If there's anything that warrants the term “life-changing,” it's Kiki Wong being handpicked by Billy Corgan and co. – out of more than 10,000 applicants – to join the Smashing Pumpkins.
Turns out, Wong made quite an impression from that very first audition. “Kiki’s audition was the first on this one day,” recalls Corgan in the latest issue of Guitar World.
“Somebody set up the schedule people were traveling in and stuff, and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, that’s probably not very good for Kiki,’ because the chance of us hiring the first person we see is probably pretty slim. By the time you get to the eighth or ninth person, you’re going to have a hard time remembering the first person.
“Kiki came in and played very well. Now, I know how to read Jimmy Chamberlin’s body language pretty well; we’ve played together for over 35 years. I remember looking at Jimmy, and I could tell he was surprised at how well Kiki played. We had this thing at the auditions where we played three or four songs, and then we’d sit down and talk to each person for 15 minutes.”
Aside from her stellar playing, what really gave Wong her edge over her competition was her authenticity and down-to-earth demeanor.
“She wasn’t trying to be someone else. She wasn’t trying to be a flatterer. She was just herself. And it was like, ‘OK, this person can hang in our world.’ After that, for the next three hours, nobody who followed Kiki could beat her. She was still on my mind, even though we weren’t discussing it internally.”
As for what Wong can do on guitar that's just beyond Corgan's abilities, according to the Pumpkins frontman himself, there are a few.
For starters, “she’s got that Hetfield/Kerry King downstroke thing that I could never do, whatever the fuck that is. That Master of Puppets thing – I have to cheat that shit. Trust me, I knew Johnny Ramone, and he was a big proponent of this.
“Obviously, Hetfield and Kerry King would tell you the same. So would Mustaine. The only way to play that way is you gotta do all downstrokes. I remember being at Johnny Ramone’s house – [imitates thick New Yorker accent] ‘all downstrokes, all downstrokes.’
“There’s a belief that the attack of the downstroke is better than if you pick up-down, up-down. To me, when I see somebody who can do that with the downstrokes, I’m like, ‘Fuck, I can't do that!’” he admits.
Wong is quick to add that, from her end, “one of the most jaw-dropping moments on the first tour was just seeing Billy go crazy-shred.
“We have these times when it’s all improv,” she explains, “and hearing some of the voicings he uses… One of the things you strive for as a musician is developing your own sound, where someone will say, ‘Hey, that’s Kiki Wong!’ or ‘That’s Billy Corgan!’
“But more than that, it’s ‘That’s Billy Corgan, and no one else can be Billy Corgan,’” she asserts.
For more from Kiki Wong and Billy Corgan, plus new interviews with the Sex Pistols and Carlos Santana, pick up issue 595 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.
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