The album Butch Vig calls a masterpiece: “I’ve played it 1000 times”
Butch Vig, the legendary producer behind Nirvana’s Nevermind and drummer in alternative rock outfit Garbage, has always had a musical ear. When he was younger, he was introduced to Frank Sinatra and The Beatles through his mother, a music teacher. Vig’s small-town upbringing lent itself to country music, but in high school, he discovered The Who and decided he wanted to be in a rock band.
After abandoning piano lessons and convincing his mother to buy him a drum kit, he embarked on a journey of musical discovery. In college, he stumbled upon the brilliance of David Bowie and the New York Dolls, but punk made him realise he could follow in their footsteps and make his own mark on the alternative music scene.
“Well, when I was growing up,” he told Kerrang. “I looked at bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin as these untouchable iconic rock gods, while I was just a normal human being. But when punk and new wave came out, I thought, ‘I could do that’.” The Clash had a massive hand in that realisation.
As Vig told Classic Rock, he was a significant fan of their eponymous 1977 debut. “I knew they were a special band,” he said, recalling going to Genna’s, a local punk rock bar that played ‘White Riot‘ and ‘Police and Thieves’ all the time,” he revealed.
“London Calling is truly the Clash’s masterpiece. I think I’ve probably played it 1,000 times over the last 35 years. I just never get tired of it. It’s so ambitious in its scope, but everything the band attempted they pulled off completely,” Vig said of their third studio album.
Much like Garbage, their influences were eclectic, which appealed to Vig. “The Clash came from a punk rock background, but London Calling had elements of ska, funk, pop, soul, jazz, rockabilly, reggae,” he explained. “There seemed to be no limits to what they could do. And it was all done with a great loose vibe. It felt so energetic, real and passionate.”
“Plus,” he continued, “It has one of the best album covers ever, with Paul Simonon smashing his bass on the stage. They were nicking a bit from Elvis Presley with the lettering, but it wound up looking iconic.”
After falling in love with the virtues of punk, he and his friend Duke Erickson started writing music straight away, figuring out how to put together a record. “Eventually, when I finished university, I started a recording studio with Steve, the other guitarist in Garbage, and that led to tons of things, from recording punk bands to Killdozer and eventually on to The Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana.”
Listen to London Calling below.
