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

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"You know, I think ultimately with musicians it's about enthusiasm and focus. I've played with people who are older than me who are spaced out [chuckles]. It really comes down to, do you really want to be there, and do you want to work and enjoy that journey of the work? I'm really excited to say that everybody in the room right now is on the same page with that, and I've never had that, where all four people have the same level of work ethic."

Let's talk about the recording you've been doing. Has it been fairly easy so far, or have some of the songs that you thought would be easy presented unforeseen problems?

"The first four that are out were sort of not really difficult to understand because they've been played live a bit. I think that with the second four that haven't come out yet, that are done and mixed and everything, I think when people hear those songs they'll start to see a transition into different uses of the guitars, different uses of technology, and [that I'm trying] to integrate some of these other influences to create a bigger sound for the band.

"I use Neil Young as a reference. I think he does a great job of staying contemporary while at the same time he remains true to doing what he likes to do. So if you want to be overly simplistic about Neil Young, you'd say, 'Well, he's a really great acoustic songwriter, and when he writes electric songs he plays guitar in a very kinetic way.' You identify it as that's the 'Neil Young thing.' And I love it, I can't get enough of it.

"Over time, through making peace with different things, I've kind of come back around to, you know, whatever it is that's the Smashing Pumpkins' guitar sound - that's sort of the way I like to hear rock music. So I'm trying to take that feeling and bring it into a new era of music, which, of course, is using all sorts of different technologies and approaches to achieve new results.

"It's less organic maybe than what we grew up with, which is just four people in a room, and using more of the technology in the studio. So I'm trying to balance old-school and new-school approaches, and I think on the second four you start to see where that's maybe working and not working, but that's part of the journey I want for the album. What I'm excited about now is, now that we're sort of an intact four-piece and rehearsing every day, it's getting back to that band approach."

"I feel like something about the way I play the Strat, it sounds like me. When I play Gibsons or something, it doesn't sound as much like me."

One giant component of your sound historically has been the Stratocaster…

"Mm-hmm."

What is it you like about the Strat so much - the sound, the feel, the body shape?

"I just think it's a really…basically, it was modeled after a violin. Although they changed the neck - now it's more of a flat neck from what it used to be - it's still an incredibly expressive instrument. Even when I play chords, I feel like I'm able to articulate a lot within the chord.

"If you just want to go for sort of pure, big sound sound, the Les Paul, you never get tired of it. You hit an A chord on a Les Paul and it sounds like rock 'n' roll. But what Fender has, and what I've talked to them about in working with them, is Fender makes guitars - when they make them the right way in my eyes - that allow an individual person to express themselves through the instrument.

"If I was being critical, and I don't mean this as a negative, but there's not a huge difference, say, between Slash's guitar sound and Jimmy Page's guitar sound. But if you take Jimi Hendrix and Ritchie Blackmore and Stevie Ray Vaughan and Rory Gallagher, those are all Strat players that basically used a similar type of sound, and yet they were able to articulate their own personalities through the instrument in a very individualistic way.

"I feel like something about the way I play the Strat, it sounds like me. When I play Gibsons or something, it doesn't sound as much like me. I don't know why that is, other than the instrument seems to repond more to the articulation."

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