In a conversation with Consequence of Sound Billy answers some familiar topics (Roger Waters contribution, unique stage design) as well as elaborating deeper on other topics
Regarding music videos and how effective they are as a selling tool:
In the old model, they’d say: “Okay, here’s half a million dollars and we know we’ll get it back if we get this thing on MTV.” Today, can spend $100,000, which is no small amount of money, and people could say it’s no good – that it’s not as good as your old videos – and then you don’t sell anything.So it’s kind of like, why are we spending all this money and putting in all this effort? I’d love to make videos. What’s difficult for me is that a lot of recent stuff I’ve done gets compared to the past when the budgets were much bigger. I don’t look at it in a pessimistic way; I think you just have to be more creative.
What is Billy’s definition of a reward:
I’m more a zig-zag, right? So how do you define the success of a zigzag? I think it’s more what I would call the Grateful Dead model. Where, ultimately, your “world” means more to people than an individual moment, song, album, or tour.
On How Much Longer the Pumpkins will be around:
“I see [the Smashing Pumpkins] as having a four to five year window in this guise, and then I want to morph the band, the business, and the intent into completely something else. I want to get off this hamster wheel.”
Read more of the interview on Consequence of Sound
