In November, The Smashing Pumpkins founder and singer Billy Corgan took to social media to make a notable announcement. His label, Martha’s Music, would release the first-ever project that didn’t involve him or his associated bands this year — and it happened to be the project of Cleveland musician Kid Tigrrr, aka Jenna Fournier.
“Kid Tigrrr, a good friend of mine, a great artist,” Corgan announced in a video posted to Instagram and TikTok. “You’ll really want to hear her music.”
Specifically, he’s talking about Stoned + Animald, Fournier’s debut Kid Tigrrr album. The album’s vinyl release (a lilac-colored 180-gram record) arrives from Corgan’s label, and is funneled through his Madame Zuzu’s teahouse and record store.
“We began talking about him putting my music out many moons ago,” Fournier says. “The record wasn't even finished yet."
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How did Fournier connect with the Grammy-winning, ‘90s alt-rock icon? Fournier, a longtime Smashing Pumpkins fan (who says the band has heavily influenced her own band Niights), saw Corgan call out for female vocalists for a project. She sent in a tape.
“To my surprise, he responded to my audition. And he was not only interested in me as a vocalist, which is what I was sending in an audition for, but he was interested in my songwriting because he was formulating this idea of expanding his label,” Fournier says.
The two musicians met for the first time at Madame Zuzu’s in Chicago to talk about the vinyl project years ago, before the pandemic. As Fournier chipped away at her new solo music, release plans came together with Corgan and his wife, Chloe.
(Photo courtesy Jenna Fournier)
While that was happening, Fournier also went through an audition process for The Smashing Pumpkins’ new guitarist role, which ultimately went to Kiki Wong. “I'm not a metal style guitarist,” Fournier says. “It was a little out of my wheelhouse, and we both kind of knew it.”
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But she continued to work with Corgan. She provided backing vocals, along with Australian singer Katie Cole, on Corgan’s latest Pumpkins release, Aghori Mhori Mei.
By the end of her year, her album’s physical format will finally arrive from Madame Zuzu’s — a limited-edition release with a bonus 7-inch vinyl featuring two bonus tracks, including a song Fournier wrote which won a Terra Songwriting competition, plus a cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight, Tonight.”
“It was actually Billy’s suggestion for me to cover the song,” Fournier says. “I don’t normally do covers; I’ve only really done them for charity before. So I thought this would be a cool challenge, to attack a song like that, that is just such a cinematic masterpiece.”
Though Fournier and Corgan are involved in each others’ musical worlds, their projects remain distinct and separate, Fournier clarifies. The 11-track Kid Tigrrr album is the result of her own atmospheric experimentation — a lush, layered dreamscape, ebbing around Fournier’s delicate vocals and personal lyrics.
“I didn’t have to worry about what anyone thought of it, other than myself. So I took my time. I had fun with it,” she says.
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Much of the project’s early work took place in Fournier’s home before she headed to the studio for live drums and guitars. “It became a much bigger record than the bedroom-pop record that I had sort of set out to make.”
In the past year, Fournier trickled out a few singles off of the project, savoring each musical moment from Stoned + Animald, before the album became available to stream on Sept. 6.
The vinyl is currently available for preorder on Madame Zuzu’s website — joining the ranks of The Smashing Pumpkins and Billy Corgan projects also listed there.
“It's been wonderful to have someone that I grew up watching on MTV be supportive of my original work,” Fournier says.
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