An Evening with Billy
February 8, 1996
Thanks to Lisa for sending this to us
If you would like to get a copy of this interview on tape, email Nikki.
HOST: Evening everyone, and welcome to another edition of late night interview. I'm your host, Maxis Donavitch, and this evening, by virtue of all the gadgets that i have sitting in front of me, we'll be going some 6,000 miles away over to seattle for an evening with Billy Corgan and D'arcy from the excellent smashing pumpkins. Now obviousely they've just released their newest album, which is the epic 28-track Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness.So undoubtdly they'll be discussing that, and hopefully giving us some more insights into what makes the band tick. So sit back and enjoy our late night interview, as i said, with Billy and D'arcy of the Smashing Pumpkins.
NEW HOST: BILLY - Hi, how are ya?
D'ARCY- I'm not really D'arcy, i'm Billy's long lost BILLY- Thats why D'arcy's in the band
MARK- Thank you guys very much for being a part of this, and helping us set
this thing up. What do you think of the location here?
D"ARCY- You mean...here?
MARK- The room, the room
D'ARCY- Its beautiful, really nice. I think i'm feeding back.
BILLY- It's just like the concert.
D'ARCY- Yeah...
MARK- Right on, righ on, what we're gonna do is, we're gonna be having a
bunch of you folks be asking questions of Billy ands D'arcy. Theres some very
excited fans here today...
D'ARCY- MARK- Those are beautiful flowers, we're gona walk around the room in a very
Jenny Jones like fashion, ans have you guys askthe questions yourselves, so
why don't we jump straight into this thing right now...
BILLY- Why are we here?
MARK- You're here to answer questions.
BILLY- Oh,ok
D'ARCY- I thought we were asking you questions...
BILLY- Yeah...
MARK- You're welcome to ask us any question you like, if you can think of
anything...
BILLY- What made you want to go into radio?
MARK- You know, I'm still asking myself that. Are we ready? Do you wanna dive
into this?
RADIO GUY IN AUDIENCE W/MICROPHONE (lets call him Adam)- Yeah, lets go.
MARK- ask some questions....
ADAM- There are some Very excited fans in here tonight. OK alright, lets get
this guy over with. Whats your name, who are you?
I'm Murphy Kinds, from ?, and i have 2 really good questions. D'arcy, what
does your necklace say?
D'ARCY- It says "Kerry"
Oh ok, uh...
D'ARCY- Its my real name.
And do you still like the sacred heart and stuff?
BILLY- MARK- They're over the sacred heart. Good question.
ADAM- Ok, now i was heading over here, whats your name?
Alexis Gentry BILLY- Hi Alexis
I'm from Stanwood, hi Stanwood, and um i want BILLY-You're just here to say hi...
I just wanted BILLY - ...to them, not us
Oh my god D'ARCY- Dont be nervous, dont be worry this is only going out to about a
million people
BILLY- You're mother right now is wondering why she put you through all these
years of school.
ADAM- What was your question...no we'll get back to her, don't worry.
I'm Emmie Uger from Stanwood, and i was wondering what you think when you
walk through the grocery store and you see like, your face on a magazine?
BILLY- Usually i think "Why was i wearing that?"
BILLY- Its a lot of "What was I thinking?"
MARK- Any thoughts there D'arcy?
D'ARCY- Its usually like "Why did they pick that horrible picture?"
MARK- Is it something that you have no control over?
BILLY- It depends on the situation, but usually its like "Well, we cant
really show you the photos because we're on a deadline and you guys are on
tour..." a lot of that kind of thing.
D'ARCY- It depends on weather or not the magazine likes you.
MARK - Oh really? What magazine in particular would you like to have your
photograph on?
BILLY- I will not alow D'arcy to answer that question, thank you.
D'ARCY- No names...
ADAM- Whats your name?
Sara, and i was wondering if it was wierd for you to play the American Music
Awards?
BILLY- It was kinda crazy, yeah. It was like " Lionel Richie, Garth Brooks,
and..The Smashing Pumpkins" Right there i don't even have to say anything.
