Pumpkin Head Corgan Smashes Woodstock

(8/16/99, 1 p.m. PDT) - One high-profile rock act that wasn't involved in Woodstock '99 was Smashing Pumpkins. Head Pumpkin Billy Corgan tells LAUNCH that he's glad, in retrospect, that the band did not play at the festival.

"It seemed like a big joke to me," he says. "[The promoters] approached us about playing. I won't even get into the business end of it, but it definitely seemed like whoever was running it had their head up their ass. They came to us very early, seemingly very interested in us playing. Then they seemed to lose interest. Then when some of the other acts dropped out, they got re-interested. So, you know, the whole thing smelled of money and being motivated by money, and to try to sell it under the Woodstock flag, which was a pure once-in-a-lifetime event."

Corgan says that Woodstock '99 seemed to have a shaky foundation from the beginning. "I thought the one in '94, although we weren't involved, seemed like it held together, though that was certainly riding hard under the alt-rock flag. What's going on now musically...combined with what they were trying to do on a commercial end, the whole thing didn't add up." Corgan suggests that the problems that plagued the festival were "not surprising" given the event seemingly did not "have a lot of integrity."

On a happier note, Corgan says he is relieved that drummer Jimmy Chamberlin is back with the band. Three years ago, after touring Pumpkins keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin died of a heroin overdose in Chamberlin's New York City hotel room, the drummer was kicked out of the band so he could pursue rehab.

Last fall the Pumpkins got back together with Chamberlin, and Corgan says it's been great so far. "It's been fantastic. The Smashing Pumpkins, the four people making music, is definitely the preferred option...He's been back now almost 10 or 11 months. We're still rockin', that's the only thing I can say."

Corgan avoided the subject of Chamberlin's battle against drug addiction. "I don't really talk about that stuff," he says. "To me it's...more tabloid than reality."

-- Darren Davis, New York

Q & A With Billy Corgan

By Aidin Vaziri

Billy Corgan is in a Chicago studio working on what will be the first Smashing Pumpkins album of the new millennium. We asked him to take a break from the mixing board to discuss his current project, the score for the forthcoming movie "Stigmata," and he obliged us with a rare interview. The soundtrack album, due in stores August 24, features several new instrumental Corgan compositions with abstract titles such as "pop pop/await/reflect (pretty)," as well as a vocal track called "Identify," which he wrote for Australian pop singer Natalie Imbruglia.

Q: How did you fit a soundtrack into your schedule?

A: I don't know. I literally had a month off, and I spent three weeks of it working on "Stigmata."

Q: You're not one of those people who can just sit around the house and watch Swedish porn all day?

A: Well, inevitably, you sit there and flip channels. But I'm the type of person who has to stay busy, otherwise I go insane. The band was taking some time off, so...

Q: So you could either join the Power Station or do this soundtrack?

A: Yeah, right. I get a lot of offers and I find a lot of them to be not really rooted in reality. This one, I met with the people and saw a bit of the movie, and right away it seemed like a different situation. They made up their minds after meeting with me that they really wanted me to do it, and, once or twice, had to talk me back into doing it. They were really cool and made it really possible, so it ended up working out.

Q: What did you like about "Stigmata"?

A: It was just the right situation. A lot of times people want to attach names to something to give it credibility. I felt, with this, they really wanted me to do it. In other cases, the situation was unrealistic as far as what they wanted me to do. It's not very often that you go in and meet with people who make really expensive movies where music isn't a priority, and tell them, "I want to make a dark score, which is not conventional and is probably not going to push all the buttons you want pushed," and they go, "OK." I tried to scare them off, warn them off, tell them, "I don't think I can do what you want." But all along they supported me through the whole thing.

Q: Was the "Planet of the Apes" soundtrack an influence?

A: (Laughs) I don't know that soundtrack. I guess I'll have to go back and check it out. If there's any direct influence, it's Stockhausen, and probably the Fellini movie "Satyricon." That soundtrack is phenomenal. It's somewhere between '50s electronic music and people beating on pots and pans. It's almost primal.

Q: How do you explain your song titles?

A: I didn't go that deep, really. One song was called "Frankie Wakes Up," so I just tried to come up with something more interesting. When you're working on a movie, you give the songs all the titles for the scenes, like "Pen Through Eye." I was just trying to give them some personality. That's probably the best way to put it.

Q: Everyone says you got Natalie Imbruglia to sing "Identify" because she looks like your girlfriend. Is that true?

A: (Laughs) Have you ever seen my girlfriend? She doesn't look like Natalie Imbruglia. Natalie is Australian and my girlfriend is Russian.

