ThePumpkins.net

HOW FREAKING GOOD IS IT! Updates every minute!! He loves it I love it!

Haha, except he gets pissed real quickly if you ask the wrong questions. It's good to hear him talk shit about James and D'arcy but.

IT'S "FREAK"ING GREAT!

Haha. Yes.

I have to say, all of you guys out there going on about hating facebook are missing out tonight. Billy is taking fan questions. Nothing groundbreaking so far, but we'll keep you updated ^^b

I wish he'd ignore the moronic haters and stick to answering our questions. He's going off right now.

anyone wanna own up as the guy who defended The Pumpkins.net

just back from antique shopping now, looking forward to some Monday Night Football...i was thinking i could maybe answer some fan questions later on tonight, but please only ask questions related to the current line-up of the band, Teargarden songs, this tour and of course the future of this record. thanks! BC


here's one while i'm waiting for football to start, FROM Andrew Ashley McAuliffe: Do you think you'll ever dabble with electronica again? BC: i think Teargarden will have plenty of electronic elements at the end if the day. the newest recordings we just did both have a lot of synth stuff on them, but i don't like to lo...ok at it as guitars vs synths. i like it all...more is better


The Fellowship uses ARP 2600, and Oberheim 8 voice!


FROM Matt Matthew Fastnaught Do you think you'll get the whole band in the studio, or will you continue to do all the guitar and bass while Mike drums? BC: the 2 new recordings we just did feature all 4 of us. i'm very pleased about that. much less work for me honestly, and they are all making great contributions to th...e songs. both songs are almost done, just need some background vocals


FROM Mark Lind the Teagarden songs are some of the best songs you've done in years. do you think you'll ever add any of
your solo songs or Zwan songs to your live set? BC: we actually discussed adding 'of a broken heart' to the SP sets back in the summer, but i decided against it. i think SP should just play SP. i have t...hought about doing solo acoustic shows that would cover all my fave songs from all eras 1985-2010


FROM Chris Reitz I'd love to hear you talk about Tom Tom. As far as I'm concerned, when God
invented rock, he had Tom Tom in mind, and I think it'd be cool to hear
your thoughts on inspiration behind it, recording/production, etc... BC: thanks for the kind comments. i've been taken aback at the overwhelming positive respo...nse to Tom Tom. i didn't expect it.


BC (more on Tom Tom): we actually worked on Tom Tom for over a year! in an earleir version it had no live drums and sounded more like an Adore-type track. but i'm glad we added the drums. i think it's a nice merge of guitar pop and electronic elements. it was one where the simple version was too simple and if we overpr...oduced it it killed the prettiness of the song.


BC (tom tom pt 3) i have to give Kerry (@studiodog) a lot of credit for pushing me to find more in the recording. we all went nuts trying to get the balance right. so much so that by the time it came out i'd kinda given up on it. hence my surprise for the positive response. so thanks! a nice surprise for me. usually no...t the case! i usually have to wait 7-10 years to be proven right LOL


FROM Marisa Pocobene I honestly didn't like Tom Tom. It was so bland. BC: there always has to be one contrarian in the bunch...you win the race and remind me why i don't answer questions...


FROM Brian Clark Tom Tom is my favorite of the "new era" SP songs. I was suprised by it when I heard the first time. BC: every song i have done since Mellon Collie has been met by a fairly divided opinion. a lot of Gish fans HATED Siamese when it came out. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you can see why i ha...ve learned to ignore both praise and condemnation. To each his/her own x


FROM Andrew Tyrrell Hello Billy, as a fan of the Pumpkins for over 10yrs, I've always loved discovering b-sides and demos from each album. Do you have any plans or intentions of releasing unheard songs or alternate versions of songs from the Teargarden project? Like a separate box set or Pisces Iscariot-esque disc? BC: yes! there are so many demos. it should all be in the box set THAT YOU HAVE TO BUY $$$$ ho-ho-ho


FROM Alex Hartzler What's the biggest difference for you, as an artist, writing and performing music in the Facebook and Twitter era, compared to before? BC: everything is fast food info. somebody puking on the street is equal to or greater than a great song. puking requires no skill but will get you more energy back. qu...ality used to equal more. now it probably slows you down too much...and so on down the rabbit hole


FROM Chris Gormer Would that include Spiteface? BC: please go back to Netphoria and log in ho-ho-ho those questions mean something over there. or Hipsters Disintegrating...x


FROM Denis Kuzel Since TBK is actually a concept album would it be wrong to expect longer, epic, atmospheric songs? Experimantal, trippy, ''progressive''?And, honestly, you are the best idol a fan could want. BC: we are absolutely headed that way...summer 2011 i think you'll see those results


FROM Daniel Richardson Which era sound-wise would you like to revisit most while recording for Teargarden? For example, could we hear more Gish-like songs or Adore-like songs in the future? Is something like this a conscious decision when you come up with a song or something you find as you develop songs further? BC: none. past is boring when you've already lived it full on


FROM Nat Alia so many questions! Would you ever consider having a special show, just for fans? Give fans from all over the world a chance to congregate and hear non-hits and your faves? BC: never gonna happen. fan base doesn't agree on anything and never will. i wish it were different. we see crowds these days that don't ...even know Machina songs. it's been 10 years! ship has sailed on a united SP nation


