Billy Corgan ‘Excited’ By Smashing Pumpkins’ Future

Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan has said he his looking forward to the path he and his new bandmates are set to tread after revealing he is far more relaxed about allowing the influences of his youth shine through in his songwriting.

In an interview with musicradar.com, Corgan explained how his change in songwriting is putting a new reflective slant on the band’s new tracks: “Part of my logic is that emulating and, at times, paying homage to artists that influenced me is, in a way, telling part of my story,” he said. “So in the past, where I would have been much more egoistically concerned about whether or not influences could be spotted, because I wanted all the attention to go towards me or the band, as if we were creating music out of a vacuum, this, for me, is more like letting someone into an attic and saying, ‘Here’s the thing I built; here’s the thing I copied; here’s the thing I dreamed about that got discarded.’ And so there are moments where it’s sort of reflective in a kind of sentimental way, and there are times where it’s wholly futuristic and is about abandoning the past. It’s an interesting way to approach because it’s much different than what I used to do.”

Later, Corgan spoke of his enthusiasm for the new approach: “I’m actually really excited, because I think what happened with me is that we had such tremendous success in the ’90s and, you know, I just kind of kept making up new rules and they kind of kept working. Well, at some point they just stopped working as effectively now. Somebody could say that’s because I lost something, or things changed, or whatever happened – you know, everybody goes through those cycles.”

Beginning in December last year, Smashing Pumpkins began releasing tracks from their the new album ‘Teargarden By Kaleidyscope‘ as free downloads and limited editions EPs. 44 tracks are set to be issued in total.

Billy Corgan’s full interview with musicradar can be read here.