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Billy Corgan says the new Pumpkins lineup is, well, smashing! (© Shawn Thew/epa/Corbis)

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I was intrigued by your posting that you wanted somebody 'prog-rock' a la Jon Lord/Rick Wakeman. Do you see that figuring more into the new music that you're doing?

"I do. But that being said, without it right now we're just asking guitarists to take over that weight, which is fine. Each one has its upsides and downsides. Sometimes, when you have somebody who plays keys, you end up inventing work for them to do. I would love to have someone like a Jon Lord who integrates into the rock sound, and that's why I thought of him as the consummate person to fit into a rock band style. When he's supporting, you don't really notice him but he makes the band heavier. And when he busts out, he really adds a classical or dramatic feel to the music. I think that could really add to what we're doing."

Somebody you actually 'air keyboard' to.

"Yeah! I remember seeing Yngwie back in the day - was it Jens Johansson? You know, an incredible talent like that where they were playing dual-lead lines, I think there could be a lot of cool stuff. I mean, the Pumpkins has always had a lot of prog in it. Rush was one of our biggest influences, although it wasn't necessarily apparent in our music.

"I think one way to age gracefully is to incorporate those type of elements in a way that opens the music up in a psychedelic way - less riffy and more atmospheric. So if you have somebody who can really add to those elements, I think it can really make for interesting, heavy, emotional music in a way that's not reliant on always trying to 'rock' in quotations."

"Jimmy's one of the best drummers in that world. But that busy style was something I kind of had to encourage Jimmy to do because it just seemed to sort of work with the music." Corgan on former Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin

Speaking of age, you have somebody now quite younger than you in the band…[Corgan laughs] …Mike Byrne, your new drummer -

"Yeah, age 20."

From what I've seen on YouTube, he is pretty fantastic. What do you think you've been showing him, but also, what has he been showing you?

"When we first worked with Mike, he'd never even been in a recording studio, so you can imagine throwing him into sessions where he's playing with Mark Tulin, who's been recording for 40-plus years. Me, I've been recording for probably 25 years. So just adapting him to those different kinds of pressures - what's a good thing, what's a bad thing, what are realistic expectations?…You know, the first time I ever walked into a studio, I couldn't understand why you had to do more than one take! And I'm not saying he has that; I'm just saying that comes with the territory if you don't know that process.

"As far as what he's been showing me, I think Mike is a fantastic heavy groove drummer. He gives the music a kind of a different swing, but what's nice is he's very adaptable to basically the style that Jimmy helped create, which is a very fast hands, busy style. So what's nice is, Mike can kind of oscillate between what is classic Smashing Pumpkins drums and then kind of bring his own thing to the table. A lot of the new music we're doing now in rehearsal is becoming more and more of what Mike's really great at. So it's kind of a different flavor of the band, but it still integrates in a way that doesn't sound completely different, which I didn't want.

"All kudos to Jimmy. Jimmy's one of the best drummers in that world. But that style, that busy style, was something I kind of had to encourage Jimmy to do through the years because it just seemed to sort of work with the music. So with having a different drummer besides Jimmy, it's not necessarily that you want him to play different; you want somebody who can do that but bring their own thing to the table. Mike's doing a really good job of that."

Do you feel any kind of age gap with him, or is the age difference kind of a cool thing?

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