Here are some Smashing Pumpkins quotes for your reading enjoyment and knowlege enhancement.
"People place new emphasis every week on what's big. I guess it's human nature. But I read an article today about the new front-end loading washing machine by Maytag, called the Neptune. It uses a third less water and less electricity, and if everyone gets one it'll save billions of gallons of water in the future. That's more exciting to me than alterna-rock. I actually need a new washing machine; mine broke and it's ruining all my clothes." -James Iha
"[Being in the band is] like being married with four people you never even wanted to date." -D'arcy
"About six months ago, I listened to Siamese Dream. That was the first time I'd ever really heard my own album, because I had separated from the experience of making the record. And it really moved me. It made me cry, it's so beautiful." -Billy Corgan
"Generally I record in my boxers. Nothing else. It throws some people off." -James
James: "Good evening Oakland!"
Billy: "James, we're not in Oakland."
James: "Good evening San Francisco!"
Billy: "We're not in San Fransisco either. (to the crowd) See, there is
something many of
you may not know about James. He's a robot, and when we're on tour, we
kinda forget to
reprogram him sometimes so he gets confused easy. That's also why he
smells
so bad since
we can't give him a shower." (at a recent concert. . not in Oakland or
in
San Francisco)
(on the title Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness) "You want to know my take on the title of the album? Billy and Jimmy always have this bad pun game, is what I call it. It's the bad pun game getting out of control. Embarrassing. Not the name. The name's not really embarrassing. Just the game." -D'arcy
On the album that made him become a guitarist (The Beatles' White Album): "Great songs and great voices. It has a homemade intimate sound that draws the listener in. It also has a cool album cover!!!" -James
"We used to compete with Nirvana. That was good. That was real. That was viscerally good. Now we compete with imitation-Nirvana. There's nothing good in that. ...It's really sad." -Billy
"Instead of going onstage, I'll just accidentally walk out in the audience." -James (on being nearsighted)
"We don't have a set list that's the same every night, and we don't have choreographed moves like Guns N' Roses." -D'arcy
"You can't out-solo Jimi Hendrix and you can't out-god Led Zeppelin, and you can't out-pop Iggy Pop." -Billy
"I have concerts in my house all the time. I sit with my guitar on the porch and wave to the kids: 'Come on, you know this song.' I can't stop rocking. If the band's not there, Iha will be rocking." -James
"You just get a dominant front person and you don't ever hear about the band or the records. It's like, what did people talk about Nirvana? They talked about Kurt, they talked about Courtney Love, heroin abuse and smashing guitars and punk rock. They never talked about how good the songs were, how good the lyrics were." -James
"I wasn't offering anything new until I took in into my own space and colored it with my own crayons." -Billy
"All the rumors you've heard are true! The Pumpkins are going disco!" -James
"Say you write a song about a chandelier, and the chandelier gives off light, and the light is the color red and red reminds you of the color you're not supposed to wear around a bull so you name the song Cow." -Billy
"People bring us pumpkins... They have pumpkin motifs in our dressing rooms. I mean, this one girl actually asked us if we changed our name for every holiday -- like we'd be the 'Smashing Turkeys', or the 'Smashing Santa Clauses', the 'Smashing Christopher Columbuses' and she was serious! Can you believe that??" -D'arcy
"What's with that Bush video? Why is there a giant fly? That's one thing you'll never see in our videos. You might see me in a dress, but never will you see a fly." -James
"I was always like, I'm going to be in a band when I grow up. Always. Ever since I was probably six years old." -D'arcy
(from a KROQ radio interview) Caller: "Ok, my name is Tyla. Hi Billy,
I'm a
really big fan. Ok, my friend told me that she heard The Smashing
Pumpkins,
the name of your band was based on a joke."
Billy: "Um."
Caller: "I want to know... what is the joke?"
*a few people laugh*
Billy: "Well, I mean thats a slight misrepresentation. The joke was
like...I came up with the
name, kind of like a... telling some jokes with some friends & I
thought oh
that would be a
stupid band name to have. There was no band, I hadn't even met anybody
in
the band and
people would ask me what I'm gonna do, I would say, 'Oh I'm going to
start
a band.' And they would say, 'Oh what's the name of it?' I'd say, 'Oh,
The
Smashing Pumpkins, ha ha.' There was no band. Then when I met the band,
they were like, 'What are we going to call it, I was like, 'Why don't we
just call it this funny name for a while and we'll just figure out a
real
name eventually.' Then people would come up, 6 months later. 'Hey how is
your band, The Smashing Pumpkins?' It just... people wouldn't forget
it. So
that was the #1 thing to happen, which is recognition."
KROQ: "Do you plan on changing it to a real one? Or does it suit you
just
fine."
Billy: "On a interesting side note, there was a woman in Chicago who
used
to be like a
booker, and she used to book some of our very first shows, and she
pulled
me to the side and
said, 'You know I really like you guys, I think you really need to
change
the name, because
you're never going to get anywhere with it.' "
"The Pumpkins love rock-and-roll, we absolutely love it, but we also think it's a flatulent, ego-serving kiddie playground. You can have your cake and eat it too." -Billy
"Look at the name of the band. How can people think we take everything so seriously when we're called The Smashing Pumpkins." -D'arcy
"I no longer feel the need to torch my soul in public, because I don't think it's really worth it... You have to decide what's worth it publicly and what's not worth it personally. That's the battle, artistically, at the moment. I could take the doubters and nay-sayers and make them believers, but there's such a personal toll that goes with it. I have to ask myself: is it worth killing myself or reaching deep inside myself to prove our worth to somebody who's just as likely to buy a Mariah Carey record?" -Billy
(Responding to an interviewer who said that "Jealousy" sounds a little like Hanson's 'MMMBop') "I never thought of that before. I wrote it before I heard Hanson. It's a very upbeat song. I guess it's got the Hanson thing -- the upbeat thing. I didn't mind your mentioning George Jones. But a Hanson comparison? I'll have to think about that." -James
