engrossing, propulsive, cinematic vista; from
the insidious ‘90s riffs of Night Drive, which
includes a recording of falling rain that Manson
herself recorded in Scotland, to the breathy
edge of the singer’s voluminous and perfectly-
built harmonies in the dynamic Blackout (“I
never think about harmonies – there’s a billion
and one you can put down and it’s just what
tumbles out of your mouth, the mood, on the
day”), to the striking stand-out Empty, which
features Garbage’s heavy, industrial-electronic
sound with a viscid melody which is never lost
amongst the thick guitars – its lyrics detail the
feeling of a romantic love holding such a grip
TYLER RICHARDSON
LUCA BRASI
Q1/ Luca Brasi is basically the most
savage bloke in The Godfather, and
can only be tamed by the Godfather
himself - who is the person that can
always whip you guys into line?
Danny (drums) is the one guy in the
band that you have to worry about dealing
with if any joke goes too far. You can push
anyone else a fair way, but Danny usually
ends it pretty quickly.
If This Is All We're
Going To Be by Luca
Brasi is out now via
Poison City Records.
Q2/ What was it like playing a show
in Bianca’s loungeroom?
Pretty bloody awesome! It felt kinda
like getting back to our roots; we played
a hell of a lot of house shows when we
first started coming up as a band. It's
such a rad feeling when everyone is so
close and getting wild, and there's always
that element of danger of copping a
microphone or something in the face.
Q3/ There's a pic on your instagram
of Pat ticking off boxes on a
whiteboard; is this down at the brass
tacks end of recording?
This is always a studio ritual; getting
straight in there and writing out the list
of songs, instruments and tracks for each
and mapping out where we have to go and
what needs to get done. Ticking off those
boxes is up there with the most satisfying
things you can do in the studio. We used
to have this rule that you'd get a treat
for ticking them off. Treats soon turn to a
pretty common occurrence as the days go
on, mainly for minor things, then for sanity.
Q4/ How are you looking forward to
touring with Smith Street Band; are
they good eggs in your eyes?
We're stoked; we've been mates for so
long, since way back when we were both
starting out. We brought those guys down
to Tassie a few times early on and since
then we've been best mates. It's taken us
5 years to finally tour together and we're
going to make the most of it! These shows
will be totally crazy! Great line-ups. It's
basically a full-blown mate-fest.
Q5/ If you could tell people one thing
about Tassie to coerce anyone into
visiting, what would it be?
It's like no other place you've ever
been. It can be isolating, but it's also got
a totally different vibe than any other city.
It's hard to describe; you definitely need to
experience it to know it!
L uca Brasi are touring with
The Smith Street Band this
month, and have just announced
their own headline shows
through mid-late August! Check
for dates and
details. By Alesha Kolbe.
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW