Butch Vig

Bryan David "Butch" Vig (born August 2, 1955) is an American musician, record producer, and songwriter who is the drummer and co-producer of the rock band Garbage. Vig produced several alternative rock acts of the 1990s, including Nirvana, the Smashing Pumpkins, L7, and Sonic Youth. Notable albums he produced include Nirvana's diamond-selling album Nevermind (1991), L7's Bricks are Heavy (1992), and the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream (1993).

A native of Wisconsin, Vig studied at the University of Wisconsin and performed in local bands Spooner and Fire Town. He set up his own recording studio in Madison, Smart Studios, with bandmate Steve Marker. After becoming well known as a producer, he formed and played drums with Garbage, which sold 17 million records over a ten-year period. Vig returned to producing full-time when Garbage went on hiatus in 2005. The band reconvened in 2010 to record material for their fifth album. In 2012, NME ranked Vig the ninth-greatest producer of all time.

Vig was born in Viroqua, Wisconsin, son of DeVerne William Vig (1922–2021) and Betty Jeanette (1931–2005), née Brewster. DeVerne Vig was a hospital staff doctor who practiced medicine with his twin, David, and their elder brother, Edward, in Viroqua for nearly forty years; Betty Vig was a music teacher and clinic administrator who played an active role in the community as a Sunday School teacher, Girl Scout leader, and director of the Country Club and Viroqua Bloodmobile Service. Vig has two siblings, Chris and Lisa. Vig acquired the nickname Butch as a child, due to the severe crew cut his father gave him. Vig studied piano for six years. After seeing The Who perform on The Smothers Brothers, he swapped his piano for a $60 drum kit.

Moving to Madison, Vig enrolled at the University of Wisconsin to study film direction.

While a student at the University of Wisconsin, Vig met his eventual Garbage bandmate Steve Marker. Vig contributed several electronic music soundtrack pieces to low-budget films, including one song on Slumber Party Massacre, a Hollywood B-movie. This soundtrack work stirred Vig's interest in the manipulation of sound. Vig joined a number of garage pop bands, including Eclipse, and in 1978 joined Spooner with Duke Erikson, Dave Benton, Jeff Walker and Joel Tappero.

The following year, Vig helped Marker build a home studio in Marker's basement. Benton, Marker and Vig also started a small label, Boat Records, to release records of Spooner – which included their 1979 debut EP, Cruel School – and other bands they liked, which led to around twenty local acts. The self-producing was later described by Vig as "kind of a trial by fire".

In 1984, Vig and Marker founded Smart Studios in Madison, while still performing drums in Spooner at night and driving a taxi cab during the day. When Spooner lost momentum, Vig formed a band called First Person with Marker and Phil Davis and a side project called Fire Town featuring Davis and Erikson. Fire Town quickly became Vig's priority, and after their first album was signed to Atlantic Records. Atlantic hired producer Michael Fondelli to work with Fire Town on their second album. While the sessions did not do well, and the resulting record sank, Vig learned a lot of production techniques from the process. Fire Town split, and Vig reformed Spooner for a final album before working as a producer became his full-time career.

Vig's first high-profile production work was in 1991, when he produced The Smashing Pumpkins' Gish and Nirvana's Nevermind. Vig incorporated overdubs and vocal double tracking, whereas Nirvana's previous album, Bleach (produced by Jack Endino), had a more "lo-fi" sound. Kurt Cobain originally refused to double-track his vocals and guitars but Vig reportedly got him to comply by saying "John Lennon double-tracked". Cobain would later criticize Vig for the album's slickness, although this might be due to Andy Wallace's mixing of the album. Cobain said in a 1993 MTV interview that "Butch Vig...recorded the album perfectly". The success of Nevermind earned Vig the nickname "Nevermind Man", according to the BBC. Billy Corgan welcomed Vig's elaborate production on The Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream. This album met with widespread acclaim and strong sales, breaking another indie band into the mainstream. Vig also produced two critically praised Sonic Youth albums, 1992's Dirty and 1994's Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star.