Meet The Current Members Of The Smashing Pumpkins

What's in a name?

Although The Smashing Pumpkins still go by the moniker chosen by original members Billy Corgan, James Iha, D'arcy Wretzky and Jimmy Chamberlain way back in 1988, there's no escaping the fact that Corgan is — and has been, since drummer Chamberlain's departure in 2009 — the sole remaining member of the legendary outfit.

A revolving door of touring musicians later, and we've settled on the latest incarnation, the longest-stayer of whom — aside from Corgan — has only been around for seven of the band's many years of activity. And if, as one would like to believe of collaborative concerns such as this, the Pumpkins are indeed more than just Corgan and whatever backing band he can muster, where does that leave the newest conglomeration of musos calling themselves The Smashing Pumpkins? Or is the reality what we've all feared on some level the whole time — that the Pumpkins begin and end with Billy Corgan?

Either way, since nobody seems to care that the Pumpkins we're getting aren't really the Pumpkins we know and love, we thought you might like to get to know the crew that Mr Corgan has been rolling with of late.

All else being equal, this is the band we can expect to see grace Soundwave stages come February 2015...

billy corgan

William Patrick Corgan, as he's known on his Facebook page, is renowned for his eclectic personality and musical seriousness, with themes and ideas often steeped in his real-life struggle with depression and related disorders. Beyond the catharsis of the Pumpkins and 'portrait of the artist'-style posturing in interviews, though, we find a relatively ordinary dude who loves pro-wrestling and giving money to cat charities. He once dated one of The Veronicas (no, the other one), and is possibly a professional Moby cosplayer. Or if he's not, he should be.

brad wilk

The animalistic drummer for anger-management four-piece Rage Against The Machine back when that meant something, Brad Wilk is no stranger to being a part of bands who have at some stage severed ties with original members or best-known banners. He previously joined forces with Tool's Maynard James Keenan and Faith No More's Billy Gould for a KISS tribute album back in the '90s, and thrashed skins for '00s filler outfit Audioslave, which served as an outlet for he and his fellow RATM members, alongside ex-Soundgarden main man Chris Cornell, after those bands both imploded. And he also laid down rhythm work for Black Sabbath's Bill Ward-less original line-up reunion album, 13, which was really "Black Sabbath's original line-up reunion album, featuring Brad Wilk".

mark stoermer

If you had a time machine and could make a dedicated, no-nonsense, disaffected grunge or alt-rock kid in 1992 listen to The Killers, odds are they wouldn't think that anyone in that band would have the kind of cred necessary to rock along with The Smashing Pumpkins, but '90s grunge kids were also notoriously fickle, and their opinions should not be trusted. Credibility-harming or not, The Killers' bassist Mark Stoermer has nonetheless been welcomed to Corgan's nu-Pumpkins, who will undoubtedly capitalise on Stoermer's history of not really standing out as a musician to ensure that Billy C remains as visible as possible while they play an approximation of other people's songs.

jeff schroeder

Jeff Schroeder kind of came out of nowhere in 2007 to be named as the new guitarist for the Pumpkins, having made something approaching a name for himself as a member of little-known outfits such as The Violet Burning and The Lassie Foundation. Aside from Corgan, he's been the most consistent thing about the band since they came off hiatus in 2006. He's currently finishing up a PhD in Comparative Literature, so that he has a practical, not-at-all esoteric field to pursue when his days with The Smashing Pumpkins come to an end.

Listen to Tiberius, from forthcoming full-length Monuments To An Elegy — which doesn't feature Stoermer or Wilk — below, and just imagine how good it will sound when a couple of (admittedly very skilled) randoms from some of the past couple of decades' biggest acts bust them out in the flesh.