Garbage Singer Shirley Manson Calls New Podcast ‘The Jump’ a ‘Really Fascinating Experience’ (Exclusive)

Shirley Manson has more than three decades of experience in the music industry under her belt, with more than half of those years being the singer for iconic rock band, Garbage. In 1995, Garbage released their self-titled debut album, and very quickly become one of the most prolific alternative music acts of the ’90s. To date, the band has released a total of six full-length albums, traveled the globe on 10 major tours, and won eight of the 27 music awards they have been nominated for.

Now, Manson is conquering another medium — hosting a podcast titled The Jump With Shirley Manson, which features the singer conversing with a number of music industry legends and picking their brains.

While speaking exclusively to PopCulture.com about the new endeavor, Manson revealed it was musician and podcaster, Hrishikesh Hirway of the Song Exploder podcast, who convinced her to host The Jump, for Mailchimp.

“I was a little taken aback if the truth be told. It wasn’t something I’ve ever imagined myself doing, but of course I would have been an idiot to turn it down, to get to speak with a myriad of creatives was really a huge joy,” Manson told PopCulture.com. “So yeah, I really can’t believe my luck if the truth be told.”

Elaborating on why she believes she was asked to host the podcast, Manson explained that she feels it’s because she is “someone who loves all different genres of music.”

“I’m non-discriminating with regards the kind of music that I like to listen to,” she continued. “So the opportunity to listen to musicians who like you see, you sort of embody quite a spread across the musical landscape was really fascinating. It was a really fascinating experience for me, I have to confess, and one in which I learned a lot and was … I mean, I sound like such a fan, but I was just really thrilled.”

Among the guests on The Jump are Neko Case, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O, and Perfume Genius, as well as Manson’s fellow female rock icon Courtney Love. The two influential women have had similar career paths, with Love fronting ’90s grunge band Hole for years while Manson has been singing in Garbage.

“I consider myself lucky enough to have stumbled into Courtney many, many times over the year We have had dinner together,” Manson said of Love, adding how she’s always been vocally supportive of her despite “all the history of her somewhat tempestuous career.”

“I’ve always been in her corner because I believe in her as a very unique artist. I admire her ability to be so visceral and ferocious and these are qualities that are very difficult to capture on record. And I feel like Courtney’s a master at that,” she said.

While every single episode of The Jump has sincere importance to Manson, when pressed she did share two examples of conversations that stood out to her.

First, was her conversation with Outkast rapper Big Boi, which she says blew her away. “Talking to him was really, really exciting for me. I was really impressed by his incredible discipline, which explains of course why he’s had this enduring career,” Manson shared.

The singer then revealed what specifically stood out about her conversation with Big Boi, explaining the he told her “that he had notated every single rap he had ever written, marked at what time of day he wrote it and where he wrote it and how it started and ad infinitum, all these details about his creativity. And then he studied the time of day in which he was the most productive, the most creative.”

“When he told me that story, that really shocked me. I think it’s at odds at how people look at the rap and hip hop world. I stumbled upon a real jewel there in that conversation,” she added.

One other notable interview Manson did was with Dave 1 from the Canadian electro-funk duo Chromeo. He too shared a secret to his songwriting method that took her by surprise, revealing that he “writes basically without using any instruments whatsoever.”

“That blew me away as well. You know what I mean? It was really unexpectedly surprising, the whole experience,” Manson finally said, summing up how she felt about the opportunity to sit with so many musical “creatives” and get to peek in through a small window of their processes.

All Episodes of The Jump are now streaming, and can be found here, at the MailChimp website.

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