Billy Corgan says he believes The Smashing Pumpkins are “one of the great bands”
The Smashing Pumpkins will begin releasing their new album Atum on 15 November.
Credit: Astrida Valigorsky / Getty
Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins has opened up on his thoughts on the band’s legacy, making the assertion that the band are “one of the great bands”.
In a new interview with The Guardian, Corgan discussed his perspective on the band’s longevity and legacy, assertively stating, “I won’t play games: I believe we’re one of the great bands, and it starts with the conviction that we have something unique to say. I felt that when we were playing to 50 people in 1988, and I don’t fucking know why,” he continued, adding that it was not “one of sort of chest-thumping victory.”
“It’s just like: ‘No, this is the arc we should have stayed on.’ We were the ones who walked away from it; nobody took us off our game. And now we’re back to doing what we’re good at.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Corgan also took the time to re-evaluate the band’s place in today’s music world, looking back at his biggest competitors in the 90s. “I’m not competing against Kurt [Cobain] and Eddie [Vedder],” he said while discussing how streaming has democratised the music experience, adding, “I’m competing against the biggest pop stars in the world with like 14 publicists and 30 writers.”
The Smashing Pumpkins recently announced their new album Atum earlier this year, setting a November 15 release date for the first instalment of a 33-track LP that is being billed as a sequel to their Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and Machina/Machine of God albums. The album will be released in three acts, with each act set to be released every 11 weeks starting from the November 15 date.
A special edition box set featuring 10 additional bonus tracks will also be released on 21 April once all three acts have been released.