Greetings from Butch Vig!

The Offspring have just finished two soundtracks that will be in the theatres in the next couple of months. The band chose to work with Butch Vig, the producer of several landmark albums and who is also the drummer of Garbage. Dexter and I decided to ambush Butch while he was in the studio and finishing up the latest Offspring recordings.

1. How did you hook up with The Offspring?

Butch Vig- It's sort of ah....let's see..We'd (Garbage) played a bunch of festivals with The Offspring in the past. We played together in San Jose, Seattle.
Dexter- I think we even did the Bizarre festival once together.
BV- Yeah, yeah.....'cus I had seen them play together like 4 or 5 times and then we played a show in Australia. The livid festival. And I just sort of hung out a bit and we talked about the idea of recording together. I remember I drank a few cocktails after we played and I got up on stage during The Offspring set and played drums on one of the songs.
Web Dude- Really?
Dex- That's right.
BV- Guest percussion. I vaguely remember. That was kind of a crazy night.
Dex- You did "I CHOOSE" with us.
WD- Didn't what's his name play drums also down there....the guy from Nirvana....why can't I remember his name?
Dex- Dave Grohl.
BV- Yeah...they were down there at the same time.
Dex- Yeah, we played a show with them the night before at some festival you guys (Garbage) didn't happen to make it to and he played that show with us. I didn't even know he was going to be there. I turned around during a song and looked at him and I thought that kind of looks like Dave Grohl playing percussion, but I didn't know what he'd be doing there. That was actually the first time I met him, that was cool.
BV- Dave's a sweetheart. A super nice guy.

2. When was the last time you worked with other bands outside of Garbage doing producing stuff?

BV- This has actually been the first proper recording that my engineer Billy Bush and I have done in a while outside of Garbage. We've done a handful of remixes and some film soundtrack things, but we haven't done a song from start to finish for probably 3 or 4 years. It's been really fun and amazing because it's great to go back sort of old school and record a great band in a big live room using an incredible sounding board and good microphones and do it relatively fast. I mean, we have been travelling at the speed of light compared to how I've been working recently. At least compared to how Garbage works. It's cool because I did so many records for years that were done really fast. You track and you overdub a little bit and you mix and you sort of do it as quickly as possible. It's fun to get back to that kind of enthusiasm and spontanaeity.

3. I know you worked on the early Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins stuff, is the environment any different when working with a band like The Offspring?

BV- Well every band is kind of different. Part of it is the nature of how bands play together and the dynamic of how they interact. And it depends on what studio you are in and what kind of record the band is making. Some records are simple to record and overdub and mix. Some records are complicated just because they get more parts in them or it's more difficult to get the sound you are looking for.

4. Is there any difference in recording a soundtrack versus a full album?

BV- I don't know. I think if you are doing a full album obviously the way you schedule it is different. Dexter was saying their last album took 8 to 10 weeks and you figure if you do 12 songs over that time period you are averaging a couple of songs a week. In this case, because we recorded a couple of covers, the songs are written and the lyrics are written, so Dexter didn't have to lock himself in the toilet for a couple of hours and come up with the last verse or something.
Dex- Someone told you, huh?
BV- (laughs) So we had sort of a springboard to listen to and that's sort of the original vibe so let's translate that into how The Offspring should sound doing it. In a lot of ways, doing covers like this was easier 'cus it takes some of the pressure off I think than, for instance, if they have to write a new song which can be difficult, especially if the song isn't finished.
WD- That actually leads into my next question.

5. When doing a cover song is the goal to change to song radically or keep it close to the original or does that depend on the band?

BV- I think it depends on the band. When you are doing a cover song I think that anybody that has a certain respect for the original wants to try and do it right just so you won't get dissed down the line. But you also want it to sound like yourselves. We want it to sound like The Offspring. I think that is going to be inherant just in the nature of how they sound as a band and the way they play, and the way the guitars sound, and Dexter singing. But we still went back and referenced the originals quite a bit because you wanna' get somewhat of the essence of what the originals were like.
Dex- Gotta' make it your own somehow, huh?
BV- Yeah, but you wanna' do both. You gotta' make it your own. You don't want to make it sound note for note exactly the same or even sonically the same. There are some songs that I think would be really hard to cover. If you grow up listening to something that becomes larger than life. For me, it's like, if someone asked me to do a Beatles's cover, I would just say no because to me they are still such gods that there is no way in a million years that you could listen to anything that would remotely sound even close to that. In fact, in that instance, I think you would be better going way off and trying to make it sound radically different.
WD- I agree. When you do those insane, huge cover songs it's like, what are you doing covering that song unless you are going to completely change it and make it totally different, you are going out on a limb and will probably never be as good as the original "Stairway To Heaven".
BV- Yeah, can you imagine someone trying to cover "Stairway To Heaven"?
Dex- Exactly, there are certain songs where it's just a sacrilidge.
BV- Yeah...you can't do that, it's not going to sound very good. It's going to sound embarrasing. You are better off just letting it lie.

