User:AxelClifford/Sandbox

Axel Paul Clifford (born February 23, 1981 in Springfield, Illinois)

Childhood and formative years
Clifford is the oldest child of Brad W. Clifford, an electrical engineer, and Brenda L. McKinley. His parents would have four more children, Asch-Lee, Crystal, Camill, and Dalton, before divorcing in 2001. When his father left FMC to became an independent contractor, in 1986, the decision was made to home school the children to allow the entire family to accompany him to contract assignments. In 1989, The Clifford family established a "home base" in Cambridge, Illinois.

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, who grew much faster than his fellow students, was a strong athlete in elementary school. In addition to being a member of his junior high school baseball team, he collected baseball cards (amassing over 10,000) and listened to every Chicago Cubs game. However, by the time he began attending Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Illinois, he had become only an average athlete. He decided to start playing guitar when he went over to a friend's house and saw his friend's Flying V. Corgan gave his savings to his father, who bought him a used imitation Gibson Les Paul. Corgan Sr. steered his son stylistically, encouraging him to listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix, but refused on-hand instruction because he was skeptical of his son's dedication. Billy Corgan would later claim he is a self-taught guitarist. His musical interests in his formative years included hard rock like Led Zeppelin, heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath, and mainstream rock like Queen, Boston, ELO, and Cheap Trick. In high school, Corgan discovered alternative rock through Bauhaus, The Cure, and The Smiths.

Corgan performed in a string of bands in high school, and graduated as an honor student. Despite grant and scholarship offers from a number of schools, including the University of Michigan, and a tuition fund left by his grandmother, Corgan decided to pursue music full-time. Distasteful of the Chicago music scene, Corgan moved from Chicago to St. Petersburg, Florida in 1985 with his first major band, The Marked, named for the noticeable birthmarks of Corgan and Ron Roesing, the drummer. The band was not successful and essentially dissolved, leading Corgan to move back to Chicago and live with his father. He soon came up with the name "Smashing Pumpkins" and set out to form a new band.

The Smashing Pumpkins
While working at a record store, Corgan met guitarist James Iha and the two began recording demos in Corgan's father house, described as "doomy little goth-pop records." He then met bassist D'arcy Wretzky after a local show, arguing with her about a band that had just played. Soon after, the Smashing Pumpkins were formed. The trio began to play together at local clubs with only a drum machine for percussion. The band would soon recruit drummer Jimmy Chamberlin to secure a show at the Metro, in Chicago, where they played for the first time as a quartet on October 5, 1988.

The new band fused diverse threads such as psychedelic rock and heavy metal into a distinctive sound on their inaugural album, Gish (1991). Gish fared better than expected, but the follow-up, Siamese Dream, became a huge hit. The band became known for internal drama during this period, with Corgan frequently characterized in the music press as a "control freak" and a perfectionist because he was said to have often rerecorded Iha and Wretzky's guitar and bass parts on Gish and Siamese Dream. Despite this, the album was well received by critics, and the songs "Today" and "Disarm" became smash hits.

The band's 1995 follow up effort, the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, was even more successful, spawning a string of hit singles. The album was nominated for seven Grammy awards that year and would eventually be certified nine times platinum in the United States. The song "1979" was Corgan's biggest hit to date, reaching #1 on Billboard's modern rock and mainstream rock charts. Their appearance on Saturday Night Live on November 11, 1995 to promote this material also was the television debut appearance of Corgan's shaved head, which he has maintained consistently ever since (as of 2008). Previously, Corgan had, in typical rockstar fashion, varied his hair styles fairly often.

During the album's tour, the band was plagued by Chamberlin's heroin addiction. On July 12, 1996, Chamberlin and touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin overdosed in a hotel room. Chamberlin survived, but Melvoin did not. The Pumpkins made the decision to fire Chamberlin and would continue as a trio. Their next effort, 1998's Adore, was undertaken with drum machines and studio drummers, and consisted of more subdued material than the band's previous efforts. Adore earned high praise from some critics and many fans, but other critics and most of the more casual listeners thought the band had strayed too far from its strengths, resulting in a significant decrease in album sales (it sold 1.3 million discs in the U.S. alone).

Chamberlin was reunited with the band in 1999, and 2000 saw Machina/The Machines of God, a concept album on which the band deliberately played to their public image; critics were again divided, and sales were lower than ever. At the end of the recording for Machina, bassist D'Arcy quit the band and was replaced for the upcoming tour by former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. In 2000, the band released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music for free over the internet.

The Smashing Pumpkins split up later in 2000 and played their last show on December 2 of that year at the Metro.

