Off to "Tonight, Tonight" video and then to "Bullet with Butterfly
Wings" video
PART 2
----------
I= We're back in Hora Prima with The Smashing Pumpkins. We still
have
the whole European Music Awards thing fresh. So, why did
you decide to do "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"? It's a song that
we heard a lot a year ago, 'cause it was Mellon Collie's first
single and of course you did a very aggresive, in your face version
JI= We wanted to rock the eurotrash (D'arcy laughs)
I= Usually you do that in TV, that kind of heavyness or you do it
live too, like the version for Bullet with Butterfly Wings live
is always as heavy as that?
DW= Heavier.
BC= Heavier actually...I wanted to play Muzzle, I don't know why we
didn't play "Muzzle"
I= Maybe because...
BC= I think...I think the thing is that a lot of people in Europe
still don't know who we are
DW= They know that song.
BC= And we were still trying to get people to realize that we're that
band.
I= There were a lot of costumes onstage and the whole set, could you
tell me a little more about that?
BC= The rat. The rat is right over there.
(Shot of Jimmy Frog who's sitting in another side of the room)
JI= Unmasked...Wave rat, wave rat.
I= Because you had a guest there playing the...
JI= Guitar.
BC= It's the green angel, the green, broke angel.
JI= We lost it there...
I= It looks like you had fun, had you been playing in London or you
just did the EMA?
DW= We just flew in. We were on tour, flew in for that.
BC= Flew in for that.
DW= 24 hours.
I= It's hard to do that, you flew in for that, you just go there for
4 minutes.
BC= We had much more to say.
JI= I always like to play 12 minutes songs.
BC= Like The Fugees. (The four laugh)
I= Not very long ago I met Robert Smith from The Cure, and he told me
from the heart, you could tell, that The Smashing Pumpkins was one
of his favorite bands. So, 1979 is something that shows, in my
opinion, a little bit of The Cure. Did you like The Cure in the
very beginning? Was it one of your influences?
BC= Um...Actually Robert Smith wrote that song, he was nice enough to
give it to us.
JI= He just threw it...
BC= He just threw it to us...
JI= He sent us the demo tape.
BC= Thanks, Robert!
I= (to the camera) Let's watch this song that's supposed to be
influenced by The Cure. This is 1979.
Off to the video for 1979
I= Here we are with The Smashing Pumpkins. We're in Miami Beach.
They're here to play, in fact, they're playing tonight. Let's
talk about the live shows. When you started you did something
very, very special for the fans. You did an acoustic set first,
and then an electric set , so what are you doing now, are you
mixingt stuff or...
JI= Mostly electric, but we have a small 2 to 3 songs acoustic set in
the middle of the show. Well, actually he's the only one who
plays acoustic. (Points to Billy, they all laugh)
BC= No, we...I mean, when you're playing a lot of people, ten-twelve
thousand people, you have to keep kind of...(snaps his fingers
really fast)
JI= It's electric.
BC= There's not a lot of time to get like...(points up) spaced out.
Basically, people just wanna rock. And we're there to provide
them with whatever they need at that particular moment.
I= There are 28 songs in Mellon Collie. Are there any songs that were
not meant to be played live?
BC= Actually, I think...(slides the MCIS CD that's on the table over
to him, making a screeching sound)
DW= Aaaah!!!
BC= I think we played every song live.
DW= Except "Dumb"
BC= No, we played every song live.
DW= No, I know that we didn't (grabs the CD from Billy) play
Stumbleine.
BC= Yes.
DW= Did we? We did yeah.
I= So you play different versions?
BC= Yeah. We did different versions of a lot of songs and still do
different versions of some songs.
DW= (Holding the CD up to the camera) Every song.
BC= Uh, uh, I know what you're saying. Our intentionwas not to really
worry about having to play every song in the album, but strangely
enough we managed to play everything. At point, we actually
planned on doing a concert where we were gonna play the whole
album. But that was before what's this guy's name? left the band
(The Pumpkins laugh) and we canned that idea.
