View Full Version : best Billy Corgan interview I've seen


Catherine Wheel
01-01-2009, 11:46 PM
I just stumbled across this one recently. It's very revealing.

The Rolling Stone Interview: Billy Corgan: Smashing Pumpkins : Rolling Stone (http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/smashingpumpkins/articles/story/5938710/smashing_pumpkins)

Some highlights:


For example, how does D'Arcy add to that strength?

She's the most rooted person in the band. I think D'Arcy has more to do with the band staying together than anybody else because D'Arcy has a weird strength. She's been the bridge of communication between me and James. Because me and James formed the band, it was the problem in that relationship more than any other that really jeopardized any future we had.

The band was formed out of naivete: "OK, we're going to make this superrock, this fucking heavy-duty music. But we're not going to assume the posturing." People want their rock stars to be beautiful and perfect, drug addled and mysterious. They don't want the reflection of normal people. And we've insisted on being normal--to the point of probably hurting ourselves and then getting beat over the head for it.

The reality is, you write nearly all the songs, and you're the sonic doctor in the studio. In a band of equals, you're far more equal than the others. It's an agreed-upon way of doing things. I'm not taking anything from anybody, and no one is giving me anything grudgingly. To an outsider it looks incredibly uneven. But D'Arcy would probably tell you that she doesn't understand why I spend two days on a mix. I'm not assuming responsibilities that I've taken away from someone else.

How well do you take criticism?

Not well [laughs]. That goes with the control-freak image.

I'm a really honest person. I know what I can and can't do. People criticized Siamese Dream for being long-windy. That's a criticism I completely agreed with. And I responded to it in some way with this record by trying to keep the sound a little leaner. On the other hand, you have malicious criticism. It attacks my music through me. It's the kind of criticism I can't handle. I wouldn't be putting out this music if I didn't have some belief in it. And I often don't respect the source of the criticism--because they haven't walked in these shoes.

There's certainly been criticism of my demeanor, which I have very mixed feelings on. Like somebody said yesterday, "The word I see most associated with you is whining." And I thought, yeah, I could understand that. But every person I've ever met in a rock band talks just like I do. But is the mistake in that I'm whining or is the mistake in me not being sophisticated enough to do it at the right times?

How overly dramatic were you at 18?

If you can imagine, I was more emotional than I am now--with nowhere to put it [laughs]. Imagine that same kind of twisted heart locked in this 18-year-old body with nothing to do. It wasn't pretty.

dudehitscar
01-02-2009, 12:48 AM
[QUOTE=Catherine Wheel;3416531]

The band was formed out of naivete: "OK, we're going to make this superrock, this fucking heavy-duty music. But we're not going to assume the posturing." People want their rock stars to be beautiful and perfect, drug addled and mysterious. They don't want the reflection of normal people. And we've insisted on being normal--to the point of probably hurting ourselves and then getting beat over the head for it.
/QUOTE]

cue Machina dresses and alter egos. Normal indeed.

T&T
01-02-2009, 03:20 AM
People criticized Siamese Dream for being long-windy. That's a criticism I completely agreed with.
he totally took that advice with a two hour follow up album... :rolleyes:

oh billy.
you'll never change.
totally oblivious.
and innocent.
admit you love being a walking contradiction

cardiac
01-02-2009, 04:00 AM
I read this a while back, fine interview.

"Most people don't know us except for Siamese Dream. In their minds this is our second album. But for me, it's seven years of playing in clubs, dragging your equipment upstairs, dealing with my dad, all those doubts, people writing stuff about us, the band almost falling apart--you look at all those things, and you can't help but go, 'We fucking did it.' - BC

stumpycat
01-03-2009, 02:14 AM
I read "long windy" in terms of the overall uniformity of sound/emotive expression on Siamese Dream. In contrast, despite being greater in actual length, MCIS has a far greater sonic breadth, variety, and somewhat greater lyrical (they lyrics are perhaps less conceptually abstract, more overt) and emotional spectrum.


I love how Bill talks about watching Geraldo and then wanting to watch the O.J Simpson trial. Then eating cornflakes. (Apparently a childhood favorite...he talks about eating cornflakes elsewhere.)
Also, how he more or less admits that D'arcy really couldn't play too competently...but that he didn't give a shit.

Overall, some of Billy's most insightful, coherent interviews seem to be from this 1995/1996 era. Like he could truly look around him with a degree of objectivity and perceptual clarity. Why does he seem so much more fucked up these days?

RenewRevive
01-03-2009, 02:34 PM
religion. and yeah, a great interview.

stumpycat
01-04-2009, 02:13 AM
Nah...the embrace of Christian-specific spiritualism seems more of a result of his slightly confused mental state, rather than a cause of it. He's always explored spirituality in the broadest sense of the term, and its imagery has always found its way into his art, if only at the level of an observer rather than an active participant or indoctrinated believer. Furthermore, he still takes a "buffet" approach to the beliefs he chooses to incorporate, all the more indicative of the fact that his beliefs are in fact a synthesis of his own construct.

Maybe the psychotherapy really was helping Billy sort his thoughts at the time?

RenewRevive
01-04-2009, 12:54 PM
Okay Professor, you win!

cardiac
01-04-2009, 04:21 PM
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absolutely no relation to the thread itself, but decided to post once I stumbled upon it

cardiac
01-04-2009, 04:52 PM
I suppose I have but what the heck

stumpycat
01-04-2009, 09:06 PM
Okay Professor, you win!

LOL. I WISH I was a professor. :( I've got to keep my mind active during the holidays, you know!

