SMASHING PUMPKINS To Release New Double Album This Year

SMASHING PUMPKINS frontman Billy Corgan spoke to Tennessean about the band's upcoming studio album, which is currently being recorded in Nashville for a late 2020 release. The new disc will be the follow-up to 2018's "Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun." , which was SMASHING PUMPKINS' first in over 18 years to feature founding members Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin and James Iha, along with longtime guitarist Jeff Schroeder.

Speaking about how he is approaching the SMASHING PUMPKINS' new effort, Corgan said: "When we got back together with James, we went in with Rick Rubin and did eight songs. It was put out as a formal album, but I said at the time — and I did mean it — in my eyes, it wasn't an album. We didn't approach it like we've approached every other album we'd ever done, which is more like making a movie.

"In many ways, this is the first real album [since the reunion] where we've hunkered down and made a classic, 'Let's throw it all at the wall and see what happens' type of PUMPKINS record. I've been working on it for over a year. It currently is at 21 songs, and we're going to release it as a double this year.

"This is the first album since the album that came out in 2000, 'Machina', where me, James and Jimmy worked on something for a very long time. It's got a greater conceptual base, and it's probably a wider swath of music. The last one was kind of like, 'Let's just jump in, record some stuff real fast, and let it be what it is,' ... so I'm excited about this, because we're kind of back in the lane of taking a risk, and trying to bring something new to the table, as opposed to just aping what we're known for."

When asked why the PUMPKINS are recording the new LP in Nashville, he explained: "It's a bit of a lot of things. Certainly Nashville affords studios that still run like old-fashioned studios, which I prefer. There's obviously a lot of musicians here you can work with, and the people I work with live here. Plus, the NWA office, my wrestling company, is out of Nashville, so I'm down here a lot anyway just for wrestling business. And I like it. It's no surprise that it's one of the fast-growing cities in America, and certainly has great history — nothing that you don't know. But for me, as a Chicagoan that would come here in the early '90s when there were tumbleweeds rolling down [Broadway], it's great to see the city be revived and totally on fire."

PUMPKINS' 2018 "Shiny And Oh So Bright Tour" reportedly sold over 300,000 tickets across North America and saw them playing sold-out arena shows at venues, including The Forum, United Center and Madison Square Garden. The tour was the band's first in nearly two decades to feature Corgan, Chamberlin and Iha, alongside Schroeder, bassist Jack Bates and keyboardist Katie Cole.

Corgan released his latest solo album, "Cotillions", in November via his own Martha's Music label. Like 2017's "Ogilala", the disc was issued under his full name, William Patrick Corgan.