"Empty" is a song by American-Scottish

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band

Garbage Garbage, trash, rubbish, or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or gaseous wastes, or toxic waste produc ...

. It was released as the lead single from their sixth studio album ''

Strange Little Birds ''Strange Little Birds'' is the sixth studio album by American rock band Garbage. It was released on June 10, 2016, through the band's own record label, Stunvolume. It is their second independent album release, and follows 2012's ''Not Your Kind ...

'' (2016) on April 20, 2016 by their independent label Stunvolume.

Background

"Empty" is an electronic rock song. Drummer

Butch Vig Bryan David "Butch" Vig (born August 2, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the drummer and co-producer of the alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of the diamond-selling Nirvana album ''Neve ...

said "it sets the tone for the rest of the album" and added it sounds "like classic Garbage," a sentiment which touring bassist Eric Avery also shared. Guitarist

Steve Marker Steve Marker (born March 16, 1959) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as a cofounder and guitarist of the alternative rock band Garbage. Early life Steven W. Marker was born in Mamaroneck, New York on Marc ...

echoed that, saying that the song's position as second track on ''Strange Little Birds'' following the more eerie and atmospheric "Sometimes" was a deliberate choice due to the band wanting to create a heavy contrast between the tracks and give an idea of what to expect from the rest of the record. Singer

Shirley Manson Shirley Ann Manson (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish musician and actress. She is best known as the lead singer of the American alternative rock band Garbage. Manson gained media attention for her forthright style, rebellious attitude, and di ...

explained that the song is about "the hole that we all have - ..I think every human being has it, somewhere, or at least, at some point in their life - where you're so eaten up with an obsession that fills you up so completely there's no room for anything else. And as a result, you just have this sort of psychopathic approach in your life. We've become so obsessed with money, and success, and numbers and we're forgetting about our humanity in the midst of all that." Vig added that despite having "pretty dark lyrics", the song's anthemic sound makes it feel "like a celebration" of vulnerability as Manson acknowledges it singing "I'm so empty" in the chorus.

Release and promotion

"Empty" was released as lead single from Strange Little Birds on April 20, 2016. It was debuted on the ''Kevin & Bean'' show on

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The stat ...

. The music video followed on May 23 and was uploaded on the band's YouTube channel through VEVO. Garbage performed the song on the French TV show ''

C à vous ''C à vous'' () is a French TV show hosted by Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine that has been broadcast on the channel France 5 since 7 September 2009. The name is a pun on the French expression "" (in English, roughly, "The floor is yours"). The show is s ...

'' on May 25 and on ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC. The nightly hour-long show debuted on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, Los ...

'' on June 20 to promote the record. A live performance filmed at East West Studios was uploaded by

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as part of ''Amazon Front Row'' on June 3; it was later uploaded on the band's YouTube channel on June 29. In 2022, the song was remastered by

Heba Kadry Heba Kadry is an Egyptian mastering engineer who currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She is best known for her work with Bjork, Beach House, Slowdive, The Mars Volta, Neon Indian, Wooden Shjips, Lightning Bolt, White Hills, Alex G, Future ...

and included in Garbage's third greatest hits album ''

Anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

'', out October 28.

Music video

The promotional video for "Empty" was helmed by Samuel Bayer, who also directed the first Garbage videos from their debut album. The video shows each member of the band playing in an empty room alone on a platform with various flashing colored light effects as well as confetti occasionally raining down from the ceiling. There are many instances where the camera is spinning in a circle around Manson and occasionally the other band members. Manson claims Bayer borrowed the camera from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

, and the camera "nearly killed Butch" as it detached from its rotating axis while Vig was playing drums in the room. An alternate cut of the video was uploaded by video editor Michael Mees on his website.

Charts

Weekly charts

References

External links

"Empty" music video
at

Vevo Vevo ( , an abbreviation for "Video Evolution", stylized as VEVO until 2013) is an American multinational video hosting service, best known for providing music videos to YouTube. The service is also available as an app on selected smart TVs, di ...

. {{Authority control 2016 singles Garbage (band) songs Song recordings produced by Butch Vig Music videos directed by Samuel Bayer Songs written by Shirley Manson Songs written by Duke Erikson Songs written by Steve Marker Songs written by Butch Vig