Jeff Schroeder

Jeffrey Kim Schroeder (born February 4, 1974, Los Angeles, California) is an American rock musician, who became a guitarist with the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins (initially replacing co-founder James Iha) in 2007.

Jeff Schroeder
Schroeder in 2007 at Den Atelier, Luxembourg
Background information
Birth name	Jeffrey Kim Schroeder
Born	February 4, 1974 Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Alternative rock, alternative metal, shoegaze, indie pop, dream pop
Occupation(s)	Musician (guitarist, singer), songwriter
Instruments	Guitar, vocals, keyboards
Years active	1996–present
Associated acts	The Smashing Pumpkins The Lassie Foundation The Violet Burning Night Dreamer

Early days and The Lassie Foundation

Schroeder started taking formal lessons on guitar playing from David Koval (Dakoda Motor Co. and Breakfast with Amy) at age twelve. When he was eighteen he joined the band The Violet Burning, only to become a guitarist and one of the founding members of a shoegazing band The Lassie Foundation from[Southern California a few years later, who described their style as "pink noise pop". He played guitar on three full-length albums and toured with the band since 1996, before they went on hiatus in 2006. He has mentioned I Duel Sioux and Pacifico as his band's favorite albums; he had maximum creative time on the latter.

His other side project is The Beat Concerto with friend Eric Campuzano.

He joined the Smashing Pumpkins' touring lineup in 2007, but also recorded for the new Lassie Foundation album in late 2007 and early 2008.

The Smashing Pumpkins

On April 6, 2007, rock rumor webzine Buddyhead reported that Schroeder was the new guitarist for the Smashing Pumpkins, replacing James Iha in the new line-up. Schroeder toured with the band throughout 2007 and 2008 and appeared in the music videos for "Tarantula", "That's the Way (My Love Is)" and "G.L.O.W." In June 2010, Schroeder appeared in a live internet stream playing on a demo with the band's current lineup.

Following the departure of Ginger Pooley in 2010, Schroeder remained the only member of the band besides Corgan still present from the 2007 revival show in Paris.[1] On April 17, 2010 Schroeder played the first show with the newest lineup of Smashing Pumpkins, which included Jimmy Chamberlin's replacement Mike Byrne on drums and The Electric Prunes bassist Mark Tulin.

When playing live with the band, Schroeder plays Gibson model guitars like the Gibson Les Paul, the Gibson SG and the ES-335; and Fender models like the Stratocaster, the Telecaster, and the Jazzmaster. He also uses Washburn Guitars live. Since 2010 he has used a Randall amp MTS system with custom preamp modules by Salvation Mods.

In 2018, after performing and recording with The Smashing Pumpkins for over eleven years, Schroeder remained within the band's core line-up, alongside returning founding members James Iha and Jimmy Chamberlin. Reflecting on the importance of this, Schroeder noted: "I personally had a pretty touchy moment for myself in that I was sitting there tuning my guitar [in the studio], and then I looked around and saw Billy, Jimmy, and James. And then I look through the window and see [producer] Rick Rubin, and I thought like, 'Wow. This is a really special moment.' To think that when I joined the band it was such a different scenario, that to even think twelve years later you'd be at this point, it was really unfathomable. So I really kind of took a second and took it in."[2]

Influences

In a 2003 article, Schroeder cited Ace Frehley, Jeff Beck, Slash, Pete Townshend, Brad Laner, Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, Tom Verlaine, Richard Lloyd, Carrie Brownstein, and J. Mascis as his most prominent guitar playing influences.

Personal life

He is currently finishing his PhD in Comparative Literature at UCLA, where he specializes in Asian American Literature, Francophone Literature, and Critical Theory.[3]

Schroeder is of German and Korean descent.

References

1. "The Official Smashing Pumpkins Nexus". Smashingpumpkins.com. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2014.
2. "SMASHING PUMPKINS' BILLY CORGAN ON PLAYING THE 'HEEL'". loudwire.com. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
3. "November Issue: Smashing Pumpkins Guitarist Jeff Schroeder Rocks the Books". Iamkoream.com. Retrieved November 6, 2014.

External links

• The Lassie Foundation – official site
• Northern Records – the Lassie Foundation's record label