Wish I was in Spain. Anyways, I was recently listening to Zeitgeist yesterday. I think it's a tad bit underrated in my opinion.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2012 11:23PM by Omiem.

RhettButler posted:

Omiem posted:

Wish I was in Spain. Anyways, I was recently listening to Zeitgeist yesterday. I think it's a tad bit underrated in my opinion.

Glad to see another fan.

Thanks! I'm a kinda new to these forums. Are there usually large numbers of Smashing Pumpkin fans around here?

Omiem posted:

RhettButler posted:

Omiem posted:

Wish I was in Spain. Anyways, I was recently listening to Zeitgeist yesterday. I think it's a tad bit underrated in my opinion.

Glad to see another fan.

Thanks! I'm a kinda new to these forums. Are there usually large numbers of Smashing Pumpkin fans around here?

There are plenty of SP fans, but not enough people to recognize Zeitgeist as beig a great album.

The Smashing Pumpkins are offcially my new favorite band...yes, even more than NIN!

Billy Corgan is a musical genius!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2012 08:55PM by Demonseed25.

Oceania is streaming on itunes now.

Heard the record yesterday and I enjoyed it. It seems they're on the right path again, but I'll have to hear the record few more times.

I really enjoyed this album. "Pinwheels" is my favorite.

The new album is real good, BUT I bit too soft. Just wish there were a few hard songs like ''starz'' ''where boys fear to tread'' ''cherub rock'' ''the everlasting gaze'' etc.
Anyway fav tracks are : violet rays, oceania, glissandra and ESPECIALLY wildflower.Yea, wildflower is my most favorite.

I agree Oceania is too soft. I miss angsty Billy.

The first 6 tracks and Glissandra are me fave tracks, Violet Rays being me overall fave track.

can't wait for the Pisces Iscariot remaster out next!

I think that Pinwheels is my favorite song on the album. I just love it.

Smashing Pumpkins--MCATIS/6 disc deluxe set on the way


The Smashing Pumpkins are set to reissue their 1995 opus, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on 3 December as a six disc box set (5CD+DVD) and a four LP vinyl set.

The Deluxe Box Set’s 5 CDs include 64 bonus tracks of previously unreleased material or alternate versions of Mellon Collie-era songs, and its DVD features a live show filmed at the Brixton Academy, London (1996) and bonus performances from the German music television show Rockpalast (1996).

This content comes housed in a 12 x 12 lift-top box with magnetic closure and velvet-lined disc holder. The package includes 2 books containing personal notes, lyrics, new collage artwork, plus a Decoupage kit for creating your own scenes from the Mellon Collie universe. The bonus content and special features were curated from the band’s archives by Billy Corgan and remastered for the first time from the original master tapes by Bob Ludwig.

Like the Gish and Siamese Dream reissues, Mellon Collie has reimagined cover art with titles removed. The 4LP vinyl version will come as some relief to fans who missed out the first time around, since the original 3LP release goes for extremely high prizes on the used market. The vinyl release will have the original record spread over eight sides of 180g vinyl for optimum sound.

Six disc set (CD/DVD)

USA Pre-order: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 6-disc set
CANADA Pre-order: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 6-disc set
GERMANY Pre-order: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 6-disc set

Four LP set (Vinyl)

USA Pre-order: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 4LP Vinyl set
CANADA Pre-order: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 4LP Vinyl set
GERMANY Pre-order: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 4LP Vinyl set

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 6 disc track listing

Dawn To Dusk (CD1)

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
Tonight, Tonight
Jellybelly
Zero
Here Is No Why
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
To Forgive
An Ode To No One
Love
Cupid De Locke
Galapogos
Muzzle
Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans
Take Me Down

Twilight To Starlight (CD2)

Where Boys Fear To Tread
Bodies
Thirty-Three
In The Arms Of Sleep
1979
Tales Of A Scorched Earth
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby
Stumbleine
X.Y.U.
We Only Come Out At Night
Beautiful
Lily (My One And Only)
By Starlight
Farewell And Goodnight

Morning Tea (CD3)

