Zwan: The Band That Came After The Smashing Pumpkins Disbanded
Their album Mary Star of the Sea turns 20 this year
This year Mary Star of The Sea turned 20!
Do you remember Zwan and their only released album? Do you remember Billy Corgan’s band after The Smashing Pumpkins disbanded, back in the 2000s?
Fans didn’t have to worry long, just like a Marvel character, they’d resurrect later.
I loved The Smashing Pumpkins, I bought Machina/The Machines of God when it was released, and I stayed up downloading Machina II when it was made available on the internet. I was heartbroken when they broke up. The Smashing Pumpkins disbanded at the end of 2000, but by the end of 2001, Billy Corgan was already touring with his new band: The True Poets of Zwan.
Of course, living in Brazil, I only got to know about Zwan in 2003, when their first album was released. But before that, according to the wonderful internet, Billy Corgan’s project was divided in two: The True Poets of Zwan and Djali Zwan.
According to wiplash.net, The True Poets of Zwan performed four times in California with a setlist of brand-new songs. Djali Zwan performed acoustic shows throughout the Midwestern United States with a brand-new, but different, setlist than the songs performed in the True Poets of Zwan shows.
In 2002 the two bands ended up becoming one: Zwan.
The band had an impressive ensemble; Billy Corgan & Jimmy Chamberlin from The Smashing Pumpkins, Matt Sweeney who played with everybody, (Chavez, Iggy Pop, and Adele, to cite a few), David Pajo from Papa M and Slit, and Paz Lenchantin from A Perfect Circle, and produced some really great rock songs…and some less great.
Zwan’s sunnier songs sound more pop-rock, with a little bit of Folk, with clear guitars and fewer electronic music elements.
According to the Dutch website A Pop Life and their article;
Zwan, the story of Mary Star Of The Sea, the album coincided with a period of spiritual awakening for Billy Corgan. I think that makes a lot of sense, in the 1990s The Smashing Pumpkins' songs mostly revolved around dark and sad themes, with lyrics showing hard and depressing situations. I always thought Billy Corgan sounded like a tortured soul singing those songs (but don’t get me wrong, I love those songs).
Do you remember how tortured he sounds in “Disarm” and “Cherub Rock”?
A few years later Zwan released Mary Star of The Sea. I don’t think it’s available for streaming, but this album has some good songs. Compared to the music of The Smashing Pumpkins this album sounds so hopeful as though Corgan had found something important, that soothes life and calms the heart. It sounded like he had found himself and found his home.
Mary Star of The Sea sounds lovely, full of hope for life and the future, I was amazed, it sounds almost happy.
Look at these lyrics from the song Honestly, aren’t they beautiful?
’Cause when I think of you as mine
And allow myself with time
To lead into the life we want
I feel love, honestly
I feel love, yes, honestly
Zwan’s videos are such a contrast to Billy Corgan’s time in the 1990s with The Smashing Pumpkins; an era when their videos were dark and everybody was very very serious, sometimes sad, but always determined.
While Zwan has fewer videos than The Smashing Pumpkins, I think just two, both look amazing! All the band are smiling, and looking like they were having a great time walking around and playing together.
Here is their video for the song “Lyric”, isn’t it just adorable?
I was amazed when I first heard Zwan and their album Mary Star of The Sea, it’s sweet and hopeful and also amazed when the band ended so soon. It sounded like such an interesting project had crashed and burned.
In a 2005 interview, Billy Corgan said the band ended due to “behavioural problems”. On the other hand, in a 2017 interview, guitarist David Pajo compared Billy Corgan to Donald Trump.
But that is all in the past. Billy Corgan has softened his stance on Zwan songs, and sometimes they appear in his setlists. Also, according to this Rolling Stone interview, he’s preparing a box set of unreleased Zwan songs. Let’s hope that really happens.
In case you didn’t know when Corgan was performing Djali Zwan shows fans were open to recording them and you can still find some of those acoustic songs on YouTube.
Dear reader, thank you for sharing your time with me. If you want to read more about Billy Corgan and what he’s up to in more recent years you should take a look at this article by Rui Alves:
