Billy Corgan Discusses the quintessential Pumpkins Album (part One of a three-part interview)

Billy Corgan doesn't need to consult his business manager on a regular basis or gaze at walls full of platinum awards to be reminded he's made his mark in popular culture. He just has to answer the phone. An invitation to induct Pink Floyd into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is not the sort of opportunity that presents itself to just anybody every day. After all, Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon is one of the biggest- selling albums of all time. But the honored Corgan was anything but tongue- tied by the significance of the moment when he took the podium. "I spent half my speech chastising the music business for being lame," he says. "Pink Floyd, which never really had hit songs, somehow managed to make one of the biggest- selling records of all time. Go figure." The Pumpkins themselves are no strangers to the process of kicking against the pricks, and the latest installment in that maverick history is Adore, which is more a collection of lullabies or hymns than alternative rock of any particular description. "That's very good, because that's what I was telling my friends," says a clearly pleased Corgan. "It's almost like a kind of prayer music or mantras or something. Some people have picked up on that -- not a lot of people -- but that's how I feel, and that's the way we're approachingit when we play it. It has a certain shimmering spirituality to it. It's about as close as I'll probably ever come to gospel music. "We had this meeting where we decided, 'Is Mellon Collie going to be the last kind of rock Pumpkins album, or are we just going to leave it behind right here?'" he continues. "We all felt very strongly that we needed to make, in essence, our quintessential Pumpkins album, so that when we're old and grey it's all there on tape." Hence the vastly different feel of Adore. "When we made that decision, we knew that the album subsequently was going to be a huge departure," adds Corgan. "Then, when we came off tour from Mellon Collie -- it was 16 months or whatever -- the first thing we did was, we went into the studio. I'd written all these new songs, which were acoustically- based kind of piano songs, so we just started there. It seemed evident that that was the direction we were going in. Then, once we went in and started tinkering," he laughs heartily, "the folk thing went right out the window." Read Friday (June 26)'s issue of allstar for the rest of the interview with Corgan.

Source: Allstar Magazine