Somewhere over the rainbow / Cathi Unsworth
Melody Maker
June 25 1994
Like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder before him, Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan was bewildered and confused by the popular adulation and critical scrutiny that came with success on an unexpected scale. Unlike Kurt, however, who killed himself, and Eddie, who continues to be deeply troubled by his celebrity, Billy had learned to live with unwanted attention and just get on with his music. In fact, as he tells a relieved Cathi Unsworth, he$BCT(B never been happier or more at peace with himself. Smash and grab: Steve Gullick
Here he comes, striding across a Munich hotel lobby strewn with various members of Rage Against The Machine, assorted roadies, would-be psychotics and multi- pierced n$BCF(Br do wells. Relaxed, calm and sporting a retina-scorching psychedelic shirt that a fan threw onstage at Smashing Pumpkins’ recent sell-out homecoming gig in Chicago, Billy Corgan greets everyone with a warm smile. With his hair still wet from the shower, his slight stoop and cherubic features, he looks a bit out of place, as though he has nothing to do with the rock carnival. Vague feelings of displacement nothwithstanding, Billy appears to be a far happier man right now than the self-consciously ridiculous figure who appeared last year at Brixton Academy dressed as a clown in bitter mockery of his often vicious detractors. Looking back, Billy now acknowledges that he often took the rantings of his critics too personally in the immediate wake of the phenomenal success of the Pumpkins’ double-platinum second album, Siamese Dream . However, after a year of having his music, his motivations and his personality dissembled, analysed and argued over, he seems to have reconciled himself to what he feels was often unwarranted scrutiny and attention. Billy$BCT(B reaction now is to simply not rise to the bait. I$BCN%_(B0D feeling much better these days , he tells me. I don$BCU(B feel so angry any more, even towards the press. They$BCW(Be had all the pieces of me they$BCS(Be gonna get . Now, he says, spreading his arms wide and relaxing into his chair, I just step back from it all .
Smashing Pumpkins are in Germany to play the first of a series of Continental festivals that will be their only European dates for the rest of this year. When these dates are completed, the band return to America for the start of Lollapolooza ‘94, for which they were confirmed as headliners when Nirvana pulled out the week before Kurt Cobain$BCT(B suicide. As soon as they come off the Lollapolooza tour, they are scheduled to begin work on their third album, which, Billy promises, will be as great a step forward from its predecessor as Siamese Dream was from their debut, the recently re-released Gish . And as a recent reassessment of Gish suggested - if the gap betweeen Siamese Dream and the new album is as profound as the one betweeen the first two Pumpkins’ LPs, the next step could well be a rock Pet Sounds . This isn$BCU(B as fanciful as it sounds. If anyone can produce something that visionary, ambitious and obsessive, Corgan can. And what makes it even more likely that Billy will be able to pull it off is the fact that he$BCT(B finally coming to terms with the demons that have plagued him for so long. As anyone who$BCT(B follewed the Pumpkins’ career will know, Corgan has never made a secret of the fact that for some years he has been undergoing regular and extensive therapy - indeed, he recently told Rolling Stone that he considers it essential to his understanding of himself.
Confortably at ease in the foyer of this Munich hotel, he explains how his therapist has slowly and often painfully helped him come to terms with the anger and vicious frustration that resulted from his fractured childhood, when he was shunted from parent to step-parent to step-parent at alarming speed. Living in five different homes before he was five years old, Billy ended up with his stepmother, becoming the surrogate father to his younger brother - despite the fact that his real parents were living only a mile away. That$BCT(B what$BCT(B at the base of all this, he told Rolling Stone . I feel like I was f***ed over. Why the f*** did you raise me to be a f***ing squirrel? Today, he says he realises you can only truly be angry with someone you really love, although anger seems the furthest emotion from his current mood. Sitting here, holding hands with his wife Chris, whom he married last year shortly after completing Siamese Dream , I$BCW(Be never seen him more at ease. He$BCT(B friendly, downright chatty even, full of stories about working with radical comic act The Frogs, who supported the Pumpkins on their last American tour, and quietly forthcoming about the songs he$BCT(B been writing for the new album. Only one subject appears to be off-limits - the death of Kurt Cobain, who shared his birthsign (Pisces) and almost his exact day of birth. After what happened to Kurt, he says, referring to Cobain$BCT(B suicide, opening yourself up to the press seems even more ridiculous than ever.
