The Smashing Pumpkins 2018-08-14 (WKQX-FM)

August 14, 2018 – Chicago, IL, US
Live performance by The Smashing Pumpkins
Artist	The Smashing Pumpkins
Date	August 14, 2018
Venue	WKQX-FM Studios
Coordinates	41°53′56″N 87°37′23″W
Location	Chicago, IL, US
Venue type	Radio studio
Personnel	Billy Corgan, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlin, Jeff Schroeder, Jack Bates, Katie Cole
Order of bands	The Smashing Pumpkins
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Acoustic #SoundLounge session for WKQX-FM.

Setlist

1. (interview)
2. "Landslide" [Stevie Nicks] (acoustic) 
3. (interview)
4. "Blew Away" (acoustic) 
5. (interview)
6. "Today" (acoustic) 
7. (interview)

Banter

Walt Flakus: Hey everyone, how you doin’? I’m Walt from 101 WKQX, thanks for coming to the lounge, brought to you by Coors Light, the world’s most refreshing beer. You guys ready for a great show this afternoon? I mean, heh, you put on a helluva show last night and they’re gonna do it again today, please give it up, the Smashing Pumpkins. ... Welcome, you guys, I’m off here in the corner...by the way and kind of in the dark. Um, first of all, welcome back, welcome home, it’s good to have you here in Chicago. Um...what an epic show last night, three hours, 31 songs, uh, how hard is it to come up with a setlist that spans all of the different textures that incorporate the Smashing Pumpkins?
BC: Um...it was weird ‘cause I drew up the setlist, maybe months before we started rehearsing because we had to figure out what we were gonna do for all the filmed visuals and we never changed the setlist, which is bizarre ‘cause that always happens. But I spent a lot of time trying to find the balance between kind of the songs people would want to hear and the songs that I think would tell our story, ‘cause, you know, our story’s like –- as fans know –- is just as much about the deep cuts on the album as the singles, so....
Walt: It was very comfortable to hear some of those old songs again, you kept it focused on the first five records and the visuals were amazing. Who helped develop all of those?
BC: Well, my partner Linda Strawberry, who I’ve known literally since she was 17 years old, I met her when she was just a musical artist in Salt Lake City. She’s been family and friend for all these years and so she’s become a video director/producer and so we hatched this idea to do this crazy show that would tell this narrative story, because we felt if we were gonna do a three hour show, there was no way that you could just expect people to just sit there and watch us play and having seen stuff like Roger Waters’ The Wall, it was really inspired by how the visual element can really add a level of emotion to the evening. And then when you get into the retrospective aspect, which is just playing songs from the first five albums, you can play with memory and time and space, so Linda shot a bunch of stuff, we worked with a really talented group of people, some visual artists that did some of my –- including my friend who lives here in Chicago, Katelan Foisy -– who did some of the animation stuff, but it was totally like we just winged all this stuff and put it up there and it kind of works.
Walt: It looked super impressive: moving screens, the production, all of it, even had the twins from the Siamese Dream....
BC: Yeah, that’s awesome, yeah, we had the...ladies from the Siamese Dream cover that came back too.
Walt: Now I guess they’re not really twins, are they?
BC: Well, it’s funny ‘cause people always thought they were twins, which is I guess one of those kind of mythological things, you know?
Walt: Yeah, at one point they were conjoined twins, heh heh, which, like, I don’t see how you get that from the photo but nonetheless.
BC: Yeah, I’ve heard it all, yeah.
Walt: Heh heh heh heh. So what was the impetus to put the original lineup back together again, to bring James back?
BC: James, you wanna jump in on that?
Iha: Hey. (Walt and crowd laugh) Um, there was no master plan as far as like, uh, putting the band back together. I just, uh, I reached out to Billy and we had a nice dinner and uh, you know, just started from that and uh...more just about becoming friends again and just talking, basic communication, heh heh heh.
Walt: Yeah, it’s cool, it starts there where you reacquaint each other as friends, before the music.