Solo career
Corgan began writing revealing autobiographical posts on his website and his MySpace page, commenting, "I no longer want to protect the people I tormented." On February 17, 2004, Corgan posted a message in which he blamed guitarist James Iha for the breakup of The Smashing Pumpkins four years prior. He also referred to bassist D'arcy Wretzky as "a mean spirited drug addict." On June 3, 2004 he posted an apology of sorts to Iha, writing that "i love him very, very much...the depth of my hurt is only matched by the depth of my gratitude". In another post, Corgan insulted his former Zwan bandmates, claiming they had been obnoxiously self-conscious about their "indie cred" to the point of hurting those around them. Poking fun at their indie stance, he called them "poseurs" and declared them to be "filthy", opportunistic, and selfish. In late 2004, Corgan published Blinking with Fists, a book of poetry. Despite mixed reviews, the book debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list.

In 2004, he began a solo music career, initially performing acoustic folk songs related to Chicago history. He abandoned this style in favor of an electronic/shoegaze/alternative rock sound for his first solo album, TheFutureEmbrace. Released on June 21, 2005 through Reprise Records, it garnered mixed reviews from the press and only sold 69,000 copies. Corgan toured behind his solo album with a touring band that included Linda Strawberry, Brian Liesegang and Matt Walker in 2005. This tour was not as extensive as previous Smashing Pumpkins or Zwan tours.

Smashing Pumpkins revival
In 2005, Corgan took out a full-page ad in Chicago's two major newspapers (The Chicago Tribune and The Chicago Sun-Times) revealing his desire to reform the Smashing Pumpkins. Several days later, Jimmy Chamberlin accepted Billy Corgan's offer for a reunion.

On April 20, 2006 the band's official website confirmed that the group was indeed reuniting. . The band went into studio for much of 2006 and early 2007, and performed its first show in seven years on May 22, 2007, with new members Ginger Reyes (bass) and Jeff Schroeder (guitar) replacing Wretzky and Iha. The new album, titled Zeitgeist, was released in the U.S. on July 10, 2007, and debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts. Corgan and the rest of the Pumpkins toured extensively throughout 2007 and 2008, also releasing the EP American Gothic and the single "Superchrist". The band is currently working on a new album. -->

Personal life
Axel Clifford has struggled with his weight since early adolescence and had attributed this to bouts of depression and low self-esteem. Clifford has not yet associated this weigh struggle to an event or time-frame in his childhood. While he believes he is far more emotionaly stable now, he choose to undergo a body sculpting procedure called SmartLipo in October of 2008 to further enhance his personal self image.

Relationships
Clifford dated composer and pianist Arienne Johansen exclusively, starting in late 1999, and proposed in late 2000. In the fall of 2001, shortly after Johansen began attending Ricks College (NEED LINK) in Rexburg, Idaho, the two ended their engagement and parted ways.

<!-- In late 1995, he started dating photographer Yelena Yemchuk, who had contributed to several Smashing Pumpkins videos and album art. The 2000 Smashing Pumpkins hit "Stand Inside Your Love" was written about her. He continued to date Yemchuk until around 2004. According to Corgan, his breakup with her contributed to the themes of his 2005 solo release, TheFutureEmbrace.

In early 2006, he moved in with Courtney Love and her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. According to Love, he had his own wing in her new Hollywood Hills mansion.

His mother Martha died in 1996. The song "For Martha", from Adore, was written in her honor. In the early 2000s, Corgan would name his label Martha's Music after her as well. A picture of Martha as a little girl sat on a fake moon is featured on the flipside of the Siamese Dream booklet.

Corgan is an avid sports fan. A childhood fan of the Cubs, he later commented on that team for WXRT DJ Lin Brehmer. He has appeared at Cubs games many times, occasionally throwing the ceremonial first pitch or singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." He was a devoted fan of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks in the 1990s, and became personal friends with Dennis Rodman and Chris Chelios. He is a lifelong fan of professional wrestling and self-described "wrestlemaniac," and appeared in an ECW pro wrestling match wielding an acoustic guitar as a weapon. In 2008, the Pumpkins song "Doomsday Clock" was used by Ring of Honor for promotional videos. . As far as other entertainment, Corgan once commented that all he watches on TV are "sports and Three Stooges." In March 2008, Billy was spotted in the crowd at the final day of the cricket test match between New Zealand and England in Wellington.

