After former Smashing Pumpkins member Nicole Fiorentino was announced as Garbage's new touring bassist, keen-eyed fans of the two bands were quick to notice that she's continuing the trend of Pumpkins- and Garbage-adjacent bassists hopping over from one team to the other. Ginger Pooley and Eric Avery both did it – and now, Fiorentino is following in their footsteps as she's currently out on tour with Garbage.
Fiorentino managed to land the gig after a period of downtime – however, in a new Bass Player interview, the bassist confesses that she far from expected this opportunity. As she succinctly puts it, it was "quite out of the blue".
“One Saturday morning early this year, I woke up to a DM on my Instagram from Shirley [Mason] asking if I'd be interested in the gig. We had never met, so I was pretty surprised.
“In addition, I had gotten an email from Butch Vig. I thought it was really cool that they both reached out to me personally and didn't go through management or anything. I got back to them really quickly and said, ‘Absolutely. I'd be honored.’”
Her previous experience with the Pumpkins was also key to her clinching the highly-coveted role.
“I had met Butch before,” she explains. “He had come to see the Smashing Pumpkins when I was in the band, so he had already seen me play. I was also recommended by some mutual friends, including Brian Aubert from Silversun Pickups, who Butch produces. So, I didn't actually have to audition, which was amazing.”
As for what gear she's currently using on tour, Fiorentino reveals that Reverend Decision basses are still her go-to – which she notably wielded in the Pumpkins (yet another throughline between the two bands). However, there's one slight difference when it comes to the rest of her gear.
“Garbage doesn't use amps live. Everything is run through their Helix system, and we wear in-ear monitors. It took a little getting used to not being able to feel the vibration of the amps and have the sound beyond the in-ears.”
Bass Player's full interview with Nicole Fiorentino will be published in the coming weeks.
