Marlon Brando
07-30-2003, 03:07 AM
Ten years later, Corgan is prepared for another shower of abuse. He knows that Machina, with its half-latin title and tangled metaphysics, is a difficult album to decode; indeed, he's proud of it. When asked about the very first line on the record - "You know I'm not dead" - Corgan cackles. "I'm toying with people's perceptions of me," he crows, "people's perceptions of my band, of what rock & roll means, what it's worth."
Corgan likens Machina to the Jim Carrey film The Truman Show: "He thinks he lives in the world, and one day he finds out he's living in a bubble inside another bubble. Well, this record is like a bubble inside, a bubble inside a bubble. And you can go as deep as you want to go."
Chamberlin says he was impressed by the depth and ambition of Corgan's lyric concept for Machina when the latter explained it over lunch at the Mondrian. "It was
pretty peculiar - it had to do with some books that I had been reading," Chamberlin recalls, "paths that I had been following" - Rosicrucian cosmology, transmutation, alchemy, the memory of nature. "It made a lot of sense to me, because if I could use my brain to plan my actions, things would have turned out a
lot different for me. Unfortunately, my brain does not listen all the time."
Ultimately, Machina is Corgan's way of saying that he still listens to his rock & roll heart at top volume. "My standards for rock & roll are higher than they've ever been," he proclaims in the wraparound darkness of that Chicago loft. "People seem to have given up on the idea that rock & roll can save the world, because it's been used, abused and sold down the river. It's come back from the dead plenty of times. I'm not saying I'm the one to bring it back from the dead. I'm just saying I still believe in rock & roll - that it is a healing force and has a social conscience.
"I'm not even close to the end of my tether. I feel exactly the opposite. I feel strung. And I'm committed as an artist to stand in the fucking fire if I have to."
Corgan likens Machina to the Jim Carrey film The Truman Show: "He thinks he lives in the world, and one day he finds out he's living in a bubble inside another bubble. Well, this record is like a bubble inside, a bubble inside a bubble. And you can go as deep as you want to go."
Chamberlin says he was impressed by the depth and ambition of Corgan's lyric concept for Machina when the latter explained it over lunch at the Mondrian. "It was
pretty peculiar - it had to do with some books that I had been reading," Chamberlin recalls, "paths that I had been following" - Rosicrucian cosmology, transmutation, alchemy, the memory of nature. "It made a lot of sense to me, because if I could use my brain to plan my actions, things would have turned out a
lot different for me. Unfortunately, my brain does not listen all the time."
Ultimately, Machina is Corgan's way of saying that he still listens to his rock & roll heart at top volume. "My standards for rock & roll are higher than they've ever been," he proclaims in the wraparound darkness of that Chicago loft. "People seem to have given up on the idea that rock & roll can save the world, because it's been used, abused and sold down the river. It's come back from the dead plenty of times. I'm not saying I'm the one to bring it back from the dead. I'm just saying I still believe in rock & roll - that it is a healing force and has a social conscience.
"I'm not even close to the end of my tether. I feel exactly the opposite. I feel strung. And I'm committed as an artist to stand in the fucking fire if I have to."