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<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nSmashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan doesn\u2019t mean to burst your bubble\u2014but if you\u2019re thinking \u201chopeful and positive\u201d when you hear \u201cMonuments,\u201d a standout track on the new Smashing Pumpkins album Monuments<\/i> to an Elegy<\/i>, then you\u2019re mistaken. Speaking from Chicago, Corgan says that the line \u201cI feel all right tonight\u201d is \u201ckind of meant to be sarcastic\u201d\u2014a jokey take on the feel-good refrains you hear in car commercials. That\u2019s not to say this self-professed cynic is in an especially negative place. Monuments <\/i>is an excellent, energetic album pitched somewhere between classic \u201990s Pumpkins psych-grunge and the synth-driven sounds that pass for alternative today.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a continuation of Teargarden by Kaleidyscope<\/i>, the 44-song cycle Corgan began in 2009 and plans to finish with the album Day for Night<\/i>, due out in 2015. Although Corgan, 47, has always been the mastermind behind the Pumpkins and now stands as the lone remaining original member, Monuments<\/i> hinges on his collaborations with producer Howard Willing, guitarist Jeff Schroeder and M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce drummer Tommy Lee.<\/p>\n
However, hiring a character like Tommy Lee raises a few eyebrows, as has Corgan\u2019s recent appearance on the cover of PAWS Chicago<\/i>, a charity magazine promoting no-kill animal shelters. But Corgan isn\u2019t making any apologies for working with Lee, or for cuddling with two of the kittens he helped rescue. If fans aren\u2019t willing to read past the headlines and understand what this animal-loving alt-rock legend is trying to accomplish with his life and music, they can take a hike.<\/p>\n
Why release this album now?<\/b><\/p>\n
It just felt right. I got sick of working on music and in the back of my head thinking, \u201cNo one\u2019s ever going to listen to this.\u201d For every person who says it\u2019s a qualitative issue: I\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t buy that argument. Everybody\u2019s in the same boat right now. Overall, music is getting more middling to satisfy the casual consumer. You\u2019re either driven to being a niche artist or a heritage artist, where you continue to play in your past. I find the whole thing maddening. I had to find something I could fully invest in and get excited about.<\/p>\n
Does this nine-song format fit with the concept of Teargarden<\/i>?<\/b><\/p>\n
Teargarden<\/i>, as strange as it sounds, was never meant to be a musical thing as much as it was a spiritual journey: \u201cIf I start here, I should end up in a better place by the time I\u2019m done with this.\u201d And even though I\u2019ve had to augment the process as I\u2019ve gone along, I have ended up in that better place. I think it has been effective. I\u2019d have to go into a rambling dissertation into why that is.<\/p>\n
Go for it!<\/b><\/p>\n
(Laughs<\/i>) In the beginning of 2009, when [drummer] Jimmy [Chamberlin] left the band, I made the decision to continue under the name Smashing Pumpkins, which you knew was going to be a problem. So how do you do that in a way that feels good? For me, it was going back to \u201cWhy do I make music? Who do I want to make music with?\u201d There was a collective voice that was saying, \u201cIf only he\u2019d go back to blank<\/i> and\/or go away\u201d\u2014neither choice being desirable to me. I knew I had to get back under the hood of the Smashing Pumpkins engine.<\/p>\n
The album sounds like classic\u00a0<\/b>Pumpkins, but at the same time, it\u2019s\u00a0<\/b>fresh. You\u2019re not rehashing anything.<\/b><\/p>\n
One funny thing is that fans often act like I hit my head and don\u2019t remember how to make records like that, when I was the architect of those records. I could make those sounds\u2014those tones and textures\u2014anytime I want. To me, they\u2019re like paint on a board or something. You choose red or blue or green. So I get these questions, \u201cWere you trying to do that?\u201d No, I was just trying to do what sounded right to me. Keying up a certain guitar sound or a particular way to sing after 15 years felt right to me, where it didn\u2019t feel right to me those other 15 years.<\/p>\n
Did Howard push you to new areas?<\/b><\/p>\n
It\u2019s more just Howard being the bad cop in the studio and saying, \u201cThat\u2019s not going to fly in today\u2019s landscape,\u201d and getting into pseudo-intellectual conversations about what that really means. If a lot of the songs getting played on alternative radio these days don\u2019t have guitar, how does a guitar band exist in the universe in a way that\u2019s morally equivalent? Do you make music that\u2019s like that, or make music that\u2019s as cool\u2014or hopefully cooler\u2014by using the guitar in a different way or approaching density in a different way, or approaching space in a different way?<\/p>\n
How did Tommy get involved?<\/b><\/p>\n
It was born out of the idea of thinking Tommy would sound good on this one particular song, and the next thing we knew, I\u2019m sitting with Tommy in L.A. and playing him the whole record, and he says, \u201cI want to play on the entire record.\u201d And I was like, \u201cCool, let\u2019s go for it.\u201d An album, for me, is a really intense process. Being in a foxhole, you\u2019ve got to believe the person you\u2019re getting in with has your back, and they\u2019re going to follow through and give you everything they\u2019ve got. And Tommy gave me 150 percent. This was no stunt thing, like, \u201cHa-ha, let\u2019s get Tommy Lee and see what people think.\u201d It\u2019s not even close to that. He\u2019s a great musician who connects with what I\u2019m doing, and he gets it. Then you have three weeks of the two of us practically nose to nose in the studio going over every second of the album, down to every cymbal crash and drum hit. That\u2019s not the flashy part\u2014that\u2019s the unattractive part of making an album. Tommy knows and I know you\u2019ve got to really want to do that.<\/p>\n
Any concern about skeptics?<\/b><\/p>\n
Honestly, I don\u2019t factor that stuff in at all. I\u2019ve been pronounced dead so many times it\u2019s not even funny. You get to the point where none of that stuff really makes a difference. If people don\u2019t like the album, they\u2019re not going to like it because Tommy\u2019s on the record. If they like the record, they\u2019re not not<\/i> going to like it because Tommy\u2019s on the record. At the end of the day, it\u2019s about the songs and how well they\u2019re played and whether you create something that\u2019s unique. The Cr\u00fce has had great records and the Cr\u00fce has had OK records, and the same goes for me.<\/p>\n
So you don\u2019t sweat the small stuff.<\/b><\/p>\n
Look at my musical life. Now detach it from the personal stuff: my mouth, the dumb things I\u2019ve done, people\u2019s opinions, the cat magazine. Take all that away and just look at the musical accomplishment of it all. Now compare that to my generation. There\u2019s little comparison. Not even close. When you ask that question, the answer is, \u201cYeah, I exist in a dual Star Trek world where I\u2019m treated one way based on perceptions that don\u2019t have anything to do with music, while I continue to go around the world and play for countless thousands of people because of my music.\u201d It\u2019s like living a strange life of being told you\u2019re somebody that you know you\u2019re not and having to constantly prove who you already proved you were to a bunch of people who can\u2019t read beyond a headline. That\u2019s their problem.<\/p>\n
\u2013Kenneth Partridge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SMASHING PUMPKINS Billy Corgan\u2019s latest features familiar-but-fresh sounds and a new Cr\u00fce Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan doesn\u2019t mean to burst your bubble\u2014but if you\u2019re thinking \u201chopeful and positive\u201d when you hear \u201cMonuments,\u201d a standout track on the new Smashing Pumpkins album Monuments to an Elegy, then you\u2019re mistaken. Speaking from Chicago, Corgan says that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7665,7669],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14723,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14721\/revisions\/14723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}