BC: Well, that’s how the band started, I mean, it was really built around our friendship and our love of music and this crazy idea that we had, that we could do all these styles of music under one roof. And so I think when we sort of were able to reconnect as friends and, you know, it wasn’t like, you know, we had one dinner, like “Let’s get the band back together!” It was just, like, we would get together when I was in L.A. and, you know, have family dinners and stuff like that and you just realize that whatever was the issue is just, it’s not an issue anymore and music becomes a natural extension of how to best express your relationship ‘cause that’s obviously the place we’ve connected most.
Walt: So now that you are friends again and now playing music again, how does it feel, does it feel different than it has...in the past...10 years without James, now that everybody’s back playing together again?
BC: Yeah. You know, it’s weird because I know from the outside and I know sometimes when I’ve looked at other bands and sort of what I think is happening as a fan looking at a band and then having had the experience and of course hearing from people what they think, it’s strange but I think if we could do it all over again, we would’ve done it different, but having turned out the way its turned out –- I mean, Jimmy’s left and come back different times and obviously James not being in the band all those years –- I think now that we’re together again, the band is stronger than ever because the things that we learned without each other was really valuable and has a lot to do with where we are right now, but I think we have such a greater and deeper appreciation for one another and our friendship and our love as a family -– like Smashing Pumpkins -– I mean, I get teary thinking about ‘cause it’s like it’s such a crazy journey. Because, you know, here we are in Chicago. You know, even playing last night at the United Center, sold out show, it’s like wow, this is crazy, you know. Most of these songs that we play are –- you know, they were written right here and you know, show business is a bit of smoke and mirrors as we like to say, you know, it’s a lot of putting on airs and stuff. But, you know, when I stand across from James and I look at Jimmy, I mean, you know, I see us in dingy rehearsal spaces when nobody cared about us. I see us dragging our equipment through snow. I see hipsters making fun of us in 1989, saying “What is it you guys are even trying to do?” So when you have that bond and that connection, that never goes away. And so that’s really what bonds us. All the other stuff is really amazing and I think we’re really appreciative that people are still interested, but the thing that really is deep is like, wow, we’re still connected, that’s crazy. 30 years and counting, I mean, it just blows my mind.
Walt: Well, I thought it was obvious last night, to see you guys interact on stage, you could feel that bond. And I’ve seen you guys since, you know, my band Stabbing Westward played with you guys in ‘89 at Avalon, you know, so I’ve seen you for decades.
BC: I saw you dragging your stuff through the snow.
Walt: Right! Up those stairs in the back--
BC: Yeah, the Avalon, the treacherous back stairs.
Walt: The worst load-in in the country, but nonetheless, I thought this band is the best I’ve ever heard it last night. Kudos to you, I’m so glad you’re back, how ‘bout a song?
BC: Sure, let’s play a song by another band. Heh heh. (counts into song)
Landslide (acoustic)
Walt: That’s so good. Emily, how’s that? Pretty good? It’s Emily’s birthday and she won the best seats in the house, thanks to Wintrust, so she’s having a great afternoon, great birthday. And -– so yeah, give it up for Emily -– and anybody can win these seats, the best seats in the house, just by listening to 101 WKQX for the key word. Guys, you did a couple covers last night. How do you pick the covers that you did? You did Space Oddity, and Stairway to Heaven was incredible. I mean, it takes a lot of balls to play a song like that and you guys pulled it off.
BC: Is that a question or...?
Walt: It is, I mean like, how did you -– there was one in there and then I wrapped it at the end. How do you pick these songs?
BC: Um...I don’t know, it depends. I think that the concert experience has changed in that, you know, you know some people blame the cell phone and other people say it’s just we live in such a fast paced world now that, you know, attention spans are that of a goldfish. So I think if you’re gonna do, um, if you’re gonna do deep cuts, they need to be fairly well known, they need to be pretty dynamic live cuts, and if you’re gonna do covers, they need to sort of change the temperature of the show. And so that’s why I like to use covers is like, songs I wished I’d written or songs I wished we’d, you know, had a song like that, to try to change just the mood around in the show, so it’s not just the same –- our mood all the time.
Walt: Right. Uh, well done on the songs you picked. Uh, you just did a 30th anniversary show, which is pretty wild when you think about it, to be a band for 30 years, but it was incredible, you had all kinds of people: Chino came up. Uh, you had Courtney Love on hand. Mark McGrath, who actually also appears in the current live show in video form. What was your favorite memory -– favorite moment from the 30th anniversary show?
