Julian Lepinski

Note: This article originally appeared on SmashingPumpkins.com.

Following Monday night’s Black Sunshine show in Toronto I made my way backstage to talk with Billy and Jimmy. On the agenda was the current state and future of the Pumpkins online community. (That’s us!)

With the recent website revamp (*round of applause for the incredible web team*) and the host of new interactive features that have come with it (as well as soon-to-arrive ones, like the message board), the ability for fans to interact with each other and with the band continues to grow. Billy came onstage in a white Zero shirt, I snapped a picture on my iPhone, and within minutes people online were talking about it. The great thing about all of this is, as Billy said to me last night, that it allows a fanbase that spans the planet to have a community with a genuinely small-town feel. This is definitely what the Pumpkins want.

The downside (there’s always a downside) is that this also means that there are people who will show up and, “poison the consciousness of the community,” as Billy put it. “There is an element of the fanbase that has got to go.” (Billy said, “they’ve got to go,” more than once last night.) These are the people who are, “negative, hostile, counter intuitive to the future of the band.” That means comments that contribute nothing but negativity aren’t welcome on the site, and they aren’t welcome on the boards. The new community features aren’t going to be a free-for-all - Jimmy and Billy were clear that that’s not what they want - but rather a place where people are free to express intelligent and thoughtful comments (pro and con).

The “toxic” elements of the Pumpkins online community, as Jimmy refers to them, are small, but they’re deeply rooted. These toxic elements are a direct impediment to its positive growth. I know that despite being a Pumpkins fan for years, I often kept my distance from parts of the online community because of this subculture, and I also know that I’m not the only one. Billy thinks that the Pumpkins share the blame for some of its development, noting that, “I encouraged people to feel possessive of the band.” As the band moves forward it’s clear that they’re going to have to shed these few people who are holding them back, and holding the community back.

This is one the most important parts of our discussion Monday night: Billy and Jimmy are well aware of the distinction between real, thoughtful criticism and bomb-throwing. One of the first things Billy said to me as we sat down to talk was that SP does not want a community to sit around and tell them everything they do is great. “We don’t think everything we do is the greatest thing ever,” he continued. The Pumpkins have always had a presence online, and they’ve always had an intelligent and open relationship with their fans. A relationship like this thrives on support and love, but it also leaves room for criticism and suggestions. This has always been the case, and it’s certainly not something the band wants to change.

I have to say, this also fits with my experience working for the Pumpkins. I’ve had issues with articles because I’d made factual errors (the Mellotron article had a few rewrites!) and I’ve gotten comments from Billy when he’s felt I could explore issues in more depth, but I’ve never gotten the feeling that I couldn’t say something critical of the band or the music. To be honest, if I ever got that feeling, I probably wouldn’t be sticking around for very long.

I think one of the main reasons why we’re drawn to the Pumpkins and the community that surrounds their music is because of the back and forth between the community of the band. This isn’t some textbook producer-consumer relationship: things flow both ways, and the site plays a big part in that back and forth. This two-way relationship is pretty unique, but it’s something that we can’t take for granted. If the community suffers we all lose out (and that includes the Pumpkins). In Billy’s words, “the future of the band has everything to do with creating a new sense of community.” When we have a community built around trust and support, everybody wins.