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Music » From The Vault
Tom Leatham
There are several reasons why bands break up; some of these include internal conflicts between members of the group (both personally and creatively), extensive reckless behaviour and drug use, and even just the fact that it feels time to call it a day, seeing as things aren’t moving in the right direction. For some bands, they are thrown into the position whereby all of the above are relevant factors. One such group was, unfortunately, the Smashing Pumpkins.
The Chicago alternative rock pioneers had had an illustrious career up to the point of their break up in 2000. Dubbed early on as “the next Nirvana” after the release of the debut album Gish in 1991, the Pumpkins were propelled into stardom with their sophomore full-length effort Siamese Dream.
Widespread commercial and critical success naturally followed, although the recording process of Siamese Dream was marred by a steady stream of inter-band difficulties, most notably, singer Billy Corgan’s withdrawn depression and writer’s block, the breakdown in the romantic relationship of bassist D’arcy Wretzky and guitarist James Iha, and the ever-worsening drug dependency of drummer Billy Chamberlin.
In fact, one of the reasons that the Pumpkins relocated to Georgia to start writing their second LP was so that they could remove themselves from the pressures and distractions that their hometown had provided, but more importantly, to cut Chamberlin off from his drug connections.
While Siamese Dream would become arguably the band’s best album, Corgan and producer Butch Vig’s decision to have Corgan himself play all of the bass and guitar parts on the record also contributed to a growing sense of dissatisfaction and resentment throughout the band.
All these issues persisted pretty much throughout the first wave of the Smashing Pumpkins’ career. The band’s third album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, continued to cement their position as one of the best American alternative-rock outfits going. However, with the follow-up record, Adore, that trend came to a grinding halt. Sales slumped, and the new electronica-influenced sound was panned by critics, with many of them claiming that the Smashing Pumpkins had become career opportunists.
A few years before Adore’s release, Jimmy Chamberlin had been fired from the band after he and touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin had overdosed on heroin when they had been touring Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Melvoin tragically passed away, while Chamberlin would be arrested on charges of drug possession. In a statement on Chamberlin’s exit, the band said, “For nine years, we have battled with Jimmy’s struggles with the insidious disease of drug and alcohol addiction. It has nearly destroyed everything we are and stand for.”
A rehabilitated Chamberlin would rejoin the band in 1999, although by this point, D’arcy Wretzky had developed a severe drug addiction of her own. As Chamberlin re-entered the fray, Wretzky departed. The situation was an absolute mess, and the pressures of being a world-renowned rock band had evidently taken their toll on each of the Pumpkins’ members.
Just after the release of the band’s fifth LP, Machina/The Machines of God, Billy Corgan announced in a live radio interview that he had decided to break up the band. He said, “We felt that before we even started this album, we had come to the end of our, sort of, road – emotionally, spiritually, musically.”
The matter of fact is that the Smashing Pumpkins had been plagued by the aforementioned issues pretty much since the band’s inception. It’s somewhat astonishing that they continued as a successful outfit for as long as they had during their first era. Sometimes the personal difficulties within a group just mean that its members need a break from one another.
Fortunately for alt-rock fans worldwide, the Smashing Pumpkins would reunite in 2007, although only Corgan and Chamberlin would feature in the lineup. Chamberlin would play in the new formation of the group intermittently over the next decade and a half, and James Iha would eventually rejoin in 2016. Wretzky had been offered the chance to play in the band again several times, but each time had declined the offer.
While the Smashing Pumpkins would (somewhat) play successfully together following their initial breakup, those first problems of creative and personal relationship issues and drug dependency meant that they would never again reach the tremendous heights of the 1990s.
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billy corganSmashing Pumpkins
