Jeffrey Kim Schroeder (born February 4, 1974,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, California) is an American musician who plays guitar in the

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

the Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Ch ...

—initially replacing co-founder

James Iha (born March 26, 1968) is an American rock musician. He is best known as a guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He was a member until the initial breakup in 2000. Among his musical projects of recent years ...

in 2007 and remaining in the band after Iha rejoined, in 2018. After vocalist and guitarist Billy Corgan, Schroeder is the second longest-serving member of the Smashing Pumpkins.

Early days and the Lassie Foundation

Schroeder began taking formal guitar lessons from David Koval ( Dakoda Motor Co. and Breakfast with Amy) at age twelve. When he was eighteen, he joined the band

the Violet Burning The Violet Burning is an independent American Christian alternative rock band based in Boston, Massachusetts. The band was formed in 1989 in Orange County, California by Michael J. Pritzl. The band is the project of singer, songwriter and guit ...

, only to become a guitarist and one of the founding members of the shoegazing band the Lassie Foundation a few years later. The group described their style as "

pink noise Pink noise or noise is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum such that the power spectral density (power per frequency interval) is inversely proportional to the frequency of the signal. In pink noise, each octave interval (halving ...

pop". Schroeder played guitar on three full-length albums and toured with the band from 1996 until they went on hiatus, in 2006. He joined the Smashing Pumpkins' touring lineup in 2007 and 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 ''Buddyhead'' is a music website and independent record label created by Travis Keller in the summer of 1998, located in Hollywood, California. Buddyhead engaged in criticism of popular culture and the music industry. It's legendary gossip colum ...

'' reported that Schroeder was the new guitarist for the Smashing Pumpkins, replacing

. Schroeder toured with the band throughout 2007 and 2008 and appeared in the music videos for "

Tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,040 species have been identified, with 156 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although m ...

", "

That's the Way (My Love Is) "That's the Way (My Love Is)" is a song written by Billy Corgan and performed by The Smashing Pumpkins on their album ''Zeitgeist''. "That's the Way (My Love Is)" is the second, and final, commercial single from the album, and was released to ra ...

", and " G.L.O.W." Following the departure of

Ginger Pooley Ginger A. Pooley (née Reyes, born April 22, 1977) is an American rock musician, best known as a bassist and backing vocalist for the Chicago alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. More recently she has played bass for Gwen Stefani and Lea M ...

in 2010, Schroeder remained the only member of the band besides Corgan still present from the 2007 revival show in Paris. On April 17, 2010, Schroeder played the first show with the newest lineup of the Smashing Pumpkins, which included

Jimmy Chamberlin James Joseph Chamberlin (born June 10, 1964) is an American drummer and record producer. He is best known as the drummer for the alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. Following the 2000 breakup of the band, Chamberlin joined Pumpkins fro ...

's replacement, Mike Byrne, on drums, and

the Electric Prunes The Electric Prunes are an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. Much of the band's music was, as music historian Richie Unterberger described it, possessed of "an eerie and sometimes anguished ambiance." Th ...

bassist Mark Tulin. In 2018, after performing and recording with the Smashing Pumpkins for over eleven years, Schroeder remained within the band's core lineup, 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 n the studio and then I looked around and saw Billy, Jimmy, and James. And then I look through the window and see roducer

Rick Rubin Frederick Jay Rubin (; born March 10, 1963) is an American record producer. He is the co-founder (alongside Russell Simmons) of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. Rubin helped popula ...

, 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."

Gear

When performing live, Schroeder plays Gibson guitars, including the Les Paul, the

Gibson SG The Gibson SG is a solid-body electric guitar model introduced by Gibson in 1961 as the Gibson Les Paul SG. It remains in production today in many variations of the initial design. The SG (where "SG" refers to Solid-Body Guitar) Standard is Gi ...

, and the

ES-335 The Gibson ES-335 is the world's first commercial semi-hollowbody electric guitar, sometimes known as semi-acoustic. Released by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of its ES (Electric Spanish) series in 1958, it is neither fully hollow nor fu ...

; and Fender models like the

Stratocaster The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of electric guitar designed from 1952 into 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously ...

, the

Telecaster The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it is the world's first mass-produced, commercially successfulLes Paul had built a prototype solid body ...

, and the

Jazzmaster The Fender Jazzmaster is an electric guitar designed as a more expensive sibling of the Fender Stratocaster. First introduced at the 1958 NAMM Show, it was initially marketed to jazz guitarists, but found favor among surf rock guitarists in th ...

. He also uses

Washburn guitars Washburn Guitars is an American brand and importer of guitars, mandolins, and other string instruments, originally established in 1883 in Chicago, Illinois. The Washburn name is controlled by U.S. Music Corp., a subsidiary of Canadian corpora ...

live. Since 2010, he has used a Randall amp MTS system, with custom

preamp A preamplifier, also known as a preamp, is an electronic amplifier that converts a weak electrical signal into an output signal strong enough to be noise-tolerant and strong enough for further processing, or for sending to a power amplifier ...

modules by Salvation Mods.

Personal life

In 2014, Schroeder was finishing his PhD in

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, where he specializes in Asian American literature, Francophone literature, and critical theory.

References

External links

The Lassie Foundation
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Schroeder, Jeff 1974 births Living people American rock guitarists American male guitarists The Smashing Pumpkins members University of California, Los Angeles alumni Rhythm guitarists American people of German descent American musicians of Korean descent American alternative rock musicians Alternative rock guitarists Guitarists from Los Angeles