of feeling to it", explained Manson, "We tried to recreate it in the booth, but it just sounded flat." Vig elaborated: "When it came to mix, we just left it the way we had [originally] recorded it". Manson had told the rest of the band [when she joined Garbage] that she was a songwriter, but the truth was that she had little input in the songwriting team that formed the core of her previous band: "As the lead singer, I was left most of the time with coming up with the melody and the licks," Manson remembered, ""Milk" was obviously augmented by the rest of Garbage, but the melody and the words are mine". She was inspired by a line in Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid ("her throat is a kitchen") and alluded to it in her lyrics for the song. Manson later described the composition was "a seduction, almost like a siren song", "I really like the vulnerable and sinister side of "Milk". It sounds like it's an innocuous love song and it's not" and again elaborated further: "It's been dismissed by people as the ballad at the end of the album. To me "Milk" is the darkest, most hopeless of the songs. People say "Oh, it's lovey-dovey, so therefore it's a love song". But it's a very bleak song, it's about loss and the fear of loss; about things you can't have and things you will forever wait for." Remix collaboration After Garbage's fifth single "Stupid Girl" had been released internationally, the band's record label were considering what the follow-up single would be; at one point "Supervixen", "Fix Me Now", and "Milk" were all considered. The band performed a headline concert at New York City's Roseland Ballroom in mid-April 1996 and were joined at the aftershow by English trip hop musician Tricky. The two groups hung out for the night, and decided to collaborate on a duet version of "Milk" featuring both Manson and Tricky on vocals. In May, the two acts spent a session in Chicago's CRC Studios working on the new recording. The session was setback with numerous glitches including a malfunctioning tape machine and a mixing console caught fire. Manson found the experience of working with a male vocalist "enchanting and illuminating". Tricky turned off all the lights in the vocal booth and pressed his mic against Manson's as they performed