Over the past few weeks I had a chance to chat with Jeff Schroeder and ask him a few questions. Due to the length of the interview it'll be broken up into two parts, the first of which appears below. This week we talk to Jeff about grad school and guitars.

Jeff and Lisa in the Netherlands
(Credit: Andra Vertaart)

As an extra bonus, Jeff has agreed to answer a few more questions that I'll collect from readers. Send any questions you have to me via PM and I'll pick some and forward them on. The answers to those will be included with the 2nd part of our interview next week.

Enough from me, though, and on to Jeff!

-hack

SmashingPumpkins.com: Your Wikipedia article has an unsourced claim that you're a comparative literature PhD student specializing in Asian-American literature at UCLA. Can you give us a brief bio?

Jeff Schroeder: I've been a graduate student in the department of Comparative Literature at UCLA for about 7 years. My area of focus is Asian American literature and cultural production (which includes film, theater, music, etc.), but I also study 20^th century French and Francophone literature, and a little bit of contemporary Korean cinema. In general I'm interested in the relationship between the political (and I use the term here in a very broad sense to encompass history, race, class, gender, etc. as well what we normally think of when the term is evoked) and the aesthetic (literature, film, performance art). Right now I'm working on my dissertation, which deals with representations of war in the Pacific Rim.

I'm going to ask you the most impolite question you can ask a graduate student: When are you going to be finished your PhD?

Good question! I'm lucky because I'm done with all my courses, which means I don't really need to be in LA on a daily basis; so the only thing standing in between me and my PhD is the thesis itself. No small matter, but I'm determined to get it done as soon as possible. I try to work on it everyday, even if it's just for an hour or two. As you know, graduate students need deadlines, so I've given myself about a year and half to finish it. Thanks for asking the question. You've motivated me even more.

What have you been reading lately (either for school or otherwise)?

Since I've been on break, I've been reading a ton of stuff. In terms of novels, I just finished Paul Auster's new book, Man in the Dark. Technically it's not out in the US yet, but I was able to purchase an Advanced Readers Copy on Ebay. I've read everything he's published, and I would say this one was an average effort by him. Inspired might be a good way to describe it. I also just read The Boat by Nam Le. Stylistically Le is a very, very good writer. His prose have a way of drawing you into his fictional universe in a manner I haven't experienced in a while. I'm real interested to see where he goes in the future.

When I got home from tour I was able to attend a 5-week seminar given by Fredric Jameson at UCLA. It was wonderful and inspiring to say the least. So after the seminar was over, I went back and read Jameson's The Political Unconscious and I'm about half-way through re-reading probably his most well-known book, Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism.

Also I just finished Gary Pak's first collection of short-stories, The Watcher of Waipuna. Pak is a Korean/Hawaiian American writer that I'm working on for my dissertation. I really like his first novel, A Ricepaper Airplane.

You're not the only academic who moonlights as a famous musician (Dexter Holland of Offspring and Greg Graffin of Bad Religion are two other examples). Do you think there's something that predisposes grad students to music? (My guess: Free time and comfort with poverty.)

For some people it might be like living a double-life, but for me I've never really made a distinction between the two disciplines. As far as I'm concerned, they're both art, and I love being a student of one and participant in the other. In fact, I think the two inform each other so much that it's really shame to see them as two distinct pleasures or fields of investigation.

In a 2003 interview you talk about your rig, which at the time seemed to be based around all Fender guitars (Jazzmaster, Stratocaster, Telecaster), and recently you've talked with Gibson.com about having an all-Gibson lineup for your SP shows. Was this a conscious decision when going from the Lassie Foundation to the Pumpkins, or was this a change that happened prior to joining up? Why the change?

Before joining the Pumpkins I never owned a Gibson guitar, so making the switch over to playing them has everything to do with my current situation. Pre-Pumpkins it was all Fender, as the interview you reference states. Since Billy predominately plays Fenders, it makes the most sonic sense that I play something that compliments it. Together we cover a much larger spectrum than one person alone could ever accomplish.

It took me a while to get used to playing Gibsons because they feel completely different than a Fender. Now that I've gotten used to their feel and sound, I love playing them every night. My favorite guitar to play right now is my SG Classic with Jason Lollar P-90's. I haven't used it on tour yet, but since it sounds so good, I'm thinking of bringing it out for the August shows.

Have you bought yourself any new gear since joining SP?

Yeah, quite a bit. I love the Boss reissue of the Space Echo (RE-20). They've put it into pedal form and electronically reproduced the sound of the tape version. Of course it doesn't sound exactly like the originals, but it's pretty cool. It's a very musical sounding delay unit. I just recently got a J. Mascis Jazzmaster from Fender. I didn't like the stock pickups very much so I put some Curtis Novak pickups in it (a P-90 in the bridge and a standard vintage-type replacement in the neck). Now it sounds amazing.

What are you running your guitars through when you play onstage with the Pumpkins?

Amps: Randall RM100 100watt head

The RM100 is part of Randall's modular series, which are fantastic. If you don't know about them, please take a look Randall's website and check them out. Even though I change it up from time to time, I'm currently using the Tweed module for my clean sound, the SL + for medium gain, and the George Lynch Mr. Scary for the real heavy stuff.

Effects:

Dunlop Rack Wah
RC Booster
MXR EVH Flanger
Menatone Blue Collar Overdrive
Homebrew Electronics UFO Fuzz
Homebrew THC Chorus
Voodoo Lab Micro Vibe
Digitech Whammy Pedal
Korg SDD-2000 Delay
TC Electronics G-Major and G-Sharp

I feel like I'm forgetting a few things here, but that's the gist of it.

Have you had a chance to play the new Billy Corgan signature Stratocaster?

Yes! They're really great guitars. I've been bugging Billy to get me one. I think he did an amazing job of updating the Stratocaster for use in a more modern setting while at the same time retaining some of the essential characteristics that makes the Strat such a unique and timeless design.

(Remember: Part 2 is coming next week. Send me your questions for Jeff!)