As we$BCW(Be been talking, the rest of the band have started to drift down from their rooms. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is as amiable as ever, still on the wagon after his much-publicised detox last year. Guitarist james Iha is sporting a rather fetching little New Wave Of New Wave tracksuit top (fetching on him, that is) and is full of enthusiasm for Blur, whose Girls And Boys video he saw for the first time last night on MTV. I only heard it once, he enthuses, but I can play the melody already! Bassist D$BC"(Brcy used to live in Germany. It was an unhappy time and she feels uncomfortable being back. Everyone else, however, is in fine spirits. For a band whose relationships with each other have often been perilously fraught, they all seem incredibly placid and untroubled. The traumas that surrounded Siamese Dream seem a lifetime away. On the tour bus to the festival, Gullick and I attempt to explain the radical new pop cultural phenomenon that is Stiltskin to the Pumpkins. They respond, appropriately enough, with laughter and groaning. However, the idea of the Rock Goes To College-style Pumpkins copyists obviously tickles Billy$BCT(B funny bone. He later strides onstage and announces, Hi! We$BCS(Be Smashing Pumpkins.. Actually, we$BCS(Be Stiltskin.
D$BC"(Brcy$BCT(B apprehension about being in Germany seems well-sounded as we approach the none-too-cheerful Rock Am Ring Festival. The bizarre mixed bag $B%_(B0Aof a bill is topped by Peter Gabriel, followed by Rage and Galliano. The Pumpkins are a miserable fourth on the bill. What was once barbed wire is now washing line, observes Jimmy from the dressing-room window, as he surveys the ominous wire fencing surrounding the bunkers, the distant searchlights and watch towers, and the little kids playing on the concrete. This place used to be an airport, apparently, and was used frequently by Hitler during the war. Which maybe explain its oppressive, alien atmosphere. It$BCT(B warm, but it rains as the Pumpkins take the stage for their 4pm slot. They haven$BCU(B played together in weeks, and it shows. Cherub Rock , their opening salvo, fairly seethes with pent-up energy. The crowd starts moshing in earnest as Billy$BCT(B wry take on the machinations of the music biz emerges from the shimmering, acid-spiked guitars, D$BC"(Brcy$BCT(B languorous, feline bass and Jimmy$BCT(B controlled-thunder drumming. Who wants that honey / Long as there$BCT(B some money / Who wants that honey / Let me out! Corgan sings, his voice soaring up into the grey skies. It$BCT(B strange to think that Billy never thought the pumpkins would ever fit in, a lifetime of being awkward had affected them all, and, he says later, he never thought they were good-looking enough of obvious enough to be idols. To an extent, you can see his point. Onstage this afternoon, he$BCT(B wearing a woman$BCT(B orange cardigan over his amazing shirt, and looks nothing like your average rock god. But the Pumpkins’ power to enchant has nothing to do with the way they look - it comes from the emotional grandeur of their music, its spectacular intensity, the way it connects with their audience. It also has a lot to do with the sheer scale of Billy$BCT(B ambition. People just think of us in terms of arguments, drug abuse, mental breakdowns and therapy, Jimmy said recently. The last thing they look at is the songs. We play beautiful music together every day.
Back to the (brilliant) show. Geek USA turns from rage to dreamy lullaby, a star- crossed lover$BCT(B kiss that almost stops time. The Pumpkins manage to combine fragile delicacy with a molten guitar rush borne from a youth spent listening to Black Sabbath$BCT(B most Satanic overtures. Those who snobbishly equate all forms of metal with LCD cretin-fodder are convenietly ignoring the subtlety and sheer inventiveness of this band. Ain$BCU(B no snobs in this crowd, mind. They slap palms along to Siva like it$BCT(B Queen$BCT(B Radio Ga Ga , and while Corgan may not match Freddie Mercury for cabaret extravagance, he certainly has the most ambitious ear for different sounds, their sources, and the way they can be combined to create something as brilliant and blinding as a sudden rainbow since the late, great Mr Mercury. And there$BCT(B a freshness, an acerbic enthusiasm firing them this afternoon that brings to mind their first UK gig at the Camden Underworld, that vicous/delicious flurry of lovebeads, hair, leather and stardust. Only now the songs they have wrought from their torments and trysts have twice the breadth and emotional scope.