Tonight, Tonight (Strings Alone mix)
Methusela (Sadlands demo)
X.Y.U. (Take 11)
Zero (Synth mix)
Feelium (Sadlands demo)
Autumn Nocturne (Sadlands demo)
Beautiful (Loop version)
Ugly (Sadlands demo)
Ascending Guitars (Sadlands demo)
By Starlight (Flood rough)
Medellia Of The Gray Skies (Take 1)
Lover (Arrangement 1 demo)
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby (Take 7)
In The Arms Of Sleep (Early Live demo)
Lily (My One And Only) (Sadlands demo)
1979 (Sadlands demo)
Glamey Glamey (Sadlands demo)
Meladori Magpie
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Home Piano version)
Galapagos (Instrumental/Sadlands demo)
To Forgive (Sadlands demo)



High Tea (CD4)

Bullet With Butterfly Wings (Sadlands demo)
Set The Ray To Jerry (Vocal Rough)
Thirty-Three (Sadlands demo)
Cupid De Locke (BT 2012 mix)
Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans (Live Studio rough)
Jellybelly (Instrumental/Pit mix 3)
The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)
Jupiter’s Lament (Barbershop version)
Bagpipes Drone (Sadlands demo)
Tonight, Tonight (Band Version Only, No Strings)
Knuckles (Studio outtake)
Pennies
Here Is No Why (Pumpkinland demo)
Blast (Fuzz version)
Towers Of Rabble (Live)
Rotten Apples
Fun Time (Sadlands demo)
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby (Acoustic version)
Chinoise (Sadlands demo)
Speed



Special Tea (CD 5)

Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Nighttime version 1)
Galapagos (Sadlands demo)
Cherry (BT 2012 mix)
Love (Flood rough)
New Waver (Sadlands demo)
Fuck You (an ode to no one) (Production Master rough)
Isolation (BT 2012 mix)
Transformer (Early mix)
Dizzle (Sadlands demo)
Goodnight (Basic Vocal rough)
Eye (Soundworks demo)
Blank (Sadlands demo)
Beautiful (Instrumental-Middle 8)
My Blue Heaven (BT 2012 mix)
One And Two
Zoom (7 ips)
Pastichio Medley (Reversed extras)
Marquis In Spades (BT 2012 mix)
Tales Of A Scorched Earth (Guitar Overdub mix)
Tonite Reprise (Version 1)
Wishing You Were Real (Home demo)
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby (Pit mix 3)
Phang (Sadlands demo)

DVD

Live at Brixton academy, London, 5/15/96

1. Tonight, Tonight
2. 1979
3. Zero
4. Here Is No Why
5. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
6. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
7. Jellybelly
8. Silverfuck
9. Disarm
10. Bullet with Butterfly Wings

Live at Rockpalast, 4/7/96

11. Fuck You (An Ode To No One)
12. Muzzle
13. Cherub Rock
14. X.Y.U.

Six disc set (CD/DVD)

The Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan on the past, the present, the future and 'Mayonaise'

By Adam Graham

Billy Corgan likes to talk.

During our recent phone interview, Corgan talked at great length about the state of the music industry, the Smashing Pumpkins’ place in it, and his outspoken role in the media.

Corgan’s mouth often gets him in trouble, because he freely and openly speaks his mind about any number of topics. And in today’s world of pull quotes and de-contextualization, some of his statements — when excerpted from their longer surrounding statements — can make him seem like one of rock’s biggest crybabies.

“I’m a guy who does better with a full quote,” he says. “For years I really suffered because they would pull the one or two sentences out of a paragraph and make me look like an a–hole, and of course then I became an a–hole, and then I was asked to be an a–hole, because it was more fun or more newsworthy.”

That said, here are some longer excerpts from our interview where he talks about the Pumpkins’ past, the band’s reissues and why he’s so excited about the band’s future.

On how his fondness for the past manifests itself into his music: “Doing the reissues for Pumpkins, I’ll go back and I’ll hear a song and I’ll be like wow, I can’t believe that I translated that set of themes into that song. It really kind of shocks me. One that really jumps out is the song ‘Mayonaise,’ which is kind of a treasured song by Pumpkins fans, off of ‘Siamese Dream.’ It was the last song I wrote lyrics for on the album. And it got to the point where it was like OK, I’ve gotta write these lyrics, I’ve gotta sing this song. And when I wrote it, I felt like I just threw together a bunch of weird one liners, basically. It didn’t feel like it had any synchronicity to me; I was just looking for good lines to sing. And now when I sing the song, I’m just shocked how closely reflective it is of what I was going through. It’s almost like this weird personal anthem to my experience, but I didn’t feel that at the time. And I can see why people identify with it, because now I identify with it. It’s hard to explain without going into long-winded answers, but just the direct narrative aspects of it really surprise me. It’s like how you can look at Picasso’s art and see who he was (sleeping with) at the time, you know. But instead of painting her, he paints Madonna. The Madonna, you know what I mean. He turns his mistress into the holy mother. Similar things happened with me. Stuff shows up in all these weird places, but I don’t remember thinking that at the time. I was just struggling for a language.



