Garbage were "miserable" at the height of their success.
The ‘Stupid girl’ group – who went on a brief hiatus in 2003 followed by a longer break in 2005 – felt "engulfed" by their record company and hated being pushed to selling as many records as possible as they found it detrimental to their creativity.
Singer Shirley Manson recalled: "It was miserable.
"We got engulfed. When we first started out, we were signed to an indie label. We had a lot of freedom. Then we got sold like a commodity to a record label that did not give a flying f**k about our music or our career or us as people. And it was a nightmare.
"We didn’t care if we weren’t the biggest band in the world! But to this record label, if you’re not the biggest band in the world, then you’re worthless."
The group – also comprising Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig – eventually began fighting among themselves as the pressure grew.
Shirley added to The Guardian newspaper: "We got caught up in that corporate expectation, and it was sickening. It robbed us all of joy, and as a result we all turned in on each other. And our disappointments and our frustrations we foisted upon ourselves."