In a new interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music, SMASHING PUMPKINS frontman Billy Corgan praised drummer Jimmy Chamberlin‘s performance on the band’s latest album, “Cyr”, in particular his ability to not overplay but rather only what is appropriate for the song.
“Jimmy‘s thing is always song’s number one,” he said (see video below). “So Jimmy‘s always, like, ‘Just kind of tell me what you’re after and I’ll try to give it to you.” And I think the greatest compliment I could give Jimmy is he’s one of the supreme drummers in the world, and he’s totally fine with relegating his ability if it’s better for the song. So it’s as simple as that. I mean, there’s no weirdness at all. It’s just kind of, ‘Point me down the road you wanna go down.’ But what’s interesting is people listen to the record [and] they start to hear this other layer of rhythmic subtlety that’s in there. You know what I mean? Their first reaction is, like, “Wait, where’s all the sturm und drang?’ But then they listen to it, they start to hear the personalities kind of in there. So it’s cool. I think people understand it when they hear it.”
“Cyr” will be issued on November 27 via Sumerian Records. The 20-song follow-up to 2018’s “Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun.” was produced by Corgan.
Corgan told Apple Music about “Cyr”: “I think this is the music that’s coming out now is the things that have taken root. We’ve gone back to just being ourselves.
“We’re good pop assassins, and I think as long as we’re sort of in that space, we’re good,” he explained. “Anybody can ascribe anything they want to it as far as stylistically, but it bears repeating that what most of the general public knows of the band is really only one small slice of the band’s music. The band’s sort of width was a lot wider. So this falls quite comfortably in the music that we’ve made through the years.”
“Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun.” was SMASHING PUMPKINS‘ first album in over 18 years to feature founding members Corgan, Chamberlin and James Iha, along with longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder.