BC: Honestly, it was all of it, it was amazing, I mean, Jack’s dad Peter Hook from Joy Division and New Order came and played with us, which was awesome. We did three of his songs, we did two songs -– actually three songs –- with Courtney, but two songs that Courtney and I wrote together. Chino came out and did Bodies off of Mellon Collie and Snail off our first album and just blew the house up. I mean, it was unbelievable, ‘cause we hadn’t played that song in years and it was like, I got goosebumps just thinking about it just now, it’s just amazing. Mark came out and did Fly, his big hit.
Iha: No, I’m glad it wasn’t a disaster. Like, it’s...(trails off laughing).
Walt: Did you rehearse any?
Iha: Uh, no.
Walt: Like soundcheck is just a--
Iha: But it was good, it was good.
BC: And Mark did Breaking the Law by Judas Priest and uh, I’m leaving somebody out -– oh, uh, Mark and Dave from the Killers came out and played with us, it was, I mean it was amazing, a beautiful night.
Walt: Are you working on new stuff now, is there gonna be something new coming, you’re working with Rick Rubin?
BC: Well, we did eight songs with Rick Rubin that we -– we thought we were just gonna do one song with Rick Rubin, you know, the idea of do a single and, you know, announce the tour. And we ended up doing eight songs, which we really didn’t -– we just thought we were just gonna do eight songs and we never really thought, well, what are we gonna do with these, so now we’re putting out the eight songs at the end of the year, so there’s another song coming really soon called Silvery Sometimes, uh, parentheses Ghosts, and uh, heh heh, it’s a cool song, so we’re looking forward to that coming out. And then, like I said, all the eight songs will be out by the end of the year, so it’s weird ‘cause it’s not really an album in the sense that we sat and said -– you know, most of our albums have a sort of conceptual base. But I think it probably maybe hearkens back a little bit more to like a Pisces Iscariot where it’s just, it’s a cool collection of songs. And it has a vibe because it isn’t trying to be the other thing. And so, sometimes -– I know a lot of fans that I meet really like Pisces because it has a kind of a loose-knit, almost like a mixtape feel, so I think the new record has that kind of mixtape feel.
Walt: Was the writing process different going into this one because you have James back?
BC: Not at all. Traditionally, you know, the songwriter, you know –- if it was a James song or a Billy song, the songwriter sort of brings in the song and everybody just kinda works on it. You know, Jeff’s –- uh, Schroeder over here –- Jeff’s been in the band for 12 years and so, you know, pretty deep in the process of how we work and, I mean, we did 16 demos, 16 separate song demos in three weeks before we went in with Rick and we thought Rick would just pick one song and we’d just get on with it and Rick wanted to do eight songs and it was kinda like, okay, so we had to rewire our brains there for a second, but everyone who’s heard it likes it. It kinda has an old school feel in a good way. Rick’s good at that, he kinda has a way of getting the old school feel without it sounding like you’re trying to do the old school feel, so it sounds very cool, comfortable, and everybody that’s heard it is like, just freaking out about how good it is, which is great, because you know, I’ve done a lot of music people don’t have that reaction to.
Walt: It’s gotta be really great because you have three amazing guitar players on stage here, as you can see in the show last night and even just right here. Do you write like that, knowing that you’ve got this arsenal of guitarists?
BC: I think our philosophy, I don’t wanna speak for you, but our fala –- philosophy? Our philosophy’s always been “Whatever the song needs.” Which is why a song like 1979, you know, has guitar but it’s not really –- you know, it’s more about other stuff, I mean, we never really cared, you know. I mean, when people tried to peg us as a grunge band and somebody would always be like, we’re not really that kind of band. We’re more like a Beatles, Led Zeppelin band in that we just wanna do what we wanna do when we wanna do it. And so, I mean, I love playing guitar but, you know, I’m up there playing piano on an eight foot tower, heh.
Walt: It’s cool. How about another song, speaking of Pisces?
BC: Sure. Well, I’ll do the introduction. This young man, Mr. James Iha, from Elk Grove, Illinois.... Now before we do the song, ‘cause it’s been a while since I’ve been out to your neck of the woods, do they still have the elk?
Iha: They do, they do, they do. It’s a nice thing, you can visit them, but you’re not supposed to feed them.