I= We're gonna watch the video for Zero. And...actually, I have the
CD single for Zero, so there's like 5 or 6 extra songs.
BC= 6
I= So did you try to show as much as possible as B-sides, singles...
BC= (nodding) Yeah.
I= You know, as let's keep'em going, to show what the Mellon Collie
period was all about?
BC= Yeah, the thing about singles, we try to make every single kind of
close to the song. With Zero, you get the B-sides that were the
rock kind of B-sides that didn't make it to the album but they
were kind from the same period. The songs are like it, if you
liked Zero, you kind of get to like the rest.
I= OK, now Zero the video. Very short, about the video, it's a very
strange video, a very weird video. I was expecting something like,
again my impression, like something from you playing live, just you
on stage, but you did something very fancy. What do you remember
of the video?
DW= What's the question?
I= What do you remember about Zero?
DW= I don't remember anything, I blanked out.
BC= I remember trying to creep everyone out.
DW= I remember food, lots of food everywhere. There was all kinds.
BC= The theme of the video is super-creep.
I= Yeah, it's super creep. Even the part of the keyboard is creepy.
DW= I think it's fun.
Off to Zero.
I= We're back again with The Smashing Pumpkins. We're gonna have a
little pause. But now, the big question is about the drummer in
Smashing Pumpkins. Is gonna be Matt Walker the new drummer or it's
not decided yet if you're going to in a near future...
BC= Matt has passed some of the initial tests, but we're not finished
the full psychological battery, we got to see him naked.
DW= He's got to go through, um, the maze.
JI= Yeah, the isolation chamber in the cold hours.
I= Is there a time for the beginning of 1997 to begin to work in the
next album?
BC= I think I'm gonna start working. James is working on a solo
record. So um, I'm gonna start working on my own for a little
while but I don't think we're gonna start working on it together
probably 'til the summer. We're not really planning on putting up
another album 'til the spring of '98.
I= 1998?
BC= Yeah, we need to get away from it for a while. I mean, we've been
going non-stop for a really long time and our biggest concern is
that the music is gonna suffer. I think we need to recharge the
batteries, start fresh and once we start again, we'll go hardcore
for a while.
JI= Another endless cycle.
I= One pause and we'll be back with Hora Prima, with The Smashing
Pumpkins. Don't go.
Off to commercials.
I= We're back with The Smashing Pumpkins, and here's another doubt
about the drummer. I heard two days ago about Jimmy Chamberlin's
new project with the guy from Skid Row, the girl from The Breeders,
BC= And the guy from The Frogs.
I= And the guy from The Frogs.
JI= Jimmy Frog, the green angel.
BC= The green angel.
I= Yes?
BC= Yeah, that's him.
JI= This is for the green angels project.
DW= We should have put them in Scratchie. (The Pumpkins laugh)
I= Did you know about it or was it something like all of the sudden
or...
DW= We didn't know.
JI= We didn't know anything about it.
I= OK, it's called The Last Hard Men and we'll have to keep track of
them.
DW= What????
JI= Last Hard Men.
BC= That's their name.
DW= Oh!!! (laughs)
I= OK, let's go on to the present of the Smashing Pumpkins, the
release of the new box, called The Aeroplane Flies High. And it's
got all the singles...
BC= 5 Mellon Collie singles, 28 B-sides.
Off to a live performance of Zero.
I= Is is something like you did with Pisces Iscariot? Some new
material. I mean, we have enough songs to listen to for a year.
BC= Yeah, the idea is that we wrote so many songs for Mellon Collie,
we just kind of wanted to put everything out, and obviously the
normal...no one wants to listen to a 56 songs album. Although
Prince just put out a 36 songs album...well, we just figured we'd
do it our way which is to put them out on singles and then put
them in a box, and see if people buy them, it's up to them. If
you think about this, it's like...it's like Mellon Collie but
more.
JI= And a good package.
I= The Aeroplane Flies High means like, is it a sentence? The
Aeroplane Flies High?
BC= What does Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness mean in a
sentence?
I= Well, for me it makes sense: Melancholy and the infinite sadness.
