Kiki Wong has opened up on her journey with Smashing Pumpkins so far, revealing that she's improved as an electric guitar player since joining the legendary rock outfit.
When Wong sat down with Guitar World to chat about joining Billy Corgan and co earlier this year, she said it had been a dream come true. Scoring the gig was certainly no mean feat: the band launched a global open audition to help track down their new guitarist, which saw 10,000 guitarists apply, including GW’s Online Editor-in-Chief.
“I never thought little ol’ 15-year-old me playing metal guitar in my bedroom would amount to this moment,” she had said in April.
With bags of talent, over 700k Instagram followers, and a CV that includes performances with Taylor Swift, Usher, and Bret Michaels, Kiki Wong’s suitability for the role is undeniable.
Eight months on from acing her audition, she's now spoken to Revv Amps about how the role has impacted her as a player.
“This band has actually allowed me to diversify my playing 10-fold and more,” she admits. “In the last however many years I've been playing, I would consider myself a one-trick pony prior to joining this band. I just love metal. I love chugs. I love unnecessary shreds, noise, and high-gain shenanigans. I barely played any acoustic guitar.”
Wong, though, has embraced the necessary change of tact, saying: “This band has opened my eyes to a lot of new types of sounds and effects. I didn't use a lot of effects in my own personal musicianship.
“Gosh, having this full pedalboard was like going back to school and learning how to use sounds and be more dynamic rather than focusing on technical ability.”
The transition to becoming part of a band that headlines stadiums has been massive for Wong. Away from the intensity of the performance upgrade, it’s also vastly expanded her gear horizons.
“Coming into this world and being exposed to so much more depth, it's a gift,” she reveals. “I feel like I've just been pigeonholed, it's just [been] me trying to figure out things by myself, and now I've got five people who are all in the music and have different backgrounds and interests.
“It's exposed me to different tones and what makes guitars, amps, and effects good.”
But it isn’t a one-way street of benefits. Wong has brought a metal edge to the band since her debut, thanks in part to her love of shred-friendly Jackson Rhoads guitars.
Wong says she had “given up hope on any future tours” before the Pumpkins opened their doors to the guitar world at the start of the year.
She says she “threw together a resume and sent it in, thinking it probably would get lost”, but it didn't. Her meticulous preparation, which included playing the songs “like my life depended on it”, clearly left an impression.
Less than 24 hours later, she received the life-changing call from the band and hasn't looked back since.
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