April 2019-February 2020 – Pumpkinland II

April 2019-February 2020 – Pumpkinland II
Jeff, James and Billy in February 2020
Studio session of The Smashing Pumpkins
Artist	The Smashing Pumpkins
Album	CYR
From	April 5, 2019
To	February 11, 2020
Location	Pumpkinland II
Producer(s)	Billy Corgan
Engineer(s)	Howard Willing

The April 5, 2019 to February 11, 2020 Pumpkinland II sessions were for Shiny and Oh So Bright Vol. 2: CYR. Originally planned to be released across two volumes due to the amount of songs but later condensed into one, with Vol. 3 becoming a whole different project.

Approximately 24 songs were worked on during the sessions, with 21 being fully recorded, the best from the previous months' demo sessions. A few songs originated from the Day for Night sessions.

The drum track recording sessions came first from April through May. Billy Corgan returned for additional studio work in July and August to record bass, guitar and synths. Vocals and overdubs were recorded in between tour breaks through the last months of the year.

Background vocals from Katie Cole and Sierra Swan were to follow. Cole wrote most of the backing vocal arrangements, sharing them with Corgan over email before recording sessions began.

Tracks recorded

• "Adrennalynne"
• "Anno Satana"
• "Birch Grove"
• "Black Forest, Black Hills"
• "Confessions of a Dopamine Addict"
• "Cyr"
• "Dulcet in E"
• "Haunted"
• "Minerva"
• "Purple Blood"
• "Ramona"
• "Save Your Tears"
• "Schaudenfreud"
• "Starrcraft"
• "Telegenix"
• "The Colour of Love"
• "The Hidden Sun"
• "Tyger, Tyger"
• "Wrath"
• "Wyttch"
• plus another song

Instagram updates

Compiled from Billy Corgan's official Instagram stories:

April 5, 2019

Started drum tracking today for as yet unnamed Vol. 2/SP album. Goal is to track 15-17 songs of drums before Euro SP/WPC shows starting in May.

April 27, 2019

We finished master drums on 21 songs today. With work pivoting now to the Christmas record while keeping the door open for new, as yet unwritten songs.

May 2, 2019

We have another new song (#22) to cut, and next week we cut the drums for the Christmas album, too.

May 11, 2019

Today we erappet to prepare for upcoming tour, having finished 24 drum masters.

June 9, 2019

First song I'm playing on upcoming solo dates [Dinghy] is a song I wrote for SP Vol. 2 and it just didn't fit.

July 12, 2019

Going home in less than 36 hours, start work Monday on SP Vol. 2/3.

July 15, 2019

Back in studio today, at work on Vol. 2/Vol. 3 24 songs. Already suck on song #1! (Yeah, it's a Pumpkins record, where shoegaze meets watching paint dry).

July 17, 2019

Went through all songs and started diving into gear (in particular, bass guitars amps). Of the 24 songs, only kicked out one. So down to 23 for the time being...

July 19, 2019

Worked forever on song #1 (most of the day), and spent remaining time writing bass lines for song #2 (which is about 7-8 minutes long). Ended whilst working on song #3. Have not dove into guitar/sounds, gear, approaches. Lots yet to do before summer tour in a few weeks...

July 21, 2019

Continued to develop guitar approaches, motifs for a host of songs; all while going through the voluminous stack of (mostly) vintage pedals. Slowly making progress on both. The music being somewhat more open than past SP endeavours affording the chance to use gear I wouldn't normally use. For example, vintage line drivers (if anyone knows about those?). British guitarrists like Tony Iommi and Jimmy Page drove their (dark) UK amps with an additional 35db+ of gain to both brighten their amps and provide more distortion. Which tangentially also related to Hendrix's use of fuzz pedals. So I think this album will have a lot of unique fuzz/square wave tonalties like SD but should be (not sure yet) less dense.

July 23, 2019

Started the new week focused on bass parts for each song, and got through about 12 or 13 of them. But this isn't all we did, as arrangements are still being tweaked, and drums edited. Overall I remain pleased with progress, and the strength of the tunes. The hope being as soon as I come off tour in September all the bass parts can be knocked out in a number of days.