On his position in today’s music culture, and how it has changed over the years: “I would say In the modern world, it’s about influential power. I have a power now that I never had. I guess it’s maybe a different kind of soapbox. A different power to influence, a different power to connect to people. It doesn’t always translate into material power, but I think if can if you stay a certain course, you have a level of integrity that you can’t manufacture. It’s only possibly by 25 f—ing years in a trench. And I’ve been in that trench for 25 f—ing years, literally saying the same stuff over and over again, and being poked at, made fun of, treated like I’m some sort of weird anachronistic creature, some sort of amoeba to be studied. And now suddenly I’m part of a new movement identified by many 15-25-year-olds, as creating a new model that has nothing to do with the old models.

It’s about individuality, integrity, but not the guy with the beard’s version of it. I live in Chicago with the stupid Pitchfork people, who have completely hijacked what it means to be alternative. Hijacked it. Put their own parentheses, quotation marks around what it means to be ‘alternative.’ It’s unbelievable! It’s part of the carnivorous process of music and its culture. ‘No no no, this is my version of cool, your version of cool no longer applies.’ There’s only one problem: Nothing has really evolved out of our old version of cool. They’re still living that old business model. Now if they had reinvented it? For example, I would argue the EDM music scene has reinvented it, so they deserve their props, because they’re doing it. They’ve taken something and they’ve made it their own. Rock and roll culture? I’m sorry. I mean, you can basically draw direct lines from today’s indie stars to the ’80s, ’90s, ’60s, ’70s indie stars. They haven’t evolved that archetype, they’ve just become more precocious, but without the hits. But there’s nothing new there. So that’s the problem, is they sell these kids a piece of pie that doesn’t work, and they won’t realize it until they won’t have made anything and they’re forced to go back and work for mom and dad or down the street at Starbucks, because they won’t have made their money in the time when you’re supposed to make your money. And making your money has everything to be with being correct, being a leading edge musical candidate.

On the band’s current shows, which begin with a full presentation of ‘Oceania’ and close with renderings of the band’s ’90s hits: “I think the whole show really works together and it’s really fun because in a way, it’s like a light to dark (dynamic). ‘Oceania’ is a little bit more up and has kind of a little upper modality, and then in the second half we dive into some better known songs, but we tend to take the harder edge of some of that stuff. We’re playing ‘Disarm,’ ‘Tonight, Tonight,’ ‘Bullet with Butterfly Wings,’ ‘Cherub Rock,’ ‘Zero,’ stuff that’s really still invigorating to play. And it seems to flow in a longer narrative. The best stuff I’ve seen that people have picked up on is it sort of embraces the whole run. It puts its arms around a long story. It’s not just one thing or another. I think that’s really satisfying. It has almost like a theatrical feel, the way it feels top-to-bottom. It doesn’t feel like two separate shows, it feels kind of like Act 1, Act 2.

On playing ‘Oceania’ front-to-back: “It works, and it was funny to us when it worked because we weren’t sure it was going to work. We did a rehearsal, because we never played some of those songs live, they were basically studio creations. So when we put it all together, we were like, ‘is this gonna work?’ Because I had already been running my mouth that we were going to do it, so there was no backing off it. But it wasn’t until we did it that we thought, ‘this could work, it feels good.’ Then until we did it live, we weren’t sure we weren’t going to have 30 dead minutes where the audience was like, ‘oh come on, just get past this,’ you know? The fact that it worked as a whole body of work, as well if not better than it worked on record, was really like, okay, phew, this can be done.

