Imagine you discovered that one of rock’s most intriguing “what if?” bands left behind enough music for multiple albums. That’s Billy Corgan‘s claim, as he opens the vault on Zwan, the short-lived supergroup that burned brightly in the early 2000s before disappearing almost as quickly as it arrived.
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Formed in 2001 during a hiatus from Smashing Pumpkins, Zwan brought together Corgan, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin, Slint guitarist David Pajo, and Chavez guitarist Matt Sweeney. Despite the pedigree, the band released just one album, 2003’s Mary Star Of The Sea, before calling it quits.
Now, more than two decades later, Corgan says a substantial amount of unheard material is finally on the horizon.
Speaking with Stereogum, Corgan revealed that he’s revisiting the band’s lone album while also preparing a significant collection of unreleased music.
“All the Zwan songs are gonna be remixed and remastered, that were on the original album ‘Mary Star of the Sea’, and there will be maybe two more LPs of unreleased tracks,” he said.
The project has been brewing for a while. Back in 2023, around the 20th anniversary of Mary Star Of The Sea, Corgan told Rolling Stone he was working on a box set and had roughly 65 unreleased songs to sift through.
Rather than package everything into one massive release, he’s opting for a more manageable approach.
“Because there’s so much Zwan stuff, I’m gonna put it out in different sets. Otherwise the boxset would be, like, 20 records long… and it’s just too much to ask fans to take on,” Corgan explained.
He also emphasized that these aren’t simply alternate takes or studio leftovers.
“60-plus unreleased Zwan songs that have never been released. Not just versions, like other songs. There was a lot of writing in that band.”
For fans who have spent years wondering what else emerged from those sessions, that’s a remarkable number.
When Mary Star Of The Sea arrived in 2003, it earned a four-star review from NME, which praised it as “a euphoric and consistent hour of genetically-tweaked stadium rock” and said it helped re-establish Corgan as “a great, rather than ridiculous, frontman.”
Meanwhile, Smashing Pumpkins remain busy. Corgan recently said the band would welcome the opportunity to bring their A Night Of Mellon Collie And Infinite Sadness production to the Las Vegas Sphere. The group is also set to co-headline a July 4 concert in Los Angeles alongside Chris Stapleton as part of the America250 celebrations.
Earlier this year, Corgan staged a “requiem” performance for his longtime character Zero, the persona closely associated with the Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness era. He has also confirmed plans to bring his operatic reimagining of the landmark 1995 album, backed by a 60-piece orchestra, to the UK later in 2026.
With more than 60 unheard Zwan songs reportedly sitting in the vault, is the 2nd act bigger than the 1st?
