Billy Corgan: Still A Smashing Pumpkin, But No Shrinking Violet

Kristin Burns

​A couple of weeks back, Rocks Off spoke with the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan for our print edition about the state of the music world, who excites him now and the indie-rock "shell game." The initial interview was only scheduled for 15 minutes but we ended up chatting for half an hour, speaking about the maturation process of bands. You can catch the rest of our chat here.

With Corgan's status now as one of the fathers of modern rock, he obviously has plenty to say. It was an enlightening 30 minutes, not just from a music-journalist standpoint, but also as a student of music-industry genealogy.

Tonight Corgan and the Pumpkins pull into Warehouse Live to perform songs off their in-progress Teargarden by Kaleidyscope and an assortment of hits from their treasure trove of albums from the '90s on. Admittedly, we have been burning up Rdio listening to Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness.

Rocks Off: Who is using this new system right today?

​BC: Honestly, I would say Lady Gaga. She's not pretending, she's having a great time, she's making good music. She can sing, and she certainly has real talent, so it's not like she's computer-constructed. And she's just laughing all the way to the bank.

I actually think she will be a very important artist in many ways because she's both celebrating the shallowness of it all while at the same taking advantage of it while also bringing some depth to it. When the shallow people are curious about your depth you are really doing something.