A Perfect Circle comes back around

A Perfect Circle was the creation of guitarist Billy Howerdel, who started making music while he was touring with the metal group Tool as their guitar tech. One day, Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan offered to lend his vocals to Howerdel’s music — and a supergroup began to take form.

A Perfect Circle released three albums in the early 2000s, but took a long hiatus between their third album, 2004’s Emotive, and their fourth, Eat the Elephant, released last month.

Ahead of their first visit to Birmingham in 15 years, Howerdel talked about the band’s beginnings, its reformation, and its new material.

Jefferson County Journal: A Perfect Circle started when you were a guitar tech for Tool — and then suddenly, you’d started a new band and were playing alongside the musicians you’d been working for. Was that a surreal transition? 

Billy Howerdel: I think in the beginning it was kind of shocking. I didn’t know how long it would last when we first started with A Perfect Circle. But I would say after the first three or four shows, it started to really stick. People started to pay attention. I felt like we were becoming our own entity. It didn’t feel like we were trying to prove anything to anyone.

Jefferson County Journal: Did you hesitate in asking Maynard James Keenan to join you, or was that a natural fit?

Howerdel: I didn’t invite him; he kind of offered himself. I don’t know that I ever would have. He offered to me, “I could hear myself singing on your songs.” At first, I took it as, “I like what you’re up to.” I didn’t take it as, “Let’s get serious and do something.”

Jefferson County Journal How did you settle on the current lineup of this band and why was Josh Freese, the band’s longtime drummer, unable to be part of it?

Howerdel: It’s been a work in progress throughout. “Settle on” wouldn’t be what I would call it; it’s more of a trickling. I’d have to go all the way back to 2000. When [former rhythm guitarist] Troy Van Leeuwen went on to [join] Queens of the Stone Age, they were going to be very busy and we had a void to fill once the tour was about to start for [A Perfect Circle’s second album,] Thirteenth Step.

So Maynard and I both thought of [guitarist] James Iha at the same time. From there, I did my solo project, Ashes Divide, and found these two guys — [drummer] Jeff Friedl and [bassist] Matt McJunkins — and hired them on to play the Ashes songs live. When I got done, I said to Maynard, “Keep these guys busy. They’re good guys; they’re good players and if you need anybody, it’d be great to keep them around.”

So he did that, and we kind of got back on the road in 2010 and Matt fell comfortably into the bass position. When we went back out in ’11, Josh did some of the shows in ’10 and one in ’11, but he had a prior commitment to Weezer, so we found ourselves with an easy transition to Jeff Friedl and that’s kind of where we landed. And now we’ve got James Iha going back to Smashing Pumpkins for a reunion tour, so Greg Edwards from Failure and Autolux — who is a good friend and part of our family—has kind of fallen into place. So we’ve been lucky that we’ve had some people that we’ve known and are musically on the same page with have fallen into place quite easily.

Jefferson County Journal: Does Ashes Divide still exist or is all of your energy dedicated to A Perfect Circle now?

Howerdel: All of my energy has been in A Perfect Circle, and I’m not gearing that Ashes project back up [until] this campaign is done. I don’t know if I’m going to call it Ashes or not — I’m kind of back and forth with that. I don’t even know why I bring it up, but I’ve been bringing it up in every interview. [Laughs] But yes, I have new music coming out with a different project when this campaign wraps up.

Jefferson County Journal: This new record sounds a lot different than maybe what people are accustomed to from A Perfect Circle. How did you arrive at that sound?

Howerdel: Oh man, I don’t know. Time will change that. If we made a record right now, it might sound very different than it did last year. I put the guitar down on purpose a few years ago, and wanted to pick up the piano. And almost all of these songs were written first on keyboard. So I think that’s always going to have a different color.

We brought in outside help — we brought in Dave Sardy to produce the record; he had a lot of influence on the record. More than anything, it’s just where we are as people today. That’s the biggest contributor as to why something sounds the way it does.

Jefferson County Journal: There’s a track on the new record called “So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.” It’s one of the more upbeat things that you guys have ever recorded. What was that writing process like and how did the song come about?

Howerdel: The working title of that song was “Peel.” A lot of times I title things with nothing to influence the song. Sometimes, it does accidentally. I think that song started in ’14 or ’15. It was the same tempo, but the drums are more upbeat. Maynard had an idea to have the drums with a little more energy than I had them. I had it much more triumphantly broken.

It’s another song that I think might have been on the Ashes record had Maynard not responded to it. But it wasn’t finished out, and I’m glad he did. It’s another color on the record that makes the other songs fit.

Jefferson County Journal: When you’re on this long of a hiatus from a project — whether that’s A Perfect Circle or Ashes or whatever — is it easy to pick back up or does it become more difficult the more time passes by?

Howerdel: I think if just a little time passes by, it’s hard. Right now, it’d be hard again. When there’s momentum that happens, I think it’s easy to keep capitalizing. I’ve found that just in making this record, even taking a little family vacation —because I’ve been making a record and getting ready for tour — it’s long days. It’s hard work. I was generally doing somewhere in the 50- to 80-hour-a-week range. It takes a toll, and taking a break can take you out of that momentum.

It’s easy once you’re in the mode, but it’s hard to get there. There’s a lot of musical foreplay that has to happen to get you in that place.

A Perfect Circle comes to Legacy Arena at the BJCC on Tuesday, May 22. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster for $17.The show begins at 8 p.m. For more information, visit BJCC.org.