After Billy Corgan and Smashing Pumpkins got together in Chicago in the late ’80s, the band found its way to a studio to record early versions of its songs, Corgan recalled at the NAMM Show in Anaheim.
Corgan received the TEC Innovation Award at the 41st annual TEC Awards on Thursday, an honor given annually to musicians such as Jack White, Joni Mitchell and Jackson Browne, whose creative work includes not just their music but a curiosity and passion for the equipment used to make it.
In a brief acceptance speech before playing a handful of songs for the audience in a ballroom at the Hilton Anaheim, Corgan described his earliest encounters with music technology.
Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins accepts the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins performs after accepting the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Cora C. Coleman, center, opens the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins accepts the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins accepts the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Doug Wimbish, left, and Ebony Smith announces awards during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins performs after accepting the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Record producer Sylvia Massy, left, and musician-producer Brian “BT” Transeau announces awards during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins performs after accepting the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Cora C. Coleman emcees the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins performs after accepting the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins performs after accepting the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Show Caption1 of 12Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins accepts the TEC Innovation Award during the 41st NAMM TEC Awards in Anaheim, CA, on Thursday, January 22, 2026. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG) Expand“There’s a guy, Mark Ignoffo, got a basement studio with an Atari 16-track and a TAC Scorpion board,” Corgan said in his speech accepting the 2026 TEC Innovation Award, an honor given to visionary musicians for their music and the tools and innovation they’ve used to make it.
“Anyone remember the TAC Scorpion board?” Corgan asked the audience, the majority of whom were there as representatives of companies that create and manufacture gear for musicians, producers, recording studios and the like. “I’m sure somebody’s making a plug-in [of it] as I’m talking.
“That’s where we made the first demos that got us our record deal. And I love Mark; he was a great guy.
“He changed my life,” Corgan continued. “Because one day, I was in his basement studio and we were listening to something that we recorded, and I touched the board.”
Hands off, Ignoffo told him.
“He said, ‘No, you don’t touch the board. I’m the engineer; you’re the artist,’” Corgan said, who made it clear that he was interested in every aspect of music-making. “And he learned that was not something you tell someone like me. And so I began to learn the art of recording.”
Learning to create music on his own has been how Corgan has done it since the day he first picked up a guitar as a teenager.
“When I was about 15 years old, playing the guitar, my father was a professional musician, uh, and a drug dealer,” Corgan said to laughter from the crowd. “But he set up a home studio. He had the 4-track, I think it was TEAC reel-to-reel. The first time I had a professional recording, it was onto that TEAC 4-track.
“Once, when I was at band practice, I’d written a song and I asked this guy in my band, ‘Will you sing this song?’” Corgan said. “And he said, ‘(Bleep) you, you sing your own songs.’
“And here we are.”
Earlier on Thursday, Corgan spent a bit of time promoting the Laney Supergrace Loud Pedal, a new guitar pedal he consulted on with Laney. In its compact form, it can replicate the sounds and power of the extensive and expensive guitar rig that Corgan has developed over decades of playing.
And with a click of a switch, it can also deliver the tones of a vintage Laney pedal to recreate the sound of ’70s heavy metal bands such as Black Sabbath, which influenced Corgan and many other musicians.
“So my story is, thank you,” Corgan said to the tech creatives in the Hilton ballroom, where the awards were held. “Thank you for making the things that inspire us to make our music, to push us to chase down these crazy dreams, right?
“To the pedal makers, to the app makers, to the plug-in makers. Thank you. It’s been amazing because I think the advancements technologically been very inspirational to me as an artist, and I look forward to seeing what you’re doing next.”
Corgan then played a 20-minute set of deep cuts from the Smashing Pumpkins’ catalog, starting with “Rocket,” the fourth and final single from 1993’s “Siamese Dream” album. “Shame,” an album track from 1998’s “Adore” followed.
After playing “Here’s to the Atom Bomb” from 2000’s “Machina II” Corgan and his backing bassist and drummer closed their performance with a cover of “Theme for an Imaginary Western,” written and recorded by Jack Bruce in 1969, and popularized a year later on Mountain’s debut album.
The ceremony before Corgan’s arrival at the end focused on a wide range of technology and gear competing in categories such as best microphone recording, DJ production technology, musical instrument hardware, and signal processing hardware.
Queen Cora, the stage name of drummer Cora Coleman-Denham, whose career includes playing the drums for both Prince and Beyoncé for their Super Bowl halftime performances, hosted the TEC Awards. She was, she noted, the first woman to ever do so.
Queen Cora opened the show with what could be called a drum-poem, playing solo as she spoke about the way the beats and sounds of percussion are woven throughout life.
“Everything we create, every signal, every waveform, every innovation lives somewhere between intention and timing,” she said as she played a pattern on the bass drum and eventually every other piece of her kit.
“This is the anatomy of sound, frequency and tone,” she said at one point. “This is the heartbeat.”
While the creators and executives of companies such as Universal Audio, the night’s biggest winner, Rupert Neve Designs, Sennheiser and Moog Music aren’t household names, there were well-known figures scattered throughout the ballroom and at times on stage as presenters.
Bassist Doug Wimbish of the rock group Living Colour, as well as session work for everyone from the Sugar Hill Gang, the Rolling Stones and Annie Lennox, presented a handful of awards with producer-engineer Ebonie Smith. When they announced a win for Moog Music for best musical instrument hardware, superstar producer Jimmy Jam accepted the award.
Teddy Riley, the producer credited with creating the New Jack Swing sub-genre of hip-hop and R&B, presented with DJ Canva$, and Sylvia Massy, whose career as a renowned producer-engineer reaches back to the early ’80s, teamed up with musician-producer Brian “BT” Transeau to hand out another handful of categories.
“Tonight, we celebrate those who hear the details,” Queen Cora had said as the end of her drum-poem neared. “The engineers of the feel. Architects of cool. The ones who took risks.
“Remember who you were when there was no judgment and no reward,” she continued. “Just joy. Just play.
“Life is rhythm and rhythm is fabulous. A blend of upbeats and downbeats, delicately interwoven in sound and silence.”
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