Today is the greatest day I$BCW(Be ever known, Billy sings with a palpable shiver in his voice, and I remember him tellin gme that he wrote these words when he was at an all-time low and seriously thinking of committing suicide. Watching them now, I also start thinking about the way Smashing Pumpkins as much as Pearl Jam were cast as opportunists, unceremoniously cashing in on the success of Nirvana. The fact was that Smashing Pumpkins, like Nirvana, were making something huge, new and moving from rock$BCT(B tired bones. They were destroying the clich$BqE(B posturing of the past and being embraced by audiences for whom there were no other authentic idols. They helped finish off Axl Rose and his kind for ever. And there was more than enough room for both of them, and Pearl Jam as well. Now, Smashing Pumpkins headline Lollapalooza this summer in circumstances they would rather had not come about. The squabbling now seems pitifull. The chill of Kurt$BCT(B death passes through you, and with it, thoughts of Billy once teetering over the same abyss. You feel very, very grateful that Corgan is still up there on that stage. Disarm passes like a long, beautiful desert sunset, like something out of a Sergio Leone movie. Arguably the spiritual focal point of Siamese Dream , Disarm is the Pumpkins’ ultimate song of redemption, a painful stripping away of public fa$BmB(Bdes te reveal the real, vulnerable human being behind them, and the pain and trauma of rebirth and renewal. Listening to it, I remember a conversation I had with Jimmy about his heroin addiction. What doesn$BCU(B kill you, he had told me with a rueful smile, makes you stronger.
Back onstage, meanwhile, and for reasons best known to himself, James is wearing a space helmet for Soma , the sublime pop meltdown he wrote for the last album. He even starts practising a few New Wave Of New Wave high kicks. And then, the band guide the twisting Silver F*** through its sinuous curves to a breathless climax. In the silence that follows, Billy looks up to the thunderous heavens and starts to sing. Somewhere over the rainbow / Way up high... Then, Judy Garland$BCT(B words hanging in the air, he spots Gullick in front of the stage, where the mad photographer is clambering over the monitors to get a better picture. Corgan motions with his head, Come up here... And thus, Silver F*** detonates into a frenzied coda with Billy and james cavorting across the stage pursued by Gullick, snapping away in an attempt to capture their every last grimace. It is the most hilarious ending to a gig I have ever seen.
Later, over the delicious backstage hospitality dinner, Billy discusses the future. The next album is definitely gonna be a double album concept, he says. And it$BCT(B gonna be like a soundtrack of a day and a night. I want one album to take the heavy side of us to its most ridiculous, Black Sabbath extreme, and the other to be like the spacey, Mazzy Star-like , stuff that you mellow out to. I want one to be an album that you listen to in your car, when you$BCS(Be going out, that you can get all revved up to, and I$BCE(B like the other to be a real 4am, winding down thing. Cos often, if you listen to one thing, you don$BCU(B want te be interrupted by the other. I always think, when you$BCS(Be listening to Siamese Dream , that you$BCS(Be forced to go along with someone else$BCT(B mood, the mood that has been put into it, and you don$BCU(B necessarily want to follow that mood. Also, on a single album, you$BCS(Be limited to how many heavy songs you can put on here, how many eight-minute songs, how many pop songs. I$BCW(Be felt limited by that format.
This is interesting, the idea of separating the two extremes that you normally bind together in teh space of one song. I really want to take the heavy thing to its limit, Corgan laughs, because I don$BCU(B know how long this band can keep up that level of intensity. And the trancy struff, when you start listening to that, you don$BCU(B really want to be jolted out of it by some heavy metal! But all indications are that this will be far, far better than the last album, he says. I want to get the others more involved this time too, I want James to sing on some of it, and D$BC"(Brcy to sing. I mean, it will still be my vision, but i want to create surroundings with it that will be conducive to their ideas too. I mention the almost total absence of tension in the once-volatile Pumpkins camp. yeah, we$BCS(Be very much still together, the singer nods. There$BCT(B been no arguments for the last five months, all that seems to have passed. I can$BCU(B see an end to this band at the moment. Which is presumably why for probably the first time in their career, Smashing Pumpkins are looking and planning ahead, beyond the forthcoming Lollapalooza extravaganza, to October when they start recording again. Because there is so much time between albums, I want to have a lot of material to choose from when we$BCS(Be playing, Billy says, and you can almost feel his enthusiasm. A double album will allow for that, and will allow for a set that visually incorporates a lot of imagery that ties in with the themes of the album. I$BCN(B thinking Tommy of The Wall heređC he quips, really prog rock!