Q: Doesn't Natalie Imbruglia strike you as an odd choice to sing one of your songs?

A: To me, it doesn't seem that odd at all. The record company didn't want somebody obscure. I thought the way Natalie sings and her personality would really put the song across. From what I wrote and demoed, she got it across probably better than I could. I think she was the perfect choice. I was just looking for somebody great to sing the song. I wasn't looking for anything else. I wasn't looking for credibility bonus points. To her credit, she's coming off a pretty big pop crossover hit. For her to do a pretty fucking dark song for a strange movie, it's like the risk is much more hers than mine.

Q: Do you think Smashing Pumpkins fans are going to be bummed when they hear this weird racket?

A: Why would they? I think that's an overstated question. Some Smashing Pumpkins fans are still going on about our first album, "Gish." I do what I do and write what I write. There are real hard-core fans who don't discriminate. If I was worried about that element, we wouldn't have done a lot of what we've done. Certainly, the band that did "Gish" would not have done "1979" and "Disarm" and all that other shit. I don't really get hung up on that stuff. Good is good.

Q: Do you mind if I ask you about some Smashing Pumpkins stuff?

A: Everyone tries. I can't blame you for asking.

Q: Which one of you is sleeping with D'Arcy this week?

A: But, as I was going to say, it doesn't mean you're going to get an answer.

Q: Does talking about this soundtrack provide a nice respite for you from all that stuff?

A: It's a different kind of thing. With the Pumpkins, I feel like I'm out there hacking like P.T. Barnum. With this, I just feel like it's an interesting opportunity for me to talk about some different things and for people to ask me about different things. It's not about the same old shit, like ODs and band implosions. It's honestly refreshing for me to sit in a different place and talk about something other than all my problems.

Special thanks to Ryan Crabb and Jack Hsia for providing this article

Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan Aims To Score Big With 'Stigmata'

Senior Writer Gil Kaufman reports:

Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan said he realizes he's not on the top of Hollywood's A-list when it comes to scoring major films. But, then again, the music for the upcoming drama "Stigmata" is not your average film score.

Known more for the bombastic rock of the Pumpkins than for creating atmospheric mood music, Corgan said he'd steered clear of scoring a Hollywood film until he found someone he felt understood his unique vision.

"A lot of credit goes to the producer and the director for having the vision that the movie needed that kind of atmosphere to give it a different edge," Corgan said of the ethereal electronic soundscapes he recorded for the film, due Aug. 24.

"I give them a lot of credit for even giving me the opportunity," Corgan said. "Anytime you deal with Hollywood stuff, people talk a lot about how they want to do something different, but it gets funneled right back down into the same old sh--," Corgan said. "It was their vision to talk to me, and even to consider me, I think, is a progressive notion" (RealAudio excerpt of interview).

While Corgan supplied some score material for the 1996 Mel Gibson thriller, "Ransom," his work on "Stigmata" is his first attempt at creating a sustained musical soundtrack to a film.

Working with keyboardist Mike Garson (David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails) - a recent collaborator who last year toured with the Pumpkins - Corgan created a 40-minute suite of instrumental songs that range from the electronic burble of "Of Square Waves/ Random Thought" to the nearly industrial throb of "Reflect (Gray)/ Of Sine Waves."

The Chicago band, best known for its evocative rock songs, has never scored a film, although it has contributed several pop songs to films in the past, including "The End Is the Beginning Is the End" (RealAudio excerpt) for the 1997 "Batman and Robin" soundtrack.

"Stigmata" (Sept. 10) is a religious-themed drama starring Patricia Arquette ("True Romance") as a hairdresser who spontaneously receives stigmata, marks resembling the wounds on the crucified body of Christ. Gabriel Byrne ("The Usual Suspects") plays a member of the clergy who is sent to investigate the claims prior to a visit by the Pope.

"We were thinking about what the music should be for the movie," director Rupert Wainwright ("Blank Check") said, "because it's the sort [of film] most people will go see and think is an 'Exorcist' rip off."

The director, best known for his work on music videos by such hard-core gangsta rappers as Dr. Dre and Eazy-E, was referring to the popular 1973 film about a demonically possessed girl.

"But, my God," he said. "It's totally different."

Wainwright said the film's producer, Frank Mancuso Jr., suggested getting someone like Corgan for the score, to which Wainwright asked, "Why not get Corgan? He writes great music that's not just three-minute pop songs."

Once the pair had tracked Corgan down and shown him the rough cut of the film, the Pumpkins leader agreed to do it - but only on his terms.

"What he really wanted to do was be in charge of the total sound of the music, not just picking songs, but writing the score, which made us doubly excited," Wainwright said.

