Smashing Pumpkins Unleash ‘Panopticon’ As New Single Off ‘Oceania’

The Smashing Pumpkins latest disc ‘Oceania’ made its debut this summer (June 19) and now the second single from the disc titled ‘Panopticon’ is primed and ready for radio airwaves.

The song, quickly heralded as an ‘Oceania’ favorite by many critics, took a long time to develop, according to Billy Corgan. It started with a riff, but that’s where things got tricky. “It’s similar to 'Quasar' in that we had the opening riff and didn’t know what to do with it,” Corgan told MusicRadar. “It sat for a while, but everybody felt strongly about it. It had a, dare I say, ‘modern-feeling’ to it, but still in the style of guitar that I like to play.”

So how did the writing block come to an end? Corgan explains, “Ultimately, I just sat down and wrote the song on the piano.” He continued, “Sometimes, when you’ve got a riffy song, it helps to just play the chords with no rhythm, and then you hear the ‘song’ in it. It’s those very Paul McCartney/Wings-type chords – Broadway-type chords.”

The song has definitely struck a chord with music fans, and Corgan gives his take on the sound in the interview. “It goes from a very ‘majorly’ feel into something sorrowful, almost a Spanish feel,” said Corgan. “I don’t know how the heck I did that, but it’s one of my favorite things in the song, how you can keep the key but change the emotion.”

The Smashing Pumpkins will be bringing ‘Panopticon’ and the rest of ‘Oceania’ to the live stage when their fall tour kicks off on Oct. 10 in Everett, Wash. The band has committed to playing their new disc in its entirety for one set followed by a second set of deep cuts and past hits. Find out more about the upcoming tour here.