You know the story. The Smashing Pumpkins - one of this era’s superlative musical outfits, unwittingly as famous for their absurdly volatile inter-band politics as their spell-binding brand of progressive power-pop rock. Plagued with predicaments eclipsing any known primetime soap opera, they have fought against the odds, battling drug addiction to ill-founded “misconceptions”. Not to mention conflict amongst themselves...
TODAY THE SMASHING PUMPKINS are in fine spirits, not least drummer Jimmy Chamberlin who is remarkably forthright about the motives for his reinstatement after a two-year drug rehabilitation hiatus: “I came back to make a great album," he answers prosaically. "There is no other reason other than love, sisterly love. The cosmic force system ... alignment,” he jokes with goofy glee, opting to make light of the previously prohibited issue of his banisment from the band in 1996 after a heroin binge lead to the fatal overdose of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin. "How did I feel?" he smirks. “ I was elated! It was the greatest day of my fucking life. I haven't jumped higher since!"
Following long-time bassist D'arcy Wretsky's unexpected departure, reports of crack cocaine possession have come to light. Predictably, this is not on today's agenda.
“Every album... It's like the lottery,' begins Corgan with one of his trademark analogies, “...on 'Mellon Collie' it was Jimmy, on this album it's Darcy." They all cackle. "It's me or Billy on the next one"' quips guitarist James Iha.
Interrogation as to D'arcy's current whereabouts are greeted with further facetiousness. “She’s jumping up and down. She’s elated too!” deadpans James. She's got her basket of fruit and she's as happy as a clown ... “ Prolonged inquisition into her well-being soon however warrant an unrelenting silence. “We don't know... " James eventually utters, as a discrete rebuttal. "I've talked to her sister. She’s OK... “ A pin can be heard dropping in another hemisphere. I’m finally here after all these years!” beams newly recruited bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, salvaging the diplomacy baton from James. “We called her six years ago. She’s just a little late...” cracks Jimmy. “She didn’t get the message ...” Billy hoots, quashing the prevalent theory that he’s somewhat humourless. “I joined the wrong band by accident,” Melissa chortles, sustaining the esprit relay. “We wrote her a note,” concludes Billy. “come join us and make us (w)HOLE!. Boom and indeed boom.
Speaking of which, how did Courtney react when her Melissa jumped ship onto the tumultuous vessel of her nemesis and ex-paramour Corqan? "She was good, " reveals Melissa. "She knows me well. She knows why I make certain decisions, especially when it comes to plain musical needs." Melissa's motives for the transit were relatively simple. “I was heading for changes as it was, so it wasn’t like I left one boyfriend for another boyfriend,” she says becoming akin with Billy’s knack for analogous statements. “I just needed new musical refreshment and I was coming to the end of that cycle and this is the beginning of my new one and this is exacltly where I should be...”
With the much-publicised resignation of Pumpkins' manager Sharon Osbourne due to fractional relations with Billy, he still claims to be misunderstood on a grand level, not least by the press, some having suggested that D'arcy may have baled out for similar reasons to Sharon. "How do you know the way I am?" he snipes defensively. “You’re asking me to react to a press of Internet rumour and I don’t know how ... It’s like asking me what it’s like to be a girl ... I don’t know.
Thankfully not intent on killing the mood completely, he explains how the band works. On a musical level of course... "I write a song on the acoustic guitar or piano and I show the others the basics, because at this stage the songs are never finished. Then we play the songs as a band and as a unit we'll edit what everyone’s doing. That's how we work."
There you have it, defying rumours that Billy takes full artistic control rendering the rest of the band as mere studio session musicians - as ofter alleged. Still, does Billy feel the rest of the band have enough room to express themselves? “I don’t know. Ask them ..” he sulks, pondering on the previous question. Involuntarily nominated to answer, all eyes are cast in James’ direction. “Yeah, sure there’s enough room...” So why did Mr Iha feel the need to make a solo albom (‘Let It Come Down’)? “Well, the Pumpkins are generally Billy’s songs and voice and I don’t really write like the Pumpkins... I mean sometimes I do, but more ofter than not, I don’t write in that style and I wanted to make a differen kind of record outisde of the band, so that’s what I did.” So D’arcy did not leave out of artistic restraints? The answer is a concurrent “NO”.
"You can ask the rest of the band, but I think that the musical part of the band has been the least of our problems, "Billv retorts, perking up after his little brood. Jimmy agrees: Yeah, I think people have really got the wrong idea.As a musciian, I’ve never felt stifled, I’ve only felt challenged - which is a great way to feel as a musician - especially when you can meet the challenge, which is why I really enjoy playing with the band. I've never listened to anyone in my life, so it's ridiculous to hear that the band is like a controlled situation - it's so the opposite. 'A reason he cites for a virtually music-devoid two-year cessation. 'I didn't join another band because there's no-one else I can really open up for and play like I do when I'm with the Pumpkins. I pretty much play the most difficult things I'm capable of playing in this band.'
Current magnum opus 'MACHINA/The Machines of God', is an welcome return to their relished rock roots, despite Corgan's much imprecated 'rock is dead' remark back in '97, making it a rigid contrast to its electronica-orientated predecessor 'Adore'. "I think the process was different than the way the last album happened, " stresses James, eager to underplay accusations of Corgan's contradictory ethics with a delusive return to rock. 'We didn't practise as much as a band, so it had a different sound to it, but now, with Jimmy back, we play how we usually play - which is probably the natural sound of the band On the last album there was a lot more experimentation, but it wasn't like for this album we said 'Hey, we're really gonna rock now'- it was just played how we felt and how the songs were supposed to go.