And then it was like, they had these wierd tv show sets, and because we were
the "rock band", they had the "rock band " set, it was like we could have
been anybody, Aerosmith or you know....
MARK - Is it one of those situations where its like "hurry up, hurry up, and
then wait"?
BILLY+ D'ARCY - Yes
BILLY - But we thought it was gonna kind of be wierd and creepy, but
actually, we got to meet Dick Clark and everybody was really nice. I t was
ok, but it was just wierd to be on that kind of a show because you feel like
your the wierd band amongst the not weird bands.
MARK- What is it with Dick Clark still looking exactly the way he did years
ago? Di he look like that close up?
BILLY- Yeah
D'ARCY - He did, he did, he didnt even look like he was even wearing any
makeup or anything. He looks great.
MARK - He does?
BILLY- Although he does have oxygen tanks on his back D'ARCY- You know what, i think the thing is excercising. He was wearing a
tuxedo, black tie, and tennis shoes, so he's probably reall physically fit.
ADAM- Whats your name?
My name is Casey Mayer, and i was wondering is it like, cool or flattering to
be in a room full of people who are totally obsessed with you or is it
scarry?
BILLY- The first question I would ask you is, "Why?", and the second question
i would ask is "don't you have something better to do?" and the third
question I would ask is.."thanks" and...what?
D'ARCY - Thats not a question.
BILLY- Honestly, to be seroius for a moment, we worked at this for so long,
that you get to a point where you really appreciate people coming to see
you,and people being interested, cuz its been a long road, and this did not
happen over night, so...
D'ARCY- ...It would be worse if we were in a room full of people who didnt
like us.
BILLY- Exactly.
D'ARCY - That WOULD be a lot worse.
MARK- Its cool that you guys have that attitude though, I think a lot of
bands when they reach the size of the size of the pumpkins are at this point,
they kinda have, not so much a negaitve,but sort of an anti publicity sort
f\of, want to be away from the fans.
BILLY- Well, ...
D'ARCY-...You cant always deal with it, you cant always deal with being
mobbed or something, but generally, we always feel like our fans relate to us
on a different level, whereas other bands, much more like they feel
respectful...
BILLY- Yeah i got a note from a girl the other day and it says " You dont
know how hard it is to actually be a Smashing Pumpkins fan." Meaning like she
gets a lot of crap from other people about it, so we certainly have a
different affinity with people who like our band because they can definately
understand from where we're coming from, so,
D'ARCY- But we don't get like mobbed very often, or anything, People are
generally polite, and respectful and you know...
BILLY- You never know though, it could get get out of hand.
This is Dave Belcher from ??? whats up Charles and Patty, i was reading some
letters...
BILLY- Another self serving fan...
I was reading some letters in response to your article in CMJ magazine, which
this guy says, pretty much to stop whining, because you make to much money to
care about your troubled past, i didnt agree with that letter, but how do you
feel about that?
BILLY- Thats pretty much, thats the typical Rush Limbaugh response to what we
have to say. I think if anyones really read the things we've said, we've
never really whined. We've whined about each other, but thats a different
thing. But we've never whined about the sucess we've had, or about fans, all
we've said is like, we just want people to be as honest as they expect us to
be. And we have people coming to concerts who really dont care about the
Smashing Pumpkins, so why should we pretend otherwise. I think we owe it to
the people who like our music to be absoutely honest and have great
integrity. And if that seems like whining sometimes, thats just because
people cant bear to hear the truth. The fact of the matter is, we're all, I
mean pretty much all the people I've talked to are in basic agreement that
alternative music is no longer really alternative, that moshing has ceased to
be a spontaneous activity, theres a lot of things about alternative culture
that have passed on to the mainstream. So, we can call a spade a spade, and
try to move on it and make for better music and better things, andtry to
create better relationships between bands and fans, orwe can continue the
rock tradition of "We're different from you are, and you're not as cool as we
are, and if thats the kind of bands you want to listen to, more power to you,
but the bands i wanted to listen to are people I could relate to, and thas
always been our position. A lot of people dont like that. They want their
rockstars to be untouchable, and where we come from, what we stand for, it's
never been what we're about.
