Shirley to work with Billy Corgan & Jack White

The Sunday Mail reports that Shirley Manson is working with Billy Corgan & Jack White on her new Solo album.

They also report that her debut solo album will be issued in 2007.

SCOTS superstar Shirley Manson is secretly lining up an A-list team for her first solo album.

The Garbage singer wants stunning tunes for her debut – and has recruited the biggest names in music to help.

White Stripes star Jack White, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan and The Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan are all on board, as is award-winning movie composer David Arnold, who collaborated with Garbage on 1999’s James Bond theme The World Is Not Enough.

Yesterday, Paul revealed how he met up with Shirley at his Glasgow flat to work on ideas for the album, due out in 2007.

He said: “I knew Shirley’s work from her days in Scottish bands Goodbye Mr Mackenzie and Angel Fish and had heard the records she’d made with Garbage.

“But we’d never met so I couldn’t believe it when this rather formal email arrived saying, ‘Dear Mr. Buchanan…’

“The fact Shirley was motivated to ask me to write songs made it worth pursuing.

“I was worried my music wouldn’t fit in with the rocky stuff Jack White and Billy Corgan would come up with but Shirley said, ‘Don’t worry, I want you to do what you do’.

“Sometimes the unlikeliest combinations work best – it gets you out the comfort zone.” Paul and Shirley will meet in December to record tracks for the CD.

Before then, he has a Scottish tour which includes gigs at Aberdeen’s Music Hall on November 24, Edinburgh’s Usher Hall (25 and 26) and Perth City Hall (27).

Paul has also written songs with Euryth-mics’ Annie Lennox and duetted with Sharleen Spiteri on Texas’ hit single Sleep.

He said: “I made a conscious effort to write the songs from Shirley’s perspective.

“It only took five minutes to compose them but I’d had six weeks to come up with ideas.

“It was a similar experience to when I worked with Annie. Like Shirley, she made it easy to be in the room and wanted a bit of company – in a music sense – after working for so long with Dave Stewart.

“Shirley was also keen to bounce ideas off different people after taking a break from Garbage.”

But which Scots female rock star would Paul next like to add to his impressive CV?

He said: “It would be great to write for K.T. Tunstall. The bits of her music I’ve heard so far have been good.”
Source: Sunday Mail – thanks John5!