No, but seriously...I used to think that psychotherapy was a bit of jingoistic bullshit, and that you were one dumb sucker for paying people to listen to you emote yourself to them. I've had numerous psychological issues myself...but years of intensive "self therapy"in lieu of taking drug therapies for conditions like OCD and later panic disorder really has helped me, personally, to a fantastic degree. It's a more difficult, effortful, and concentrated route, and in my youth I had quite the elitist attitude about my ability to self-help, failing to realize that many people really do struggle with being able to gain insight to themselves appropriate for initiating any kind of long-term thought and behavior changes, or devising and following any particular methodologies to help themselves along this path. Or perhaps, really, just not having the time and patience to do so. But when I look at a person like Billy it seems as is the external help did help. Still, though, I think that one can ultimately only really help themselves. Some people do need the structured guidance, I suppose.

(Selective limited use of hallucinogenic drugs did seem to have some kind of therapeutic effect re: my anxiety-related disorders...I know that's controversial and obviously not always appropriate to the situation, heaven knows it didn't really seem to help Billy in his context of use...but I was truly surprised by some of the very subtle, long-term changes of thought processes I experienced--NOT related necessarily to the thoughts I was actually having during the "trip" itself. I wish the studies on these had continued from where they started back in the 40's through 60's. I have my guesses about what might be going on based on some of the research I was sorting through for a paper, but...drugs, heh...it's hard to be taken seriously.)

reprise85
01-04-2009, 09:20 PM
I believe that psychotherapay can be very beneficial, and furthermore that it cannot really hurt you (except financially I suppose). I personally go to therapy but I don't just go to 'emote myself' or gain an outside perspective, it's more to understand where I have come from, where I am, and how to get to where I want to be, or at least find out what the hell that is. I am also good at fooling myself getting into bad situations or bad relationships, and my therapist is good at helping me not bullshit myself.
I had very bad experiences in therapy as a teenager and definitely had the attitude that it was bullshit and that I could do the whole self-help thing, but I realized that the entire way I viewed myself was really fucked up to begin with and that I basically had to start all over if I ever had a chance of not being depressed and in a dissociative state all the time. My issues are more trauma and dissociation based than anything else.
I also think a big part of why I hated therapy is because most of my therapist (2 out of 3) have had very little idea of what they were doing, and the case of the one I had as a teenager, was unethical. There are a lot of shitty therapists out there.

Also re: hallucinogens, they totally fucked with me, but I did acid moderately for about 2 years, not on a limited bases like you are suggesting. Also if you are repressing or suppressing any memories or feelings, they will not be suppressed/repressed for long. At least they weren't in my case. Not saying that's a bad or good thing, but it was a consequence I was not anticipating or prepared for.

I also agree that ultimately you help yourself and no one can do it for you.

stumpycat
01-05-2009, 02:50 AM
I believe that psychotherapay can be very beneficial, and furthermore that it cannot really hurt you (except financially I suppose). I personally go to therapy but I don't just go to 'emote myself' or gain an outside perspective, it's more to understand where I have come from, where I am, and how to get to where I want to be, or at least find out what the hell that is. I am also good at fooling myself getting into bad situations or bad relationships, and my therapist is good at helping me not bullshit myself.
This is exactly why Billy seems to need a psychotherapist. Heh.

But, is the therapist not himself an external source of "objective" perspective? Otherwise, he couldn't guide you to a state of increased clarity about working through your issues!

Also, psychotherapy, as you seem to describe yourself, can actually be rather psychologically negative if practiced by by people who are either misappropriating its use or just not understanding how to use it in its proper context. (I'd think that this is because, in the wrong hands, it leads people into confronting some very difficult issues that they may not be prepared to handle or that are beyond the scope of the therapist, or it may simply be ignoring other conditions that require a different kind of intervention.) It seemed to have been used rather indiscriminately in the earlier half of the 20th century (you know, when Freud's ideas were all the rage,) and some have implicated that Marylin Monroe herself may have experiencing the kind of "therapy" that ultimately did more harm than good. Not to mention the sexy gloss of efficacy presented by popular movies such as The Three Faces of Eve. Then you have Brian Wilson's "therapist," and of course Scientology which--ironically--demeans psychology and psychiatry yet itself vigorously applies psychoanalytic theory in the form of its notoriously abrasive "audits."


Also re: hallucinogens, they totally fucked with me, but I did acid moderately for about 2 years, not on a limited bases like you are suggesting. Also if you are repressing or suppressing any memories or feelings, they will not be suppressed/repressed for long. At least they weren't in my case. Not saying that's a bad or good thing, but it was a consequence I was not anticipating or prepared for.

Yeah, definitely. It's like every doubt about you or your life you've ever had hits you over the head with a baseball bat and then you're forced to ruminate about it. Some of the thoughts are quite depressing. (No one said this stuff was a depression treatment! Historically the focus was on treating issues like addiction. Currently the hallucinogenic-psychedelic compounds psilocybin/psilocin are the subject of renewed study for treatment of negative emotional states in terminally ill patients, who must often develop a radically different way to conceptualize their lives.) But, it seemed to help me learn to confront and work through my own anxiety-provoking thoughts or panic feelings and feel more empathetic, tolerant, and emotionally connected to the world, something that seemed a bit lacking before. Its most surprising long-term effect (that I wasn't expecting really) was that despite the very difficult parts of the trip I left with a feeling that I ultimately had a great deal more choice and freedom in what types of thoughts and behaviors I wanted to carry though with, and those that I could ignore, or "let go" without compulsion or anxiety from (not) doing so. Fortunately I knew quite a bit about what to expect, so that I could remind myself of the typical "progression" when feeling particularly freaked at some points, so that I could work through it. The early experiments involved a very structured and controlled environment, and my experiences were probably more along those lines than just getting fucked up at a party with strangers or something.