The Teargarden

Spinner.com, ottimo magazine online legato ad America OnLine, ha pubblicato oggi un’intervista a Billy Corgan. Archiviate le due domande “calde” del periodo (il perché del modello “economico/distributivo” scelto per “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope” e un accenno al batterista giovanotto), ci si concentra su questioni già dette e ridette. Trite, volendo. Ma raramente le risposte sono state così articolate e approfondite. Oltre che esaustive e trasudanti sincerità. Spiegazioni che possono o non possono piacere, ma che aiutano a concepire chi fa musica e riscontra il tipo di successo vissuto da Corgan, in maniera più umana e quindi interessante. Buona lettura (cliccate qui per l’intervista completa).

Spinner: Many fans said things like, “You reformed Smashing Pumpkins but really it’s just in name.” Do you think that’s a valid criticism?
Billy Corgan: Anything is a fair criticism. The question I would ask is, “Do I have the right to do it?” Based upon what I’ve seen since reforming the band, I do have the right. If I felt I didn’t, I would sit here honestly and say, “Nah, I probably should’ve just left it alone.” I’ve been making music with the intention of connecting with an audience for 20 years now, so at the end of the day I have to be accountable to me in that way. I can’t not do what I believe in because somebody else doesn’t feel the same way I do about it.

Spinner: What has surprised you most about your career?
Billy Corgan: If you went back in a time machine to 1993, recording ‘Siamese Dream,’ somebody could say “This is what’s going to happen” and I would never have believed it. I would never have believed all the bad things, I would never have believed many of the good things. If I could go back in a time machine and talk to me back then, the thing would surprise him is that at some point I was willing to walk away from being servile to success.
That’s a difficult question as an artist because art really is about serving. You want to communicate but there was something about the process of making others happy that somehow was making me feel unhappy. It made me crazy, but I was good at it. It’s like you’re being rewarded for something that hurts you, but yet everybody is telling you it’s a good thing. Then you try to pull that energy back into yourself, you try to make it more about you, and then suddenly you’re not making people happy. You’re making yourself happy but now that’s another form of unhappiness because now you’re making other people unhappy. It’s taken a long time to get to a place of being OK with it all.
I don’t get into the grandiose, “If only one person is touched by it …” I want people to hear what I’m doing but I think I only go so far. It won’t be at the expense of my life, my health, my sanity. If that makes me sort of just an okay artist, well then, I can live with that.