Producer Butch Vig discussed The Smashing Pumpkins in a new Pensado’s Place.
“Smashing Pumpkins were a great band, if you ever saw them live, they’re all bad ass players, but Billy Corgan is a better guitar player than James, and he’s a better bass player than D’arcy. So we would track a song, and we would record it trying to make sure we had a really good feel for it, but primarily I was listening to make sure we got a killer drum take by Jimmy Chamberlin.
Then we would usually go back and overdub everything, and Billy was just better at redoing the guitars and bass. On both Gish and Siamese Dream, D’arcy and James played a little bit, but it’s over 90% Billy, because he’s a phenomenal musician. There was conflict, I think the band felt like we are good enough to do it. Like I said, D’arcy and James are amazing musicians. There were times when I would sit in the studio and give them the time to do that, and I would say at the end of the day, you can track a part, but I think Billy’s going to want to come in, and I want to see if he can beat it. So at least they had an opportunity to do that.
There were some times I chose D’arcy’s part, or James, over Billy’s. To say there was conflict in that band, that’s not the only reason there was conflict. There were a lot of things pulling at Smashing Pumpkins. Somehow I made it through two album cycles with them. They were always on the verge of imploding.”