BC: Because?
Iha: Well, you know, people would give ‘em a Snickers bar...
BC: Oh, okay.
Iha: ...or, you know, their very specific diet.
BC: So we’d like to do a song that’s actually on the Pisces Iscariot album, right?
Iha: Yes...
BC: Blew Away, James’s song.
Iha: ...yes, yes, yes.
(Jimmy counts into song)
Blew Away (acoustic)
Walt: So uh, the other night, you got to throw out the first pitch at Wrigley Field. That actually turned out pretty well because they won that game. You wanna come back and do that more often?
BC: Well, uh, Jimmy Chamberlin, um, sitting here, he practiced.
Jimmy: I practiced all day Sunday at my house.
BC: Hahahahahahaha!
Jimmy: Because it was absolutely terrifying, right, to go out there and throw out the first pitch, knowing that so many things could go wrong and it could be like a YouTube moment that lives forever, right? Of course I have a–-
Iha: Tell ‘em what you set up in the backyard.
Jimmy: So um -– and I have two small, you know, well, not small, but I have two kids, one of which is an athlete, who is really kinda going, “Dad, you know this, if you screw this up, this is gonna be bad, right?” So a lot of pressure from my 12-year-old, Lucas. So, in advance of the game, I took a laundry basket and we kinda have a big front porch where I live, so I set up a laundry basket with a blanket in it and then measured 60 feet out into the yard and spent like the next hour throwing fastballs at the basket and I got it to where I could hit it probably 30 percent of the time in the basket. Then I broke the basket a couple times, which I thought was a good thing. But yeah, and then I went back inside and realized that I had some weird pain in my back, right, heh heh heh. But yeah, luckily all the practicing paid off and we delivered a strike and then the Cubs obviously delivered an incredible win.
BC: Yeah, what a day, right? Throw out the first pitch, sing the 7th inning stretch, walk off grand slam.
Walt: That’s a beautiful night at Wrigley.
BC: So which, you know, in my ideological frame means we’re all dead, that it didn’t happen, we’re actually not here right now.
Jimmy: Yeah. No, it was a great day, and I had thrown out the first pitch one time before at a Diamondbacks game and had no practice, so I know like how going in cold is not the way to do it. And that’s kinda how they get you, right, you’re like, “Yeah, I just throw out the first pitch” and they don’t give you any warmup, right, ‘cause you’re asking like, “Hey, where’s the bullpen, like can I go warm up?” They’re like, “Well, you can, you know, you can go walk out there and maybe throw it back and forth a couple times” but....
Iha: They’re not gonna let you throw in the bullpen.
Jimmy: Yeah, I wasn’t falling for that, so I spent a lot of time just throwing balls at a basket.
BC: And small, small note. You know, they usually send out one of the players to do the catch.
Walt: Right.
BC: So they sent out Carl Edwards Junior, who throws like 96, you know?
Walt: Right, right.
BC: It’s just, little intimidating.
Jimmy: It was a legit pitch though, I must say.
BC: It was a strike, I can confirm.
Jimmy: It was a strike.
Iha: It looked good.
Jimmy: Had a little break on it.
BC: It actually had a break, yeah.
Iha: Real good.
Jimmy: Yeah, so it all paid off.
Walt: Well, it was a good night for sure. Going back to the early days and playing –- pulling your gear through snow here in Chicago, what were your favorite memories of coming up in Chicago, anything stand out?
BC: Aww....
Iha: Great memories in Chicago, Billy.
BC: Heh heh heh heh heh.
Walt: One. Narrow it down to one.
BC: Um...you know, I think we struggled because we had this crazy idea of what the band could be and, you know, it wasn’t really supported in the sense that, you know, we didn’t look around at other local bands and see them doing similar things, we were more influenced by what was going on in England or in L.A. So, you know, there was a good year and a half, two years there and, you know, you were certainly there when we were playing but we were trying to kinda figure out this thing that we couldn’t quite get at and the minute we seemed to figure it out, it was crazy, it was all of a sudden, it was like 800 people at the Metro overnight. And I just remember that feeling like, whatever we just figured out, like don’t change it ‘cause something’s happening. And that’s when we started doing songs like Tristessa and Siva and became kinda like what people called the Pumpkins sound, that wall. Once we figured that out, it was like–-
Walt: Where did that come from, the idea of adding guitars? I heard like Butch Vig had to create maps to how many guitar tracks were on Siamese Dream.
