“I actually prefer people who play bass with their fingers. A pick has to be used just right to not blunt the guitar attack”:Billy Corgan takes us inside the zeitgeist of his low-end studio work with the Smashing Pumpkins

Billy Corgan and Nicole Fiorentino of The Smashing Pumpkins perform in concert at Stubb's Bar-B-Q on September 27, 2012 in Austin, Texas. .

Billy Corgan is a man whose reputation and genius truly precede him. Since forming the Smashing Pumpkins in the late ’80s, the group has sold more than 30 million records, including landmark albums Siamese Dream, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and Adore.

It should also be noted that Corgan is one of the most influential guitarists of his generation and quite possibly many generations to follow. Yet there is one element to his success that may not be common knowledge, which is that he has written and recorded the bass guitar tracks on almost every album in the entirety of the Smashing Pumpkins’ history.