Jeff Schroeder is one busy person. He has a new album coming out with the Smashing Pumpkins. ‘Cyr’, out November 27, 2020 via Sumerian Records is a twenty song album that clocks in at seventy-two minutes exactly. If you are a fan of the bands’ catalog, this will fit in quite nicely with the creative and robust library of music from the band.
Even if that was the only thing going on in Schroeder’s life, that would probably be enough to consume most people. But it isn’t the only thing. He also has another project that he is actively working on called Night Dreamer. The brainchild of Schroeder and vocalist Mindy Song mixes Jeff’s unique creatives on guitar and Mindy’s lush and addicting vocal lines. The ‘Treasure’ EP is still in heavy rotation on my playlist. I’m excited at the thought of new material from them.
As you will hear in our conversation, Jeff stimulates his mind by reading books and attending events, many of which he is not involved in. Such as a Steve Vai event that he went to as an audience member. Schroeder takes in everything he can and I believe it keeps that personal growth expanding and evolving. It’s impressive to listen to him explain and sort of breakdown everything from events like these to legendary albums and guitarists.
We spoke a few days after the passing of the iconic guitar player Eddie Van Halen. Like many guitarists.. aspiring to professional, EVH played a huge role into shaping the way the instrument was played. Long after ‘Eruption’ even made it’s debut. Jeff says about its lasting legacy and place in history, “How strange, the second song on the record is a guitar solo. I don’t know of, if you think of the 70’s, any other albums that had a guitar solo on a studio album. Whoever’s idea that was to put it that early on the record, because that one-two punch of Eruption and You Really Got Me.. That has to be one of the best recorded moments of rock and roll.”
You can hear the reverence in Schroeder’s voice as he talks about Van Halen. He told me about the time Eddie came to a Smashing Pumpkins show and while backstage everyone was sort of in an awe state. Asking Eddie questions just like any fan would when they met one of their idols. It doesn’t stop there for Jeff. He says, “He (Eddie) asked me, Hey have you ever tried one of my Wolfgang guitars? I told him, “No, I haven’t had a chance”. He says, Oh, I’ll send you one. He had his guy send me one of the EVH Wolfgang guitars and I used it the rest of the tour. We put out a live CD/DVD – Oceania Live from that tour and on the cover of that CD/DVD, you’ll see I’m playing that (guitar).”
As we start talking about the Smashing Pumpkins upcoming album – ‘CYR’, I’m intrigued to hear about the bands’ process as they start to put together a project as massive as this twenty song album. I was really interested in hearing about the creative process he and the band takes at the beginning stages. Jeff says, “We’ll start injecting things at an earlier stage but once it became clear that this record was going to be a synth heavy record, the question of guitar, it had to become more of a conceptual idea and how we’re going to do this. Quite simply, what we do is a lot of trial and error.”
Schroeder continues, “At the studio where we work at, at Billy’s (Corgan) studio, we have a couple of different rooms. So, I’ll up and go off into another room and I will sit there with a sort of a working mix of the track and just try a bunch of different stuff.”
One of the most interesting things he said was about having three really good guitar players in the band and he remarks, “Sometimes the best part is a super distorted guitar with a big delay on, hitting one note when the chorus comes in and it creates this kind of explosion of sound.” It really is whatever is best for the record. That’s the kind of selflessness that makes magic happen often times.
Schroeder also gets to let out some of his creative juices when he is making music with his other project, Night Dreamer. Being a fan of that band also, I was anxious to find out if we’d be getting more music from them in the near future. I was delighted to hear him say, “We actually have quite a few things, like in the pipeline, that are almost near completion. We recorded two new songs that are mixed, mastered and ready to go. They’re going to be part of a full album that we are doing. We went out to Joshua Tree to our friends’ studio and recorded two more songs that are basically almost done. They just need a few tweaks that we will do on our own but they are basically done.”
The excitement doesn’t end there. Schroeder tells me about two videos that have been shot and are near the editing phase. Jeff says about band-mate, Mindy Song, “She really outdid herself. That’s her department and she really just came up with some amazing visual stuff and I think people are going to be blown away.”
I’m here for it all and look forward to the release of ‘Cyr’ and the new Night Dreamer material. Like I said, Jeff is a busy guy and as a fan, I’m thankful that he is.
Believe it or not, there is much more conversation to be had. You can hear my epic hour long-plus, conversation with Jeff Schroeder by clicking on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts.
-Tommy Marz
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