I wouldn’t recommend it If you don’t have a body of work that flows in a specific way. I know a lot of people are sentimental, say, for ‘Siamese Dream.’ I don’t think that would work as well a musical body of work in that order. And it would only work because of people’s sentimentality for it, which I guess is how other people are doing it. We actually once did play ‘Siamese Dream.’ It was the last show of the ‘Siamese Dream’ tour. We’d been on tour for 14 months, and the last show was in Sweden, and I said, ‘hey, come on kids, let’s play the whole album’ – as a joke. And the audience hated it. Because they wanted the grunge show of 1993. Which is what’s funny to me when people get sentimental, because if they really wanted to let me do my thing, I could recreate for them a 1993 Smashing Pumpkins show that would be far better and far more interesting than play ‘Siamese Dream,’ but that doesn’t sell tickets. Maybe that’s what we should do: Maybe that’s my way to trump this bulls— and maybe satisfy a curiosity would be to say, ‘OK, I’m gonna play a 1993 setlist.’ That I could get into, because I’d like to see what we were thinking. But this idea of going out to play a musical body of work not designed to be listened to that way, or experienced that way, particularly live. We definitely sequenced ‘Oceania’ to be a concept album kind of flow, so we knew if it had a visual narrative with it it should work, and it did.

On the perception that the current version of the Pumpkins is Billy Corgan and a bunch of hired guns, much like Guns N’ Roses is Axl Rose and a bunch of hired guns: “I can appreciate why they think that way. I think the Pumpkins, as a business now, is about a tradition. And you can choose to connect with that tradition or not. I have people with me, as are heard on ‘Oceania,’ that are part of that tradition. And they’re upholding a legacy, which is important. And if you need to connect to a certain part of the legacy a certain way, that’s your choice. I think you’re making a mistake to deny yourself the opportunity to be open to it. If it doesn’t work for you symbolically, archetypally, or musically, that’s totally fine. My recent quote that I’ve been saying is we’re like Ringling Bros. Circus. You expect a certain type of show a certain type of sway, and you don’t get too caught up on who the high wire act is this year. It’s just you expect them to deliver that thing. And if I’m the ringmaster, great, you know what I mean? It’s my deal.

I think you’ve just gotta be open. I loved the last Guns N’ Roses album, you know what I mean? And unfortunately when they were out touring on that record, I didn’t get a chance to see them. But I would have gone. It doesn’t mean I disrespect or don’t appreciate the classic lineup. It just means that I want to have a musical experience with that artist today. And I think that when other people in my generation reinforce those ideas, of course it makes it more difficult, because it makes me look like I’m being difficult, because I don’t want to reform with people who have driven me up the wall, killed my desire to play music and have sued me. But I’m supposed to get back up on stage so they can relive their dream? They forget about my dream. Which is to be a musician in a band with people who actually want to be there with me. Let’s not forget about that end of the dream.

On the Pumpkins’ upcoming reissue of ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’: “I’m excited. I put a lot of work into it. In order to come up with 66 or 67 bonus tracks, I had to dig through a lot of archival stuff. And we’re still putting out ‘The Aeroplane Flies High,’ which is the B-side collection for ‘Mellon Collie,’ so I’m looking to figure out what the hell I’m going to put out for an extra disc on that. So that’s a pretty intense process. I have to go through a lot of tapes, I have to dig around. Some stuff is lost. I’ll give you a perfect example: there’s a 53-minute concert that was edited from 3-hour-plus concert from London. The record company lost the tapes. We were going to go back and put out the entire 3-hour concert and the record company lost the tapes. They couldn’t find the tapes anywhere. They might be misplaced or mislabeled, but we spent six months looking for these tapes because we wanted to put out a complete ‘Mellon Collie’ live show, because it was about a 3 hour live show, acoustic/electric, and we can’t find the tapes anywhere. So we only have this edited-for-TV 53-minute version that was produced at the time. We’re four or five regime changes at EMI/Virgin from who used to be there, so you can’t find anybody who remembers anything. When we started searching in the archives for stuff relating to Pumpkins, all the Pumpkins stuff was filed under ‘B’ for ‘Billy Corgan.’ So routinely, somebody would come back and say, ‘sorry, we don’t have that tape.’ We would have to beg people to go down and hand search. We found stuff late, we found stuff mislabeled, some stuff is supposed to be here and it’s there. We have some stuff we shouldn’t have, they have some stuff that we should have. It’s been very arduous to go through everything. So it’s very satisfying to put together a cool little window into what it would have been like to be part of the working team for ‘Mellon Collie’ at the time. It’s what you would have heard if you were behind the scenes – this demo, this live take of a song, this rough mix that puts the guitars in a different context — just different contexts to hear the music in. I think it’s exciting. With these reissues I’ve just tried to create windows into how the albums were made, and what was laying around around the albums, so you get the sense of the culture of that particular period. I’ve been really excited to do it and fans have really appreciated the journey, so I’m happy to do it.

