Jimmy Chamberlin and James Iha discussed The Smashing Pumpkins reunion in a new The Ringer article.
“I wouldn’t lay out a master plan to take over alternative music again or something like that, but I think it looks good,” Iha says of the Pumpkins’ future. “It’s not really in me to say, ‘Now we’re going to do this, we’re going to do these kinds of tours, these kinds of albums.’ But,” he adds, “everything about the tour and the recording went well, and everybody’s psyched to play with the band.”
Chamberlin is perhaps the most sentimental about the band being back together. “We all took our turns pissing on this thing over the years,” he says of the Pumpkins’ legacy. “So to be able to have a second chance at a relationship or a vehicle of self-expression like this doesn’t happen that often.
“I think the only roadblock to the future of the band will be a lack of understanding of personal needs,” the drummer says. “Which I don’t see happening. I just think we’ve all grown so much from young men to middle-aged men, or whatever the hell we are now. We’re all really cognizant of not just the fragility of the relationship but the importance of the relationship. As long as present time is giving us an opportunity, then we’ll seize it.”
Corgan credited his reconciliation with James Iha for saving The Smashing Pumpkins in a new Toronto Sun interview.
“I always felt good about the music. But I think I grew weary over time of shouldering the burden of the band on my own. We live in a social society where perception and judgement is part and parcel of how people operate. That led to me releasing music as a solo musician. I had given up on the Smashing Pumpkins because the weight of it was just heavier than I was willing to take on. It wasn’t a bitter thing, it was more, ‘I did my best and things happen and it is what is.’ James and I mending our relationship opened the door to something that I thought was closed.”
