by Dave, Mechanicsburg, Pa

I used to hang out in Madison WI a lot. I was at a show and ran into Butch Vig. I was doing a fanzine at the time and asked him if I could take a tour of his studio and sit down for a chat. It just so happened that he was drumming for Freedy Johnston in a few weeks and I would be down for that so we made all the arrangements. I went to the Freedy show, we hooked up and he gave me the address for Smart Studios and we set a time for the next morning.

After driving around, I discerned that this plain unadorned brick building was indeed the place. I rang the bell and was let in. As we toured the studios, I was overwhelmed. Here was the very studio pictured on the front of the Young Fresh Fellows record, although the Jagermeister and beer bottles had been cleaned up. I was standing in the very studio where Sonic Youth had recorded the Dirty lp less than a year before. And here I was in the same control booth, looked through the glass into the room where Nirvana had recorded the legendary Nirvana lp. It was all very impressive.

So I sat down to have a cup of coffee with Butch and discuss these experiences. We talked for awhile and as I was getting ready to go he stopped me and said I want you to hear something. This is a new project I’m working on. These are some vocal tracks I just received from a gal in Sweden (actually I’m not sure of the exact location. I was really hungover and not fully paying attention any longer.) He played them for me, I thought they were OK, but then he said now I want play you this: I dropped them onto some rough instrumental tracks this morning before you came. Even the guys in the band haven’t heard these yet, and he played several demos for me. I tried to show the proper enthusiam but I just couldn’t muster it. He shrugged and said he had a good feeling about them. They didn’t even have a name for the band yet.

The girl’s name was Shirley Manson and the band went on to become Garbage. I still don’t own a Garbage record to this day. But I do have a picture of myself and Butch Vig reflected in the studio glass tweaking away at the famous console.