Pumpkins Albums After All?

Billy Corgan posted an extensive blog entry on The Smashing Pumpkins' website, in which he detailed his future plans for the band, last week.

Although Corgan stated the Pumpkins would become a "singles only" band last year, he says he wants to make an album — though maybe not in the way he's done in the past or in the traditional sense of the word "album." Corgan says he's working on a "large multimedia project" that could possibly consist of 44 songs and other material like a movie.

"I still plan on making an album," Corgan wrote in a 2,389-word entry, which can only be described as long-winded. "I know this may contradict with what I've said publicly but I think I just didn't state what I meant clearly.

"I meant I don't think I'm going to make albums in the old-fashioned way, meaning 12-15 songs, etc in one small package. My desire at this point would be to release one song at a time, over a period of 2-3 years, with it all adding up to a box set/album of sorts that would also include an art movie of the album. (Sounds like a lot of work, don't it??)

"My thinking is that if I focus on one song at a time I would approach them as beautiful, distinct paintings that would each require the attention they deserve. This would also mean I would choose what I am recording quite carefully as there would be tremendous internal pressure to get it just right, and that is the kind of pressure I like, which is to make the most beautiful thing possible.

"I've gotten lost many times during the long haul of making a record and have overlooked some great songs because of that. The new standard for an SP song would that it be excellent and fantastic and most importantly essential or it's not coming out. I will do my best to meet that intention fully."

Corgan says the project will most likely begin in May and he'll continue with it until he feels it's finished, which could then result in the release of an artwork package and movie. The first song could be released in September.

"For the new SP I don't think I would be interested in a subscription model unless it was something where enough people wanted a daily access to the work (in progress)," he wrote on how to release the music to fans. "I guess we as a community could throw out how many people would be interested in that as an idea. It would definitely have to be something that would be worth the effort on all sides."

Corgan also wrote about why he continues to use The Smashing Pumpkins' moniker to record, considering he's the only original member left in the band after drummer Jimmy Chamberlin left last month. Corgan has since been working on new material with Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin and will hold drummer auditions on Tuesday to find Chamberlin's replacement.

"When I decided to write and record again under the name The Smashing Pumpkins in 2005, I committed myself 100 pct.," Corgan wrote. "100pct of my mind-body-soul to come back and make the band really be great again, and I feel in tune to SP in a way I haven't felt in tune probably since 1995 or 1996. As they say in No Limit Poker, I'm 'all in'.

"I'm not going to back out of the challenge in front of me now. I'm absolutely exhilarated by what I see and feel the future to be for SP. There is a difference in how I think and approach a body of work for the Pumpkins then say I would as a solo artist or under any other name.

"Being the near lone songwriter for the Pumpkins has always made me want to put all the diverse harmonic fragments in my mind together, and it has been an incredible musical journey so far to keep trying to match up to the size of that idea. I truly am not focused on where I've been now as much as where I am going, and I haven't felt that way for a very long time."

The Smashing Pumpkins' last album was 2007's Zeitgeist.