On the reissue plan going forward: “Once we clear the Pumpkins’ first era, then I have about 65 unreleased Zwan songs, I have a ton of unreleased stuff relating to my solo album ‘The Future Embrace,’ and then there’s a ton of ‘Zeitgeist’ demos, probably songs I should have put on the album, that are pretty interesting and well-done. Also I have two unreleased acoustic records, plus an unreleased acoustic soundtrack — three albums worth of acoustic albums from the mid-2000s that are totally unreleased. So I’m hoping to just do everything chronologically.”

On the reissue of Machina/ The Machines of God: “We’re going to remix the whole album, ‘Machina I’ and ‘Machina II,’ and put it back in its proper sequence, so it will finally be heard like the concept record it was meant to be. I’m really excited about that. It will probably be two or three (discs). It will probably be two, but it has to be sequenced correctly. There was supposed to be a whole rock suite where you symbolically go to see the Machines of God in concert, so songs like ‘Everlasting Gaze’ were supposed flow into ‘Dross.’ I have the liner notes somewhere in my archives of what I meant to do. There’s supposed to be this fictional rock and roll concert that happens within the album, whether or not I’ll do the crowd noise and all the stuff I’d planned on doing, we’ll see. Maybe I’ll make it sound like Kiss’ Alive I or something.”

On his favorite Pumpkins song: “I don’t know. I’ve kind of had to emotionally distance myself a bit from the past work in order to create the energy for the new work. I know that sounds kind of self-serving. It’s hard to (pick one song), but I think there’s a message you would hope to send that says, ‘this is more me than the others,’ and I think a song like ‘With Every Light’ (from ‘Machina/ the Machines of God’) is a song that would be alright to play at my funeral, because there’s an honesty there that most people just glossed over. Those are really honest lyrics. In amongst a conceptual album where I was playing a character, that’s a song that really is close to my heart. I sing that song every night to warm up, and I still really connect with what those lyrics meant. It’s about a spiritual epiphany. It’s about realizing you’re in a tradition that’s far deeper than fame, and that’s kind of what holds you to it. I’m sure every night in John Lee Hooker’s life wasn’t so great. But he was steeped in the tradition of the blues, and am I whore, am I a poet or am I a folk musician, you know what I mean? All this other bulls— just kind of goes with the times. But that’s a song I think I would be alright with being part of what will be played at my funeral. It really expresses how I feel.

I saw The Smashing Pumpkins last night at the Agganis Arena (Boston University) and it was really, really good. They played Oceania in its entirety and then played some hits. I think it was pretty ambitious to play the new album in full, as some fans, no doubt, are there for the hits and would be unfamiliar with the new album. The new stuff got a positive reaction, although obviously the fans were most enthusiastic for the SD/MCATIS material. I really respect Billy for not resorting to being a mere nostalgia act and just living off the past. Billy seemed to be in great spirits, and the rest of the band shined. There were a few empty seats, but it looked like the show got a good turnout.

SP at a bigger venue also allowed the band to have a more elaborate set-up. The stage was pretty barren, but there was a giant orb that was a video screen, it was pretty cool.

Since MCATIS is your all-time favorite album, you must be pretty psyched for the reissue. I was listening to it the other day and thought it could use a remastering. It sounds good, but could maybe sound a tad crisper and clearer.

I'm sure that you will enjoy the show.

GRUNGEREPORT.NET INTERVIEW WITH SMASHING PUMPKINS BASSIST NICOLE FIORENTINO

Last week GrungeReport.net had an exclusive interview with Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, and now to close out November we have an interview with Smashing Pumpkins bassist Nicole Fiorentino. November has definitely been the month of the bassists on GrungeReport.net.

Nicole Fiorentino joined the re-tooled Smashing Pumpkins in 2010, replacing Ginger Pooley on bass. She has gone on to become the most popular Smashing Pumpkins bassist among fans since D’arcy Wretzsky, with her playing and backing vocals on Oceania and the subsequent 2012 tour gaining widespread praise. The Smashing Pumpkins resume their North American tour next week, following the postponement of tour dates due to Hurricane Sandy. In this Q&A, Fiorentino discusses the Pumpkins’ planned followup to Oceania, setlists, the status of the Teargarden By Kaleidoscope project, and much more.

