“There were so many effects and different harmonising parts”: Kiki Wong says this was the hardest Smashing Pumpkins song to learn
In 2024, Kiki Wong announced that she had been offered the chance to be the Smashing Pumpkins‘ new guitarist, beating more than 10,000 musicians in an open call for applications. Now, she’s spoken about the more difficult tracks she had to master for the role.
In the latest issue of Guitar World, Wong explains that she faced some challenges in learning the material. “Learning [Billy Corgan‘s] style was hard, but it helped me play with more feel and vibe,” she says. “The first week of rehearsal was like a musical boot camp that taught me more than 20 years of playing by myself did.”
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It was Thru the Eyes of Ruby from the 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness that Wong says she found the trickiest, though. “It was one of the more difficult songs for me to learn since there were so many effects and different harmonising parts. The tricky part about Smashing Pumpkins’ music is the arrangements,” she explains.
“It’s orchestrated well and almost counterintuitively while still maintaining musical sensibility and mainstream appeal. It’s really quite genius – but hard to learn – and it sounds insane, but sometimes the easiest songs still get me nervous.”
Wong explains that even “one note hanging can be more nerve-wracking than a whole solo because if you miss that note, you screwed up the whole part.” For that reason, Today is another track that still makes her “nervous”.
Wong wasn’t originally going to tour again, having “given up” on it, but when the opportunity to join the Pumpkins came around, her boyfriend encouraged her to apply. “My heart was going at 1,000,000mph because almost the whole OG line-up was there. It was like looking through a glimpse of my teenage years but in real life,” she says. The audition called for Wong to play Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Cherub Rock, Jellybelly, and Today.
Corgan had said he was a fan of Wong since before she applied for the gig, as she formerly played with the likes of Taylor Swift and Usher, as well as alongside DragonForce bassist Alicia Vigil in Vigil of War, and the all-girl band Nylon Pink. During her first tour with Smashing Pumpkins, she signed a sponsorship deal with PRS.
View all of the Smashing Pumpkins upcoming tour dates via their official website.
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