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Shirley Manson - Singer/Songwriter
Shirley is lead singer of the band Garbage, and has had a string of hits. Shirley is from Edinburgh where she was a Brownie & Guide."Rareness is a currency and gives us value. It is how we choose to spend our currency that defines us."
I'm proud of being Scottish for numerous reasons. The obvious one being that Scotland is such
a geographically beautiful country and one that is admired for being so all over the world.
When traveling to remote or exotic parts of the planet there is always someone ready to expound
on the loveliness of Scotland and that incurs great warmth and pride in me whenever it happens.
It is also true that Scottish people enjoy a wonderful reputation overseas. They are known for
their friendly, outgoing nature and their down to earth sense of humour. Although it is true
I may be considered a tad biased, I do believe this geniality towards my fellow countrymen to
be quite justified. Of this I am also innately proud.
I have been given many wonderful compliments over the years by fans, critics and peers yet the one that meant the most to me was the one paid to me by my parents when they told me they were so very proud of my accomplishments but most of all by how I had handled them.
I loved being a Brownie and Guide with a great passion and have been known to drunkenly recite my Brownie/Guide Law to this very day. If my memory serves me well I was an IMP in the Brownies and a KINGFISHER in the Guides.
I have continued to have a nagging conscience about assisting strangers in need and of course helping the elderly in particular as a result of some of the values that were imbued in me at Brownie/Guide meetings.
I also had my first real experience of working in a group dynamic with my patrol and lessons
learnt then have absolutely helped me in later life, as I continue working very successfully
in a band which of course consists of individuals all coming together and leaning on one another
to work towards one defined goal.
With regards to starting a band or branching out as a musician I feel duty bound to point out
that the percentage of aspiring musicians who go on to become famous is alarmingly low.
So if you dream of solely becoming famous for no other reason than to be photographed on a regular
basis by the paparazzi then I can think of numerous alternative careers that would boost your
chances of fulfilling your desire long before I would suggest a career in music.
However if you believe passionately that music is your calling, and that you are strong enough to weather an industry that is horrifically hardcore in it's dealings with artists, an industry that is infamous for treating them with a spectacular lack of feeling and consideration then I would give you the following tip...
No matter how many people may tell you to give up on your dream of making a career in music you must be willing to follow your own moral compass and be prepared to cut your own path. If you burn to make music then do it and pay no heed to what anyone else is doing or the decisions they are making.
You have to do what you believe to be right so that if and when things go awry (and of course
they inevitably will for that is the nature of anyone's career) then you are able to live with
yourself and the decisions you have made and find your way through difficult times.
There is
nothing more disheartening than being waylaid by an opinion other than your own. You don't want
to find yourself thinking "Oh I wish I hadn't listened to that person" or "I
wish I had followed my own instincts". Of course there will be times when you make the
wrong turn or find yourself in a ditch but that is how you learn to drive your own career.
This is sound advice but unfortunately, surprisingly difficult to carry out.
You come across as a woman with confidence about how you
look and who you are and yet that's not how you felt when you were younger.
What would you say to any girls who feel different and insecure about themselves?
It is true that I have made very public my own battle with the fact that I always believed that I wasn't quite "good enough" at anything and that I wasn't as "pretty" as other girls or that I was "different" in many ways.
It is only with age that I have come to appreciate that all the flaws in my personality and physicality that I believed to be "imperfect" actively and positively helped me in my career.
I could never have imagined in a thousand years when I was a skinny little red-haired kid and being bullied at school that I would grow up and become an internationally famous rock-star and so I draw the conclusion that if wonderful things happened to me, then so too can wonderful things happen to anyone.
To be different from others is what makes us unique and therefore exceedingly rare. Rareness is a currency and gives us value. It's how we choose to spend our currency that defines us.
The last CD I couldn't stop playing was "Funeral" by Arcade Fire
The thing that probably enrages me the most is intolerance. Being unable to accept beliefs, opinions or choices that may be at odds with our own is an attitude that is frighteningly common in our world these days and seems to lead to nothing but violence and unhappiness.
On my gravestone I would like written: "See? I told you so."
If I could win a million pounds for charity I would donate all of my winnings to Waverly Care. It is the largest organization in Scotland providing support to men, women and their families affected by H.I.V and A.I.D.S. and is a charity of which I am deeply honoured to be a patron.
To find out more about Shirley please see Garbage
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