August 1997 – Chicago Trax Recording

## August 1997 – Chicago Trax Recording, The Hinge Chicago and Battery Studios Chicago

Produced by Brad Wood and
Billy Corgan; Engineered by Bjorn Thorsrud

* To Sheila
* To Sheila (early banjo version)
* Ava Adore
* Behold! The Night Mare
* Blank Page
* Blank Page (early version)
* Daphne Descends
* Tear
* Tear (digital transfer)

The first proper recording sessions for the Adore album. After scrapping the idea of a live-in-the-studio album, Corgan chose to make an acoustic/electronic hybrid record intended to be co-produced by Brad Wood and tracked in a different recording studio every week. Although Corgan deemed these initial sessions a failure, the album versions of "To Shiela", "Ava Adore", "Behold! The Night Mare", "Blank Page", "Daphne Descends" and "Tear" all hail from these sessions (albeit with overdubs later in LA).

“I thought I was going to do this really different album,” says
Corgan. “So typical me, I didn’t use any of my gear. Like, any. I went
out and bought new guitars and strange amps—a Fender Blackface and a
Selmer combo, I think. Most of my memories with Adore have more to do
with programming.”

The success of “Eye,” an industrial hip-hop
crossover track that appeared on the soundtrack to David Lynch’s Lost
Highway instilled a much-needed confidence in Corgan. It was basic
electronic production, but it proved to him that he could press on with
more sophisticated fare. Corgan hooked up with Brad Wood (Liz Phair,
Placebo) and began recording with the band in Chicago during the summer
of 1997. Never one to do anything the easy way, Corgan decided to load
into a new studio nearly every week. It was catch-as-catch-can
recording. If something wasn’t working in a new surrounding or couldn’t
get set up in time, it wasn’t used.

“He was trying to create a
different environment, quickly and geographically, and trying to avoid
certain things that happen when a band settles into a studio,” says
Bjorn Thorsrud, who has engineered every Pumpkins record since Adore.

Material
 was recorded on a mix of analog and digital formats. Already familiar
with Studio Vision Pro for MIDI and audio editing, Corgan used ReCycle
to chop up and manipulate drum loops. A Kurzweil K2500 and an Alesis
HR-16—the same drum machine used to create the beat for “1979”—were also
 used for additional rhythmic elements and sequences. Wood’s classic EMS
 VCS3 “Putney” was featured prominently on “Ava Adore.” As it was with
Mellon Collie, experimentation was paramount. Boxes would show up in the
 post every other day, each one containing a new sample library, vintage
 synth, or rack module gobbled up from eBay or plucked from the pages of
 Keyboard magazine. Still, the pieces weren’t fitting together and,
eventually, Corgan and Wood parted ways.

“It was a total crap
shoot,” says Corgan, who soon relocated to L.A. to refocus his energy.
“I was out of depth. There was no process, there was no system, and
there was no go-to piece of gear. There was nothing. I learned a
tremendous amount, but I couldn’t tell you what the hell I did.”

**Billy Corgan:** Adore was me trying to create a unique
 sonic landscape that was certainly inspired by those movements, but, at
 the same time, I had my own stamp or take on it. It was a very
particular kind of ruin. Using that Kurzweil keyboard was one of the
many tools that I used to make it almost [sound] like if you found a
record in the attic and said, "When was this made, 50 years ago?" It was
 like trying to make a living relic of a record.

**Brad Wood:**
Billy hired me to work on what was initially to be his solo album. That
concept got expanded to a proper Smashing Pumpkins record pretty
quickly, and we went at the sessions pretty hard. The first two weeks
were really fruitful ("To Sheila," "Ava Adore," and "Behold! The Night
Mare") and I felt good about the pace, and the relationship between
myself and the band. That all kind of eroded soon enough, and what
followed was a lesson for me in how not to produce an album. I learned a
 lot from the Adore sessions; much of it painful. I didn't serve my
client in the best way – maybe I was never the right fit for Billy, or
maybe it was the particular circumstances of our lives then. It doesn't
matter now. What matters is that there are some really great songs that
now are part of the Smashing Pumpkins catalog, and I am proud to have
played a part in the recording of them. Plus, the dude can play the hell
 out of his guitar.

