Billy Corgan is blowing the dust off his guitar. The Smashing Pumpkins frontman revealed in a new interview with Nashville’s 102.9 The Buzz that the band has been working on a new album—and they’re pretty far along.
“It’s currently 21 songs. We’ve been working on it for over a year. It’s pretty different, in a good way, I think,” said Corgan, who was in Tennessee’s capital to record background vocals for the Pumpkins. “Everyone who’s heard it likes it a lot, so that’s a good sign.”
The singer also said that the Smashing Pumpkins are planning to hit the road. “We’re going to do some touring, playing a big festival in Atlanta, I think in April or May, Shaky Knees,” he noted. “I’m not sure we’re playing Nashville this year. Actually I think we might—I might be giving a secret away—we might be doing a little surprise-y gig soon.”
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The new record would be the band’s 11th studio album, following 2018’s Shiny and Oh So Bright. Since that release, the Pumpkins have toured, but Corgan himself has also released his third solo album, 2019’s Cotillions. In an Instagram post about his solo effort, the musician noted that the double record was “a true labor of love.”
Speaking about Cotillions, Corgan told The Buzz that a few years prior, he had gone through a “spiritual crisis.” “I wasn’t really sure I wanted to play music anymore. It wasn’t that I hated music, I just didn’t understand what the point of it all was,” he admitted. “I found by taking these trips through America, mostly down Route 66 … I kind of found myself wanting to write about what I’d seen, and it inspired me to start writing songs again.”
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He added: “It’s been a very interesting period of music. But I certainly feel super motivated again.”
Corgan didn’t detail when to expect the new Smashing Pumpkins album, but as he noted in a November Instagram post, it’ll “be out soon enough.”
