Pumpkins’ Corgan looks ahead

  • Friday, December 26, 2014 2:00pm
  • Life

LONDON (AP) — The Smashing Pumpkins are dead. Long live the Smashing Pumpkins.

It’s fair to say lead singer Billy Corgan has an ambivalent relationship with his band — as well as with the music industry, the media, fellow musicians and his fans.

“People say, ‘Are you going to break up the band?”’ Corgan said backstage before a recent London show. “What band is there to break up? There is no band.”

Corgan may be the Pumpkins’ only remaining original member, but the non-band has just released its eighth studio album, “Monuments to an Elegy.” A slice of grungy pop-rock featuring guitarist Jeff Schroeder, who joined the Pumpkins in 2007, and Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee, it’s received good reviews — though not good enough for Corgan.

“There’s no way this is a three-out-of five record,” he said, grumbling about one newspaper’s assessment.

You might think that sounds a bit thin-skinned for the man behind two best-selling 1990s albums — “Siamese Dream” and “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” — now regarded as classics.

But Corgan is not the type to rest on his laurels. He says he abhors nostalgia, and turned down good money to do a retro “Siamese Dream” tour.

“I know exactly where that goes,” he said. “That’s Vegas.”

Corgan is an icon of ‘90s American indie rock, perhaps second only to his late friend Kurt Cobain.

In the decades since, Corgan has revealed a willingness to speak his mind on everything from politics to astrology and a knack for nursing a grudge. He has had a public spat with Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, and recently berated Anderson Cooper after the CNN host poked fun at Corgan’s cat-cuddling cover shoot for Paws Chicago magazine.

Swaddled in a sweater and scarf backstage at a London club, 47-year-old Corgan is sensitive to the cold [—] and to criticism. He is alternately confident and insecure of his place in music history, which makes him both prickly and refreshingly honest.

“Imagine if every week of your life for the rest of your life somebody’d be walking down the street going ‘Here’s a picture of you when you were 18. Didn’t you have a better hairstyle then? Look at this T-shirt you were wearing. Don’t you want to wear that T-shirt again?’ That’s what it’s like,” he said.

“It’s a mirrored paradigm which you cannot escape. And if you complain, which I have, you’re not grateful.”

He’s had his ups and downs, but feels with the new record that he’s regaining his musical mojo.

“This is the best reaction I’ve had on an album, up off the street, in 20 years,” Corgan said.

He says creativity is a funny thing. “When you have it, it feels like a font that just flows through you, and everything gets real easy. And then one day it sort of slows down or it stops and you tell yourself, ‘I’m just having a bad day or a bad month.’ And then next thing you know, people start doubting you, you don’t have that magic touch. And then you start doubting yourself.”

Corgan plans to release a companion album to “Monuments to an Elegy,” — titled “Day For Night” — in late 2015.

He says he has finally embraced the philosophy of Popeye: “I yam what I yam.”

“I wish I had Robert Plant’s voice, or Robert Smith’s voice,” he said. “I got this one, OK, so go with it. But you have to go through all that to come out the other side, to find strength and power in it.”

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Brandon Hailey of Cytrus, center, plays the saxophone during a headlining show at Madam Lou’s on Friday, Dec. 29, 2023 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lynnwood-based funk octet Cytrus has the juice

Resilience and brotherhood take center stage with ‘friends-first’ band.

FILE - In this April 11, 2014 file photo, Neko Case performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. Fire investigators are looking for the cause of a fire on Monday, Sept. 18, 2017, that heavily damaged Case’s 225-year-old Vermont home. There were no injuries, though a barn was destroyed. It took firefighters two hours to extinguish the blaze. (Photo by Scott Roth/Invision/AP, File)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Singer-songwriter Neko Case, an indie music icon from Tacoma, performs Sunday in Edmonds.

Dominic Arizona Bonuccelli
Tangier’s market boasts piles of fruits, veggies, and olives, countless varieties of bread, and nonperishables, like clothing and electronics.
Rick Steves on the cultural kaleidoscope of Tangier in Morocco

Walking through the city, I think to myself, “How could anyone be in southern Spain — so close — and not hop over to experience this wonderland?”

chris elliott.
Vrbo promised to cover her rental bill in Hawaii, so why won’t it?

When Cheryl Mander’s Vrbo rental in Hawaii is uninhabitable, the rental platform agrees to cover her new accommodations. But then it backs out. What happened?

The Moonlight Swing Orchestra will play classic sounds of the Big Band Era on April 21 in Everett. (submitted photo)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Relive the Big Band Era at the Port Gardner Music Society’s final concert of the season in Everett.

2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD (Honda)
2024 Honda Ridgeline TrailSport AWD

Honda cedes big boy pickup trucks to the likes of Ford, Dodge… Continue reading

Would you want to give something as elaborate as this a name as mundane as “bread box”? A French Provincial piece practically demands the French name panetiere.
A panetiere isn’t your modern bread box. It’s a treasure of French culture

This elaborately carved French antique may be old, but it’s still capable of keeping its leavened contents perfectly fresh.

(Judy Newton / Great Plant Picks)
Great Plant Pick: Mouse plant

What: Arisarum proboscideum, also known as mouse plant, is an herbaceous woodland… Continue reading

Bright green Japanese maple leaves are illuminated by spring sunlight. (Getty Images)
Confessions of a ‘plantophile’: I’m a bit of a junky for Japanese maples

In fact, my addiction to these glorious, all-season specimens seems to be contagious. Fortunately, there’s no known cure.

2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited (Hyundai)
2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited

The 2024 Hyundai IONIQ 6 Limited is a sporty, all-electric, all-wheel drive sedan that will quickly win your heart.

The 2024 Dodge Hornet R/T hybrid’s face has the twin red lines signifying the brand’s focus on performance. (Dodge)
2024 Hornet R/T is first electrified performance vehicle from Dodge

The all-new compact SUV travels 32 miles on pure electric power, and up to 360 miles in hybrid mode.

Don’t blow a bundle on glass supposedly made by the Henry William Stiegel

Why? Faked signatures, reused molds and imitated styles can make it unclear who actually made any given piece of glass.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.