I read about a quote about moshing, and how all it is these days is getting
in a pit-you're moshing for the wrong reasons. How do the pumpkins feel?
BILLY- Thats over intelectualizing it a bit,
ADAM- You're sick of moshing, you hate moshing!
BILLY- No, i mean we were playing in 1990 when people would go nuts because
they'd never heard music like that before
D'ARCY- They were really moved, not like it was the cool thing to do. Its
really disgusting to us when we're playing one of our really slow...
BILLY- ...Disarm would be a good one...
D'ARCY- ...beautiful songs, and people are like moshing, you know. They're
like body surfing and they're not even paying attention, and they're not...
ADAM- ...they've seen it on MTV, and they want to be...
D'ARCY-...thats the thing...
BILLY- We shouldnt try to beat the dead horse, but we've basically tried to
say "Hey" you know? If we're rocking ya, thats cool, but certainly when you
play a slow song and people are doing whatever it is they think they're
doing, i mean...
ADAM- Lets start a new dance
BILLY- The pogo is a good one
ADAM- Back in the devo days
BILLY- But is like, you know, we dont want to be the voice of like, the
anti-moshing contingent. We dont really care that much. Its just one of a
hundread honest statements that we've made that sombody takes umbridge with
because they think we're trying to tell people what to do. Its just-you know,
i've always respected people in bands, R.E.M. is a great example of a band
that always spoke some kind of truth about rock 'n roll, and we feel a
certain ammount of responsibility to speak that kind of truth. People dont
want to heat that truth, thats fine. Theres plenty of bands that dont like
you. Trust me. They dont really care about you, they're self-serving bands
that only care about what they're doing and if they want to stare at their
shoes and play music, thats cool.
ADAM- Pavement?
BILLY- I'm not going to be naming any names.
ADAM- Aww....come on
BILLY- I dont even care to name any names
ADAM- Shall we move on?
My name is Jeremy, I'm from Tacoma, and first i wanted to thank you two for
coming out and talking to us
BILLY-Thanks for coming out too
D'ARCY- Yeah, definately
I really appreciate you guys doing this for us, and my question for Billy, do
you have any words of wisdom for any up and coming musicians that are just
starting out, you know, you've been down that road, and do you think about
things you would have done differently? Labels you started out with, or
things that you did to start out with that got you where you are today. Do
you have any words of wisdom to share with anybody else who mught be starting
down that road?
ADAM- Especially in the Northwest. Theres a lot of years out there.
BILLY- Yeah, It's actually pretty simple. Just do what...
D'ARCY- ...no its not!
D'ARCY- Its really hard!
BILLY- No,no,no,no,no, is physisofically. This is why we're in a band
together. Its actually physofically pretty simple.
GUY- Pises, Taurus, Pises Taurus
Billy- Yeah right, exactly. Ok, the best thing I can say is, the things that we did that were right were, we never deviated from what we did, we just played plenty of Smashing Pumpkin's music, and believe me, there were plenty of people who told us we were way behind the times, way ahead of the times, copying trends, and if everything you can imagine someone could say thats negative about music, was said to us in the first 2-4 years, and occasionally still said about us. Second of all, we've invested every bit of money that we made in playing shows, and we played a lot of shows that we put on ourselves, or booked around town, we put everything back into making demo tapes, and learning how to record, and working on songs. And we spent every available moment we could working on the band, and that paid dividends because by the time people finally started to come and see us, we had progresses to a point where we were capable of making our own records and writing our own songs to the point where Gish was only two years after Smashing Pumpkins started, and it was a pretty sophisticated album because we'd made that much progresstion in two years. Beyond that, you gotta totally follow your heart. People told us to change the name, people told me to get rid of band members, people told me I shouldnt be singing, I mean everything you can imagine negative was said, including from parents, friends, everything. And all I did was believe in myself and eventually in the band as an entity, and thats always served us really well.
