Smashing Pumpkins Launch Open Auditions For New Guitarist

Have you ever dreamed about playing the guitar in your favourite band? Well, here’s your chance, as The Smashing Pumpkins have launched open auditions to find the replacement for Jeff Schroeder, who departed the band in October.

The perfect job for anyone whose personality and career allows them to tour the globe for half the year and can bring the energy to hits like Bullet With Butterfly Wings, Zero and Cherub Rock – The Smashing Pumpkins posted about the open job on Instagram overnight.

“The Smashing Pumpkins are in search of an additional guitarist,” the group wrote on Instagram. “The application process is open to anyone who might be interested. Applicants may submit a resume and related material to SPGuitar@redlightmanagement.com.”

In October, Schroeder left the band after 15 years, joining them from their 2006 reunion until 2023. Citing a need to leave the Smashing Pumpkins to “explore a slightly different path”, Schroeder wrote in a joint statement with the band – who farewelled the guitarist alongside his account, “Although it was a very difficult decision to make, I've decided to leave the band to make some space to explore a slightly different path.

“I want to thank Billy, Jimmy, James, and Jack [Bates] for being both wonderful bandmates and even better friends. I will absolutely miss sharing the stage with you. I wish the band all the success in the future. I will be watching and listening.”

Billy Corgan, James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlain wrote in response, “We thank Jeff for his ceaseless dedication to the band and our great fans. Words can not express our gratitude and appreciation for the friend he is, and being there for SP in the good times and the tough times, too.”

Last April, the Smashing Pumpkins dropped their twelfth album, ATUM, a collection of songs that serve as a sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machine Of God.

Smashing Pumpkins toured Australia in support of the album last year, bringing the first-ever The World Is A Vampire festival down under. The Disarm rockers were joined by Jane’s Addiction, Amyl & The Sniffers, RedHook and Battlesnake, as well as local openers at each show.

In a live review of the band’s concert at Kryal Castle, writer Andy Hazel concluded after a show packed with noisy behemoths of tunes, “The world, for a little while at least, seemed a lot less vampiric.”

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