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By Tom Lanham
t ’ s not often that an artist is afforded the privilege of seeing the importance of their career painstakingly delineated in its relative historical importance . You usually have to wait until your screen has faded to afterworld black for that kind of cumulative honor . But at 55 , after nearly four decades spent helming Smashing Pumpkins and other sundry spinoffs , Billy Corgan can actually watch his life flash before his eyes , metaphorically , thanks – oddly enough – to Canadian alt-rock twins Tegan & Sara Quin . Their new Amazon Studiosunderwritten streaming TV series High School , based on their recent formative year ' s memoir of the same name , is almost a gushing love letter to Corgan ’ s shape-shifting Chicago combo ; it shows the young Quins – played by twin actresses Railey and Seazynn Gilliland that were discovered on Tik- Tok – first learning to play acoustic guitar to Pumpkin numbers like “ Today ,” analyzing Corgan ’ s layered “ Disarm ” lyrics , and rocking out at awkward parties to several SP catalog classics . The idea is as clear as it is touching – Smashing Pumpkins truly did help soundtrack Tegan and Sara ’ s early years and helped mold them into the truly unique , increasingly pop-savvy duo that they ’ ve become on their new sixth effort , Crybaby .
And Corgan – currently on a co-headlining tour with fellow firebrands Janes ’ Addiction and preparing to release an intricate three-act , 33-track rock opera dubbed ATUM ( preceded by a chugging flagship single “ Beguiled ”), is truly touched the unexpected honor . After all , inspiring an entire next generation or two is never what a composer sets out to do . But it ’ s nice work if you can get it , and it only underscores his diehard belief that Smashing Pumpkins has always been a group of the people , not some coddled critical pet . And just as Tegan and Sara have nothing but fond memories of the band ’ s influence , Corgan firmly believes that the fans have never forgotten him . “ It ’ s the Gatekeepers who have forgotten , and that ’ s the interesting
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part ,” says the singer / guitarist , now a father of two kids , Augustus Jupiter and Philomena Clementine . “ You know , every generation wages this weird war with the Gatekeepers , where they decide what makes the cut . In the ‘ 60s , The Kinks got cut out of the narrative . The Who got in , The Beatles got in , and the Stones got in , But Donovan and The Kinks didn ’ t make the cut , even though they were just as huge . That ’ s some critic – or critics – somewhere deciding that . And I started to see where people were doing that with us , particularly in those years when I was the only original member of the band . I think SPIN once did a list of the Top 150 alternative albums , and Mellon Collie wasn ’ t even listed , and Siamese Dream was 50th or something – it was that bullshit , right ? Like a beauty contest , where somebody decides who ’ s beautiful . Now the fans haven ’ t forgotten , trust me . I ’ m playing to a lot of people every night , and they have not forgotten .”
A good way to keep your fan base interested , naturally , is to constantly gee when popular opinion says haw . Issuing a 33-track may not be what folks are expecting in 2023 – nor a following boxset edition in April with an additional ten cuts – but Corgan could ' nt care less . Art should please the artist first , and then everything else is gravy . He explained his theories to the IE in a recent candid chat ….
IE : I just spoke to Peter Hook , who proudly said that his bassist son , Jack Bates , has been quietly playing in the Pumpkins for seven years . BILLY CORGAN : That ’ s true . That ’ s true , yeah ! And we do tell people , but no one seemed to pick up on the narrative of that . So it shows up here and there , but Jack has played with us for seven years . And literally , I met him when he was a baby ; I got to know him when he was a teenager – Peter would come to our shows and bring Jack along to meet the band , so we just got to know Jack as a person . And seeing Jack play with his father , we eventually kind
Never Mind the Gatekeepers
of circled around on the idea of , “ Hey – would you ever want to play with the band ?” And he was like , “ Yeah ! That would be great !” So yeah – he ’ s a great person , a great musician , so we are so blessed to have Jack in the band .
IE : For a few reasons – but mainly because I fell victim to this myself for a surreal two-year period – what was your recent song “ Confessions of a Dopamine Addict ” about ? I got diagnosed with Parkinson ’ s in 2017 , and they gave me a horrific dopamine-agonist drug called Mirapex that made my life an uncontrollable OCD nightmare and nearly killed me . BC : Well , first of all , sorry to hear that . But I dunno – it ’ s just one of those weird titles that just strikes me . It sounds like a book title or something , like a Nelson Algren type of thing . But it struck me that in this generation , we ’ re basically dealing with dopamine addiction . And no one really talks about the dopamine addiction . People kind of make jokes about it , but all you have to do is stand at the bus terminal for five minutes to see the dopamine addiction playing out right in front of you . And we ’ ve all done it – you ’ re standing there , I dunno , you ’ re waiting for your bag at an airport , and you check the phone , you put your phone back in your pocket , you stand there for a minute , you look around , and then you go , “ I guess I ’ ll check my phone again .” You know ? It ’ s like you need that constant something that only something that ’ ll give you dopamine will give you . And there ’ s something about seeing a picture or reading about the latest controversy where you get that little bit of , “ Oh ! Let ’ s just do that !” And certainly , as a musician in the 21st century , we ’ re navigating the dopamine issue .
IE : It ’ s also interesting that dopamine played a huge role in Stravinsky ’ s controversial 1913 ballet premiere for “ The Rite of Spring .” Too much dopamine can lead to psychosis , and the crowd that night heard so many unfamiliar , dissonant non-classical notes that it went crazy in just a few minutes into the performance and rioted . But only a year later , when society ’ s collective consciousness had to adjust to such a jarring score , a conversely jubilant audience at a symphonic “ Rite ” concert carried the composer out on its shoulders in triumph . BC : Sure . And there ’ s this assumption in modern culture that you can do very little on the musical side to actually create a violent reaction . So , in essence , most violent reactions , musically , are engendered by a kind of fake outrage type of thing . But the fact of the matter is , very few people are actually creating musical outrage because the music that they ’ re making is so offensive to the senses , or the way they ’ re playing the music is so offensive to the senses that people have an organic response . But as somebody who ’ s done it many , many times , it ’ s a fascinating thing to watch the window move from “ You can ’ t do that ” to “ Hey – would you do that again ?” Do you know what I mean ? Circa 1989 , I ’ m in a club playing a long solo , and I ’ ve got people after the show telling me , “ You can ’ t do that ! You ’ re an alternative band – you can ’ t play a long solo !” Fast-forward 35 years , and I ’ ve got some guy in my ear telling me , “ Why didn ’ t you play that song ? I ’ m really bummed you didn ’ t play that song tonight !” It is so weird . You literally go from the violence of a particular image or a movement to where it becomes sort of sanitized and almost part of their sentimental narrative . So I think that ’ s my only view on that – that doesn ’ t surprise me at all because I ’ ve been there and done that .
IE : And years later , Disney used “ The Rite of Spring ” in Fantasia , soundtracking a dark scene with dinosaurs fighting in a thunderstorm . The apex of pop culture . continues on page 22