Zwan Call It Quits

Billy Corgan announced this morning that Zwan, the band he started two years ago, have broken up.

"I think my heart was in Smashing Pumpkins," Corgan told a local news affiliate in Chicago this morning. "I think it was naive of me to think that I could find something that would mean as much to me. I enjoyed my experience in Zwan, but at the end of the day, without that sense of deeper family and loyalty, it becomes like anything else. In some cases I felt that the band members viewed it as something they could decide to do or not to do."

Corgan started the band after the December 2000 breakup of the Pumpkins. He enlisted Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, guitarists Matt Sweeney and David Pajo, and bassist Paz Lenchantin in late 2001 and the band released its debut, Mary Star of the Sea in January 2003.

Corgan's comments about band loyalty might center around Pajo, who fronted his own band, Papa M, in addition to Zwan duty. In early August, Lenchantin left Zwan to dedicate more time to Pajo's band.

With Zwan's demise, so goes Djali Zwan, an acoustic incarnation of the same band. In March, Corgan told Rolling Stone that he was going to film and record the band this fall for a CD and DVD due next year, but those plans have presumably been scrapped.

And though Corgan said in March that he "love[s] the romance and safety of a band," when asked this if he would be starting a new group, Corgan responded, "I'm thirty-six, I'm ready for a solo career."

Before that, though, Corgan plans to immerse himself in a non-musical venture. On Wednesday, he'll present some of his poetry as part of a multi-media presentation at the thirty-first annual Reading Series for the Poetry Center of Chicago. Corgan has also been shopping a collection of poetry around to publishers.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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