Fear not, pop kids. Billy is not about to drift off in a cloud of pompous self-regard. If anything, his feet are more firmly on the ground than ever. Playing to 20,000 people is probably as big as this band willl ever get, he says. And I don$BCU(B want it to get any bigger, you already lose so much of the intimacy when you$BCS(Be playing arena-sized shows. So future stage shows designed around the concept of the album would provide a diffferent approach, perhaps a more visually stimulating one. Y$BCL(Bnow, sometimes the whole fame thing leads you to lose sight of yourself, even if you really don$BCU(B want to, Billy muses. It$BCT(B like, when you$BCS(Be not the most popular kid at school, and somehow you get a little more popular, by dressing better or something, it tends to take you down a path that you are eager to get down, even if it$BCT(B not the right one. I$BCW(Be stepped back from that, come to terms with that now, especially after what happened [to Kurt]. My anger is focused where it should be, he says. On me! .
Looking towards the future, Billy is as sure as he's ever been about where he wants to take the Pumpkins. He's also pretty adamant about what he doesn't want to become. I don't ever want to be embarrassing, he says emphatically. Like, if I'm playing 'Today' when I'm 35, I want it to be in a style relevant to being 35. Something like Neil Young or Tom Waits would do, where they've been really popular, maybe veered of the path of the commercially acceptable, but never lost the plot.
'I don't want to lose that creativity, that driving force. With someone like Neil Young, it$BCT(B talent that keps them there, consistently re-evolving themselves. You can$BCU(B get stuck in this trap where you think people like you for eight reasons, and$B%_(B0D you have to stick to those eight reasons and never move from that path. What you have to do is create eight new reasons. lt's clear that Corgan's love of music and enthusiasm for pushing on has not been diminished by a year in the sometimes treacherous spotlight of fame that was directed on him after Siamese Dream .
Whatever he's been through over the last 12 months, Billy is still basically the warm and enthusiastic man I first met in 1991, when "Gish was just an incredibly good album from America's most promising new band. He hardly seems capable of all the conniving he's been accused of. He's far too human for that. I'm really glad I got time of in London last time we were there, because I as able to go out and see Elastica and These Animal Men, and that was great," he enthuses. "Not because they're particularly awesome bands, but because of the energy and adrenalin that they create, the joy of being in a band in its early stages. It reminded me of how it was for us when we were at that stage, playing the bigger clubs, getting there. Although you$BCM(Bl never be able to see us like that again, it helps you to keep in touch with what your ideals were to start with. I$BCE(B hate to get out of touch. Which does become a danger when you suddenly become unpredictably big.
U2 and R.E.M. are good examples of the different ways that can affect you, he points out. "Bands who became much bigger than they ever thought they would, and the ways in which they dealt with that. R.E.M. alwayd led people after them, U2 didn't. U2 seemed to try and come towards their audience instead. But both bands have managed to sustain change. You can$BCU(B be hemmed in by the machinations of success, but you can$BCU(B just throw everything down when you feel like it either. That would just ruin everything you$BCW(Be been building towards. It seems to me that what Billy Corgan$BCT(B been building these last few years is growing closer to the stars. He is both financially and emotionally secure for the first time in his life, and he has the freedom to pursue his vivid and challenging muse, to fill the Nineties with some of its most imaginative sounds. I like the idea of attitude coming back, of not being afraid to rock! Although I really welcomed Pearl Jam for putting out music that brought the humility and humanity into rock music, right now I find myself yearning for bands who put a spike of attitude back into music. That$BCT(B why I like Blur. To an American, they sound like they$BCW(Be got a hell of a lot of cocky attitude. Yeah, agrees James Iha, I can$BCU(B get that song out of my head! And with that, the Pumpkins return to their bus, to try and work out the chords of Girls And Boys and find out who those imposters Stiltskin are. And to continue to search for whatever lies over that rainbow.