“It made me realize how grateful I am to have the guitar in my life”: I applied to be the new Smashing Pumpkins guitarist – I didn’t get the gig, but it was one of the most life-affirming experiences of my musical career

The Smashing Pumpkins began 2024 with among the year’s greatest market stories, revealing an open application procedure for a brand-new guitar player to change the just recently left Jeff Schroeder

The larger music press was at first baffled by the search– 3 guitar players ?! — the band had actually been carrying out deal with the triple-axe lineup of Billy Corgan, James Iha and Schroeder for over 5 years, and Schroeder was essential to what made the band a live force in the contemporary age.

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Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being a balanced out fiend and recuperating pedal addict. He has a master’s degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and over a years’s experience writing and modifying for guitar publications consisting of MusicRadar Overall Guitar and Guitar playerin addition to 20 years of recording and live experience in initial and function bands. Throughout his profession, he has actually talked to the similarity John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Ed O’Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and much more. In his downtime, you’ll discover him making progressive important rock under the nom de plume Maebe