Here's the latest in the string of songs to emerge from Smashing Pumpkins' new album Monuments to an Elegy. It's called "Drum + Fife."
While the heavy guitars and drums channel the band's classic alt-rock sound, the song is a different beast altogether thanks to its textured synths. It features a high, flute-like melody, and some buzzy and spacious textures enter as the mid-tempo arrangement unfurls, and Corgan promises to "bang this drum till my dying day."
Here's how Corgan described it to NME:
"Drum + Fife" was originally a folk song. We really had a problem getting it off its almost dour Irish balladeer aspect. And I must give a lot of credit to Tommy Lee, because he's the one who turned the corner. Without saying it he was reacting in a way that told me he thought it was a bit boring. Tommy loves energy. Tommy wants to feel excitement. So he's playing the song and he's like "I know this is a good song but it's just not working." And he said to me "Do you mind if I tinker around with it?" And so he got on the computer and used his experience in dance music and kind of turned the corner and found some loops and some beats and suddenly I was like…"wow." It's almost like mid '80s new wave or something and it reminded me a little bit of early U2 or Big Country. The open strut made the Irish ballad part of the song come alive and have more of a expansive quality and from there on it got a lot easier
Monuments to an Elegy will be out on December 9 via BMG.
While the heavy guitars and drums channel the band's classic alt-rock sound, the song is a different beast altogether thanks to its textured synths. It features a high, flute-like melody, and some buzzy and spacious textures enter as the mid-tempo arrangement unfurls, and Corgan promises to "bang this drum till my dying day."
Here's how Corgan described it to NME:
"Drum + Fife" was originally a folk song. We really had a problem getting it off its almost dour Irish balladeer aspect. And I must give a lot of credit to Tommy Lee, because he's the one who turned the corner. Without saying it he was reacting in a way that told me he thought it was a bit boring. Tommy loves energy. Tommy wants to feel excitement. So he's playing the song and he's like "I know this is a good song but it's just not working." And he said to me "Do you mind if I tinker around with it?" And so he got on the computer and used his experience in dance music and kind of turned the corner and found some loops and some beats and suddenly I was like…"wow." It's almost like mid '80s new wave or something and it reminded me a little bit of early U2 or Big Country. The open strut made the Irish ballad part of the song come alive and have more of a expansive quality and from there on it got a lot easier
Monuments to an Elegy will be out on December 9 via BMG.