Jimmy, although replaced by ex-Filter drummer Matt Walker on the album, is sceptical about the delicacy of 'Adore'. "By 'rock' do you mean louder? Because I think ‘Adore' is a really rock record if you listen to it... Just because the dynamics aren't as loud,.. " he ruminates. "Just because the Beatles didn't have distortion all the time, doesn't mean they're not playing rock’n’roll. Are Black Sabbath more rock than the Beatles? I don't think so...
'OK, so how does it differ? "I think the state of mind was to find the beauty in every song and get as much out of every song as we could and by any means necessary... " Billy elucidates. "So if that meant playing as loud as humanly possible - that's what we did If it meant using keyboards ... that's what we did. It has no discrimination. ‘ Adore' has discrimination in the sense that we were trying to achieve powerful music without playing loud. 'Mellon Collie' had discrimination in that we were trying to show every little thing that the band was capable of - like a stew or something.' He laughs, disarmingly. 'Whereas with this album, it's like taking every individual song and treating it with the utmost respect .. to try and take it to some fatal conclusion.
'Adore' was not a commercial success comparison to the gargantuan 'Mellon Collie and the infinite Sadness'. Did Billy consider this as a failure? "No, not at all, " he states contiguously, "I think ‘Adore', to me was a life-changing experience because in 1996 we were arguably the biggest band in the world and when you're the biggest band in the world you worry about continuing to be the biggest band in the world and we did exactly the opposite. We stopped worrying about being the biggest band in the world and worried about making music,' he explains. "In a world full of who’s selling, who's big, who's on the cover - we just walked away from all of it. We did what we believed in at that given momenl This album's strenght has a lot to do with Adore's weakness. And I don’t mean weak musically, I mean its ability to be weak.”
Is Billy disappointed that ‘Adore’ didn’t reach so many people? “No because it will some day,” he responds obstinately. “I think the work we’re doing as a band will last forever and I can’t say that about a lot of other bands. People will come back to our records ... Not in a nostalgic way - because I think our records will mean more over time. I don’t think they’ll mean less...” A point fairly made when deliberating the early 90s Sub-Pop tidal wave that was the Seattle scene. Pearl Jam may still be milling around, but to date, have not retained the level of success they enjoyed in the rudimentary stages of Grunge. Proving to be the cream of the crop, the Pumpkins have duly lasted. “I think we didn’t get caught up in something we weren’t ..” Billy reasons assuredly. “We took being an ‘alternative’ band to mean tthat we should be ourselves. When alternative music got really popular, became about being like everybody else. We rejected that. We became rock stars by being non-rock stars. That’s the great irony.
Billy, a man so ofter a victim of journalistic mind-games, always rising to the bait, earning himself an undesirable (and if the truth really be known, inaccurate) reputation as a vainglorious nincompoop, makes no apologies for the decisions he’s made. “You can’t go back,” he rationalises. “Well never be in the cold room above the pub, in the middle of the night, rehearsing with our gloves on again. We’ll never be the band driving around for eight hours to make it to a show, again. You become what you become and you try to dismiss and separate the good, the bad, the pure and the impure and I think we've done a really good job of standing up for things, being ourselves... " He proves his point further. "I think the (American) charity tour we did was an indication of who we are as people and I think getting Jimmy back in the band is an indication of who we are as people. We're human beings and we're not afraid to be human beings. I think being a rock star is great fun. It's a great adventure - like going on the best ride at Disney Land that keeps on going, There's been a lot of good times and there's been a lot of bad times. " Melissa agrees: "Dedicating the majority of your lifetime to something you believe in, like rock music - I can't think of anything better!"
How do the band haand handle the pressures of success? "I think it's hard when it first really sets in. Like when you first walk into a bar and it's not just one guy that recognises you - the whole bar does that's a bit overwhelming, "explains Billy, becoming uncharacteristically less inhibited. "It's a bit overwhelming going from earning $12,000 a year in a record store to making all this money, being able to buy anything, having the world at your finger tips, having girls wanting to fuck you who wouldn't normally look twice at you,' he boasts. "It's weird. Surreal. Like an out of body experience - but you get used to it like anything else. Now it's champagne, caviar and limousines, baby!"
Now on a roll, Billy is keen to eradicate the longrunning misconceptions about the band. It's still, they maintain, all about the music. 'I know I'm going on about it a bit, " he continues, apologetically, "But when people come to see us play, they see everything The’re not going to see a bunch of fucking lame millionaires up there, strutting their fucking stuff. We'll still be sweating and we'll still be playing fucking unbelievably. Those things don't change us at all. We're still a deep band and it's very spiritual for us... "
Spiritual for the band and celestial for the global multitudes who have confirmed the Smashing Pumpkins' status as one of this generation's most important bands. "You put out the most successful double album in the history of rocknroll, then you make ‘Adore'. If you really worried about being a rock star, you wouldn't have made an album like Adore',' Billy once again emphasises. "When we put out 'Gish', people told us we were crazy. When we put out 'Siamese Dream' everyone asked us 'what's with all the pain and the drama?'. When we put ou 'Mellon Collie' people said who would want to listen to two CDs of your music? When we put out ‘Adore' people said 'Why are you doing this? You're going to kill your career - you're going in the wrong direction' - so we're pretty used to being told that we're doing the wrong thing. In fact... ' he concludes, "...if people -tell us we're doing the right thing, that makes us nervous!" The band chuckle, unanimous in merriment, only too aware that once again, come what may, they'll always have the last laugh...