KERRANG "THE LAST WORD"

The ultimate questions on life, sex and death. This week, Smashing Pumpkins bassist D'Arcy is grilled by Liz Evans.

Q: LAST TIME YOU CRIED? A: Lately it seems like I've been crying a lot. It's better now, but every week for the past four months there seems to be some traumatic thing happening to the people around me. Like people finding out they have cancer, people dying, and people having strokes. Just one thing after another. I felt like I was losing my mind. And then my puppy died. She was just a year old, and she was my baby. And I'm going to cry about right now if we talk about it, so what's the next question?

Q: LAST PERSON YOU FANTASIZED ABOUT? A: My husband. I never get to see him! We've been together about three-and-a-half years and married for a year-and-a-half. It's tough, but we have a really good relationship and we're apart a lot cos he's in a band too, but when we're together we have really good quality time, instead of us both having nine-to-five jobs and coming home and hating life and taking it out on each other every day.

Q: LAST TIME ALCOHOL MADE YOU SICK? A: I'm not sure if it was food poisoning, alcohol poisoning, a hangover or all three. It was about a week ago at home. My husband's band are recording their album at our home studio, and I was doing back-up vocals. They had a bottle of Jack Daniel's there, and I was saying how it didn't make you drunk, just warm and cosy... and an hour later I was staggering all over the place. I didn't throw up, but I was really, really sick the next day. I usually drink wine or clear liquor.

Q: LAST TIME YOU TOLD A LIE? A: Hmmm. I think when people know me, I'm pretty much an open book. If I don't want someone to know something, I don't lie. I just don't talk about it. Or I tell partial truths. I try hard to be honest, actually.

Q: lAST BAND THAT BLEW YOU AWAY? A: OK, I'll give you a plug, but it's the honest to God truth. Fulflej, from Richmond, Virginia, are on this label Scratchie that I have with James (Iha,Smashing Pumpkins guitarist) and my brother-in-law, and they are the most fucking real thing. The guys are all brilliant, they're at college and the speak Chinese, and the singer is a diabetic black belt in karate. They're way out there and they're so proficient. I'm afraid that you people aren't going to get it, because I think you have to know something about the structure of music to get them. They have really crazy time changes, and they play some really, really long songs. But you wouldn't want to change them at all. And I love Screaming Trees and Flaming Lips.

Q: LAST PERSON WHO REALLY INSPIRED YOU? A: The girl who's playing bass for David Bowie right now is amazing. She's so proficient, but she's not this cold, studio technical person. She has so much soul and she can sing like a motherfucker. When she plays, she and her bass guitar are like, one thing. So many times I feel completely stagnated but the bass and mostly I just wanted to sing when I was younger. Regular guitar intimidated me. This woman is so amazing, but I still don't know if I feel inspired enough to practice. I don't think I'll ever be like her. And I don't think I'll ever sing much with Smashing Pumpkins. I was really pissed off actually, cos I spent 24 hours getting the back-up vocals for the album to match Billy's perfectly, and they were cut. I feel like I'm being used sometimes. Like an enhancement for his voice or something. And it really pisses me off.

Q: LAST TIME YOU HAD A FIGHT WITH BILLY CORGAN? A: Not for the longest time. It's really weird, most bands start off as buddies and end up hating each other, and now we're really close friends. Communication's really hard,but even when you can't do that you just have to accept people. It's really hard for me. I don't have a lot of close friends because I have a very high standard of what I expect behaviourally, and loyalty-wise from people. But I know who I can count on.

Q: LAST TIME YOU WERE BORED? A: When you're on tour it's like, "hurry uup and wait". It's terrible, you feel like you're going to lose your mind. So I just fall asleep if I get bored. I've done it during interviews, because the questions are so boring. I used to do it in geometry at school. I had this teacher with a monotone voice, and now it's happening again. With interviews. I can't control it, it's like narcolepsy or something. I've tried talking to the band about it but I don't think they really believe me, or understand. It's basically a conditioned response.

Q: LAST TIME YOU WERE JEALOUS? A: I don't really get jealous. Sometimes I get envious of someone I admire. But jealousy is so horrible. It possesses you. It's ugly, because it's so out of control.

Q: LAST PIECE OF CLOTHING YOU BOUGHT? A: I bought this silver shirt recently. I got it in New York, when I was power shopping, for the 'Saturday Night Live' TV show, and it's very uncomfortable. I ended up not wearing it, actually. If it's hot, the shirt's really hot, and if it's cold, it's really cold. If I tuck it into my jeans, it feels like somebody took a cookie and just crumbled it in my pants.

Q: LAST REGRET? A: I don't have many regrets. I can't really regret things because I have such a bad memory. I never wanted to come to Europe to do this press trip, but I didn't have an option. Still, that's not really a regret. I'll have to go back to my puppy soon cause I left her in the care of someone else. Whenever I go away, I come home to a pile of shit. You can't trust anybody. Being at work is more like being on vacation than being at home these day's. I had this assistant and she was whacked out of her mind on prescription drugs......


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