**Bjorn Thorsrud:** When
we started doing the recording, Billy had this idea to go and set up in a
 different studio every week to create a different vibe and ambience as
we worked.

**Billy Corgan:** It wasn't very effective, and I wasn't
 very inspired by Chicago even though I did good work. I think, in the
first six weeks, I did "Behold! The Night Mare," "Ava Adore," and "To
Shelia." When we moved to L.A. the record went through this crazy abyss
that seemed to take months, and months, and months. As far as Flood
coming in, I got so far out in the hinterlands – producing the record
myself – and I got so lost in it. At some point I called Flood and said,
 "You've gotta come help me. I'm just lost. I really need a tour guide
to get me out of this thing." I think he came in the last six weeks of
the record, and in his very straightforward way said, "Right, this one's
 good. This one's not good. This drum set sucks. This has to be better."
 He helped me task out what needed to be done and helped me finish a
record, which I don't think I would have had the strength to finish on
my own.

**Billy Corgan**: Supposedly now rested, I foolishly decide we are going to move to a new
studio each and every week (6 weeks, 6 studios) to keep things
fresh…this means packing up everything and moving guitars, wires, amps,
all sorts of shit each time…this in theory sounds good for creativity
(the keep it moving theory), but will bring to bear all sorts of
technical issues (which prove to really bog the sessions down)…I hire
Brad Wood, for co-producer, from his great work on Liz Phair and Red Red
 Meat, because I think he will help me get the sound I am looking
for…everything is set to go, we don’t even rehearse, we are just going
to learn the songs on the fly.

The first day we in, I meet the
new pro-tools guy, Bjorn (little do I know that we will not only work
together on my next 4 albums, but he will also become a close
friend)…the first song we are going to record is a beautiful acoustic
song that I envision will begin the album…James and D’arcy are not even
in the studio when I start working (this is fairly typical)…I have
bought an old Martin nylon string guitar just to record this particular
tune…however, the guitar won’t tune right, and every time I go to the d
chord, the darn thing is out of tune…too late!! Time to record…I decide I
 am going to record the guitar and vocals live, with no click track…when
 I start that first take, my whole body is shaking…I have totally put
myself on the spot like never before…I feel terrified, like I am going
over a cliff, and there is no one here to stop me (or catch me!)…Bjorn
later told me that as I was playing, Brad Wood was bragging to him and
the other engineers in the control room how much free equipment he had
gotten by dropping the Pumpkins name (instead of listening to the
take)…when I finished, I asked Brad how it was, he whirred around,
pressed the talkback button said “that was great!” (and in that very
first hour, we recorded “To Sheila”)

the general idea was a good
one, to record one song per day, and in the beginning of the sessions
this proved to be exciting and stimulating…I was mostly just working by
myself, as it was easier and quicker and less stressful…after so many
years of a passive-aggressive relationship of who plays what, and when
(and how), James and D’arcy now knew to just get out of my way…Matt was
my new partner, and stood by my side a lot as I navigated all these new
ideas…he was truly wonderful, and supportive of me, and encouraged me to
 keep taking chances…The beginning of these sessions felt magical, like a
 whole new world of possibility had opened up…long before we had even
started the album, an electronic song that I had done for the movie
“Lost Highway” had been a hit (the song ‘eye’)…this added to the sense
that I felt I could do no wrong…everything I touched (for about 5 years)
 seemed to literally turn to gold…this created a sense that I could do
whatever I wanted, , and go wherever I wanted, and now I was going to
tackle some sort of futuristic, electronic folk-rock (and it would sell
too!)…but as often happens to an idea whose foundation is not based on
pure intent, I ran out of gas fairly quickly…I slowly found that Brad,
my supposed co-producer, wasn’t contributing much to the songs…I was
used to guys like Flood, and Butch, who thought the song you were
singing was everything…Brad was more of a “interesting type sounds
guy”…and is often the case in the indie world, he was used to using
clever production to cover up weak writing…but this left him without the
 skills to know how to get out of the way when a song was great (which a
 few of these songs were)…I grew more and more isolated as the days went
 by…I didn’t have Jimmy there to keep my spirits up (and also take the
music to a higher level)…it had become James and D’arcy vs. me in the
power department, and their opinion centered more on a “we’re tired,
let’s take some time off” vibe than what would be best for the
album…instead of taking stock of my own misgivings, or insecurities, I
started to look for someone or something to blame for my lack of
resolve…the long, slow tailspin started about 2 or 3 weeks in…instead of
 backing up, and seeing the writing on the wall, I got even more
determined and stubborn, and just pressed myself harder…and sadly,
stopped listening to anybody…

