Smashing Pumpkins to Continue After Billy Corgan’s Doubts Cleared
Billy Corgan admitted he wasn't sure if the Smashing Pumpkins would continue after this year’s partial reunion activity. But with those doubts cleared up, he said another album was being planned and more tour dates would be booked for the future.
Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin regrouped alongside Jeff Schroeder for new LP Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun., which will be released on Nov. 16. Their 30th anniversary tour concludes on Dec. 8.
“We’re in this weird place of, ‘Let’s finish this [cycle] and then make some decisions,” Corgan told Kerrang in a new interview. “We’re definitely making plans to record another LP, with the idea it will come out at the end of next year.”
He said there were "more shows being talked about," but that he "wasn't sure, going in, that there would be more tours. I thought, if this is going to be it, we’re going to go out swinging. If this is the last show, let’s give it our best go. Let’s play this set we never played, let’s be the band we never were, one time.”
Meanwhile, in a recent interview with Guitar Player, Corgan discussed how the new album had never been part of their plan. Instead, they’d aimed to release a single track that “would sort of say to everyone, ‘Hey, we’re back together now. We’re going to go out and play some music and hopefully make some more good music.’ So what we did was put together 16 song demos, and then we whittled that down to eight, thinking Rick [Rubin, producer] would pick one.”
“Rick was like, ‘Let’s do all of ’em!’ And that’s what we ended up recording,” Iha added.
“As much as the world likes to focus on our catalog – and obviously the tour does, and I take responsibility for that – the primary focus still needs to be on creating new music," Corgan said. "I didn’t expect to be here. But now that I am it’s like, ‘All right, let’s go – I’m ready to plug back in and crank it up. Let’s do this!’”