Billy Corgan took time out to focus on the 30th anniversary of Smashing Pumpkins' debut set, Gish. The album, which was released on May 29th, 1991, was co-produced by Corgan and Butch Vig, who later that year was behind the boards for Nirvana's breakthrough album, Nevermind.
Corgan admitted to Rolling Stone that 30 years seemed to mean a whole lot more when he was a kid than it does today, explaining, “It’s pretty wild, because it doesn’t seem that long ago. I remember my grandmother telling me stories about things that happened and her saying, 'Gosh, it doesn’t feel like that long ago.' To me as a kid, 30 years seemed like a lifetime. And now I look back, and it doesn’t feel that long ago. I can still see us in Smart (Studios) with Butch. I can still see where the drums were and everything. It’s as clear in my mind as if it happened a year ago. It’s pretty wild. I know it’s real, but I’m a little slow on accepting it.”
In the ensuing years, the Pumpkins' 1993 Siamese Dream album has garnered so much of the attention when discussing the band's early work, that Corgan feels it's happened at the expense of Gish: “People have tended to diminish the influence of the record. I remember having a conversation with Eddie Vedder when we were on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (in late 1991). He told me how much of an influence Gish was on their first record. And through the years, I’ve talked to many, many people who really pointed to Gish as the game-changer in their mind about how to approach guitar and how to record.”