Smashing Pumpkins have recruited Rage Against The Machine drummer Brad Wilk and Killers’ bassist Mark Stoermer for their upcoming live dates.
They start a short run of dates later this month in Berlin and drop into the UK for a one-off show at London’s Koko on December 5.
Mainman Billy Corgan says: “We’re absolutely thrilled and humbled to have Brad and Mark helping us out with these shows. And if our rehearsals are any indication, they should be one-of-a-kind.”
Smashing Pumpkins launch Monuments For An Elegy on December 9. Corgan is joined on the record by Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and guitarist Jeff Schroeder – but the Pumpkins mainman reveals he doesn’t see himself working with a set lineup in the future as he prefers to be his own man in the studio.
He tells Music Radar: “I think I’ve given up on the idea of a band. It’s not even personal; I just think it’s the way I work. I’ve mostly worked as a loner through the years – maybe it’s my place in life but I don’t feel like doing a lot of negotiating.
“There were times with Mike Byrne and Nicole Fiorentino, who are both very skilled musicians and who have great ideas, where they wanted to do it this way but I wanted to do it that way.
“I didn’t think they were wrong and I was right or I was wrong and they were right. There are just those moments when somebody has to have that score to the big picture. And the only ones I’ve ever had that big picture feeling with are the ones I’ve had the most success with.”
The Pumpkins’ next release will be Day For Night – but Corgan previously said sessions weren’t going well. And he says he’s still struggling with pulling everything together and has no idea when it will be released.
He adds: “I’m struggling. It’s really hard to say. I think we learned a lot with Monuments For An Elegy, and we tried to apply those things we’ve learned, but we just haven’t succeeded.
“We could go backwards and pick up where we left off with Monuments and make a pretty good record, or we could keep doing what we’re doing, which is to find this spot on the other side of this rainbow. There are signs and moments where I go, ‘It’s there,’ but I haven’t been able to put it all together as a writer. It’s a struggle, but it’s the right struggle.”
