Butch Vig's resume is impressive, to say the least, producing legendary albums like Nirvana's Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream and Sonic Youth's Dirty, not to mention countless others. But if that and his career in Garbage weren't enough, Vig has gone ahead and formed himself a new supergroup.
For his new project, Vig has teamed up with UK DJ James Grillo and producer/keyboardist Andy Jenks to form 5 Billion in Diamonds, whose self-titled debut album will arrive on August 11 via 100% Records.
On the album, there are a pile of other musicians as well, including guitarist Alex Lee (Goldfrapp, Strangelove and Suede), bassist Sean Cook (Spiritualized) and drummer Damon Reece (Spiritualized, Massive Attack, Echo and the Bunnymen). The album also comes with an array of guest vocalists, including Soundtrack of Our Lives' Ebbott Lundberg, Helen White (Alpha), David Schelzel (the Ocean Blue) and Sandra Dedrick of cult sunshine-pop band the Free Design.
For our first taste of the album, we get "Gravity Rules," which comes featuring vocals by Lundberg and via a spaced-out new video.
"One of the first people that James wrote on there was Ebbot Lundberg from Soundtrack of Our Lives," Vig said of the long-running Swedish band in a statement. "We're huge Soundtrack fans. About four years ago when they were getting ready to break up, they did a series of shows up in Stockholm. We went up to see them. James, fuelled by many glasses of vino, just bum-rushed them [and] said, 'Hey, Butch and I have a band, and we'd like you to sing with us,' and he just [said], 'Ja, I would like to sing with you.' It really was that easy. He sang on like, four songs. That happened really quickly."
Check out "Gravity Rules" for yourself below.
Of course, Vig is also still busy with Garbage, who will be touring around North America with Blondie. You can see their joint dates here.
For his new project, Vig has teamed up with UK DJ James Grillo and producer/keyboardist Andy Jenks to form 5 Billion in Diamonds, whose self-titled debut album will arrive on August 11 via 100% Records.
On the album, there are a pile of other musicians as well, including guitarist Alex Lee (Goldfrapp, Strangelove and Suede), bassist Sean Cook (Spiritualized) and drummer Damon Reece (Spiritualized, Massive Attack, Echo and the Bunnymen). The album also comes with an array of guest vocalists, including Soundtrack of Our Lives' Ebbott Lundberg, Helen White (Alpha), David Schelzel (the Ocean Blue) and Sandra Dedrick of cult sunshine-pop band the Free Design.
For our first taste of the album, we get "Gravity Rules," which comes featuring vocals by Lundberg and via a spaced-out new video.
"One of the first people that James wrote on there was Ebbot Lundberg from Soundtrack of Our Lives," Vig said of the long-running Swedish band in a statement. "We're huge Soundtrack fans. About four years ago when they were getting ready to break up, they did a series of shows up in Stockholm. We went up to see them. James, fuelled by many glasses of vino, just bum-rushed them [and] said, 'Hey, Butch and I have a band, and we'd like you to sing with us,' and he just [said], 'Ja, I would like to sing with you.' It really was that easy. He sang on like, four songs. That happened really quickly."
Check out "Gravity Rules" for yourself below.
Of course, Vig is also still busy with Garbage, who will be touring around North America with Blondie. You can see their joint dates here.