BC: Well, I was very influenced by, you know, Black Sabbath and stuff like that, but you know, there wasn’t necessarily a comparable sound like that in alternative rock. I mean, there was things like Dinosaur Jr. where J was playing really loud guitars and certainly My Bloody Valentine, but to try to synergize essentially classic rock moves into almost like U.K. shoegaze or something, that was so bizarre to try to make work. It took a long time and I don’t even know really what we eventually figured out but obviously we know how to do it, but there’s some sort of weird combination of like what the bass and drums are doing and what the guitars are doing, they kinda go together but they kinda don’t and somehow that makes the sound. Wherein like in normal rock, it’s like everybody kinda lockstepped to kind of create this, like think Metallica or something, like this kind of physical thing, and then if you think of classic shoegaze, it’s more almost more dance or something but you wouldn’t necessarily think there’s a heaviness there. That combination of heaviness and dreamy thing over the top, that always was like –- it was like, suddenly all these just teenagers started showing up from everywhere, you know...with distressed feelings, I don’t know, it was just strange, it was like there it was.
Walt: Well, you tapped into something, I mean–-
BC: Yeah.
Walt: Yeah.
BC: And just one other thing ‘cause I think it’s a great question...you know, whatever that -– you know, to me it was very personal in that I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and I, you know, I just remember having that feeling of like looking at the strip mall and thinking is this my world? You know, it was like, you know, my downtown was a McDonald’s and a Burger King, you know, and a lot of people grew up in that. What I could have never understood is that once we figured out that language to where people were connecting with us on that level, then that sort of seemed to go everywhere. Because in many ways, that’s kind of where America was going, this kind of ubiquitous culture that’s not really culture at all, it’s sort of based on -– and then now it’s obviously blown up into the internet. It’s kinda like what is it. And we tapped into that sort of angst or something but it was no –- there was no design on it, we literally were just trying to find the sound that we thought represented the way we felt.
Walt: And it was unique, it was definitely unique, I thought, at the time. And you were at the right timing as well because think about 1991, the fall of ‘91, you toured with Chili Peppers and you had an opening band with Pearl Jam.
BC: Yeah.
Walt: And when Nirvana broke that fall, Metallica’s Black Album, I mean, a lot happened in a very short period of time.
BC: Yeah. That Chili Pepper tour was crazy because we got a call –- and Anthony Kiedis later told me he saw our video on MTV, 120 Minutes, and just off of seeing the –- I think it was Siva -- seeing the video one time, they invited us to be the opening band. And then on top of that, they threw this unknown band called Pearl Jam. And when the tour started, probably the first week or so, two weeks, there seemed to be some -- you know, in wrestling we call it “boo boo face” – seemed to be some unhappy people and I couldn’t really figure out –- we were on the back end of our record, which was a big success, so we were flying high and we’re on this big tour and Chili Peppers and everything, right? And I remember kind of pulling some people aside –- not from the bands, but like people involved with the bands –- saying “What’s going on?” and they said, “Well, the Chili Peppers are upset because the record company’s really not supporting their record and Pearl Jam’s upset ‘cause the record company’s really not supporting their record.” So it almost looked like, oh, well, this -– you know, and again, we didn’t really know everybody like we know them now, so it was kinda like, oh, it’s really not going well for them. But there was a –- you know, Chili Peppers were a big band. And then all of a sudden, Under the Bridge hit and that tour starts to take off because everyone wants to see the Chili Peppers and then, I think it was Jeremy or Alive hit, and then suddenly it was like, so we had this triple crowd of Pumpkins fans, Chili Pepper fans and Pearl Jam, it was like this legendary tour because this was all hitting at the exact same time and then obviously it was a great time for rock.
Walt: It’s such a -– an amazing fall and it really set up the entire decade, I think.
BC: Yeah, we’re still paying for it!
Walt: Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh! So, alright, so on the back end of that tour, you’re going into Siamese Dream. Did you feel any pressure going into that after having the success of Gish?
