'Shame On Them All. Every Single One': Garbage's Shirley Manson Is Demanding Better

Just days ago, Shirley Manson tweeted that she’d been asked by two different journalists that day “when I was going to retire. I kid you not”, complete with the hashtags "#nottodaymate #ageism #sexism". By all examples, the Garbage frontwoman is showing no signs of slowing down and the group’s latest album, No Gods No Masters, is a testament of this. 

While the album has been touted as the band’s most political album to date - beginning with the lines "The men who rule the world / Have made a fucking mess" - even that is up for debate according to Manson. 

“I think it’s strange that whenever you have an opinion, people couch it as political and I don’t think having an opinion about how the world is run, about the problems we face as human beings on this planet, is political. I think it’s just the fallout from living, you know?” she shares.

“I am not affiliated with any political party, I don’t consider myself left or right, I don’t support any politicians really; there’s certainly some personalities that I like better than others but in general I’m suspicious of every politician in the world that is currently operating because they feel so corrupt to me and it seems like every single day some hypocrisy is revealed in their behaviour, or their corruptness as a human being is being revealed. I have no trust in them, I have no respect for them, I want them to do their fucking jobs better.

"... If that makes me political, then so be it."

“I’d like to see some new ideas, I’m sick of the old ways being applied to the very, very modern and very different world that is still under the ‘guidance’ of governments that are solely made up of old white men, for the most part, and I think it’s time for new ideas and if that makes me political, then so be it. But quite frankly I don’t see it that way.

“I am just like scunnered with the whole fucking mess and I’m worried that we’re not hearing any new ideas, literally we’re not hearing any. We’re still seeing the practices put into play that have been practiced for a hundred years. 

"The world is a different place; technology has changed the world in the same way that the Industrial Revolution changed the world and yet, politicians have not yet caught up, nor do they want to put in the work of coming up with new ideas and shame on them all. Shame on them all. Every single one,” she empathises before exhaling a half laughed “whoa ha ha”, almost like catching up on what she’s saying. 

Looking more widely at the album, Manson says the release of No Gods No Masters “feels like a gift”. 

“After a year of what felt like living in the abyss, it feels like life has begun again, you know. It really does feel like a gift,” she says. 

While the album was mostly completed in person alongside her bandmates - Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig - the final stages saw the band working separately due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Well that’s been really peculiar because I haven't really seen the band,” she says of the experience. “I’ve seen them once since lockdown occurred which was to shoot the video for No Gods No Masters. My husband [producer and engineer, Billy Bush] and I basically had to finish all my backing vocals and so on, so forth by ourselves, the band weren’t around, we couldn’t be together, it was illegal, so that was weird. And it remains weird. 

“I’m actually going to start rehearsal with them next week so I’ll finally get to be around them for any length of time for the first time in a long time. But it’s been very strange, very strange but it also feels very sort of like modern. There’s something kind of amazing about it too, this weird getting used to Zoom, doing interviews by Zoom. Like normally I'll travel to Paris, I’ll travel to Amsterdam, I’ll go to Berlin; there’s none of that happening, I do all from my Zoom station here in Los Angeles and that is both weird and vile but also kind of intriguing and strange. Like wow, I’m living in the future, this is crazy.”

Pic by Joseph Cultice

As Garbage edge closer to their 30th year as a band and with seven albums behind Manson says that she’s “kind of amazed” looking back at their achievements. 

“With every year that we are still here and we’re still healthy and we still get to play together, I feel more and more grateful,” she shares. 

“I’m being sincere when I say I’m at that point in my career where I really have to pinch myself sometimes, I’m like ‘holy shit’. Sometimes when I read something about the band in the press or I hear a radio DJ talk about us, I’m almost like, ‘wait, are they talking about us? How is this possible?’” she laughs.

"I feel that we’ve never really sold ourselves cheap."

“It seems very surreal and it truly feels as weird as if I told you that you were a rockstar. It feels as foreign and strange and wonderful… 

“I don’t necessarily know how we got here, I’m very grateful. I know me and the band have worked really hard and we try to make good decisions, kind decisions, true to who we are decisions and I feel that we’ve never really sold ourselves cheap.

“I think that may be the one thing that I’m most proud of is that we could have done some really scuzzy things to make money and we never, ever did that and that I think is one of our greatest achievements - is that we’re still here and we didn’t step on anybody’s body to get here."

Garbage's No Gods No Masters is out now. Check it out here.