“I never thought little ol’ 15-year-old me playing metal guitar in the bedroom would amount to this moment”: After 10,000 applicants, Kiki Wong landed the Smashing Pumpkins guitarist gig

guitarworld December 26, 2024

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2024 Year in Review: After 16 years with the band, Jeff Schroeder announced his departure from the Smashing Pumpkins late last year, and the iconic alt-rockers soon announced they’d be holding a worldwide open-call audition for a live replacement.

More than 10,000 applicants later, it was decided that Kiki Wong was the right person for the job.

Categories: Guitar World

“Distortion, distortion, gain and more gain were my digs before I joined the Smashing Pumpkins. But they’ve introduced me to a whole new world of pedals”: Kiki Wong on her life-changing audition, and what she's learned from Billy Corgan and James Iha

Before securing the gig as a touring guitarist with the Smashing Pumpkins, Kiki Wong had all but given up her dreams of large-scale success with…

guitarworld May 13, 2025

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“I went to Lars’ house, and he played me the tape of Hit the Lights. I said, ‘This song sucks. You need more guitar solos’”: They forged a new sound, and in 10 years, they were the biggest band in the world

It was in Los Angeles almost 30 years ago that Lars Ulrich, a teenage tennis prodigy turned drummer, first jammed with James Hetfield, a guitarist…

guitarworld December 12, 2024

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Remembering the guitarists we lost in 2024

From the get-go, it’s been a remarkable year for guitar. There have been light-year leaps in tech, unexpected collaborations, genre boundaries have been shattered, new…

guitarworld December 27, 2024

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