BC: Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Well, to give you a context, our record Gish, which was on an independent label called Caroline, at the time was the largest selling independent record ever released. I think at that point we’d sold about 350,000, 400,000 copies, which even today is still a big number. And then this little band called Nirvana comes out and I -– you know, whatever, it sold a gazillion copies. And then Pearl Jam sold a gazillion copies, so the standard of what was a successful record literally changed on us overnight. We went from being like “Wow, you guys are doing great, big future” to like “Oh, you’re not gonna quite make it,” it was like “Whoa! What happened?” And radio obviously, um, alternative radio around 1991, I think there were seven stations in America and by the mid-‘90s, I think there was a hundred and something stations, so obviously here we are, you know, still playing the alternative rock. So, you know, it was a cultural movement, it was a music business movement, it was really a hostile takeover of the sort of the systems that existed and suddenly it was being populated by people who weren’t...you know, didn’t really care about the perfect photo and the perfect posture and, you know, it was like -- it just felt so different. But yeah, to answer your question faithfully, yeah, we’re a bunch of misanthropes but suddenly you’re staring down the barrel of “you better come up with a big record.”
Walt: Did you have the songs written before or did you write them going into Siamese Dream?
BC: No, we wrote everything before. We practiced like crazy, I think we practiced for about four months. Because we knew, I mean, it was like it was this or back to, you know, Burger King.
Walt: So now that you play those songs now, do you still have that same connection with them that you had 25 years ago...
BC: No.
Walt: ...or do you have to create new meanings for them?
BC: No, no, it’s - I still connect with them ‘cause they’re very personal to me but at the same point, when you see somebody who’s 20 years old, who was born after the album came out and they’re connecting, that’s wild because then it’s like, okay, these -– whatever this represents to that point in life still connects, that’s a pretty humbling thing. Yet the context starts to grow beyond your own...stuff.
Walt: Do you get that thing where parents who were into you are bringing their kids now, who’s going like...?
BC: There was a guy in the front row last night who had his um –- I think you were right now -– had like maybe a seven-year-old daughter and uh, there was another kid there that was probably 10 and they were in the front row the whole night. But then the girl passed out...about halfway through the show and the dad was holding her the whole time and it was so cute, the mom kept taking pictures of the girl passed out with like us in the background. And normally, heh heh, spoiler alert, I hate when pe–-
Iha: I didn’t think they should’ve brought her. They shouldn’t...
BC: As a parent?
Iha: ...as a parent, I don’t think they should’ve brought that kid because--
BC: Why didn’t you throw ‘em out?
Iha: Well, I mean, I didn’t –- I was looking for the headphones too.
Katie: The guy had earplugs.
Walt: They did have earplugs in, they did -– being next to them, they did have those.
Iha: Really, they make earplugs that small for kids?
Walt: Yeah, I don’t know how good they were, but they did have earplugs.
Iha: Look, I felt bad for the kid.
Walt: On that note....
BC: Alright, well, you ruined the end of my story, so I’m gonna stop.
Walt: How about another song?
BC: Alright.
Today (acoustic)
Walt: Well, Jeff, you are our newest Chicago-ite out of the bunch here and James, last night you were trying to get him to tell us what his favorite pizza was here and you wanna take another stab at that?
Iha: Um, pizza?
Walt: You were asking Jeff what his favorite pizza in Chicago is?
Iha: I didn’t say anything about pizza.
Jeff: (off mic) No!
Iha: No, we were just –- I don’t know how we, uh, you know we, we were just like deciding what to eat after and uh, talking about pizza and then we talked about deep dish pizza and what was the best and it’s a boring conversation.
Jeff: Yet never ending, never ending conversation about deep dish.
Iha: But I do love pizza, it’s great.
BC: Do you remember when I delivered pizzas?
Iha: I -– god, I--
BC: Did you know me in the pizza delivery era?
Iha: I think so, yeah. That sounds familiar.
Walt: Well guys, thanks so much.
BC: He’s goin’ to a heartbreak, he’s gotta get off the pizza story.
Iha: No no no, I--
Walt: I’m trying to save you, James. To get off the pizza thing, I just wanna say thanks again for coming together, making great music for 30 years. We love you, we appreciate you, welcome home to Chicago, please give it up for the Smashing Pumpkins.