Things I learned interviewing Jeff today

[Razor Star]

Had a lovely chat with the Shredder, who is extremely talkative and pleasant. The whole band were there (Jeff, Jimmy, James, Billy) doing press in various corners of the same hotel bar, hired for the occasion. It was fun seeing Jimmy out of the corner of my eye drumming on his legs constantly, Billy was chatting to NME in the next room and his voice is way louder than Jeff's, which is annoying because I wasn't interviewing Billy but he's all over my recording. James gave me some healthy snacks.

The interview was for Drowned in Sound and I'll write it up in a week or so (with the full transcript going in issue 2 of my fanzine, should I get around to it).

But I thought people here might like a brief rundown of things I learned.

1) When Billy pulled the plug on Day For Night, Jeff never assumed the band was over. Aside from when Jimmy left, he's always thought it would continue. It never occurred to him that he wouldn't be involved in whatever happened next, even had it been the original four.

2) Day for Night would have been "kind of a synth record", but they felt really rootless because they didn't "have a real band, it was just the two of us"

3) Solara dates back to the Monuments era and there's a scratch version with Tommy Lee playing drums, but it never really worked. It was one of the first things they tried with Jimmy and it "came together straight away, we were all grinning".

4) All four members of the band play on every song on Shiny and Oh, So Bright vol 1, in various combinations, for example Knights of Malta was jammed out with Billy on piano, Jeff on bass and James on guitar. Billy played most of the bass on the record. James wasn't involved in the demo stages because he had a soundtrack to finish.

5) Regarding the incident on If All Goes Wrong where Jeff storms off stage: His rig had been fucking up for the whole gig, and then Billy teased him about something. Afterwards he trashed the entire dressing room but the director left it out of the film, because he said he came out of it really badly and it wasn't really reflective of who he was, apparently the director thought it wasn't fair on Jeff. Jeff said the first 6 months of the band was a pressure cooker, they went from playing to a club of 3,000 people to headlining a festival to 40,000 within five gigs and he struggled with it.

6) Up until the 30th anniversary show in NJ this year he'd never played Snail before, and loved the three-guitar version of it.

7) The band will never play an arena tour without a huge production again, but from now on they'll always be new songs

8) SP will be reconvening to write demos in December, the impression I got is that Rubin won't be doing the next chunk of songs.

9) Billy always wanted to do 2 EPs, but the record company pushed for a full album. They "probably would have been" divided into the heavy songs and the pop songs.

10) Marchin' On was influenced by Judas Priest, and I'm pretty smug about picking that up. Jeff is a big fan.

11) He sees the band as being like Deep Purple, with the classic SP line up being like the Machine Head era, but theres all these other cool eras to discover and discuss. He thinks Oceania is an album that will be looked at fondly by fans when they look back over the history of the band they'll see it as one of the more interesting little corners.

12) Until SP he'd never owned a Les Pauls and didn't like them much (although he now has a couple he loves) and is happy now James is back because he can play guitar more "like myself again" rather than playing parts James had written, or being the necessary counter to Billy's playing.

13) I'd just like to reiterate, Jeff is really, really nice and knows a lot about Jazz.

[ninsp]

If they really aren’t playing old songs anymore they’ll be playing the side stage at Dickey’s BBQ. Real talk, can’t wait to see Billy play Owata on the roof of LSA Burger in Denton

[Corgan's Bluff]

Interesting read.

"The band will never play an arena tour without a huge production again"?

Only asked myself, how they want to tour Europe without a promoter willing to book big venues for them.
Or making them headliner on open air festivals. Will Corgan play the side stages...?

[Mals Marola]

Originally Posted by Razor Star

SP will be reconvening to write demos in December, the impression I got is that Rubin won't be doing the next chunk of songs.

thank gauld

[SPLATTER]

if they showed him trashing the dressing room that woulda been way better for his public image with fans.

no one will ever look back and appreciate oceania.

[Oklahoma Sexual]

cool, guess zine 2 is unnecessary now.

[Razor Star]

Originally Posted by Corgan's Bluff

Interesting read.

"The band will never play an arena tour without a huge production again"?

Only asked myself, how they want to tour Europe without a promoter willing to book big venues for them.
Or making them headliner on open air festivals. Will Corgan play the side stages...?

Last time they did Glastonbury it was third from the top on the second stage

[MonumentsRocks]

I like that Jeff is doing all these various interviews. I think it helps it seem as though he's a member of the core band and not a side guy, like the touring bass player, I can't remember his name right now. And he actually says things, albeit rarely critical.

I don't think Oceania will have any kind of revival, but I don't think anything they produce could. Recently R&RHoF inductee Pearl Jam still regularly churns out albums, nobody cares. Nobody ever will care. All of their later albums are kind of a musical equivalent to "where are they now". It's nice to know they're somewhere.

[dustrocck]

Good content there.

