Billy Corgan has revealed he was forced to pay a hacker to stop them from leaking new The Smashing Pumpkins music.READ MORE: The Smashing Pumpkins – ‘ATUM’ review: bombastic space-rock opera with anthemsThe third and final part of The Smashing Pumpkins’ rock opera ‘ATUM’ was released yesterday (May 5), serving as a sequel to their classic double records ‘Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’ (1995) and ‘Machina/The Machines Of God’ (2000).But according to vocalist Billy Corgan, a hacker got their hands on nine tracks from the record six months ago and threatened to leak them.“They were all probably the most catchy, single-y type songs,” Corgan said in an interview on KROQ’s Klein/Ally Show [viaConsequence]. “You’re pretty much giving away the album before you even have a chance to set your feet into the ground.”Corgan went on to say that he still doesn’t know how the hacker got the songs but was alerted to the leak via a fan.
The hacker was “offering the files for money” which Corgan paid from his own back pocket to “stop the leak from happening”.He went on to explain the hacker wasn’t a “Pumpkins fan that was hellbent on breaking it on Reddit,” but a mercenary. “They had other stuff from other artists,” Corgan continued. “They had stuff that was shocking to me, classic stuff from bands of the past probably doing reissues.
I don’t think any of that stuff has been leaked out, so whatever happened, it all got shut down.”Corgan said that the hacker in question “gave [away] some information that allowed the FBI to track them,” but doesn’t know the “end result” of that investigation yet.Last year, Corgan told NME about crafting the 33-song ‘ATUM’ project. “There’s a lot of people who believe less is more these days.
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