“People think ‘She’s just a TikTok influencer’, but I’ve been doing music since 2010, playing real s***holes”: Kiki Wong on landing her Smashing Pumpkins gig
Kiki Wong has opened up on joining Smashing Pumpkins as their guitarist following an open application launched in early 2024.
The Pumpkins started their search for a new guitarist following the departure of Jeff Schroeder via an open call posted on their social media pages, which urged hopeful guitarists to submit a resume and related material to their management team. Over 10,000 people applied.
READ MORE: Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan says he could write a song that sounds like Siamese Dream “in five minutes” – he just chooses not to
When it was announced that Wong had been selected for the role, many realised they’d seen her before through her popular metal and shred-focused guitar videos shared online. Even frontman Billy Corgan was a fan of her work, and had followed her online before she auditioned.
In a new interview with Revv Amps, posted on YouTube, Wong recalls how she applied for the position the same as everyone else, and was soon after invited for a Zoom call with the band.
“[I] ended up talking with Billy a lot about Dimebag Daryl,” she laughs. “I was like ‘this is so cool, there are so many metal roots’. I got another call saying ‘you’ll be going to LA’. So I showed up to LA, and at that point I was just excited to jam, like I [didn’t] even care. The fact that I got to play with legends [was] so cool. I just played the audition, did my thing, and literally got a call the next day. It happened so fast.”
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Before this point, Wong had been considering giving up on music entirely. If it wasn’t for the support of her loved ones, she may not have even applied. She recalls, “A lot of people don’t realise this about me, they see that I’ve been on social media they think, ‘oh she’s just a TikTok influencer’, but I’ve been doing music since 2010, playing like real shitholes, you know? [Laughs]. There was no one there sometimes, and you’re still playing your heart out like it’s a full show. I’m 35 now, I have a baby, so I was like, ‘touring is not going to be in the books for me’. But having this opportunity, everyone pulled through.”
Despite her background in metal, playing with the Pumpkins has allowed Wong to “diversify my playing tenfold”. She adds, “I would consider myself a one trick pony prior to joining this band. I just love metal, I love chugs, I love unnecessary shreds, I love noise and just high gain shenanigans, so that’s what draws me to instruments… but this band has actually opened my eyes to a lot of like new sounds and new effects, I didn’t use a lot of effects in my own personal musicianship, but having this full pedal board and learning to like it was almost like going back to school for me.”
You can check out the full interview with Wong below:
The post “People think ‘She’s just a TikTok influencer’, but I’ve been doing music since 2010, playing real s***holes”: Kiki Wong on landing her Smashing Pumpkins gig appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
