Shirley, Madly, Deeply

The Scottish red head of alternative rock band Garbage as featured in the latest issue of Vmagazine looking simply pose-able and ready to play for all us eager fans in 2012 with new disc.

With nostalgia for the ’90s currently running at an all-time high, it would only make sense that one of that decade’s most quintessential bands—Scottish alt-pop darlings Garbage—would be primed for a comeback. Led by flame-haired front woman Shirley Manson, Garbage has sold over 17 million albums since releasing its self-titled debut back in 1995. Aside from possessing an uncanny ability to craft airtight rock songs, much of Garbage’s success is due to Manson’s undeniable charisma. Equal parts smart and chic, she remains the perfect antidote to the aggressive brainlessness of so much contemporary pop music. With Garbage set to release its first new studio album in six years this spring, there couldn’t be a better time for an intelligent, outspoken redhead to reclaim the spotlight. The world needs more Shirley Manson.

T. COLE RACHEL Garbage will be hitting the road again in 2012. What have you missed the most after being away for a few years?

SHIRLEY MANSON I’ve missed doing the one thing that I know I’m really good at. There’s something remarkable about that feeling, when you know you’re good at something and you’re able to go out and do it. Being on top of something is a great feeling. It’s taken me a long time to feel that way. I miss singing, too. I’m a very noisy person—in general—and the past five years or so I’ve been pretty quiet.

TCR You’ve been playing in bands since you were a teenager, but when Garbage became a big success you suddenly became the focus of a huge amount of attention. Was that a shocking thing to get used to?

SM It was shocking. I don’t quite know how it happened. It took me a long time to actually accept it. It wasn’t until we did our second world tour that I really accepted that I was actually the lead singer in a really successful band. I lived in this constant fear that I’d be found out—that people would realize that I didn’t know what I was doing. I never felt as good as anybody else. I mean, I was crazy! I was really young and insecure. It took me a long time to settle in to that position. I think that’s fair enough. You have to play a million shitty clubs before you really learn how to stand onstage and own your role as the master of ceremonies.

TCR Do you think of yourself as a fashionable person?

SM It’s funny, I never thought of myself as particularly fashionable. I always looked at what everybody else was doing and wanted to do the opposite. I always wanted to stand apart from everybody. I think that has defined pretty much every choice I’ve made. I was a middle child, you know? I had two other sisters, so I was always afraid of never being seen or heard—of having my identity swallowed up by something else—so I never wanted clothes that spoke for me. I wanted to be the one who spoke.

TCR That’s interesting. Were you a wild child as a teenager?

SM Yeah, around the age of 17 I was definitely a wild child. I remember that I’d been caught smoking, so I didn’t get an allowance—or what we called “pocket money” in Scotland—so I never had money for clothes. Luckily I had a very stylish mom, so I’d go rifling through her closet when I needed something to wear. She had lots of stuff from the ’60s, so I was rocking a pretty cool wardrobe, but only by default. I’d find an orange crew neck cashmere sweater in my mom’s trunk and wear that with my sister’s kilt and a pair of my mom’s suede boots and my dad’s old funeral coat. I wore that look for nearly a year straight. I remember playing the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz when I was in school—my hair was straightened and I had black eye makeup on—and I remember that it was the first time I ever looked in the mirror and felt beautiful. The black eye makeup has stayed with me ever since!
TCR So what does “style” mean to you?

SM Style is what you have to say and what you think. Anyone can wear an amazing designer’s outfit, but it doesn’t make you stylish. As an artist and as a woman, I feel duty-bound to say that. Style is about who you are and how you live your life.

TCR So many young women in bands that I’ve interviewed over the past couple of years have cited you as an inspiration. Who were the women who inspired you to play music?

SM First of all, to hear you say that, you just have no idea how much it means to me to hear that there are people who have watched the way I’ve conducted myself and have taken some kind of inspiration from that. The women that played that sort of role for me in my life still remain touchstones for how I want to live, especially at a time when the culture is still so tricky for women to navigate. For example, I grew up madly in love with Chrissie Hynde and Patti Smith and Siouxsie Sioux. Those women spoke to me then and continue to speak to me now. If someone asked me who of all the women in the world I most admire, I would say Patti Smith. What an uncompromising, elegant, graceful career she continues to have. When I look at magazines aimed at women, so much of it is still all about getting Botox and plastic surgery. Women are still just constantly bombarded with those ideas. Then you read Just Kids by Patti Smith and all of a sudden you feel like you’re not the only person in the world who feels like what you have to say and what you do in life—and who you are as a person—is way more important than how you look. She’s blazed a trail, and women like her are really the compass by which people like me can navigate the world, which, particularly at my age—45 years old—can be perplexing. You know, it doesn’t matter how beautiful you are, if you don’t have anything interesting to say then you’re still boring.

Garbage’s fifth studio album is available in Spring 2012
Manicure Bernadette Thompson for the Bernadette Thompson Nail Collection
Photo assistants Jason Geering and Dean Dotos
Stylist assistants Taylor Kim and Eyob Yohannes
Makeup assistant Junko Kioka
Hair assistants Gonn Kinoshita and Mari Watase
Location Canoe Studios, New York
Retouching Didier Luk for +852
Special thanks the Seabrooke family - vmagazine.com