However, there were times in those
first 6 weeks where the hassle was all worth it…the most magical moment
of these first sessions came when we were set to record a long
instrumental piece, at that time called “48 chords” (notable for the
fact that the chord sequence did not uniquely repeat until 48 successive
 chords were played)…up until that point, I had not dealt with my
divorce in any of the new songs, which I thought was odd considering the
 bitter fallout, but I blamed it on the fact that I was in a fairly new
relationship and maybe just didn’t feel like getting into it (my
girlfriend at the time forbade me to speak of my marriage)…I woke up
early on a crisp, sunny morning, and reeled off a stream of
consciousness type poem that seemed very much to deal with my anger
towards my ex-wife…this surprised me, but I thought little more of it
once I got in the shower…I typed it up, and put it in my pocket thinking
 I might rip off some of the better lines for a song as yet unwritten…I
got to the studio, we miked up the piano, and fairly quickly nailed the
long sequence of chords (I kept time by playing to a whole series of
delays)…the basic concept is that I would put some guitar and strings
over the top of it, creating a piece like something for a movie (one of
the original ideas for Adore is that it would sound and feel more like a
 movie score, with instrumentals interspersed amongst the “sung” songs…)
 when I went into the control room, for some reason I pulled the poem
out of my pocket while the boys were busy doing something technical, I
started to sing the lines of the poem without much thought, and it was
like something out of a dream…suddenly, the song rushed upon me, coming
quicker than I could think it up…I got really excited, and ran out to a
vocal microphone…”hurry, hurry, I pleaded”, fearful the feeling and the
thought I was in would leave my body and never return…over the next 20
minutes, working line by line, I “laid” out the entire song…sadly, every
 time I asked Brad a question, he didn’t seem to have a solid answer, or
 feel as excited as I did about the piece…it was like I was trying to
convince somebody their meal tastes better than it does…he just wasn’t
“with” me, in lockstep…here I was, having one of the most exciting
moments of my recording life, and I feel like I am in a boat by myself
in the middle of the ocean…there was no one else to turn to at that
moment (again, no band in the studio)…by the time I had finished singing
 all the lines, I had my mind made up…Brad would have to go…

Feeling
 restless and uncertain, I start to blame Chicago for the gray clouds
hanging over the sessions…maybe it is my past here, far too many shadows
 and people rooting against me…everywhere I drive in Chicago I am
reminded of my many failures…I was already paranoid (from years of
self-denial), and couldn’t accept that I was in way over my head…in
addition, my girlfriend really disliked Chicago, and didn’t want to
spend any time there…I figured that if we all relocated, she would be
happier (and come stay with me thru the end of recording)…I could get
some support, the band could get some sun, and all would “instantly”
improve!…so of all places to get centered, and find the heart of this
album, I choose lovely, spiritually grounded Los Angeles,
California…(look out Hollywood, here I come)

Return to Adore

1. ↑ Richard Thomas, "Signal To Noise: The Sonic Diary Of The Smashing Pumpkins", Electronic Musician, October 1st, 2008
2. ↑ Jake Brown, "Smashing Pumpkins: A Studio History", Tape-Op, Sept/Oct 2016
3. ↑ Billy Corgan, "Starcrossed, and Subsequently, a Door is Opened", livejournal, April 12th, 2005.