Ahead of the beloved band’s North American THE WORLD IS A VAMPIRE tour, the Smashing Pumpkins have graced us with a new video for “Spellbinding,” the dark, addictive track off the latest trilogy album, ATUM. Rather than merely setting an aptly ominous scene for the music video, director Kevin Kerslake has meticulously crafted an entirely new, digital world for the Smashing Pumpkins, where each band member exists as a digital avatar of themself. This fantastical, eerie universe plays with themes drawn from video games, and reflects the diligence and narrative structure that the Smashing Pumpkins have put into each of their projects.
Written and produced by frontman Billy Corgan, ATUM is a 33-track album that plays as three acts and is the audio sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machine of God. As echoed by the music video below, each project has offered a technically complex, unshakeable deep dive that talks to technology, alternate universes, and intergalactic experiences, ideologies, and emotions — be it through the lyricism or soundscape alone. And today, we are able to enter that world in a new way.
Read more: Radiohead debuts In Rainbows at Bonnaroo 2006
Speaking on the making of this video, Kerslake shares: “We adopted a virtual production model for the ‘Spellbinding’ video, creating it entirely in the gaming engine; unreal, with digital avatars moving through fantastical worlds that play a key role in the ATUM storyline. Billy and I share an interest in the fusion of old-world elements with state-of-the-art technology, and all the stars aligned on this video to break new ground.”
Catch the Smashing Pumpkins on tour this summer, starting July 28, with support from Interpol, Stone Temple Pilots, and Rival Sons.