Mark- Billy, you met James, you guys started the band together, James and yourself
Right.
Mark- Where did you meet?
Billy- He was actually playing with this kind of death rocker guy we knew, Lenny, and we started this...originally it was this kind of death rock kind of band, and James wouldnt...me and Lenny were kind of death-rocky, and James was into the Smiths, and James wouldnt follow the death rock plan. Mark- Shall we move on?
-I'm Jason, from Seattle. Hey, D'arcy, I'm glad you came. I was wondering how you guys decide how to play songs each night?
Mark- Next question! D'arcy- Theres a pretty strong core, but it depends on our moods. Sometimes we'll make the setlist and even just change it as we go along, depending on our mood, depending on how the audience is, we try to change it up, because there are people who will go to the shows, different shows, and we dont want them to have to see the same thing, and we dont want to do the same thing because we get bored as well, so.
Mark- An evening with Billy Corgan, and special suprise, D'arcy is here with us tonight as well, in a room full of people with questions, and do we have another one?
- My names Tony, I hope you enjoy your visit here. I wanted to ask you, when do you feel most inspired to write lyrics, and is it like, do you get excited, or is it a labor of love?
Billy- That would be both. Mark- Squeeze em out sometimes, and...
Billy- Sometimes I think "oh, I've got the best idea" and I write it down, and I go back later and its soo terrible and i think "what the hell am I thinking?" And then other times, its like I totally have to stick a crowbar in my gut, and out comes really good stuff. I...Lord knows how I write these songs, I have no idea.
Mark- I heard an interview once with you, Billy, where you were talking about not all the lyrics of your music necessarily may have to do with true life things, but it all comes from different experiances that you've sort of mixed up and made seem a little bit more obscure.
Billy- Yeah, well theres certainly an emotional truth to them all, I mean, not that I've lived every moment of those, because I dont have time to live. If I had time to live, I'd write about that, but I dont think you want to hear about D'arcy- What they used to be like.
Billy- Yeah, what they used to be like.
D'arcy- The good old days...
Billy- Back when you were working in the sushi bar.
D'arcy- Yeah...
Mark- Were you cutting sushi? Cutting fish?
Billy- She was throwing it at people.
D'arcy- Yeah, they wouldnt actually let me cut it.
Mark- Keep D'arcy away from the knives. Yeah, lets do one more. Whats your name?
-Katie, um, besides the sucess and the fame and the fortune... Billy- Well! Mark- Other than that...
- ...what sort of lasting inner reward has music given you?
Billy- Well...
Mark- Heavy.
Billy- Do you want me to answer that one now ?
D'arcy- I think its different for every person. It depends on where you're coming from and where you're going. It forces you to grow up really fast, its pretty much throw you in sink or swim, you learn a lot really quickly and you grow a lot really quickly and it... Billy- Whoah...
Mark- Another high pitched noise areound here. Does that work? Are we gonna take a break? Billy do you want to answer that question?
Billy- Do you want me to wait till after the commercial?
Mark- Naw, go ahead Billy, we're all right. Other than that high pitched squeal.
Billy- I've thought about it a lot, and certainly I think the greatest thing is that we've always just been ourselves, certainly there was a really wierd time for us when, after Gish came out and then Nirvana became so famous, seemingly overnight, and there were all these people questioning why we werent that kind of band, and why didnt we write three minute songs, and I'm really proud that we didnt, like, change our course and try to follow the grunge revolution. We stuck to our guns, and I think thats why people respect us cuz we havent jumped on that ship, and now we're surrounded by 8,000 immitators. Its just a crazy world, you know? But at that time, it would have been really easy to do that cuz certainly there were bands from america that we would go to Europe and there would be, the words from Seattle would be bigger than the actual name of the band. People were selling where they were from, and what label they were on, and what movement they were part of, more so than they were selling theirselves. And people would assume that we were from Seattle, and we would have to say "no" and they'd say "oh your a grunge band" and we'd say "no, we're not, we're not." And this went on a thousand times for years, and I'm really proud that we've jus-we've been ourselves and at the end of the day, if we didnt sell another record at least we'd be happy because we rocked and we'd certainly had a good time.
