Shirley Manson knew that the follow-up to Garbage's self-titled album would involve a different approach. "I am going to be directing this in terms of what we touch on lyrically,” the flame-haired Scot would soon inform drummer Butch Vig and guitarists Steve Marker and Duke Erikson when it came to making what became Version 2.0.
“It was an arrogant move on my part but it was also necessary,” she admits now. “I tried to please the band, but in the back of my mind I understood that in order for Garbage to grow and be authentic I had to be a strong frontperson. In order to be paid attention, your band needs a gladiatorial kind of approach to being out there in the public eye. I felt like I knew what I had to do, and it turned out I was right."
Released in 1998, I Think I’m Paranoid was the second single from their second album, Version 2.0. It gave them a fourth UK Top 10 hit, and it became one of the band’s flagship songs. At heart it’s a rock track with big hooks, and it leaned heavily on new technology.
“Arguably it was the first fully digital album ever,” says Manson. “It was certainly one of the first using technology that not many people knew much about. We didn’t know what it could do or what the limitations were."
Working directly with the software developers who were designing Pro Tools, Garbage worked with prototypes that were sent to the studio as they recorded.
