Smashing Pumpkins have a big North American tour with Green Day planned this summer, but frontman Billy Corgan is warning fans not expect to the band to play their favourite songs. He just might not want to.
On tour with Weezer over in the UK right now, Corgan spoke to Kerrang! and explained that the set list basically comes down to what he feels are the best songs to play - not what the fans want.
Corgan says that the band is careful to consider both types of fans: the ones who want to hear classic Pumpkins and the ones that want to hear the new stuff.But he's not afraid to rule out songs that he doesn't want to play that night. So if you came to the show hoping to hear "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" or "Today," and Billy isn't feeling it, well, tough.
“The key is finding out the old and the new songs that you feel very emotionally engaged in, so that when you play, the audience is like, ‘Wow, this band still care. This band still plays with some fire.’ That's the key to that," he says. "So, what I do is, I don't play any songs I don't want to play. I don't care if they're a classic or not. If I don't want to play it, I just don't play it. I don't put that on the audience like, ‘Well, I've got to play this one for you.’ I think that's kind of cheese.”
Still, Corgan defends his stance, explaining that he finds value in digging up older, lesser known material, like a '90s-era B-side or a deep album cut, which may appeal to the die-hard Pumpkins fan.
“Here's the best way I would say it: the best show for me would be, you're a fan that really is mostly focused on the older music," he says. "You come and you hear those songs you think, ‘Wow, those sound great, band sounds great. The voice is still there.’ You feel good about your decision to come to the show. But then you might hear five, six, seven other songs, and you find yourself going, ‘I don't know this one,’ so you look up one, and go, ‘Oh, that was a deep cut from 1996. I didn't know that one. It was some B-side. That's interesting.’ And then someone making the same discovery about your new stuff, but thinking it was old.
"I'm not talking about causing confusion. I'm talking about having the person be curious about that," he continues. "They're enjoying what they don't understand and wanting to find something, like they’ve been missing out. You put them in the position of feeling like it's theirs to chase. You're not preaching down – ‘Here's our new song, you better like it or you're not a fan.’ It’s really on the band to just play great. That's the thing that fixes it all."
Overall, Corgan still seems to derive enjoyment from performing for the band's fan base. And he seems to put a lot of thought into what he feels will appeal to the entire crowd. But he is not one for giving fans the nostalgia they may be looking for (that happened back in 2018, and feels like it may have been a one-off, folks).
“It comes from a good thing, which is that people really love your music, you know what I mean? It's not a bad thing that they want to hear songs that they love. But you can't live in the past. It's the death of any artist," he explains. "And particularly in America, you know, we have a whole cottage industry here of people living in the past. And there is something to be said for when times are really tough, economically, politically, people tend to reach for nostalgia. So there's even more pressure right now on artists to be nostalgic.”
At least the new Pumpkins guitarist, Kiki Wong, won't have to learn too many oldies from the band's substantial catalogue.