FROM Marc Burrows That degree to wihich Smashing Pumpkins fans seem to dislike their favourite band never ceases to amaze me. I remember fans hating Adore, then Machina, the Zeitgeist, now Teargarden, I honestly don't know how you stay sane. BC: i lost my mind and way a long time ago. BUT i feel very clear now. i am very a...ppreciative, super appreciative of the true fans who have stuck with me thru the end.


ok. football time...more questions (maybe) later. please post any further questions here. only current questions please. please please please...it's boorish to keep bringing up the distant past i really like talking about our future ♥


FROM Evan Seary Classic Billy, hating on his fans. BC: no classic fans hating on me. so f'n boring...99.9 pct of the people i meet in my reality don't give a fuck about spiteface or any of this other shit. time to move on. i LOVE my fans, even the ones who despise me. i have never been about ass kissing fans.find an ar...tist who reaches out more or has released more music than me and i say go hate on them instead.


FROM Stefanie Lacks I find the "past is in the past" stuff odd. A lot of people became fans during the 90s, and it's work they love dearly. We all love the new directions and the new music, but I'd hate for the older material to be lost in the fray because there's some mission that seems to want to sweep it under the rug. BC: a great point, and worthy of a longer explaination.


when we brought the band back, we never figured that there would be so much emphasis on the 90s material VERSUS the new (zeitgeist) material. we'd never been in that position before where the lack of investment in our new music was equal to such a heavy focus on the past. when we saw that a lot of the audience really w...asn't investing in the future, that sort of stopped me cold.


i mean, what is the point of even being in a band if the majority of the audience isn't invested in where you are headed, going...zeitgeist was never designed to be a complete statement like say 'siamese' or 'mellon collie' or 'machina' was. it was seen by us as a place to begin again. instead it was a signal of the bi...tter end i had just put off for 7 or 8 years.


so i had to go back to the drawing board and re-wire my brain. It has taken a lot of patience on my part to get past the near constant doubt of my ability/direction and also of who i put my faith in to turn this band around. i have never lost faith in me where many have. there is no band in the world like SP, nor will there ever be to come, for better or worse.


what most wouldn't understand is that i have cultivated this doubt around me, and exposed the uncertainties of my journey ON PURPOSE. it is not an act so much as an act of real rebellion. the haters just become part of a sub-plot that makes the gold (and the junk) worth making. the fans who really understand are sophis...ticated enough to 'get' what is really happening within us


FROM Travis Large It's great getting this information straight from the source. Media and blog interpretation of your actions and choices leave a lot to be desired.BC: thank you. i'm doing my best to close the gap a little. i'm all for a deeper exploration of what is 'happening' right now.


so just so you know, to let you in on the secret, half of what i do is meant to throw people off. including the old school entitled fans who think i woe them something. and certainly for the snarks who think they got it all figured out 20 years after the fact. look twice at what i say and ask yourself am i really talki...ng to you, or am i just trying to throw the jerks off my trail. i don't want a FAKE success.


ok, so that's enough for tonight...i appreciate those of you who took the time to write in thoughtful questions. looking forward to the show here in New Mexico tomorrow. look for me antiquing! love, BC

SALLEN92 wrote:
i think its Superchrist

Slightly off-topic, but I'm getting quite pissed off with the stream of pointless SP "tweets" that flood MySpace these days. Makes it a hassle to have to search through to see if anyone's posted any interesting news. Muse and Weezer are bad for that as well.

"FROM Denis Kuzel Since TBK is actually a concept album would it be wrong to expect longer, epic, atmospheric songs? Experimantal, trippy, ''progressive''?And, honestly, you are the best idol a fan could want. BC: we are absolutely headed that way...summer 2011 i think you'll see those results"

:O !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oooooooh, I REALLY hope so! That's what I was hoping for all along from this project and Song For A Son and some of their previous live stuff like The March Hare really got my hopes up... let's hope he goes more in that direction again then

Rivers Cuomo wrote:
He made it publicly viewable (or maybe Kerry did it for him ), so I don't need a Facebook account to read them. I find it funny that he's basically using it like Twitter but with a longer character limit. Good Q&A session, though.

I didn't even know this was happening. I did have a random thought last night to open a facebook account, but then I decided to have some ice cream instead.

Sikamikanico999 wrote:

blueczarina wrote:
Hey, how'd you know that was me?

superchrist wrote:
Because you're Billy.
(No, this joke isn't getting old!)

superchrist wrote:
i think you had a pic of yourself on here once and i vaguely remembered some mention of your first name when you were talking about something. this would have been long ago. i just have a good memory for random shit and things i've read and seen. i don't know where any of these posts are i just clicked on the facebook link and was thinking to myself that i have seen that person before in a pic around here and my suspicion was you. we use to have a thread where people put pictures of themselves i think? like a thread we haven't touched for a year or so.

blueczarina wrote:
We should bring that thread back. I wasn't around when it was prominent.

ryon wrote:
Yeah!! Bring it back!