The Smashing Pumpkins filmed a new music video for their upcoming single “Solara” on Tuesday. The video is directed by Nick Koenig. Koenig is most famous for directing rapper Lil Peep’s smash hit 2017 music video “Awful Things.” Billy Corgan released a photo of the video, which sees him looking similar to his Adore era self, and next to a bird cage. No rage filled rats were spotted in the cage, unfortunately. The video will also feature two mime characters who were paid $100 to appear, according to a casting call.
The Smashing Pumpkins recently recorded eight new songs with producer Rick Rubin. Billy Corgan discussed the creative process in a recent interview with Lars Ulrich.
“Pretty similar, kind of like, ‘Does anybody have any ideas?’ Then we decide what we’re going to work on, then we hit the ground running, and then it’s a free for all.”
“I brought in a few ideas, but I also have learned to let it be what it’s going to be. I don’t know how it is for you, sometimes if you think, it’s got to be like this, instead of just letting it be whatever it’s going to be, sometimes you get closer to where you hoped it would be if you don’t try. If you say it’s got to be so heavy, then you’re sitting there trying to write dumb riffs.”
“It’s hard to explain to people that haven’t been through that, especially long album processes because sometimes there’s a story in there, but you’ve got to really mine it out. In this case, it came really quickly. We did 16 demos in 3 weeks, and then I played Rick what I thought were the best songs, hoping he would pick one, and he picked all 8.
Then he said let’s go to the studio, it was at his house, then he made me play him all the songs I’d rejected. Then he changed his mind on one song, so he took one song out of the B-pile and put it in the A-pile, and took one song out of the A-pile and it back in the B-pile. Then he said okay let’s record 8, and we’re standing there with our eyes blinking. We thought we were just going to do a single. Rick is like, let’s just try it.”
Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jeff Schroeder also recently did a photo shoot for Guitar World in Los Angeles. You can see a video clip of this below the “Solara” video photo.
