Surf's Up - Hot Press meets Jimmy Chamberlin

Music
05 Nov 14

Now reborn as a successful businessman, Dublin-bound ex-Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin tells Edwin McFee about his revolutionary new app, reveals his thoughts on Billy Corgan and explains why he gave up going on the road.

In March 2009, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin decided to depart the Smashing Pumpkins for pastures new. After a well-documented period of bust-ups and reconciliations that rivals fellow ‘90s icons Ross and Rachel from Friends, the Chicago native had enough. Now in the world of rock ‘n’ roll, it’s common for the tunesmith leaving a successful group to both bitch about his former band and then form a sub-par version of said outfit, but then Chamberlin was anything but “common.”

Instead he found himself in the world of business. Initially joining LiveOne to help with cash flow and the media side of things, he is now the multi-million dollar firm’s CEO. Their new application Crowdsurfing looks set to do for the company what Siamese Dream did for the Smashing Pumpkins and become a very big hit indeed.
“Crowdsurfing is an application that adds a social layer to any type of live streamed video content – be it sports, music, gaming... just about anything. We’ve worked with everyone from Oprah to Red Bull and the idea is to create as much of an analogue experience around live streamed content as we can. We do that by creating a box of thumbnail photos that you can scroll through and send people messages, do social discovery, create groups and visit chat rooms and secondarily you can view advertising through the widget too. Essentially we want to harness these communities to build our own.”
While some have found the transition from tour bus to a “normal” life a tricky task, Chamberlin tells us that it was time he made a change in his life.
“I don’t think anything in life is easy – but it’s a natural evolution,” he considers. “I still play drums but the business world is more challenging for me right now. For me, the music industry has gotten homogenised and there’s only so many things I can do in a rock environment. For whatever reason I felt at 50-years old it’s always going to be somewhat of a rehash. Especially when you’re tethered to a vehicle as powerful as the Pumpkins. There’s a lot of baggage and maybe some scar tissue too, so business for me was exciting and didn’t have any of that baggage at all.”
Right now, his former band the Smashing Pumpkins have just unveiled ‘Beige Beige’ from their upcoming album Monuments To An Elegy with Mötley Crüe man Tommy Lee behind the drum-kit. How does Jimmy feel about the Pumpkins’ head honcho Billy Corgan continuing the band without him, we ask?
“I applaud Billy’s efforts moving forward. For him, the Pumpkins represents the holistic view of his life and it’s right for him to carry on with the brand and it’s right for him to continue to make new music. I’m a big cheerleader for him. In fact I went over and listened to the new record he just finished with Tommy Lee recently and it’s fantastic. It’s nothing less than what you’d expect from one of the greatest songwriters of all time. I’m excited for where the band’s gonna go.”
Surely there must be a little resentment there though, we ponder....
“Like any divorce, during the initial detachment period things got murky, but as the water clears you can go back and look at that time with a reverence it deserves. The stuff we did together was untouchable. I think it’ll live on forever and the stuff he’s doing now will live forever. I’m grateful to have been a part of it and I feel like I’m still a part of it.”
With the music industry in a state of flux, Jimmy feels that 2014 is a much better time for fans than it was during his ‘90s peak and says the sky’s the limit for creativity.
“It’s a great time for music. There’s thousands of people out there competing for attention and I think that will raise the bar in terms of quality.”
In a few days’ time Jimmy will be in Dublin to take part in the Web Summit, a conference which hosts national and international people from the tech world and Dublin groups should take note. Once he’s finished his commitments, the tubthumper is on the hunt for a band to jam with afterwards.
“I don’t think there’ll ever be a time when I put my drum-sticks down for good,” he smiles. “Once my panels are finished I’d love to go out and find the time to jam with some Dublin bands – if anybody will have me!”