Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan Talks ‘Siamese Dream’
Story by Anne Erickson
Story by Anne Erickson
Smashing Pumpkins reissue Gish and Siamese Dream on Tuesday
Alternative rock kingpins Smashing Pumpkins reissued their classic 1991 Gish and 1993 Siamese Dream albums on Nov. 29, choc full of original songs, plus a second CD of rare and previously unreleased material. As for Siamese Dream, the band’s popular sophomore album, main man Billy Corgan holds the album dear to his heart.
“Even though it wasn’t the one that sold the most, it’s the one that seems to have come through the best,” he told BBC Radio 1 (via NME). “As dark a record as Siamese Dream is, there’s a lot of fun in it, it’s almost like we’re kind of laughing at how stupid the whole thing is. It’s like, here’s my pop song about suicide and here’s my epic song about child abuse… ”
Corgan — who is currently prepping to release the Pumpkins’ ninth studio album, Oceania, in 2012 — also weighed in on his time with band mates D’Arcy Wretsky and James Iha during the taping of Siamese Dream. Corgan was such a perfectionist, he actually would rerecord that parts his band would play, just to get he sound that was in his head to match the recording.
“We rehearsed a lot, we worked together a lot, we argued about things other than music, we actually never argued about music,” he said. “They believed in what the album represented, they actually really believed in the album, but the actual physical making of the record, they couldn’t live up to that level of scrutiny, they couldn’t live up to that level of pressure. It destroyed my health you know, it destroyed my relationships, I went out of my mind.” Find more details about the Siamese Dream and Gish reissues on the Smashing Pumpkins’ artist page.
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01 Dec 2011, 4:01 pm
He’s like a 40 year old teenager.
02 Dec 2011, 9:36 am
“It destroyed my health, my relationships…” Dude. I liked the album, but there are more important things to be suicidal over.