Smashing Pumpkins Reveal Which Fans Understand Their Music Most

Smashing Pumpkins joined iHeartRadio's Booker + Stryker live on Tuesday, May 2nd to celebrate the upcoming release of their new three-act rock opera album, ATUM, with an official iHeartRadio Album Release Party. Each of the album's three acts feature 11 songs, making the project 33 songs in total. The first act was released on November 15th, 2022, and the second on January 31st of this year. In between performing a few songs, frontman Billy Corgan gave fans a sneak peek into what it was like recording such a long project. He shared that the album in its entirety took two years to finish.

"You just get lost in it sometimes and there are good days and bad days you know. After 35 years you just trust the process... whatever that is. There is a lot about ourselves we can't explain, somehow it's always kind of worked out."

On Corgan's new podcast, "Thirty-Three with William Patrick Corgan" fans are continuously given an exclusive look inside the album. Corgan explained that the band’s "real" fans understand the meaning behind their music more than anyone because they are able to deeply comprehend the explanation.

"I think if you're going to dump 33 songs on everybody that's a lot to ask in modern life, so I thought it would be cool to let real fans kind of inside the process so by the time the album was coming out, there would be at least a group of people who could explain to other people why this music existed. It would help that there are fans out there who could say give it a chance here are some songs to listen to. We trust the people that have been there for us the whole time to explain things about ourselves that we cannot necessarily explain because our explanation is in the music."

Booker + Stryker noted the recent resurgence of Smashing Pumpkins' single "1979" among Generation Z, and the fact that the song wasn't actually written in 1979 like most people would think. In a surprising turn of events, the song describes the year 1984 and was written in 1994.

"I'd written a poem and all the lyrics are actually as I wrote the poem. So when I wrote the song, I was looking for something and I stumbled across the poem and I just sang it and it just came all out. So I never really questioned it. It was like putting two things together and it just worked. It was weird. I can't say that's happened ever again."

AUTM stands out to detail a new chapter presented as a reflection of the past, present and future. Corgan mentioned that there is a great possibility that the project will one day be transposed into a broadway show, comic book, or even a movie. As if that's not exciting enough, the "Ava Adore" standouts revealed that there are some easter eggs buried within the project for fans to discover as they listen to the third act of the album.

Act three of AUTM is set to be released on May 5th!