Billy Corgan is known to be one of the hardest working musicians out there, with the Smashing Pumpkins doing a lot of rehearsing. Was this hard to adjust to at first when joining the band and was it intimidating to work with a musician with Billy’s work ethic? Do you recall how many songs you went through during this ‘initiation’ time period?

I think one of the reasons Billy and I work so well together is because of our similar work ethics. I’m a very determined person and I work best when challenged and under pressure. I’ve also struggled a long time to get to where I am now, and I wasn’t under any illusion that it was suddenly going to be all sunshine and butterflies when I joined a band at this level. If anything I was expecting to work harder than I ever have before. I can’t really recall how many songs I learned initially, so I guess that answers the question!

How have the reactions been so far from fans hearing Oceania from front to back live this year? Does it seem to be connecting more with the audience from show to show, or vary from city to city? I’ve read some reviews and there have been many fans excited to hear it, but then also some of the more casual fans shouting for the hits. I think it’s great that you guys are playing it live, there are some veteran bands that I cover on GrungeReport.net that I wish would be as confident as you guys are regarding playing new material and moving forward.

The reactions to playing Oceania live have been incredible. The most positive feedback the band has had in many years. At first it was intimidating, getting up there and not knowing how people were going to respond to an hour of new music, but that’s the risk we decided to take. This band has always been fond of risk-taking, so why stop now? For me it was nerve-wracking because I contributed to this album, so I have more at stake now than I did just playing the old stuff. If they don’t like it, I played a huge role in that, you know? Of course some audiences have been more lively than others, but in general we seem to be captivating them, and that’s not an easy feat with new material. You can tell pretty early on if it’s working or not, but I think overall people are leaving happy. There’s always gonna be the audience that just wants the hits, but the proof is in the pudding. Tweets come pouring in after the shows. I consistently hear things like “best Pumpkins show I’ve ever seen”, “best concert I”ve ever been to”, “mind-blowing” etc. So we’re doing something right.

Has there been more pressure with this North American tour, playing larger venues? Especially playing a new album and the band not having done a headlining tour in arenas during the last few years.

Yeah it’s tough times everywhere right now, so playing the larger venues can be challenging. But again, we’re a band that’s known for taking risks, and if it doesn’t work then you move on to the next. But regardless of who’s there, we’re gonna play the same show with the same energy. The people on the floor aren’t looking up into the seats to see if the show is sold out, they just want to see a great rock show. so we have to think about that when we’re up there. either way, the people that are there are having fun, and they’re each gonna share that with 3 friends, so on and so forth. I feel confident that we are putting on a quality show that speaks for itself. when the quality is there it’s undeniable, whether you are playing old or new material or a combination of both.

What is the dynamic like with the band traveling, and before and after shows? Do you spend a lot of time hanging out with Billy, Jeff, and Mike or are you guys off doing your own thing?

We have a very healthy dynamic. We are friends and we do hang out, but we also know to respect each others’ privacy. It’s difficult on the road because you don’t have anything to ground you. you’re not in your own house, you don’t have your things, usually your significant other isn’t there. so it’s hard to maintain any semblance of a normal life. you have to be supportive of everyone’s needs. for me, I have to do yoga, read, go for walks alone. but I also like to get a healthy amount of social time too. it’s all about balance and knowing each others’ boundaries. but overall we really do like each other and getting along really well.

How do the band put together the setlists? Are there any songs you are hoping to play in the future with the Pumpkins?

We are very particular about the set lists. A lot more goes into it than just throwing songs onto a piece of paper and shuffling them around. SP has such a huge catalog so we have to attempt to not play too many songs from certain records and neglect others. We usually go into rehearsals with a general idea of what we want to play but then if something is going against the flow of the set we try to think of a song that has the right vibe. It’s not like we are trying to meet a quota or have a certain number of hits, we’re also not avoiding the hits. we really just look for what is going to create a shift in the set, a new moment. the last thing we want is for the set to feel linear, it needs to have movement. so if we play something like Bullet with Butterfly Wings in the middle of the set, we’re not gonna follow it with Zero and Cherub Rock. we’d go with a song that’s going to shift the mood, something epic or mellow. we like to take people on a journey.

I know you played a new song called “Black Sunshine” live a few times on the North American Oceania tour, has Billy brought any other new song ideas to the band yet? Where do you sense the vibe of new material going?