D'arcy- We did it our way. Mark- Do you think the Seattle rumor had anything to do with the Sub-Pop single? The Afgan Wigs ran into the same thing, I remember people thinking...
D'arcy- Sure, sure, I'm sure that was part of it, not the entirety though.
Billy- Yeah, I mean that didnt help, but it was, it was...its kinda hard to put it all into words, but it was amazing, it was like, we;d go to Europe, and everybody was so enamored with this part of the world, and to not be from here, it was almost like "well, we're not really interested in you". Mark- People used it to their advantage probably.
Billy- Trust me. Certian...those people know who they are.
Mark- Its an evening with Billy Corgan and D'arcy from the Smashing Pumpkins. An evening with Billy Corgan and D'arcy of the Smashing Pumpkins [he says this twice for some reason] We're live at an undisclosed location here in Seattle, a very beautiful location at that. Candles lit...
Billy- [interupting] Your living room in very nice. Mark- Candles lit all over, we have a fire place over here, its nice. Are you guys enjoying the environment? D'arcy- No, we thank them. We thank them, let me tell you. We probably wouldnt be here...
Mark- I cant tell you how cool it was for me to hear three Cheap Trick songs live, knowing that it was going on all over the nation and people having to air it, and I was like "Yes! Cheap Trick! On my radio station!" So, thank-you guys, that was great. You guys obviousely grew up being big fans.
Billy- Yeah, we grew up in that horrible decade called the 70's, and Cheap Trick was literally the Nirvana of our youth.
Mark- Heck, yeah.
D'arcy- Should have been anyway.
Billy- Should have been, yeah.
Mark- Other bands in Chicago that you guys are fans of? Red Red Meat?
Billy- Red Red Meat, absolutely, yeah. Urge Overkill, Veruca Salt.
D'arcy- You name it, Cathrine, I have to plug Cathrine Mark- D'arcy's husband plays drums for the band Cathrine.
Billy- Aww, your giving away the... Mark- Were you gonna use that as a trivia question? The end of the show, we're gonna give away a couple pairs of tickets to tommorow night's show, and I think D'arcy and Billy are gonna come up with the trivia questions. None of which we used on the air, mind you.
D'arcy- We have a quiz at the end?
Mark- You can drill them with a quiz.
D'arcy- A pop quiz.
Billy- I am Pumpkin trivia king. D'arcy- I guess I wont win.
Mark- Wanna go to the next question? Hi, whats your name?
- Hi, my names Tim Hatch, hi Billy, hi D'arcy, I just have a quick question about, if you guys would maybe ever be interested in maybe starting your own indie label? Or are you? Mark- D'arcy! -Well I didnt, I dont know...
D'arcy- Yes. We are, we have our Scratchie and we have some pretty good bands.
Billy- James and D'arcy have started a label.
D'arcy- ...my inlaws, and some friends from New York, some good music.
Billy- Isnt your Mom putting out an album? D'arcy- Yep. Yeah, she plays the flute.
Mark- Next question, your name?
- Hi, I'm Amy form Orning, Washington, and I heard that you guys were pretty upset when the video from 1979 got lost. How exactly did that happen?
Billy- We would like to ask the same question.
D'arcy- Ha Ha Ha, we werent upset at all...upset? No...
Billy- The story we were told was...he who shall remain nameless was given the tapes to take to a dubbing lab, and he out the tapes on the top of his car in a box,
D'arcy- You know how you put your gas cap on top of your car when you're putting gas in? Never do that.
Billy- ...drive away. He drove away, and they found the box, and then they heard there was a ghost, the ghost of the man who got the tapes, and they had the cops looking, and they were announcing it on the radio.
