Billy Corgan has confirmed drummer Mike Byrne has left Smashing Pumpkins.
In an interview with Music Radar, Corgan commented: “Let’s just say that Mike, like Elvis, has left the building.” Byrne featured on 2009’s ‘Teargarden by Kaleidyscope’ and 2012’s ‘Oceania’.
It was recently revealed that Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee had been working with the band. Lee plays drums on nine songs from the band’s forthcoming new album ‘Monuments To An Elegy’ and speaking to Billboard about the record, he told fans to expect “epic, goosebump songs”.
“I think he has probably the best record he’s ever written,” Lee says. “These are like epic, goosebump songs. It sounds like the first couple of Smashing Pumpkins records. I was fucking blown away.”
Corgan announced that he has nearly finished recording one of two new albums that the band will release in 2015. The first, which he says is nearly completed, will be ‘Monuments To An Elegy’. The second is likely to be called ‘Day For Night’ and the band hope to precede both LPs with a new single this year.