Wainwright said the music Corgan recorded not only heightens the drama of a film he termed "challenging," but also helped define Arquette's character by giving her a voice that he said allows the audience to bond with her character even when she isn't speaking.

Corgan said that even when he felt the director was trying to get him to take the music in a more typical Hollywood direction, the Pumpkins frontman stayed his ground. While he said he was upfront about his lack of experience scoring films, he remained focused about his vision for the movie.

The results bear more of a resemblance to the moody, electronic-tinged songs from the Pumpkins' 1998 Adore album, such as "Ava Adore" (RealAudio excerpt), than they do to the more straight-ahead rock that preceded Adore. The exception on the "Stigmata" soundtrack is an ethereal pop song, "Identify," featuring vocals from Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia, best known for her hit 1998 single, "Torn" (RealAudio excerpt). The film also features more traditional score pieces from composer Elia Cmiral ("Ronin").

Corgan was attracted to the film by the dark, unconventional nature of the script, as well as his feeling that Mancuso and Wainwright were willing to let him wield control and take chances with the music, he said.

"They pretty much kept their word on not asking me to do things that I didn't want to do and be things I didn't want to be," Corgan said.

The more difficult task, Corgan said, was adhering to his singular, strong vision and bending to that of the filmmaker. "I was not naive. I knew those things were going to happen," Corgan said about power struggles. "I don't think anybody likes to be told what to do or what to change. I'm certainly not used to that" (RealAudio excerpt of interview).

Mancuso said while the balancing act was at times tricky, after seeing the finished project, he thought it was worth it.

"Working with a guy as unique as Billy - where he is in a world in which he controls the absolute nature of his music - is hard because you don't want to stifle that creative part of him you want engaged," Mancuso said.

[ Mon., August 9, 1999 9:04 AM EDT ]

Corgan on Stigmata, New Pumpkins

Billy Corgan isn't expecting to make it to the Hollywood premiere of Stigmata, even though he and David Bowie keyboardist Mike Garson wrote and recorded the score, as well as writing "Identify," the Natalie Imbruglia-sung first single from the soundtrack, which hits stores Aug. 24.

I think I'm pretty much stuck here in Chicago," Corgan says, adding that while the premiere is in full swing, "I think I'll be in front of a mixing console." Of course, that means he's heavily engaged in the next Smashing Pumpkins album, which is expected out during the first half of 2000. Corgan says recording is "about 70, 75 percent done," and he adds that reports - based on the Pumpkins' short summer club tour - that it will be a return to the hard, guitar-driven rock of previous Pumpkins outings are a little bit off the mark.

"We've already changed a lot of that stuff all around," Corgan says. "It's definitely a new kind of take on the Pumpkin thing. We took a very kind of base approach to the tour, certainly with the new material. I think people kind of deduced that it was going to be a certain kind of approach and a certain kind of style, which was inaccurate."

Corgan demurs on saying what the material does sound like - "I'm just not gonna hem myself in with my own words," he explains - but he does say that having drummer Jimmy Chamberlin back in the band has been "fantastic," and that Stigmata partner Garson may guest on a few of the new Pumpkins tracks. - Gary Graff

Two Musical Acts Scheduled To Attend Raw Is War

This Monday's night WWF Raw Is War telecast from the Allstate Arena (formerly the Rosemont Horizon) in Chicago, IL is getting bigger and bigger as the show grows closer. Lucas of WWF News reported in today's update that two musical acts will be attending Raw Is War this Monday night in Chicago. Snoop Dogg and The Smashing Pumpkins will all be in attendance this Monday night. According to Lucas, Snoop Dogg will be backstage with MTV collecting footage and information for a SummerSlam '99 special on MTV during WWF Week from Monday, August 9, 1999 through Friday, August 13, 1999. The Smashing Pumpkins are reportedly big WWF fans and are expected to be in the crowd this Monday night. Neither musical act will be performing during the show, however. The guest appearances by Snoop Dogg and The Smashing Pumpkins add to what is shaping up to be one of the biggest editions of WWF Raw Is War in quite some time. Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura will be on Raw Is War this Monday night and the Millennium Countdown will officially end at 9:00pm ET (not 10:00pm ET as initially thought) to probably usher in the WWF debut of Chris Jericho.

Speaking of musical acts, country music star Chad Brock will be on WCW Monday Nitro from the Idaho Center in Boise, ID. Brock is expected to perform at least one song on the live show and may also get involved physically with some of the wrestlers. Brock trainer at the WCW Power Plant a few years ago in hopes of becoming a wrestler with a country music gimmick. Things didn't work out and Brock returned to the music scene and had a couple of No. 1 hits on the country charts.