Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan Posts Debut Webisode, 'Daydream'

Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan Posts Debut Webisode, ‘Daydream’

2012-02-16

Story by Anne Erickson

Billy Corgan on My Bloody Valentine: ‘I couldn’t understand how they were making the sound of the music that they were making’

Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has posted the first webisode in a series of videos about the band’s recent reissues of their formative 1991 “Gish” and 1993 “Siamese Dream” albums. Watch the full clip, below.

In the webisode, Corgan talks about the first time he ever heard alternative noise-pop greats My Bloody Valentine and how their striking ethereal melodies and crushingly loud distortion inspired Smashing Pumpkins track “Daydream” off “Gish.”

“One day, while working at the record store in 1989, I happened to tune into the college station, and I heard this sound from this band, and I couldn’t understand what I was listening to,” Corgan said. “It’s only happened to me a few times … [but it happened with] My Bloody Valentine, the band I’m speaking about now, where I couldn’t understand how they were making the sound of the music that they were making.”

Corgan goes on to explain that this was before the Internet, so he couldn’t do a Google search to find the band’s name. “So, I went to the local record store that would have had the title, and they said, ‘Yeah, we had one copy, but it sold.’ So I left the store, and for some reason, I looked over to my right, and I saw a little clothing store, and even though I had no money, I thought, ‘I’ll go in there and look…’

“I walked through the door, and they had a little shelf with jewelry and stuff like that, and in the shelf was the My Bloody Valentine CD that I was looking for, and I said to the girl behind the counter, ‘Why is this there? Is that for sale?’ And she said, ‘Yes,’ and I said, ‘I’ll take it’ … and I took it home, and the first person I called was [Smashing Pumpkins co-founder] James Iha, and I said, ‘You’ve got to hear this CD.’ It was ‘Isn’t Everything,’ which was the album before ‘Loveless,’ with was the very, very famous album.

“So ‘Daydream’ bears a striking resemblance to My Bloody Valentine’s style … because we didn’t think anybody would ever hear of My Bloody Valentine, so we weren’t that worried about it! (Laughs) And of course later we became friends, and I remember one of the first times I met Kevin Shields, he said, ‘Oh, I like that song, Daydream’ … So the original [Daydream] demo was my song… but I thought it could be better, so D’arcy [Wretzky, original bass player] on the album sings this beautiful vocal… ” (Photo via YouTube.)

Watch Smashing Pumpkins’ Webisode No. 1, ‘Daydream’:

Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.

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