You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
I'm Rishikesh Hirway.
This episode contains explicit language.
The band Garbage formed in 1994 when three guys from Madison, Wisconsin,
Butch Vig, Steve Marker, and Duke Erickson met Scottish singer Shirley Manson.
Twenty years later, they've sold over 17 million records worldwide.
In this episode, we'll get a view inside their 2012 song,
Felt, from the album Not Your Kind of People.
Butch Vig, who is also a legendary producer behind some of the most influential albums of all time,
like Nevermind by Nirvana,
Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins, Dirty by Sonic Youth,
and countless others spoke to me from his home studio in Los Angeles.
I also interviewed Shirley Manson separately to get her insight on how the song was made,
plus some thoughts from their longtime engineer and now co-producer, Billy Bush.
This is Felt by Garbage on Song Exploder.
Hi, my name's Butch Vig.
I'm a music producer, and I'm also the drummer in Garbage.
I play a lot of instruments, but primarily drums.
We're not just defined to one role.