BC= Yeah? Siamese Dream?
= No, it doesn't make sense.
BC= Gish?
I= No.
BC= Well...
I= We've been left with the doubt of The Aeroplane Flies High. This
is Smashing Pumpkins, Quiet.
Off to Quiet (the Vieuphoria version)
Off to commercials
I= We're back with The Smashing Pumpkins. They're not only on tour,
but they also bring new bands to the scene. You don't speak any
Spanish?
All of them= no
I= You don't understand a word I'm saying (switches to English) I
was talking about bringing new bands as opening acts for you.
But now you have a huge band, in a way, playing with you: Garbage.
And now everybody is talking about Garbage and the renassaince of
pop in the 90's. How did the idea come out, like the idea of
touring together with Garbage? D'arcy?
BC= That was a pretty...it was an easy decision.
DW= There weren't many other bands to choose from and we liked them.
And we've known Butch and Duke and Steve for a really long time.
BC= Since 1990, so...
DW= Very long time.
BC= That one was easy because of our relationship with Butch.
I= It must be a special relationship because Butch was the producer
for Siamese Dream, of course there were a lot of ups and downs in
that producing period.
BC= I mean, it's hard to put it across, but our relationship with
Butch is more than just producer and band. We're very close
friends, you know. It's hard to explain that to people.
I= This is the CD Butch produced (shows Siamese Dream to the camera)
Why did you decide to co-produce the new album with two different
producers?
BC= I think we probably, we thought we got as far as we could go with
Butch because I think we were too close. And I thought that
bringing in two people that we haven't really worked with would
show new results. And it did. It pushed us in a way we haven't
been pushed before. Because all the recordings we've done up
until Mellon Collie we've done with Butch, so everything we
understood about recording was through Butch. So we needed
someone to come and say: "Well, maybe we should try it this way".
You know, new things.
I= We're gonna watch the video for Disarm. How do you feel about
Disarm? Disarm is a song, in a way, Smashing Pumpkins broke out
with. Great song, acoustic, the video was amazing, the video IS
amazing. How do you feel about that song? That song was like a
song of perception...
BC= I think it's a very special song. I mean, it's one of those
songs that 20 years from now it won't sound from 1993. It will
sound from whenever. I don't think a lot of, I think there's been
, I think there's only been a couple 2 or 3 songs that we've done
that have been like Disarm, they're of a different time.
I= Let's watch this, Disarm, with The Smashing Pumpkins.
Off to Disarm.
I= Well, our time is now almost over with The Smashing Pumpkins.
Thanks for your time. When are you gonna tour Latin America?
JI= Ugh...
BC= (covers his face with his hand)
I= You've got a big Latin American audience...1997?
DW= 1999?
I= 1999?
BC= I think that this last year's been the first year that things are
really starting to happen for us in Latin America. We just wanna
make sure that there's an audience there. Um, when we put out
our next album, we're planning maybe only playing 50 concerts
total. Chances are we will come, but we'll only be in 2 or 3
concerts total in Latin America. We're not gonna do a big tour.
I= OK.
BC= We will do a big size tour, not a long tour. We feel bad because
we wanna go everywhere that people wanna see us. But there's just
a point where we've been on tour almost a year now and still
haven't covered everywhere. There's just a point where we have to
make records, that's what we're about, more than playing live.
I= At least you know that if you play Chile, Argentina and Brazil,
again, people from Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay, anyway it's really
close, so if they wanna go see The Smashing Pumpkins, they're gonna
go.
BC= And, and we've had so much succes in certain parts of the world
that it's hard sometimes to go to a place where people don't
really know you too well.
I= OK, Thank you very much for your time. I hope the best for your
future.
JI= (waves goodbye)
I= For the renaissance of The Smashing Pumpkins in terms of sound and
everything.
BC= (makes a rising bird gesture), The Phoenix is rising from me.
I= (to the camera) OK, I'll see you guys next week and next week we'll
have Garbage with us. So don't forget.
Off to a live performance of Where Boys Fear to Tread
Closing Credits
Return to the Band's Page