Mark- And you guys had to go back and re-shoot it.
Billy- Oh yes. Yes we did.
Mark- That was the house scene in the video, huh?
D'arcy- It was worth it though, we got at least 30 more seconds
Billy- No, how bout 10? 10 seconds. Mark- Umm...next question. Your name?
- Yeah, this is Peter Swanze from Iberian. I was wondering whether you ever think Jimmy is sort of a discredited member of the band? Being a really talented drummer.
Billy- What do you mean discredited though?
- Well, it seems, I've seen a lot of pictures where he's in the backround, and I've umm...you know...
Mark- Drummer Syndrome. - Mark- They're waiting for himn to blow up any minute.
D'arcy- Dont be a drummer if you want to,... you know. They get screwed a lot.
Billy- I think, put it this way, I mean, Jimmy, Jimmy personally is not that interested in the spotlight, I dont think Jimmys that interested in being recognized. But anyone who knows drums knows who Jimmy is.
D'arcy- Honest to god, Jimmy Chamberlin is one of the best drummers in the world, quite literally. He really is, and he knows it Billy- He's pretty cool letting me and James hog all the pictures. Mark- Your name?
- My names Jessica Dillard, and I have two questions. I wondered if you found that your new ticket plan, or how you were selling tickets, have you found that thats more of a fan base now than before?
Billy- Absolutely.
- And I was wondering who you guys found to be the most influencial people in your music, like, who you looked up to when you were young.
Mark- Two part question.
Billy- Well, I 'll answer the ticket thing, I mean I'm completely amazed, because we've done other small shows, I'm completely amazed at the ammount of fans that were actually at the shows and the way that we can tell is, when we get about 2 hours inyo our show, the whole place is still there, still watching the show, and there isnt a group of 150 people at the back at the bar, which is how it used to be when we played small shows
D'arcy- and people talking over the show
Billy- And nobody talks over the show, its like its all fans, its been really great.
Mark- And nobody moshes to Disarm.
Billy- No, that still happens.
D'arcy- Still happens!
Billy- You'd be suprised. But um, the influences, well,
D'arcy- But they stay there, the shows really long, and they're still there, so they must really care.
Mark- You're doing like a two part kinda show you take an intermission right.
D'arcy- Dont give it away Mark- Oh! Sorry.
Billy- Naw, the world knows already. Yeah, we're doing a two part show, we come out and play about 45 minutes, kinda mellow-esque, and then we come out, we take about a 20 minute break , and then we come back out and then beat your head in with the metal Mark- Your name please?
- Jamie Arthur, and I had a question about um, I heard you were writing a song for Courtney Love to perform? Could you elaborate or explain or whatever?
Mark- Is it true?
Billy- Um....the answer
D'arcy- Actually Billy's written all of Courtney's songs. Billy- Well, I , in a way, amazingly, she thinks shes written all of mine, thats the other part.
D'arcy- No, no, I'm sorry, I love Courtney, and thats not a mean set, thats just a joke.
Billy- Yeah, you know, according to her, Disarm was her song, which I dont remember he actually showing me, but thats kind of a funny thing. But um, as far as this song, there is a song that I wrote with her in mind, and she made me so angry that I'm not going to give it to her at this particular moment, so, we'll see what happens with the song. Mark- What happened? You guys are still friends though?
Billy- Yeah, we're still very close.
Mark- I heard Courtney came out and spanked you at the L.A. show, live on stage. Billy- No comment D'arcy- ...she looks great
Billy- its not like she was big before, but shes like...
D'arcy- and her hair's like black now
Billy- and she came on stage, and nobody knew who she was.
Mark- Aww, thats great.
Billy- So thats not bad for the most recognizable woman in America.
Mark- Your name please?
- Ellen, um, I've noticed some of your lyrics, particularly song titles, echoe some of the passeges in Kurt Vonnagate books and I was wondering, particularly in Slaughterhouse 5, I was wondering if Kurt Vonnagate was a particular influence, or is that just coincidence?
