Garbage is currently in the studio putting the finishing touches on their fifth studio album and their first in seven years. The new album is being recorded in a basement in the Atwater Village area of Los Angeles, CA, the first to be recorded outside of Madison, WI. The as yet untitled album will be released in Spring 2012, and is being produced by Garbage, engineered by Billy Bush, and mixed by Butch Vig and Billy Bush.

“Years-worth of pent-up music came out in some bizarre ways- bleary cell phone memos became real songs, conversations turned into lyrics, and new computer gizmos inspired wicked tangents,” said the members of Garbage. “Ghosts came in, had their say. Everyone brought ideas, and everyone fought their corner. At the end of the day it all gets shoved through the four-way brain filter that is Garbage and it ends up sounding like nobody else. Red feathers and black tar.”

Even though it’s been seven years, there hasn’t been a female-fronted band since that has matched their inimitable sound, brashness and energy. Now free of all their corporate obligations, the band has been able to start again with a clean slate on their own terms. They add, “We are making a record filled with the music we love to hear. The new songs have been inspired more by what we haven’t been hearing rather than by what we have.”

After forming in Madison, WI, Garbage released their self-titled debut album in 1995 and rode a wave of visually arresting, female-fronted alternative rock bands. The album spawned the hit singles “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains” and was certified double platinum in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The band won the Breakthrough Artist Award at the 1996 MTV Europe Music Awards. Their second album, Garbage 2.0, was released in 1998 and topped the charts in the United Kingdom. It was nominated for two Grammy Awards including Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. 2001’s Beautiful Garbage was named one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s Top 10 Albums Of The Year. In 2005, Garbage released Bleed Like Me, earning the band it’s highest chart position with a No. 4 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart. In 2007, the band released a retrospective collection called Absolute Garbage. Garbage has sold over 12 million albums worldwide.

Garbage is Shirley Manson (vocals, guitar), Steve Marker (guitars, keyboards), Duke Erikson (guitars, keyboards) and Butch Vig (drums, loops).

by: Natalie Perez