Smashing Pumpkins have announced a sequel album to ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ and ‘Machina/The Machines of God’, as well as plans for anniversary shows.
Billy Corgan took to YouTube today (October 22) to clarify what the band are working on after widespread confusion that the as-yet-unnamed sequel record was only for ‘Mellon Collie…’
“It’s a sequel to ‘Melon Collie…’ and ‘Machina'”, Corgan confirmed, explaining that the new, 33-track album would complete a trilogy.
“It’s kind of a rock opera,” he said, adding: “We feel like in many ways this completes the circle on everything we started and weren’t able to finish at that time, so we’re very excited about [it].”
Corgan stressed that, as with the respective 1995 and 2000 albums, the new record would have a “conceptual base involving a single character”, and that fans will find out who the new character is “soon”.
Additionally, the frontman explained that the band will celebrate the 25th anniversary of ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ (released in the UK on October 23, 1995) with a tour once the coronavirus pandemic eases.
It would be a “full-on arena tour” depicting the “narrative arc” of the album – including deep cuts – that wouldn’t be more of a “celebration” of the album rather than a performance of it in full,” Corgan said.
“Eventually [we’d be] able to stage all three albums as separate shows,” he said of the trilogy project. The group would have special guests performing in the shows.
‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’, the band’s third studio effort, contained the singles ‘1979’, ‘Tonight, Tonight’, ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ and ‘Thirty-Three’.
Corgan also said in the video clip that the band are “about 75 per cent done” on ‘Shiny And Oh So Bright, Vol. 3’. The 10-track record would follow the release of the ‘Mellon Collie/Machina’ sequel.
Tomorrow (October 23), Corgan and bandmember Jimmy Chamberlin will participate in a live-streamed Q&A session. Hosted by BBC Radio 1’s Daniel P Carter, the Zoom chat will be open to select fans to share their ‘Mellon Collie…’ memories.
Fans can register their interest by signing up here. Successful viewers in the UK will be able to tune in from 6pm (BST).
Meanwhile, Smashing Pumpkins are gearing up to release their eleventh album ‘Cyr’ on November 27. Earlier this month the band shared two singles from the project: ‘Anno Satana’ and ‘Birch Grove’.