\"First up is/are the drum tryouts on April 14. We\'ve received a staggering amount of submissions so far (over 1,000!), so let me say to everyone who has submitted thank you and God bless you for having the courage to throw your name out there. The auditions on the 14th are just the first round of trying people out. There is no \'hurry\' at the moment, as I\'m not quite ready to record yet, and it\'s possible I may need more than one drummer for what my plans are. (...) [guitarist] Jeff Schroeder and I will be holding the first round of auditions, with me on bass (lookout!).

Smashing Pumpkins have been without a regular drummer since March 2009, when co-founding member and original drummer Jimmy Chamberlin announced his departure.

According to Billy, he has just been rocking amongst friends, while co-producer Kerry Brown is manning the skins for the moment. The past few days Billy had Daxx Nielsen, son of Cheap Trick\'s Rick Nielsen, in to play on a few things. Says Billy Corgan:

\"Lord forbid I would want 44 different drummers on 44 different tracks, but I suppose anything is possible. (...) I don\'t think I\'m going to make albums in the old-fashioned way, meaning 12-15 songs, etc in one small package. My desire at this point would be to release one song at a time, over a period of 2-3 years, with it all adding up to a box set/album of sorts that would also include an art movie of the album.\"

Besides picking one or more new drummers for his band, Billy Corgan also needs to sort out business struggles with Smashing Pumkins\' former label EMI (once Virgin). There are currently three lawsuits running: the band is suing EMI, two of Billy\'s former bandmates are suing EMI, and EMI is suing Billy because of the ex-bandmember lawsuit.