Biography

Bryan “Butch” Vigorson (born August 2, 1957 in Viroqua, Wisconsin) is both a rock musician and record producer.

Butch Vig first became famous in the music business in 1991 when he produced Nirvana’s Nevermind and The Smashing Pumpkins’ Gish and Siamese Dream. Before that he had produced lots of small punk rock bands such as Killdozer and The Other Kids.

His production work on Nevermind is widely credited as the reason that Nirvana broke through to the mainstream, going #1 on the charts (replacing Michael Jackson). Their previous album, Bleach was produced by Jack Endino and had a much dirtier sound, while Nevermind had many overdubs and studio tricks (part of this is credited to Andy Wallace). Cobain would later criticize Vig for the album’s slickness. However, Vig’s next project would serve to complement his skills. Billy Corgan welcomed Vig’s elaborate production on The Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, specifically layering, the track “Soma” on the album for example uses over 40 dubs. This album met with great commercial and critical reception, also breaking another indie band into the mainstream.

Currently Butch Vig is the drummer of the popular group Garbage, who have released the albums Garbage (1995), Version 2.0 (1998), Beautifulgarbage (2001) and Bleed Like Me (2005) plus a James Bond theme song for The World Is Not Enough.

Together with Steve Marker (guitar player of Garbage) he also owns Smart Studios where artists such as Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage and Sonic Youth have recorded.

Prior to Garbage, Butch Vig was in the bands Firetown and Spooner with Garbage Guitarist Duke Erikson.