[Mals Marola]

Originally Posted by Razor Star

Regarding the incident on If All Goes Wrong where Jeff storms off stage: His rig had been fucking up for the whole gig, and then Billy teased him about something. Afterwards he trashed the entire dressing room but the director left it out of the film, because he said he came out of it really badly and it wasn't really reflective of who he was, apparently the director thought it wasn't fair on Jeff. Jeff said the first 6 months of the band was a pressure cooker, they went from playing to a club of 3,000 people to headlining a festival to 40,000 within five gigs and he struggled with it.

Imagine all the shit that was left out of Vieuphoria, for similar reasons but regarding the original 4

Hell, that would make for one hell of a DVD in & of itself!

[Reyngel]

Did I read that right... that from here on out they will only do big arena shows with big productions and strictly new material?

Billy might be pushing 1/4-filled arenas, then.

[MonumentsRocks]

I took that to mean more than one new song, during the encore.

[TuralyonW3]

Cool

[Kahlo]

They will do a small scale club tour the line to roadtest new material down the line, and will forget all about today's commitment to 'only play big production shows'. You can't do greatest hits tours forever, which in effect this is.

[MonumentsRocks]

They could do greatest hits tours forever, that's what most of their contemporaries do.

[Razor Star]

Originally Posted by Reyngel

Did I read that right... that from here on out they will only do big arena shows with big productions and strictly new material?

Billy might be pushing 1/4-filled arenas, then.

No, pretty sure he meant they wouldn’t do tours that were JUST old songs, the band woukd keep moving forward and ******* new material amongst the old. Pretty sure he meant they would always use huge Shiny-style productions and narrative when they played arenas, not that they wouldnt play theatre/club shows ever again.

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by Razor Star

Things I learned interviewing Jeff today

"It's what's on the inside that counts."

[Razor Star]

Okay, what’s the deal with the word i n c l u d e ?

[Disco King]

But seriously, Schroeder seems like a swell guy, and I dislike that the fanbase has shit on him simply for not being an original member. All the failures of the post-reunion band fall on pilot Corgan, IMO, and just because Jeff was along for the ride doesn't mean he is responsible.

Glad to hear he can play in a way he's more comfortable with now that Iha is back. Sounds like Corgan wanted to emulate the original band all along. He also admitted to trying to get Byrne to sound more like Chamberlin.

The fact that James wasn't around for the demos makes me question if this album will be all that different from before Iha and Chamberlin rejoined. Even if Iha and Wretzky weren't always on the record, I think their presence still informed the final versions of the song Corgan would record the guitar and bass parts for, because they probably jammed them out at some point prior, allowing Corgan to translate the musical choices Wretzky and Iha made into the final album. If Iha wasn't there when the songs were forming, that might have consequences for the arrangements and leads. I mean, he obviously still has an influence on the sound, as we can hear it on the released material, I just don't know if it will be as much as it was on the older albums. This is another reason why I think the band would benefit from Wretzky in the room. Or, hell, Fiorentino. She wrote good bass parts, too.

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by Razor Star

Okay, what’s the deal with the word i n c l u d e ?

Banned for evading word filter.

Your cheekiness doesn't impress Ram.

[Razor Star]

Originally Posted by Oklahoma Sexual

cool, guess zine 2 is unnecessary now.

If all you’re after is a list of facts, I don’t think Zines are for you

[Oklahoma Sexual]

Originally Posted by Razor Star

If all you’re after is a list of facts, I don’t think Zines are for you

definitely not. but never fear, fuzzy has cash for you on his credit card.

[FoolofaTook]

razor star do you except food stamps?

[srt4b]

Jeff is a super cool dude. Saw him walking down the street with Byrne after a show in Charleston once looking for a Waffle House. Seems like one of the most normal dudes in the world, would never know he is in this massive band.

[Mals Marola]

Razor Blade I will provide you with an enlarged version of the animated rainbow gif of yourself giving a middle finger on the toilet in exchange for one SP magazine but that is my final offer

[eviltimeban]

Originally Posted by Disco King

"It's what's on the inside that counts."

"but inside doesn't matter".

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uf0hJ9GOS3...n%2BPsycho.jpg

[vajohna]

Originally Posted by ninsp

If they really aren’t playing old songs anymore they’ll be playing the side stage at Dickey’s BBQ. Real talk, can’t wait to see Billy play Owata on the roof of LSA Burger in Denton

I was just standing on that roof this weekend

[vajohna]

Originally Posted by SPLATTER

no one will ever look back and appreciate oceania.

I'm betting it only takes Jimmy one performance of Panopticon to convince someone with this opinion that songs on Oceania are good

[Funbags]

Originally Posted by vajohna

I'm betting it only takes Jimmy one performance of Panopticon to convince someone with this opinion that songs on Oceania are good

Jimmy on Quasar would be nuts!

Actually, if I were Billy, the first thing I'd do with Jimmy on board would be to try Monuments and Oceania songs. THEY NEED HIM.

[amoergosum]

Originally Posted by Razor Star

Afterwards he trashed the entire dressing room

http://www4.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/J...mIXlr6bBRl.jpg