Billy- You're literally the 4th person in the past five days that has cited an authers as an influence or an inspiration for my lyrics, and I've never read any of those authors, so either I'm tied into the universal spirit that is authorship, or its just sheer coincidence...
D'arcy- Its me, I've read it and I'm projecting it physically [sike-ic-lly..bad spelling :)] into his brain.
Mark- Next question, your name please?
-Dana, I've noticed a lot of religious references in your lyrics, and I was wondering if you were personally a religious person, and if so, do you believe in organized religion, or do you believe that it comes from within?
Billy- Well all those references to Jesus are really this guy I know, Jesus [pronounced the spanish way, "hey-suess"] so dont mistake that. D'arcy- Its not one of those things you're supposed to talk about in mixed company.
Billy- I just, you know, if there is a Heaven, I see me getting there and being yelled at, thats all I'll tell you. Mark- Your name please?
- Sean Thayer from Bellview, and I was wondering, after Spaceboy, theres like a little exerpt, from uhh...i think it was an interview that you guys did a while back. What exactly is that?
Mark- Spaceboy from Siamese Dream.
Billy- Are you talking about the masterbatory comment?
- Yes.
Billy- Um...<.long pause> Its just this wierd thing I found. Its just this won\man talking about her husband mastrorbating himself, I thought it was funny. Mark- Your name?
- Nick Brown, I was wondering why you guys picked Flood to produce Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness instead of Butch Vig?
Billy- Well, "Flood producing Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness" has a much better ring to it than "Butch Vig producing Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness." Mark- Now, um, whein I had heard that Flood was working on the record, I was thinking "Wow, theres gonna be a big sound difference on this record and I think people were treated to that, in fact I remember seeing a quote, and I'm not sure if it actually came out of your mouth or not, Billy, about what was being created here was comprable to The Wall of the 90's.
Billy- Well, that was me shooting my mouth off before we actually recorded the album. Mark- But, in terms of sound, 1979 is such a far cry from anything you guys have done in the past. Was working with Flood an intentional thing because you knew you were gonna go in that direction?
Billy- I was kind of a guess, you know. 1979 was probably , or in fact was the last song that I wrote for the album.
Mark- Doesnt it always work like that?
Billy- Its kind of wierd that way, yeah.
Mark- Any indication of the direction the pumpkins might be going in?
Billy- You mean droaning synth-pop? Oh sure! - Hi, my name is Angela Reigny, and I have a question as far as, I know a lot of your influences are Cheap Trick, and a lot of male people, i was wondering is ther a lot of female influences that you've listened to as well?
Billy- Well, um... that would be my mother. I believe thats the superceding influence of all.
Mark- How about you D'arcy?
D'arcy- Oh, oh jeez...
Mark- Any women in rock?
D'arcy- Maybe Olivia Newton John Billy- I mean you gotta remember the decade we grew up in, there were not a lot of strong...women at that time were portrayed mostly as sex-objects in music and there werent a lot of really...I mean Joan Jet was one of the few women who stood for something besides just pure...I mean she looked good, but she rocked too. There wasnt a lot of that.
D'arcy- Deborah Harry, and Fleetwood Mac, you know.
Billy- But even Deborah Harry was sold as more of a sex-object when you look back at it.
D'arcy- Thats true, but she has a great voice.
Mark- Right. Heart maybe? You guys grew up with that?
D'arcy- Heart, yeah.
Billy- You know, Heart, whats so funny is Heart was such an excepted rock band, I almost never really thought about them in terms of male or female.
D'arcy- And thats the way it should be!
Billy- Thats the way it should have been, and thats why I wouldnt even think to mention Heart, because they were, at that time, such an excepted rock band,
Mark- Do you think that thats the way things are becoming more and more?
Billy- Absolutely, absolutely. I mean D'arcy used to get asked the "Whats it like to be a girl in the band" Mark- Lets go to our next question here.
