This lot are 'rubbish', no honestly, quite literally. One who's from a band washed up long ago, and the others supporting yesterdays production values. I'm sat here, a hundred miles or so between us, talking to a person some might consider 'GOD' - the creator, well at least the 'Firestarter', of the grunge scene. Among his many credits are Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and L7, whilst others wouldn't recognise him if he walked up and proposed to them. It's Butch Vig of Garbage.

"So tell me Butch how did the whole Garbage thing come about?"

"I was always in bands before the production thing came about. These were all fairly melodic and I'd done so many records before the Nirvana/Pumpkins set, that I'd got sick on the whole 2 guitars, bass and drum alternative grunge scene. So I started doing remixes with Duke and Steve, bringing Hip-Hop together with Techno, and started writing pop songs. It's inspiring and sort of kicked us in the butt to start a band."

"Why was Shirley Manson chosen to front the new group?"

"I think because we fell in love with her voice. Steve saw her with her band Angelfish on MTV and we were looking for a singer who was interested in collaborating on a few tracks - we had no idea it would grow into a band. Angelfish had split up, so it gave her an opportunity to get more involved. The chemistry between us, we knew, was good from the first day we met. I didn't expect to go full-time into a band. We're really enjoying it so far and I've no plans to go back and work as a producer, this is now our priority."

"If you were asked to write a resume for the group, what would you say and what comparisons would you make, if any?"

"I dunno. I mean I think we're a rock band who try to write 'pop songs' and infuse it using technology. Infuse it with electronica, hip-hop, techno and punk. We try to push forward, as well as borrow influences from the past. Everything from The Clash to Patty Smith, The Pretenders to The Beatles, The Beach Boys to Velvet Underground and Frank Sinatra. There are so many influences the four of us share and yet we're really interested in how technology is pushed out. A quote Shirley came up with was that we were a 'Sci-Fi Pop Band'."

"Considering that most of Garbage's material seemed ripe for remixing, what do you and the rest of the band think of dance remixes?"

"We're actually working with several different artists at the moment because remixes inspired us to form a band. We've never been precious about giving our material to other people. We had a Japanese duo, Boom Boom Satellites do a remix of Push It, and we're talking to The Crystal Method and also a trio of women programmers from South London called Purity. We really like the idea of giving a track to someone who's going to interpret it in a new way. A lot of our songs have over a hundred tracks on them, so they can go in there, pick and choose and take a song and then go one way, whilst someone else might remix it and go entirely a different way. If you have a cool song, you can do that. I think it's impossible to come up with something entirely new in music, but you can keep twisting it and give it a new perspective. I think on our new record some of the songs we've pushed much further than we did on the last, in terms of production. So far people who've heard the tracks from the new album seem to think it's more extreme in some ways and sounds more like a band than the first."

But I decided that with all these questions the answers hadn't once given hint to the fact that even 'God' has off days, so I thought with a few tempting questions this might just expose this would-be charlatan for what really is: just human. "Who would you like to strap into the electric chair and throw the switch on?"

"Er, God, I er, let me..."

"Are you not nasty like that?"

"No I'm not and I don't know whether I really believe in capital punishment. But I can give you an answer though; I'd take the whole Dallas Cowboys football team, strap them on and fry 'em, 'cos I'm a Green Bay Packers fan."

At last 'God' had shown signs of his mortality, but why stop there, sex is always a good one... "How do you like your women, Doris Day or Tank Girl?" Horns grew as the answer came back, faster than a speeding bullet.

"Tank Girl, 'cos she's got a kick ass attitude."

"Finally, does it piss off you and the rest of the group that Shirley gets all the attention?"

"No, it's natural."

So, with Butch wishing that not only did the Packers win the next Super Bowl and that Garbage were number 1 simultaneously around the World, I slipped away, tail between my legs, forever doubting that Garbage were anything other than the ultimate group.