6. As a producer, what is your main objective when working on a bands' music? I know that is kind of a broad and general question.

Dex- (laughs).
BV- To stay under budget!
Dex- There you go.
BV- No, I really try as a producer to make sure the songs come out from the bands' prospective and from the bands' vision. I don't really want to come across as this Svengali or somebody who is going to come in and crush the band and force them to do something they don't want to do. I think it's really good to work with artists who sort of have a sound and a vision of how they want things and how they want the overall picture to sound.

7. So you are just kind of guiding them?

BV- Yeah, trying to get good performances and encourage them to feel comfortable enough to try things if they want. And sonically you want to try and go somewhere that makes the band feel happy with the way they sound. Again, it depends on the circumstances, but sometimes in the studio, a band may need help finishing the songs and then you sit around and work more on the arrangements and try to come up with ideas. Sometimes you get into a long record and the band just needs a perspective because they have no idea of what's going on. Sometimes, quite frankly, that happens to everyone involved, the engineer, the producer. If you get into some deep shit with it and you are working really hard, sometimes you can veer off into tangents and you have to keep your head above water so that doesn't happen and you don't fuck things up.

8. Dexter actually came up with my next question. Do you think people know you more as Butch Vig the producer of Nevermind and Gish and all these other great albums or do they know you more as the drummer of Garbage?

BV- It's weird because I probably would have said the producer from Nevermind and the Pumpkins a few years ago, but since Garbage has been kind of a full time obsession for the last 4 years and since that is basically what I've been doing most of the time, I think that's what probably a lot of kids would know me as. In fact, some kids probably don't even know I did Nevermind. We were just talking about this regarding a guy like Vanilla Ice, there is such a short shelf life in the media these days. You are here and gone and you have your little moment and then you disappear because there is so much stuff that is plowing through the system.
Dex- Of course, we aren't comparing you to Vanilla Ice or anything.
BV- (laughs) When we started touring nobody knew who the hell we were and noboby wanted to talk to the rest of the band which pissed everybody off and it pissed me off. We would go to Germany and it would be like (Butch laying on heavy German accent): "So you made a record with Garbage. What was is like working with Kurt Cobain? What is inside Billy Corgan's head?" And that is what all of our interviews were like and I refused to talk about that. And now of course, everybody just wants to talk to Shirley (Manson).
WD- I remember when you guys came out with your first album, I was like....Is this a side project or something? But now it seems like Garbage is a full-time job and it seems like you are going more in that direction than doing producing stuff.
BV- Yeah...I've tried to squeeze in a lot of things, though. I still like working in the studio and I love working with bands and other artists and I had no intention of being with Garbage full-time and I miss doing this and I just like sitting here behind a board and working with a band, especially a good band like The Offspring, where the vibe is cool. I could just keep doing this, I don't get tired of it. Even though it's a job, I guess if you really love your job it is something you could do 100 hours a week and not get tired of it. I want to get back into doing this more because I love working in the studio. I love playing live, too, but they are two completely different things.

9. So what was it like working with these guys, The Offspring, that is?

BV- This has been an amazing time working with The Offspring. We had a great time. It's been the first thing that we've tracked from scratch to mix for a while. Billy (engineer) and I were saying this has been great because The Offspring are great players. I can't tell you how many records we've done where you spend a lot of time just trying to get good performances or even decent performances. Both Noodles and Dexter are great guitarists and they put down an amazing rhythm track. I mean both the songs sound to me still very alive and spontaneous even though we spent a little time overdubbing and mixing it. It still sounds like a band thrashing in the studio. It's cool.
Dex- You're just saying that because I'm here, huh?
BV- OK, now when Dexter leaves I'll give you the real low down.

Everyone laughs.

10. Who was the biggest pain in the ass?

BV- Definately Dexter.
Dex- Hey! What are we talking about here??!!