July 24, 2019

Took song #23 out of album mix, so down to 22 songs. With 9 or 10 days left I may go into writing once more, to compete with the 22 or possibly add more. As always I feel the edges of the music landscape aren't as covered as I'd like (heavy and ethereal for example). Outside of that continued today to cull arrangements and finished going through all guitar pedals.

July 26, 2019

Last 2 days, took another song off list (having had a listening session with JC) but then wrote 2 more so total is back up to 23. Also went and listened to some 50+ discarded ideas, and pulled one from the ash heap which I'm currently working on...

July 28, 2019

Today focused on one song only (we'll call it song #23), a song up until now I hadn't questioned much given that i had passed every cut (and there's been about 15 of those since January). Still, it felt a bit lost to me yesterday eve (and remember this is a song JC has already cut drums for). So spent time on the song at home this morning, settling on a newer, simpler version. 7 hours of studio time later, and 4 more versions in, I'd circled back to a simpler version of the one JC and I had tracked, stripping the song down to almost nothing but drums, a single keyboard, and a vocal (translation: the original version was best after all, but got stronger the more spacious it got). Overall, I'm not a fan of simpler production styles, but in that the song (IE the story of the melody) benefited from less. So now that I have that baseline in my head I will be back at it Monday to start over. Trying to approach the recording from this minimalist standpoint and thereby taking advantage of the space and need for more standout moments.

July 31, 2019

Finished work on about 4 songs that needed refocusing, so listened to all 24 songs AGAIN (I know, insanity, but it's the way I used to work) and set aside a different 4 or 5 to tweak small, foundational issues. Only 3 days left before Howard abandons me, so we are in a last phase pre-tour... Which is drums, re-examing the bugaboo'd song 23, some sharpening of electronic percussion elements, bass string tests, and inital vintage synth tests due to technological translation (read, archaic-ly as MIDI to CV). If you know why that is a LOL. And that will be that 'till September!

August 2, 2019

Finished work on all 24 songs, so pleased to report we are on track to finish all the songs by Nov-Dec (which would be fantastic, BTW) considering started writting in January.

August 3, 2019

Worked on song #23 once more, changing the core arrangement for a 7th time. And with a few hours to spare, cut 8 acoustic demos for a possible E.P. I'd like to release in the spring of 2020. Of the 8 songs, 6 were originals written after the completion of the last solo record; and because they feel related to the album (and not wholly new works) and E.P. seems just and easy.

October 10, 2019

Q: How old's the oldest tune from the new SP sessions? A: There are two songs that are 4 years old (remnants of Day for Night album). The other 22 are brand new. Q: Both SAOSB 273 are being recorded at the same time, but will have staggered releases? A: Yes. Q: Has SP finalized which songs will be on V2&3? A: Pending. I've song about half. So we will have most songs close to finished in the next month or so.

October 13, 2019

Q: Did you decide to produce yourself or are you still considering someone else? A: Producing myself. Q: Why split them up? Grouping by a theme? A: Gives the music a better chance to be heard, found. Q: What was the hardest part about making this album? A: The sheer amount of material. Haven't recorded this much since Machina.

October 16, 2019

I've sung 16 songs, with 7 to go (one song has been cut). So a total of 23 at this moment for both albums. We're still on track to finish recording by Christmas break and make it possible for both albums to come out next year / 2020.

December 10, 2019

9 songs remaining before Christmas, with additional overdubs scheduled for January and mixing in February. 22 songs in total.

February 2, 2020

10 recording days remain before the start of final mixes. 21 songs in total, release dates and forms of release still pending. All songs will be released this year 2020.

February 5, 2020

Currently in the studio with James, Jeff and JC with 7 days recording left.

February 9, 2020

Q: Has Jimmy or any other member written music for the new album? A: There were a few other co-write songs but none made cut.

February 11, 2020

It's the final day of recording for new SP double album.

February 12, 2020

Double album recording is now finished. Mixing starts today... I started doing demos for these records in December 2018. The finished result is 21 songs. I'm still not happy with one song (we'll see how mixing goes) but even if we fall to "only" 20 (that's a joke, BTW) I am pleased with the result. Creating these albums was a team effort, and I'm humbled by the patience of my compatriots to get us there. So expect new music by late spring... not sure of the how and when but, "soon". And again, all 20 or 21 songs will come out this year. So listen to my solo record "Cotillions" if you havent' yet (whilst you wait).