-Hi, I'm Josh from Seattle and I was wondering how you guys feel about bootlegs and people taping your shows and stuff? I mean, is it a big problem, or is it something that you guys just turn away from?
Billy- We dont mind if they tape the good ones. D'arcy- In general, we pretty much think that the only people who are going to buy those are people who are so into the band that they already have everything else already. We were really bummer when they bootleged the shows, like before the album came out, that was kind of a bummber, but...
Mark- Which I kind of wanted to ask you too.
Billy- The Lost D'arcy Tapes?
D'arcy- Yeah, that was a drag.
Mark- What happened there?
D'arcy- You just cant trust anybody.
Mark- Somebody you were close to?
D'arcy- I thought so
Billy- Somebody basically living in her house was stealing tapes, demo tapes, band rehersals, and things.
Mark- And booting 'em?
D'arcy- And equpitment, etcetera, etcetera.
Mark- Ouch! You guys have done those live broadcasts, lotta people, lotta excitement, what was it the first song in? the second song in?
Billy- That would be the second song in, yeah.
Mark- And the great thing about it is, I heard somebody screaming off mic because it wasnt being blasted out in the theatre. But I heard sombody bashing around something and just yelling at the top of their lungs. I'm assuming that was you Billy?
Billy- No, no, we were...we thought it was funny. D'arcy- No, we were laughing, Billy- If you can imagine, its like, you know we hadnt really played for about six or seven months. New albums coming out, we're really excited, hometown show, second song; power goes and we're standing there going "yep, this would be pumpkin luck. yep, national radio, you know, here we are, standing here and we're looking at our shoes. "
Mark- Telling jokes.
Billy- Yeah, we thought it was really funny. No, the people that were yelling were afraid that they were going to lose their jobs.
D'arcy- Our tour manager...
Mark- We can go to another question here...
-Hi, my name is Robert Osgood, I'm from Renton, and I was wondering what kind of a part are synthesizers and keyboards going to play in your next album?
Billy- We're hoping to get to the point where we dont actually play anymore. Mark- Next question?
- Hi, I'm Jamie, and I was wondering what sort of films you guys like? D'arcy, I know you like Blue Velvet, and I really like your shirt... Billy- You mean the one she wore 100 times?
D'arcy- Old Velvet...how could you guess?
Billy- Oh, oh, what kind of films? You like them crazy wierd films, dont you?
D'arcy- I like films for kids. I like little kid films.
Billy- We're real big Disney fans, we like a lot if Disney into it.
Mark- Toy Story?
D'arcy- I am dying to see that movie.
Mark- Its great.
D'arcy- One of my favorite movies is like, "The Adventures of Bear Munchoussen", and you know, stuff like that.
- Um, I'm Chavolie from Ordine, and um, how did you write, like all 28 songs off Mellon Collie and the Infinate Sadness in 6 months?
Billy- Well, actually I wrote about 50 songs in about a year in and a half. Basically I didnt do anything else, and D'arcy can atest to that, you know, she was like "why dont you get a life?" because all I did was stay in and work. Thats really all I did.
Mark- 28 songs must have been pared down from a higher number.
Billy- Thats what I'm saying. I wrote 50, and James wrote probably another 12 to 15, we had a lotta...I mean theres about 20 to 25 b-sides coming out, you have that werent good enought to be on the album songs
Mark- Right on.
- Um...I'm Taylor Brown from...
Billy- That was a joke by the way.
- and I was wondering why you and James dont sing that much? or dont sing more?
D'arcy- I'm sorry, whats the question?
- I was wondering why you and James dont sing more? Billy- Yeah, why dont you sing more? Mark- We can go to the next question if you want. Billy- I guess we're skipping that one.
And I'm afraid that we're also going to have to skip that final question, as unfortunately we've run out of time ourselves, here on Late Night Interview. Our sincerest thanks once again to Billy and D'arcy of the brilliant Smashing Pumpkins, they really are a top band; supper stuff. And dont forget to join us next week, join me, your host, Maxis Donavitch, same place, same time. Goodnight!