Yeah Black Sunshine was an idea we had when writing for Oceania. It didn’t make the cut at that time, but it has evolved a lot since then. It’s hard to tell what the vibe of the next record will be. It’s interesting because I’ve been listening back to the original demos from Oceania and it’s crazy how far the songs have come since then. We probably had 15 different versions of Pinwheels at one point. I mean like completely different versions: the rock version, the synth version, the psychedelic version. But the one that stuck was the one that fit in with the story line. Like our live shows, we wanted the record to take people on a journey. So it’s really too soon to tell what the vibe is going to be according to the ideas we are working on now. Either way, I think this new record is going to take it to the next level for this incarnation of the band because now that we’ve been through the process once together, we can dig a lot deeper this time. for me I feel more confident and I feel a sense of ownership to the music now, so whatever direction the new record take I am going to give it everything.

You mentioned on Facebook recently that you are considering doing a solo project. Personally I’d love to hear it, especially after hearing your vocals on Oceania (particularly on Pinwheels) and in The Cold and Lovely. When might the solo project happen, and do you have anybody in mind who you might want to contribute to it?

It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a little while now. Obviously my priority is focusing on my work with SP, but I definitely think it would be good for my soul to put out something on my own. It would be a different kind of challenge, something I’ve never done before, so that’s exciting to me. I’ll work on it gradually during my down time, and I am in no rush to release it. I mainly just want to do it for me, and then if people want to listen to it great. if they like it, even better! I am not looking to have some solo career. I like being a bassist in a band. it’s what feels right. as far as contributors, I’m not sure. I have so many talented people in my life so there is a surplus there. Most likely Meghan Toohey, probably my friends Barbara Gruska (The Belle Brigade) and Brian Aubert (Silversun Pickups), and maybe I could get one of my fellow Pumpkins to make an appearance!

What bands out there today are you excited about, both young and old? Any albums that you’d like to recommend or that you’re excited about?

St. Vincent, Silversun Pickups, Cat Power, Fiona Apple, Explosions in the Sky, Wild Flag, Rachael Yamagata, Neko Case, The Gossip. I would recommend any and all albums from these bands. I listen to the Cure, PJ Harvey and Bessie Smith 24/7, but I think I mention that in every interview. I’m also very excited about my new Tibetan chakra meditation album. Nothing like a crystal singing bowl to start my day off right!

Is the Teargarden By Kaleidoscope project done? Or will the next album be part of it?

Teargarden is an ongoing project that Billy has committed to completing with 44 songs. So as far as I know anything we release before those 44 songs are complete will be included under the Teargarden umbrella. Oceania is considered part of the Teargarden project, so presumably the next record will be too.

What are the band’s plans for 2013 touring wise? Do you think the Pumpkins can have another album out by December 2013/early 2014 like Billy Corgan hopes to?

It’s hard to say what the touring situation will look like in 2013. I think we will do some festivals and hit the markets that we didn’t hit this year on Oceania, but I think the main focus is going to be working on new music. I think we have proven that our strong suit is creating new music together, so we really want to keep the ball rolling. I think if we start working on the record in January it could feasibly be out by early 2014. That will be the goal and then we will do our best to get it out as close to then as possible.

There have been many Smashing Pumpkins lineups and break ups over the years including the original lineup, the Adore lineup, the MACHINA lineup, and the Zeitgeist touring lineup which had Jimmy Chamberlin and current Pumpkin Jeff Schroeder. The current lineup though seems to be clicking musically and personally. How long do you envision this current incarnation of the Smashing Pumpkins going, and what do you want to accomplish?

As far as I am concerned, this is where I belong. I think we have a lot more to offer the world musically, and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. I would love to continue to release as many records as possible with this band. Ultimately the decision is up to Billy, how long he wants to keep it going. But so far it feels good, it’s working, we put out a record together that got a great response and are gearing up to do it again. I can’t predict the future, but my intention is that I am in this for the long haul.

Billy has made it clear in interviews that the current lineup is a real band, not a collection of hired guns. While Billy is obviously the frontman and dominant creative force in the band, do you envision you or Jeff maybe co-writing some Pumpkins songs in the future, like James Iha did from time to time in the past?

I mean I wouldn’t rule it out. We work very well together so it’s a possibility. Either way, from the start I have been willing to contribute as much as Billy is open to. And the fact that I am the only bass player to have created and played all of my own parts on an SP record says a lot. We have a really intense musical chemistry and I’m so excited to see where it goes from here!