Billy: The next album will probably be the first album that we make with
absolutely no constraint on what we do. Because even Adore had an
agenda, which was it was going to be a quieter album, whereas the next
album we have no agenda. We don't know anything we are going to do. We
don't know if every song is going to be twenty minutes long or every
song is going to be two minutes long, or it's going to be super heavy,
super dense or super mellow. We have no idea, and it's exciting, because
I think it's good to finally reach a place where I don't have an agenda
as a writer, and I think the band as a collective unit doesn't have an
agenda about what we sound like. We don't really care anymore. I know
there is a certain kind of element of fans that like, they want to go
back to the old, hey day pumpkins rock, whatever, but, I mean, we did
it, and as far as we're concerned we did it better than just about
anybody, so you can't live in that space forever, and you can't continue
to try to be something that you don't necessarily feel like.
Richard: Do you say this directly to fans when they come up to you?
Billy: Sure. Yeah. I mean I feel a certain kind of loss...like there's a
certain kind of loss of innocence kind of going on, where people are
missing you know the good old days with Nirvana, Pearl Jam and the
Pumpkins. But, you know, if you weren't there you should have been, and
that's it. But, you can't sustain that kind of energy that…there's
just no way. And musically it kind of reached it's end conclusion, and
the Pumpkins are just the kind of band that're willing to say that "you
know, there's nothing left in it". You know, we
could…like…people…people could question us all the time about "Oh,
I love Gish, you know, why don't you play more like Gish?" kind of
thing. You know, Australia was one of the first countries to really
embrace our first album. And what people don't realise is we could
play…we could play like Gish all day. I mean, we could…we could
sit…we could sit in the next room and we could write five songs that
sound just exactly like Gish in an…in an hour. But it's not what we
want to do. You know, it's not a satisfying experience, because we did
it, and we did it in a time when we felt very strong about doing that
kind of material.
Richard: So now it would be just like wrote, it'd be just churning it
out?
Billy: Or it would be doing it because it's what somebody wants us to
do. Which, of course, is always the indicator for us to do exactly the
opposite. (laughs)
Richard: (laughs) Nothing like a bit of a prod in the back to get you to
go the other way.
Billy: Right, right.
Richard: So the whole process…
Billy: (Interrupting) So everyone should see…if anyone wants us to go
heavy then they should come up and say "keep doing the mellow thing"…
D'arcy: (clears her throat)
Billy: and we'll just put out the heaviest stuff you've ever heard.
D'arcy: We're children of rev… reverse psychology.
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