Billy Corgan Says Smashing Pumpkins Re-Issued Album Will Have Better Sound Quality

Although the most recent lineup of the Smashing Pumpkins has an album due next year, the group is re-issuing all of their previous works – remastered and packaged with unreleased tracks. As the re-issued albums will start coming out next month and go until 2013, Billy Corgan described revisiting his previous material in an interview with Billboard.com. He said: "Before I started this process, I would've thought, 'Yeah, this is going to be a little uncomfortable because I'm trying to make this new point at the same time I'm trying to make an old point.’ But it's actually been the opposite experience. I've found it's brought a sort of peace to me, because it reminds me of my journey. It's like I look at an old photo and I don't go 'Ugh!' I look at the old photo and go, 'That's good I did that. That's good I went there. That's good I took those chances,' and I can feel compassion for when I did something stupid or said something stupid because I believed in something."

Siamese Dream, their second album and the release that received mainstream recognition, has particularly been improved. According to Corgan: "It's stunning, the quality level. It really recasts it in a different light. It's a real massive upgrade in terms of the quality of the album, sonically, that was shocking."

The re-issues of Gish, their 1991 debut, and Siamese Dream are scheduled for November 29 release. Following, 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, box set The Aeroplane Flies High, and 1998’s Adore will all hit stores at some point in 2012. The final two albums before the band split in 2000 – Machina/The Machines of God and Machina II: Friends & Enemies of Modern Music – will come out in 2013 together. For those who can recall, Machina II came out only in LP and digital form. A best-of retrospective will follow all re-issues.

Gish and Siamese Dream have both been remastered by Bob Ludwig, and for the re-issues, each will have the original album, a second disc of unreleased material, and, for delude editions, DVDs of 1990 and 1993 performances, respectively, at Chicago’s Metro.

Regarding the unreleased material, the frontman told Billboard.com: "We have so much stuff. The beauty of the deal (with EMI) is we can put out anything we want, any way we want it, when we want it. I have complete access to all the archives, and we can do whatever we want. It's crazy."

He also mentioned that, in revisiting their old material, he found: “tons of weird, crazy stuff that we're going to just give away for free, and there's other stuff we're trying to package in a way that would make it easy for fans who are interested in particular periods. Things we've found that don't fit on the discs we'll put up online, sort of like an online box set."

He goes onto explain that, unlike the remastered album tracks, the quality of the unreleased material varies: "With 20 years on it here or there it does take on a nice documentary feel. It's a little less about quality and maybe more about giving insight into a moment. Because we released so many of our extra songs, we're not sitting on some magic treasure trove of great songs that no one's ever heard. We never made the great lost record or anything like that. It's more an insight into the process, or a different take on something."

Corgan also unearthed a few unfinished tracks that may or may not be completed in the future. But, with the re-issued albums soon arriving, is a reunion with the band’s original lineup going to follow? According to Corgan, he and the other three members – including drummer Jimmy Chamberlin who returned originally for the band’s regrouping in 2006 – are not on speaking terms. He said: "There's no relationship at all. It's unfortunate, but -- without going into the details -- they've sort of put me in a position where that's the way it is."