Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan returned to Disneyland this week three years after the infamous ‘Sad Billy Corgan’ Disneyland photo went viral. Corgan this time looked very happy with his son Augustus Juppiter. He wrote on Instagram, “At @disneyland, having an absolutely miserable time. (Note the fake smiles on our faces as evidence) @smashingpumpkins.”
Corgan and his family also shared a 4th of July family photo. Corgan’s girlfriend Chloe Mendel wrote on Instagram, “Happy Independence Day! From our family to yours. Here’s to freedom, love, summer and your inner goth. Xo #happy4thofjuly #gothfamily #independenceday #Maisonatia #smashingpumpkins #solara #billycorgan #summer #america.”
Corgan discussed new Smashing Pumpkins material in a new Loudwire interview, “For me, I think it’s the fact that, like Jeff said, we don’t have to intellectualize anything. You have the principal people in the room who made the albums that people are familiar with. And like Jeff said, when everybody does what they do and they do it well, it comes out sounding like Smashing Pumpkins without having to try, where having been in other situations, and obviously Jeff was involved in many of those situations, at times we would sit around and say, “We know what people want.” It’s not really, “Should we try to shave an edge here and there?” And honestly, as a musician, that’s probably the worst thing you can do. Frank Zappa had an album called Shut Up n’ Play Yer Guitar, and I think there’s something to that. There’s a point where you’re better off as a musician just playing whatever you feel.
I don’t blame anybody for this, but I think when I was in the band called Smashing Pumpkins, and Jeff and I are the only guys in the band, by calling it Smashing Pumpkins, people are gonna have an expectation, whether you want them to or not, and if you try to combat that expectation, you’re gonna be frustrated. If you try to go along with it, you’re really probably not being in the moment, as far as making the music that’s in your heart. So you get kind of caught in cross-purposes. So it just feels really good now to not have to think about any of that anymore, and we just make our music, and if people like it, great.”