Collaborations
In addition to performing, Corgan has produced albums for Ric Ocasek, The Frogs, and Catherine. He shared songwriting credit on several songs on Hole's 1998 album Celebrity Skin; the title track became Corgan's second #1 modern rock hit. He also acted as a consultant for Marilyn Manson during the album Mechanical Animals. He has produced three soundtracks for the movies Ransom (1996), Stigmata (1999) and Spun (2002). He has performed vocals and guitar for Tony Iommi, Blindside, New Order and Marianne Faithfull. Corgan would also guide and collaborate with three bands in the 2000s - Breaking Benjamin (during sessions for 2004's We Are Not Alone), Taproot (for Blue-Sky Research, 2005), and Sky Saxon. Corgan appeared as a guest vocalist on the song "Loki Cat" on Jimmy Chamberlin's first solo album Life Begins Again and Chamberlin played drums for the song "DIA" on Corgan's solo debut.

<!-- Recently, Corgan has worked on several collaborations - Courtney Love's Nobody's Daughter, Garbage vocalist Shirley Manson's debut solo album , and the Scorpions' Humanity - Hour 1.

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Aborted projects
Corgan has often mentioned or developed projects that remain commercially unreleased. During the press junkets for 1995's Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, he claimed that the Pumpkins were planning on an MTV Unplugged appearance and album. In 1998, he spoke of his hope to release a solo acoustic album, a sequel to Vieuphoria , and a comprehensive boxset of live Smashing Pumpkins recordings. Around the time of the Pumpkins' disbandment, Corgan explained plans to reissue every Pumpkins album complete with bonus tracks, which has not yet happened. Also at this time, Corgan hoped to record an instrumental progressive rock album with Jimmy Chamberlin and Mike Garson. The final Pumpkins concert before the 2000 breakup was recorded professionally, and a DVD of this performance had been mentioned frequently after the breakup but never materialized (though one song from the concert, "An Ode to No One," was later released on the DVD Greatest Hits Video Collection). Meanwhile, the Glass and the Machines of God animated series, a tie-in to the Machina albums, was never completed, though several apparent cuts of episodes were leaked in 2003. Also that year, Zwan recorded "tons of music" outside of their Mary Star of the Sea album, possibly including an entire second album as the "Djali Zwan" , but neither the album nor the footage were released (and won't be released until Corgan "can stomach it" ), and Zwan soon broke up. In 2004, Corgan publicly acknowledged that he was writing a novel, via the "About the Author" section of Blinking with Fists. It is not known whether the novel was finished, but no portion has been made available. His life story, The Confessions of Billy Corgan, was also published at this time, but was apparently never completed. Also in this era, he gave several interviews promoting a ChicagoSongs DVD/EP, a release of several songs related to his native Chicago, which was apparently shelved when he and Jimmy Chamberlin began work on Zeitgeist.

Musical style and influences
When asked in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview about his influences, Corgan replied:

Eight years old, I put on the Black Sabbath record, and my life is forever changed. It sounded so fucking heavy. It rattled the bones. I wanted that feeling. With Bauhaus and The Cure, it was the ability to create a mood and an atmosphere. The air gets heavier. With Jimi Hendrix, it was the ability to translate this other level of guitar. Cheap Trick - it was a vocal influence. Although Tom Petersson once told me that Rick Nielsen called us 'tuneless and nonmelodic.'

Although Corgan is not widely recognized for his guitar playing, it has been praised numerous times. Allmusic said "Starla" "proves that Corgan was one of the finest (and most underrated) rock guitarists of the '90s", while Rolling Stone called him and his Smashing Pumpkins bandmates "ruthless virtuosos". Within guitar circles, he has assumed a position of respect. He wrote six articles for Guitar World in 1995, and his solos for "Cherub Rock" and "Geek USA" were included on their list of the top guitar solos of all time. His solo for "Soma" was #24 on Rolling Stone's list of the top guitar solos. He is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and interviewed him in the late nineties for Guitar World.

His distinctive, nasal singing style is often a point of contention among critics. The Miami Herald called his voice "one of rock's most annoying sounds."

His bass playing, which has featured on nearly every Smashing Pumpkins album, was influenced by New Wave figures like Peter Hook and Simon Gallup.

Corgan has praised Radiohead, saying "if they're not the best band in the world, then they're one of the best", and is also a fan of Pantera. Pantera producer Terry Date would later be brought in to produce the Smashing Pumpkins' Zeitgeist. Other favorites include Rush, Metallica, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, and Spiritualized.

His literary influences include William S. Burroughs, Philip K. Dick, and Jack Kerouac.

Albums

 * TheFutureEmbrace - (June 21, 2005) #31 US, #67 GER

Singles

 * "Walking Shade" - (June 13, 2005) #74 UK